SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY 

H Compendium ant) Commonplace^Boofc 

DESIGNED FOE THE USE OF 
THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS 



BY 



AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG, D. D. 

PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY IN THE 



ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 



Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged 



NEW YORK 
A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 

714 Broadway 
1889 




B 1 "^ 



fe > 



COPYRIGHT, 

By AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG, 

1889. 



The L 

OF CONGR 

w. roN 



PRINTED BY 

E. R. ANDREWS 

ROCHESTER. 



TO 



JOHN B. TREVOK, Esq., 



THE STEADFAST FRIEND OF THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 



THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY 



INSCRIBED. 



PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST EDITION, 



This work is an enlarged and amended edition of the author's 
" Lectures on Theology/' printed in 1876, for the use of students in 
the Rochester Theological Seminary. It contains nearly four times 
the amount of matter embraced in the former volume. The main 
text remains substantially the same, although important additions 
have been made to the treatment of the intuition of the divine 
existence, the classification of the attributes, the statement of the 
doctrine of decrees, the teaching as to race-sin and race-responsibil- 
ity, ability or inability, the ethical theory of the atonement, and 
the final state of the wicked. The section on the moral nature of 
man ( conscience and will ) is new ; a few minor paragraphs of the 
older book have been omitted ; and the work has been somewhat 
altered in arrangement. 

The author's aim has been not so much the writing of a theology 
for theologians as the construction of a hand-book for the use of 
students for the ministry. The main text is intended to serve as 
the basis for daily recitation ; the matter in smaller print is added 
by way of proof, explanation, or illustration. To save labor to the 
reader, Scripture passages referred to in the text have been printed 
in full in the appended notes, — the Revised English Version, except 
where otherwise indicated, being used, and the readings of the 
American Committee being generally preferred. Minute references 
are given, under each head, to the various books which may serve 



Vlll PKEFACE. 

as additional sources of information or suggestion. The writers 
referred to are not mentioned as authorities : it has been the aim, 
in general, to indicate not only the authors whose views are favored, 
but also those who best represent the views combated, in the text. 
The editions used are those found in the Library of the Seminary for 
whose students the text-book was originally written ; fortunately 
these editions are, in general, the latest. 

It has been thought well not only to give references to the best 
writers on the subjects treated, but also to introduce brief quota- 
tions from them, with a view to familiarize the reader with their 
general doctrinal position and to stimulate him to further reading 
of the works themselves. Many of these quotations are followed 
by explanatory or critical remarks, and in the smaller print consid- 
erable space is not unfrequently given to notes upon matters that 
could not be fully treated in the text, such as the history of sys- 
tematic theology, the authorship of the Pentateuch, heathen sys- 
tems of morality, heathen trinities, the Mosaic history of creation, 
the Sabbath, objections to the evolutionary theory of the origin of 
man, a tabular view of theories of imputation, notes on depravity, 
guilt, and penalty, the humanity of Christ, the Old Testament 
sacrifices, the doctrine of election, union with Christ, ordination to 
the ministry, the immortality of the soul, and the second coming 
of Christ. 

It will be noticed that books are sometimes referred to which can 
hardly be called the best sources of information : in such cases the 
intention has often been to help the theological student to use 
intelligently the books he has; in other words, to enable the pos- 
sessor of few books, and those not the best, to get from them all 
the good he can. 

Attention is called to the element of Scriptural exposition that 
has been admitted. Under each of the chief doctrines, the main 
passages relied upon for proof are somewhat fully explained ; while 



PKEFACE. IX 

the attempt has been made to condense the results of the best 
modern exegesis into the few words of explanation immediately fol- 
lowing many of the minor passages cited. Although much material 
for private study is thus added, the author does not regard the 
work, even in its present form, as more than an outline which needs 
to be filled in by the fuller expositions and discussions of the class- 
room. It is to be judged by its aim — to provide a basis and start- 
ing-point, a source of elementary knowledge and a stimulus to 
thought, in preparation for the oral instruction of a Theological 
Seminary. 

To three living persons the author desires to express his peculiar 
obligation. Two of these are his former teachers : President Noah 
Porter, of Yale College, and President Ezekiel G-. Robinson, of 
Brown University ; to the former he owes his first insight into 
philosophy ; to the latter his first insight into theology. The third 
name is that of Professor William G. T. Shedd, of the Union 
Theological Seminary, from whose various writings the author has 
for many years derived constant stimulus and suggestion. The 
sincerity and warmth of this threefold recognition are not lessened 
by the fact that the views presented in this volume are in some 
respects peculiar to the author. 

The usefulness of the work, it is hoped, will be greatly increased 
by the very copious Indexes of subjects, of authors, and of Scripture 
passages. For the preparation of these, thanks are due to the Rev. 
Robert Kerr Eccles, M. D., recently a student of the Rochester 
Theological Seminary, but now pastor of the Baptist Church in 
Salem, Ohio, with whom the work has been a labor of love. 

In the view of the author, the aim of a course of theological study 
is not to crowd upon the pupil a ready-made system, but rather to 
put him in possession of the most important Biblical and scientific 
materials of theology, to cultivate in him the habit of theological 
thinking, and to enable him for himself to master certain of the 



X PREFACE. 

strategic points of doctrine, from which he may afterwards advance 
his lines with safety and success. In the hope that the present work 
may, in these respects, be serviceable to those who are preparing for 
the ministry of the gospel, it is now, with all its imperfections, 
committed to the care and blessing of Christ, the great head of 
the church, — to whom, as the author and perfecter of our faith, be 
eternal glory ! 

Rochester Theological Seminary, 
Rochester, May 1, 1886. 



PEEFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



Grateful for the favor with which the first edition of his System- 
atic Theology has been received, the author has subjected it to a 
thorough revision, and now sends it out with its errata so far as 
possible corrected, with many slight improvements of statement, 
and with more than seven hundred new references, quotations, or 
brief additions to the substance of the work. Notwithstanding 
these changes, the paging of the old edition, except in the Indexes, 
has been almost uniformly preserved. The credit of the proof- 
reading is due to Mr. H. K. Phinney, to whom the author expresses 
his great obligation. He trusts that this new edition may be more 
useful than the old. 

Rochester Theological Seminary, 
Rochester, May 1, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Preface, vii-x 

Table of Contexts, xi-xxiii 

PART L— PROLEGOMENA, 1-28 

Chapter I. — Idea of Theology, 1-13 

I. — Definition of Theology, 1 

II.— Aim of Theology, 1-2 

III. — Possibility of Theology — grounded in, 2-9 

1. The existence of a God, 2-4 

2. Man's capacity for the knowledge of God, 4-7 

3. God's revelation of himself to man, 7-9 

IV. — Necessity of Theology, 9-11 

V.— Relation of Theology to Religion, 11-13 

Chapter II. — Material of Theology, _._ 14-19 

I.— Sources of Theology,. 1 14-18 

1. Scripture and Nature, 14-16 

2. Scripture and Rationalism, 16 

3. Scripture and Mysticism, 17 

4. Scripture and Romanism, 17-18 

II.— Limitations of Theology, _.. . 18-19 

Chapter III. — Method of Theology, 20-28 

I. — Requisites to the study of Theology, 20-21 

II.— Divisions of Theology, . :... 21-22 

III. — History of Systematic Theology, 23-27 

IV.— Order of Treatment, 27-28 

V.— Text-books in Theology, 28 

PART II.— THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, 29-57 

Chapter I. — Origin of our Idea of God's Existence, 29-38 

I.— First Truths in General, 30-31 

II.— The Existence of God a First Truth, 31-34 

1. Its universality, * _._ 31-32 

2. Its necessity, 32-33 

3. Its logical independence and priority, 33-34 

III. — Other supposed Sources of the Idea, 34-36 

IV.— Contents of this Intuition, 37-38 

• b xi 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter II. — Corroborative Evidences of God's Existence, 39-50 

I. — The Cosmological Argument, ... 40-41 

II. — The Teleological Argument, 42-45 

III. — The Anthropological Argument, 45-47 

IV. — The Ontological Argument, 47-50 

Chapter III. — Erroneous Explanations op the Facts, 51-57 

I. — Materialism, 51-53 

II. — Materialistic Idealism, 53-55 

III.— Pantheism, 55-57 

PART III.— THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD, 58-114 

Chapter I. — Preliminary Considerations, 58-71 

I. — Reasons a 'priori for expecting a Revelation from God, 58-59 

II. — Marks of the Revelation man may expect, 60-61 

III. — Miracles as attesting a Divine Revelation, _ _ 61-67 

1. Definition of Miracle, 61-62 

2. Possibility of Miracles, 62-63 

3. Probability of Miracles,. 63-64 

4. Amount of Testimony necessary to prove a Miracle, 64-65 

5. Evidential Force of Miracles, 65-66 

6. Counterfeit Miracles, 66-67 

IV. — Prophecy as attesting a Divine Revelation, 67-69 

V. — Principles of Historical Evidence applicable to the Proof of 

a Divine Revelation, 69-71 

1. As to Documentary Evidence, 69-70 

2. As to Testimony in General, 70-71 

Chapter II. — Positive Proofs that the Scriptures are a 

Divine Revelation, 72-94 

I. — Genuineness of the Christian Documents, 72-82 

1. Genuineness of the Books of the New Testament, 72-80 

1st. The Myth-theory of Strauss, 76-77 

2d. The Tendency -theory of Baur, 77-79 

3d. The Romance-theory of Renan, 79-80 

2. Genuineness of the Books of the Old Testament, 80-82 

The Authorship of the Pentateuch, 81-82 

II.— Credibility of the Writers of the Scriptures, 82-84 

III. — Supernatural Character of the Scripture Teaching, 84-91 

1. Scripture Teaching in General, 84-86 

2. Moral System of the New Testament, 86-89 

Heathen Systems of Morality, 86-89 

3. The Person and Character of Christ, 89-91 

4. The Testimony of Christ to himself, 91 

IV. — Historical Results of the Propagation of Scripture Doctrine, 91-94 

Chapter III. — Inspiration of the Scriptures, 95-114 

I. — Definition of Inspiration, 95-96 

II.— Proof of Inspiration, . 96-97 

HI.— Theories of Inspiration, • 97-102 

1. The Intuition-theory, 97-98 

2. The Illumination-theory, 99-100 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii 

3. The Dictation-theory, 100-102 

4. The Dynamical theory, 102 

IV. — The Union of the Divine and Human Elements in Inspira- 
tion, 102-104 

V. — Objections to the Doctrine of Inspiration, 105-114 

1. Errors in matters of Science, 105-107 

2. Errors in matters of History, 107-1C8 

3. Errors in Morality, 108-109 

4. Errors of Reasoning, 109-110 

5. Errors in Quoting or Interpreting the Old Testament, 110 

6. Errors in Prophecy, 111 

7. Certain Books unworthy of a Place in inspired Scripture,. 111-112 

8. Portions of the Scripture Books written by others than the 

Persons to whom they are ascribed, 112-113 

9. Sceptical or Fictitious Narratives, 113-114 

10. Acknowledgment of the Non-inspiration of Scripture Teach- 
ers and their Writings, 114 

PART IV.— THE NATURE, DJECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD, 115-233 

Chapter I. — The Attributes of God, 115-143 

I. — Definition of the term Attributes, 115 

II. — Relation of the Divine Attributes to the Divine Essence, ... 116-118 

III. — Methods of Determining the Divine Attributes, 118 

IV. — Classification of the Attributes, 118-120 

V. — Absolute or Immanent Attributes, 120-130 

First Division. — Spirituality, and Attributes therein in- 
volved, 120-122 

1. Life, 121 

2. Personality, 121-122 

Second Division. — Infinity, and Attributes therein in- 
volved, 122-125 

1. Self-existence, 123-124 

2. Immutability, 124-125 

3. Unity, 125 

Third Division. — Perfection, and Attributes therein in- 
volved, 125-130 

1. Truth, 126-127 

2. Love* 127-128 

3. Holiness, 128-130 

VI. — Relative or Transitive Attributes, 130-140 

First Division. — Attributes having relation to Time and 
Space, 130-132 

1. Eternity, 130-131 

2. Immensity, 131-132 

Second Division. — Attributes having relation to Creation, 132-137 

1. Omnipresence, 132-133 

2. Omniscience, 133-136 

3. Omnipotence, 136-137 

Third Division.— Attributes having relation to Moral 

Beings, 137-140 

* 1. Veracity and Faithfulness, or Transitive Truth,.. 137 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

2. Mercy and Goodness, or Transitive Love, 137-138 

3. Justice and Righteousness, or Transitive Holiness, 138-140 
VII. — Rank and Relations of the several Attributes, 140-143 

1. Holiness the Fundamental Attribute in God, 140-141 

2. The Holiness of God the Ground of Moral Obligation, 141-143 

Chapter II. — Doctrine of the Trinity, 144-170 

I. — In Scripture there are Three who are recognized as God,.__ 145-155 

1. Proofs from the New Testament, 145-151 

A. The Father is recognized as God, 145 

B. Jesus Christ is recognized as God, 145-150 

C. The Holy Spirit is recognized as God, 150-151 

2. Intimations of the Old Testament, 152-155 

A. Passages which seem to teach Plurality of some 

sort in the Godhead, 152-153 

B. Passages relating to the Angel of Jehovah, 153 

C. Descriptions of the Divine Wisdom and Word, _ _ _ 153-154 

D. Descriptions of the Messiah, 154-155 

H. — These Three are so described in Scripture, that we are com- 
pelled to conceive of them as distinct Persons, 155-157 

1. The Father and the Son are Persons distinct from 

each other, 155 

2. The Father and the Son are Persons distinct from 

the Spirit, 155 

3. The Holy Spirit is a Person, 155-157 

III. — This Tripersonality of the Divine Nature is not merely eco- 
nomic and temporal, but is immanent and eternal, 157-159 

1. Scripture Proof that these distinctions of Personality 

are eternal, 157-158 

2. Errors refuted by the Scripture Passages, 158-159 

A. The Sabellian, 158-159 

B. TheArian, 159 

IV. — While there are three Persons, there is but one Essence, 159-161 

V.— These three Persons are Equal, 161-166 

1. These Titles belong to the Persons, 161-162 

2. Qualified Sense of these Titles, 162-164 

3. Generation and Procession consistent with Equality, . . 164-166 
VI. — The Doctrine of the Trinity inscrutable, yet not self -contra- 
dictory, but the Key to all other Doctrines, 166-170 

1. The Mode of this Triune Existence is inscrutable, 166-167 

2. The Doctrine of the Trinity is not self-contradictory,. 167-168 

3. The Doctrine of the Trinity has important Relations to 

other Doctrines, 168-170 

Chapter III. — The Decrees of God, 171-182 

I. — Definition of Decrees, 171-172 

II. — Proof of the Doctrine of Decrees, 172-176 

1. From Scripture, 172-173 

2. From Reason, . 173-176 

A. From the Divine Foreknowledge, 173-175 

B. From the Divine Wisdom, 175 

C. From the Divine Immutability, 175 



TABLE OF COXTE^TS. XV 

D. From the Divine Benevolence, 175-176 

III. — Objections to the Doctrine of Decrees, 176-181 

1. That they are inconsistent with the Free Agency of Man, 176-178 

2. That they take away all Motive for Human Exertion, . . 178-179 

3. That they make God the Author of Sin, 179-181 

IV.— Concluding Remarks, 181-182 

1. Practical Uses of the Doctrine of Decrees, 181 

2. True Method of Preaching the Doctrine, 181-182 

Or 

^v Chaptek IV. — The Works of God, or the Execution of the 

Decrees, 183-233 

Section I. — Creation, 183-202 

I. — Definition of Creation, 183 

II— Proof of the Doctrine, 184-186 

1. Direct Scripture Statements, 184-186 

2. Indirect Evidence from Scripture, 186 

III. — Theories which oppose Creation, 186-191 

1. Dualism, 186-189 

2. Emanation, 189 

3. Creation from Eternity, 190-191 

4. Spontaneous Generation, 191 

IV.— The Mosaic Account of Creation, _ _ . 191-195 

1. Its Twofold Nature, .. _ 191-193 

2. Its Proper Interpretation, 193-195 

V.— God's End in Creation, 195-198 

1. The Testimony of Scripture, 195-196 

2. The Testimony of Reason, 196-198 

VI. — Relation of the Doctrine of Creation to other Doctrines, 198-202 

1. To the Holiness and Benevolence of God, 198-199 

2. To the Wisdom and Free Will of God, 199-200 

3. To Providence and Redemption, 200-202 

Section II. — Preservation, 202-207 

I. — Definition of Preservation, 202 

II. — Proof of the Doctrine of Preservation, 202-204 

1. From Scripture, 202-203 

2. From Reason, 203-204 

III. — Theories which virtually deny the Doctrine of Preservation, 204-206 

1. Deism, 204-205 

2. Continuous Creation, 205-206 

IV. — Remarks upon the Divine Concurrence, 206-207 

Section III. — Providence, 207-220 

I.— Definition of Providence, 207-208 

II.— Proof of the Doctrine of Providence, 208-211 

1. Scriptural Proof, 208-210 

2. Rational Proof, 210-211 

III. — Theories opposing the Doctrine of Providence, 211-214 

1. Fatalism, 211-212 

2. Casualism, .... 212-213 

3. Theory of a merely General Providence, 213-214 

IV. — Relations of the Doctrine of Providence, 215-220 



XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

1. To Miracles and Works of Grace, 215 

2. To Prayer and its Answer, 215-219 

3. To Christian Activity, 219-220 

4. To the Evil Acts of Free Agents, 220 

Section IV. — Good and Evil Angels, 221-233 

I. — Scripture Statements and Intimations, ' 221-230 

1. As to the Nature and Attributes of Angels, 221-223 

2. As to their Number and Organization, 223-224 

3. As to their Moral Character, __ _■ 225 

4. As to their Employments, 225-230 

A. The E mploy ments of Good Angels, _ _ . . 225-227 

B. The Employments of Evil Angels, 227-230 

II.— Objections to the Doctrine of Angels, 230-232 

1. To the Doctrine of Angels in General, 230-231 

2. To the Doctrine of Evil Angels in Particular, 231-232 

III. — Practical Uses of the Doctrine of Angels, 232-233 

1. Uses of the Doctrine of Good Angels, 232-233 

2. Uses of the Doctrine of Evil Angels, 233 

PART V.— ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN, 234-357 

Chapter I.— Preliminary, 234-260 

I.— Man a Creation of God and a Child of God, 234-238 

II.— Unity of the Race, 238-243 

1. Argument from History, 239-240 

2. Argument from Language, 240 

3. Argument from Psychology, 240-241 

4. Argument from Physiology, 241-243 

III.— Essential Elements of Human Nature, 243-248 

1. The Dichotomous Theory, 243-244 

2. The Trichotomous Theory, 244-248 

IV.— Origin of the Soul, 248-254 

1. The Theory of Preexistence, 248-250 

2. The Creatian Theory, 250-252 

3. The Traducian Theory, 252-254 

V.— The Moral Nature of Man, 254-260 

1. Conscience, 254-257 

2. Will, 257-260 

Chapter II.— The Original State of Man, 261-272 

I. — Essentials of Man's Original State, 261-267 

1. Natural Likeness to God, or Personality, 262 

2. Moral Likeness to God, or Holiness, 262-263 

A. The Image of God as including only Personality, 264-265 

B. The Image of God as consisting simply in Man's 

Natural Capacity for Religion, 265-267 

II.— Incidents of Man's Original State, 267-272 

1. Results of Man's Possession of the Divine Image, 267-268 

2. Concomitants of Man's Possession of the Divine Image, 268-269 

1st. The Theory of an Original Condition of Savagery, 269-271 
2nd. The Theory of Comte as to the Stages of Human 

Progress, 271-272 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV11 

Chapter III. — Sin, or Man's State of Apostasy, 273-357 

Section L— The Law op God, 273-282 

I.— Law in General, 273-275 

II— The Law of God in Particular, " 275-281 

1. Elemental law, 275-279 

2. Positive Enactment, 279-281 

III.— Kelation of the Law to the Grace of God, 281-282 

Section II.— Nature op Sin, 283-295 

I.— Definition of Sin, 283-289 

1. Proof, 283-287 

2. Inferences, , 288-289 

II. — The Essential Principle of Sin, 289-295 

1. Sin as Sensuousness, ._ 289-291 

2. Sin as Finiteness, 291-292 

3. Sin as Selfishness, 292-295 

Section III.— Universality of Sin, : 295-301 

I. — Every human being who has arrived at moral consciousness 
has committed acts, or cherished dispositions, contrary to 

the Divine Law, 296-298 

II. — Every member of the human race, without exception, pos- 
sesses a corrupted nature, which is a source of actual sin, 

and is itself sin, 299-301 

Section IV. — Origin of Sin in the personal Act of Adam, 302-308 
I. — The Scriptural Account in Genesis, 302-304 

1. Its General Character not Mythical or Allegorical, but 

Historical, 302 

2. The Course of the Temptation, and the resulting Fall, 302-304 
II. — Difficulties connected with the Fall, considered as the per- 
sonal Act of Adam, 304-308 

1. How could a holy being fall ? 304-305 

2. How could God justly permit Satanic Temptation ?_._ 305-306 

3. How could a Penalty so great be justly connected with 

Disobedience to so slight a Command ? 306 

III. — Consequences of the Fall — so far as respects Adam, 306-308 

1. Death, 306-307 

A. Physical Death, or the Separation of the Soul 

from the Body, 306-307 

B. Spiritual Death, or the Separation of the Soul 

from God, 307 

2. Positive and formal Exclusion from God's Presence, __ 307-308 
Section V. — Imputation of Adam's Sin to his Posterity,. 308-334 

Scripture Teaching as to Race-sin and Race-responsibility, 308-310 
I.— Theories of Imputation, 310-334 

1. The Pelagian Theory, or Theory of Man's Natural 

Innocence, 310-313 

2. The Arminian Theory, or Theory of voluntarily appro- 

priated Depravity, 314-318 

3. The New-School Theory, or Theory of uncondemnable 

Vitiosity, 318-322 



XViii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4. The Federal Theory, or Theory of Condemnation by 

Covenant, 322-325 

5. Theory of Mediate Imputation, or Theory of Condem- 

nation for Depravity, 325-328 

6. Augustinian Theory, or Theory of Adam's Natural 

Headship, . 328-333 

Exposition of Rom. 5 : 12-19, 331-333 

Tabular View of the various Theories of Imputation, 334 

II. — Objections to the Augustinian Theory of Imputation, 335-340 

Section VI.— Consequences op Sin to Adam's Posterity, _ 340-355 

I.— Depravity, 340-345 

1. Depravity Partial or Total ? 341-342 

2. Ability or Inability ? 342-345 

II.— Guilt, 345-350 

1. Nature of Guilt, 345-347 

2. Degrees of Guilt, 347-350 

III.— Penalty, _... 350-355 

1. Idea of Penalty, 350-352 

2. Actual Penalty of Sin, 352-355 

Section VII. — The Salvation op Infants, 355-357 

PART VI.— SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVA- 
TION THROUGH THE WORK OF CHRIST AND 
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 358-493 

Chapter I. — Christology, or the Redemption Wrought by 

Christ, : 358-425 

Section I. — Historical Preparation for Redemption, 358-360 

I. — Negative Preparation, in- the History of the Heathen World, 358-359 

II. — Positive Preparation, in the History of Israel, 359-360 

Section II.— The Person of Christ, 360-380 

I. — Historical Survey of Views respecting the Person of Christ, 360-363 

1. The Ebionites, 360-361 

2. TheDocetse, 361 

3. TheArians, 361-362 

4. The Apollinarians, 362 

5. The Nestorians, 362 

6. The Eutychians, 362-363 

7. The Orthodox Doctrine, 363 

II.— The two Natures of Christ,— their Reality and Integrity,.. 364-368 

1. The Humanity of Christ, .... 364-367 

A. Its Reality, 364-365 

B. Its Integrity, 365-367 

2. The Deity of Christ, ._ 367-368 

III. — The Union of the two Natures in one Person, 368-380 

1. Proof of this Union, 368-370 

2. Modern Misrepresentations of this Union, 370-374 

A. The Theory of Gess and Beecher, that the Hu- 
manity of Christ is a Contracted and Metamor- 
phosed Deity 370-372: 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX 

B. The Theory of Dorner and Rothe, that the Union 
between the Divine and the Human Natures is 

not completed by the Incarnating Act, 372-374 

3. The Real Nature of this Union, 374-380 

Section IIL— The Two States op Christ, 380-387 

I.— The State of Humiliation , 380-384 

1. The Nature of Christ's Humiliation, 380-382 

A. The Theory of Thomasius, Delitzsch, and Crosby, 

that the Humiliation consisted in the Surrender 

of the Relative Attributes, 380-382 

B. The Theory that the Humiliation consisted in the 

Surrender of the Independent Exercise of the 
Divine Attributes, 382 

2. The Stages of Christ's Humiliation, 382-384 

Exposition of Philippians 2 : 5-9, 384 

II.— The State of Exaltation, 384-387 

1. The Nature of Christ's Exaltation, 384-385 

2. The Stages of Christ's Exaltation, 385-387 

Section IV. — The Offices of Christ, 387-425 

L— The Prophetic Office of Christ, 388-490 

1 . The Nature of Christ's Prophetic Work, 388 

2. The Stages of Christ's Prophetic Work, 388-390 

II.— The Priestly Office of Christ, 390-424 

1. Christ's Sacrificial Work, or the Doctrine of the Atone- 

ment, 390-422 

A. Scriptural Methods of Representing the Atonement, 390-393 

B. The Institution of Sacrifice, especially as found in 

the Mosaic System, 393-397 

C. Theories of the Atonement, 397-418 

1st. The Socinian, or Example-Theory of the 

Atonement, 397-400 

2nd. The Bushnellian, or Moral-influence Theory 

of the Atonement, 400-403 

3rd. The Grotian, or Governmental Theory of 

the Atonement, 403-405 

4th. The Irvingian Theory, or theory of gradu- 
ally extirpated Depravity, 405-407 

5th. The Anselmic or Commercial Theory of the 

Atonement, 407-409 

6th. The Ethical Theory of the Atonement, 409-418 

First, The Atonement as related to Holi- 
ness in God, 410-412 

Exposition of Romans 3 : 25, 26, 411 

Secondly, The Atonement as related to 

Humanity in Christ, 412-416 

Exposition of 2 Corinthians 5 : 21, 415 

D. Objections to the Ethical Theory of the Atonement, 418-421 

E. The Extent of the Atonement, 421-422 

2. Christ's Intercessory Work, 422-424 

III.— The Kingly Office of Christ, 424-425 



<•* 



XX TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter II. — The Reconciliation of Man to God, or the 
Application of Redemption through the 

Work of the Holy Spirit, 426-493 

Section I. — The Application of Christ's Redemption, in 

its Preparation, 426-436 

L— Election, 427-434 

1. Proof of the Doctrine of Election, 427-431 

2. Objections to the Doctrine of Election, _ . 431-434 

II.— Calling, 434-436 

A. Is God's General Call Sincere ? 435-436 

B. Is God's Special Call Irresistible ? 436 

Section II. — The Application of Christ's Redemption, in 

its Actual Beginning, 436-483 

I.— Union with Christ, 438-447 

1. Scripture Representations of this Union, 438-441 

2. Nature of this Union, 441-444 

3. Consequences of this Union, 444-447 

II.— Regeneration, 447-460 

1. Scripture Representations, 448-449 

2. Necessity of Regeneration, 449-450 

3. The Efficient Cause of Regeneration, 450-454 

4. The Instrumentality used in Regeneration, 454-456 

5. The Nature of the Change wrought in Regeneration, __ 456-460 
III.— Conversion, 460-470 

1. Repentance, 462-464 

Elements of Repentance, 462-463 

Explanations of the Scripture Representations, 463-464 

2. Faith, 465-470 

Elements of Faith, ,_._ 465-466 

Explanations of the Scripture Representations, .__._. 466-470 
IV.— Justification, . 471-483 

1. Definition of Justification, _ . 471 

2. Proof of the Doctrine of Justification, 471-474 

3. Elements of Justification, 474-477 

4. Relation of Justification to God's Law and Holiness, . . 477-478 

5. Relation of Justification to Union with Christ and the 

Work of the Spirit, 478-480 

6. Relation of Justification to Faith, 480-482 

7. Advice to Inquirers demanded by a Scriptural View of 

Justification, 482-483 

Section III. — The Application of Christ's Redemption, in 

its Continuation, 483-493 

I. — Sanctification, 483-490 

1. Definition of Sanctification, 483-484 

2. Explanations and Scripture Proof, 484-487 

3. Erroneous Views refuted by the Scripture Passages, . _ 487-490 

A. The Antinomian, 487-488 

B. The Perfectionist, . 488-490 

II. — Perseverance, 491-493 

1. Proof of the Doctrine of Perseverance, 491-492 

2. Objections to the Doctrine of Perseverance, 492-493 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXI 

PART VII.— ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE 

CHURCH, 494-553 

Chapter I. — The Constitution of the Church, or Church 

Polity, 494-519 

I. — Definition of the Church, 494-497 

1. The Church, like the Family and the State, is an Insti- 

tution of Divine Appointment, 496-497 

2. The Church, unlike the Family and the State, is a 

Voluntary Society, 497 

II.— Organization of the Church, 497-503 

1. The Fact of Organization, ._. 497-500 

2. The Nature of this Organization, 500-501 

3. The Genesis of this Organization, 502-503 

III. - Government of the Church, 503-517 

1. Nature of this Government in General, 503-509 

A. Proof that the Government of the Church is 

Democratic or Congregational, 504-506 

B. Erroneous Views as to Church Government, re- 

futed by the Scripture Passages, 507-509 

( a ) The World-church Theory, or the Ro- 

manist View, 507-508 

(b) The National-church Theory, or the 

Theory of Provincial or National 
Churches, 508-509 

2. Officers of the Church, 509-516 

A. The Number of Offices in the Church is two, . - _ 509-510 

B. The Duties belonging to these Offices, 510-512 

C. Ordination of Officers, 512-516 

(a) What is Ordination? 512-513 

(b) Who are to Ordain? 513-516 

3. Discipline of the Church, 516-517 

A. Kinds of Discipline, 516-517 

B. Relation of the Pastor to Discipline, 517 

IV. — Relation of Local Churches to one another, 517-519 

1. The General Nature of this Relation is that of Fellow- 

ship between Equals, 517-518 

2. This Fellowship involves the Duty of Special Consulta- 

tion with regard to Matters affecting the common In- 
terest, 518 

3. This Fellowship may be broken by manifest Departures 

from the Faith or Practice of the Scriptures on the 

part of any Church, 518-519 

Chapter II. — The Ordinances op the Church, 520-553 

I.- Baptism, 520-538 

1. Baptism an Ordinance of Christ, 520-522 

2. The Mode of Baptism, 522-527 

A. The Command to Baptize is a Command to Im- 

merse, 522-526 

B. No Church has the Right to Modify or Dispense 

with this Command of Christ 526-527 



XX11 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

3. The Symbolism of Baptism, 527-530 

A. Expansion of the Statement as to the Symbolism 

of Baptism, , 527-528 

B. Inferences from the Passages referred to, 528-530 

4. The Subjects of Baptism 530-538 

A. Proof that only Persons giving Evidence of being 

Regenerated are proper subjects of Baptism, __ 530-531 

B. Inferences from the Fact that only Persons giving 

Evidence of being Regenerate are proper Sub- 
jects of Baptism, 531-534 

C. Infant Baptism, 534-538 

(a) Infant Baptism without Warrant in the 

Scripture, 534-535 

(b) Infant Baptism expressly Contradicted 

by Scripture, 535-536 

(c) Its Origin in Sacramental Conceptions 

of Christianity, 536 

( d ) The Reasoning by which it is supported 

Unscriptural, Unsound, and Dangerous 

in its Tendency, 536-537 

(e) The Lack of Agreement among Pedo- 

baptists, 537 

( f ) The Evil Effects of Infant Baptism, 537-538 

II.— The Lord's Supper, 538-553 

1. The Lord's Supper an Ordinance instituted by Christ,. 539 

2. The Mode of Administering the Lord's Supper, 539-541 

3. The Symbolism of the Lord's Supper, 541-543 

A. Expansion of the Statement as to the Symbolism 

of the Lord's Supper, 541-542 

B. Inferences from this Statement, 542-543 

4. Erroneous Views of the Lord's Supper, 543-546 

A. The Romanist View, 543-545 

B. The Lutheran and High Church View, 545-546 

5. Prerequisites to Participation in the Lord's Supper,. __ 546-553 

A. There are Prerequisites, . . 546 

B. Laid down by Christ and his Apostles, 546 

C. The Prerequisites are Four, . 546-550 

First, — Regeneration, 546-547 

Secondly,— Baptism, 547-548 

Thirdly,— Church Membership, 548-549 

• Fourthly,— An Orderly Walk, 549-550 

D. The Local Church is the Judge whether these 

Prerequisites are fulfilled, 550-551 

E. Special Objections to Open Communion, 551-553 

PART VIII.— ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL 

THINGS, 554-600 

I.— Physical Death,. _ 554-562 

That this is not Annihilation, argued : 

1 . Upon Rational Grounds, . 555-558 

2. Upon Scriptural Grounds, 558-562 



TABLE OF COXTEXTS. XX111 

II.— The Intermediate State, 562-566 

1. Of the Righteous, 563-564 

2. Of the Wicked, 564 

Refutation of the two Errors : 

( a ) That the Soul sleeps, between Death and the 

Resurrection, 564-565 

(b) That the Suffering of the Intermediate State 

is Purgatorial, 565 

Concluding Remark, 566 

III.— The Second Coming of Christ, . 566-574 

1. The Nature of Christ's Coming, 567-568 

2. The Time of Christ's Coming, .__ 568-569 

4. The Precursors of Christ's Coming, 569-571 

4. Relation of Christ's Second Coming to the Millennium, 571-574 

IV. — The Resurrection, 575-580 

1. The Exegetical Objection, 576-577 

2. The Scientific Objection, 578-580 

V.— The Last Judgment, 580-584 

1. The Nature of the Final Judgment, 581-582 

2. The Object of the Final Judgment, 582-583 

3. The Judge in the Final Judgment, 583-584 

4. The Subjects of the Final Judgment, 584 

5. The Grounds of the FiDal Judgment, 584 

VI.— The Final States of the Righteous and of the Wicked, 585-600 

1. Of the Righteous, 585-587 

A. Is Heaven a Place as well as a State ? 585-586 

B. Is this Earth to be the Heaven of the Saints ?_._ 586-587 

2. Of the Wicked, 587-600 

A. Future Punishment is not Annihilation, 588-589 

B. Punishment after Death excludes new Probation 

and ultimate Restoration, 590-592 

C. This future Punishment is Everlasting, 592-594 

D. Everlasting Punishment is not inconsistent with 

God's Justice, 594-597 

E. Everlasting Punishment is not inconsistent with 

God's Benevolence, 597-599 

F. Preaching of Everlasting Punishment is not a 

hindrance to the success of the Gospel, 599-600 

Index of Subjects, 603-708 

Index of Authors, 709-733 

Index of Scripture Texts, 735-752 

Index of Apocryphal Texts, 752 

Index of Greek Words, ., 753-758 

Index of Hebrew Words, 759-760 



" The eye sees only that which it beings with it the power 
of seeing." — Cicero. 

" Open thou mine eyes, that i may behold wondrous things 

OUT OE THY LAW." — Psdllll 119 .* 18. 

"For with thee is the fountain of life : In thy light shall 
we see light." — Psalm 36 : 9. 

"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part : but when 
that which is perfect is come, that which is in part 

SHALL BE DONE AWAY." — 1 Cor. IS I 9, 10. 



XXV 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. 



PAET I. 

PROLEGOMENA. 



CHAPTER I. 

IDEA OF THEOLOGY. 

I. Definition. — Theology is the science of God and of the relations 
between God and the universe. 

Though the word ' theology ' is sometimes employed in dogmatic writings 
to designate that single department of the science which treats of the divine 
nature and attributes, prevailing usage, since Abelard (A. D. 1079-1142) 
entitled his general treatise ." Theologia Christiana," has included under 
that term the whole range of Christian doctrine. 

Theology, therefore, gives account not only of God, but of those relations 
between God and the material and spiritual universe in view of which we 
speak of Creation, Providence, and Redemption. 

John the Evangelist is called by the Fathers l the theologian,' because he most fully 
treats of the internal relations of the persons of the Trinity. Gregory Nazianzen (338) 
received this designation because he defended the deity of Christ against the Arians. For 
a modern instance of this use of the term ' theology ' in the narrow sense, see title of Dr. 
Hodge's first volume: "Systematic Theology; Vol.1: Theology." But theology is not 
simply "the science of God," nor even "the science of God and man." It also gives 
account of the relations between God and the universe. 

Yet theology does not properly include other sciences— it merely uses their results; 
see Wardlaw, Theology, 1 : 1, 2. Physical science is not a part of theology. As a mere 
physicist, Humboldt did not need to mention the name of God in his " Cosmos " (but see 
Cosmos, 2 : 413, where Humboldt says : " Psalm 104 presents an image of the whole Cos- 
mos"). On the definition of theology, see Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 1, 2; 
Blunt, Diet. Doct. and Hist. Theology, art.: Theology: H. B. Smith, Introd. to Christ. 
Theol., 44 ; c/. Aristotle, Metaph., 10, 7, 4 ; 11, 6, 4 ; and Lactantius, De Ira Dei, 11. 

II. Aim. — In denning theology as a science, we indicate its aim. 
Science does not create ; it discovers. Science is not only the observing, 
recording, verifying, and formulating of objective facts ; it is also the 
recognition and explication of the relations between these facts, and the 
synthesis of both the facts and the rational principles which unite them, in 
a comprehensive, rightly proportioned, and organic system. 

Theology answers to this description of a science. It discovers facts and 
relations, but does not create them. As it deals with objective facts and 
1 



2 PROLEGOMENA. 

their relations, so its arrangement of these facts and relations is not optional, 
but determined by the nature of the material with which it deals. 

In fine, the aim of theology may be stated as being the ascertainment of 
the facts respecting God and the relations between God and the universe, 
and the exhibition of these facts in their rational unity, as connected parts 
of a formulated and organic system of truth. 

Scattered bricks and timbers are not a house, and facts alone do not constitute science. 
Science = facts + relations. Whewell, Hist. Inductive Sciences, I., Introd., 43: There 
may be facts without science, as in every common mind ; there may be thought without 
science, as in early Greek philosophy. Dove, Logic of the Christian Faith, 14— "The 
pursuit of science is the pursuit of relations." Everett, Science of Thought, 3 : " Logy " 
(e. g. in "theology"), from Adyo?, = word+reason, expression +thought, fact+idea; cf. 
John i : i — " la the beginning was the Word." 

Because theology deals with objective facts, we refuse to define it as " the science of 
religion " ; versus Am. Theol. Rev., 1850 : 101-126, and Thornwell, Theology, 1 : 139. Both 
the facts and the relations with which theology has to deal have an existence entirely 
independent of the subjective mental processes of the theologian. A true theology 
thinks over again God's thoughts and brings them into God's order, as the builders of 
Solomon's temple took the stones already hewn, and put them into the places for which 
the architect had designed them. We cannot make theology, any more than we can 
make a law of physical nature. As the natural philosopher is " naturae minister et inter- 
pres," so the theologian is the servant and interpreter of the objective truth of God. 
On the Idea of Theology as a System, see H. B. Smith, in Faith and Philosophy, 125-166. 

III. Possibility. — A particular science is possible only when three con- 
ditions combine, namely, the actual existence of the object with which the 
science deals, the subjective capacity of the human mind to know that 
object, and the provision of definite means by which the object is brought 
into contact with the mind. 

In like manner, the possibility of theology has a threefold ground : 1. In 
the existence of a God who has relations to the universe ; 2. In the capacity 
of the human mind for knowing God and certain of these relations ; and 3. 
In the provision of means by which God is brought into actual contact with 
the mind, or in other words, in the provision of a revelation. 

We may illustrate the conditions of theology from selenology— the science not of 
"lunar politics," but of lunar physics. Selenology has three conditions : 1. the object- 
ive existence of the moon ; 2. the subjective capacity of the human mind to know the 
moon ; and 3. the provision of some means ( e. g. the eye and the telescope ) by which the 
gulf between man and the moon is bridged over, and by which the mind can come into 
actual cognizance of the facts with regard to the moon. 

1. In the existence of a God who has relations to the universe. It has 
been objected, indeed, that since God and these relations are objects appre- 
hended only by faith, they are not proper objects of knowledge or subjects 
for science. We reply that faith is only a higher sort of knowledge. 
Physical science rests also upon faith — faith in our own existence and our 
own faculties, in our primitive cognitions and in human testimony — but 
is not invalidated thereby, because this faith, though unlike sense-percep- 
tion or logical deduction, is yet a cognitive act of the reason, and may 
be defined as certitude with respect to matters in which verification is 
unattainable. 

The objection to theology mentioned and answered above is expressed in the words 
of Sir William Hamilton, Metaphysics, 44, 531 : " Faith— belief — is the organ by which 
we apprehend what is beyond our knowledge." But science is knowledge, and what is 
beyond our knowledge cannot be matter for science. Pres. E. G. Robinson says welL 



POSSIBILITY OF THEOLOGY. 3 

that knowledge and faith cannot be severed from one another, like bulkheads in a ship, 
the first of which may be crushed in while the second still keeps the vessel afloat. 
Hamilton consistently declares that the highest achievement of science is the erection 
of an altar "To The Unknown God." This however is not the representation of Script- 
ure. Cf. John 17 : 3 — " this is life eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God ; " and Jer. 9 : 24 — " let 
him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me." For criticism of Hamilton, see 
H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy, 297-336. Fichte: "We are born in faith." Goethe 
called himself a believer in the five senses. Balfour, Defence of Philosophic Doubt, 
277-295, shows that intuitive beliefs in space, time, cause^ substance, right, are presup- 
posed in the acquisition of all other knowledge. Dove, Logic of the Christian Faith, 14: 
If theology is to be overthrown because it starts from some primary terms and propo- 
sitions, then all other sciences are overthrown with it. Mozley, Miracles, 104, defines 
faith as " unverified reason." See A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 19-30. 

So the faith which gives fit material for theology is not to be confounded 
■with opinion or imagination. It is simply certitude with regard to spiritual 
realities, upon the testimony of our own rational nature and upon the testi- 
mony of God. Its only peculiarity as a cognitive act of the reason is, that 
it is conditioned by holy affection. As the sciences of aesthetics and ethics, 
respectively, are products of reason as including in the one case a power of 
recognizing beauty practically inseparable from a love for beauty, and in 
the other case a power of recognizing the morally right practically insepa- 
rable from a love for the morally right, so the science of theology is a 
product of reason, but of reason as including a power of recognizing God 
which is practically inseparable from a love for God. 

In the text we use the term ' reason ' to signify the mind's whole power of knowing. 
Reason, in this sense, includes states of the sensibility, so far as they are indispensable 
to knowledge. We cannot know an orange by the eye alone ; to the understanding of 
it, taste is as necessary as sight. Love for the beautiful and the right precedes knowl- 
edge of the beautiful and the right. Ullmann draws attention to the derivation of 
sapientia, wisdom, from sapgre, to taste. So we cannot know God by intellect alone; 
the heart must go with the intellect to make knowledge of divine things possible. By 
the word "heart," the Scripture means simply governing disposition, or sensibility + will. 
Cf. Ex. 35 : 25 — " the women that were wise-hearted " ; Ps. 34 : 8—" taste and see that the Lord is good "= a right 
taste precedes correct sight ; Jer. 24 • 7 — "I will give them a heart to know me " ; Mat. 5 -8 — "Blessed are 
the pure in heart, for they shall see God " ; Luke 24 : 25 — "slow of heart to believe " ; John 7 : 17 — " If any man willeth 
to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from myself" ; Eph. 1:18 — 
"having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know " ; 1 John 4 : 7, 8 — "Every one that loveth is begotten 
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God." See Frank, Christian Certainty, 303-324. 

This recognition of invisible realities upon God's testimony, and as con- 
ditioned upon a right state of the affections, is faith. As an operation of 
man's higher rational nature, though distinct from ocular vision or from 
reasoning, it is a kind of knowing, and so may furnish proper material for a 
scientific theology. 

Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 50, follows Gerhard in making faith the joint act of intel- 
lect and will. Hopkins, Outline Study of Man, 77, 78, speaks not only of the aesthetic 
reason but of the moral reason. Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 91, 109, 145, 191— 
"Faith is the certitude concerning matters in which verification is unattainable." 
Emerson, Essays, 2:96— "Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul — 
unbelief in rejecting them." Morell, Philos. of Religion, 38, 52, 53, quotes Coleridge: 
"Faith consists in the synthesis of the reason and the individual will, . . . and by virtue 
of the former (that is, reason), faith must be a light, a form of knowing, a beholding of 
truth." Faith, then, is not to be pictured as a blind girl clinging to a cross — faith is not 
blind— "else the cross may just as well be a crucifix or an image of Gaudama." 

If a right state of heart be indispensable to faith and so to the knowledge of God, 
can there be any "theologia irregenitorum," or theology of the unregenerate ? We 
reply: Just as the blind man can have a science of optics. The testimony of others 
gives it claims upon him ; the dim light penetrating the obscuring membrane corrob- 



4 PROLEGOMENA. 

orates this testimony. But as, in order to make his science of optics satisfactory or 
complete, the blind man must have the cataract removed from his eyes by some com- 
petent oculist, so in order to any complete or satisfactory theology the veil must be 
taken away from the heart by God himself ( cf. 2 Cor. 3 : 15, 16 — " a veil lieth upon their heart. But 
whensoever it [ marg. ' a man ' ] shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away " ). See Foundations of our 
Faith, 12, 13; Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 1:154-164; Presb. Quarterly, Oct., 1871, Oct., 1872, 
Oct., 1873 ; Calderwood, Philosophy of the Infinite, 99, 117 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 
2-8; New Englander, July, 1873: 481; Princeton Rev., 1864 : 122; Christlieb, Modern Doubt, 
124, 125 ; Grau, Ueber den Glauben als hochste Vernunf t, in Beweis des Glaubens, 1865 : 
110; Dorner, Geschichte prot. Theol., 228; Newman, Univ. Sermons, 206; Hinton, Art of 
Thinking, Introd. by Hodgson, 5. Versus Lotze, Philos. of Relig., 1-7. 

2. In the capacity of the human mind for knowing God and certain 
of these relations. But it has been urged that such knowledge is impossi- 
ble for the following reasons: 

A. Because we can know only jnienomena. We reply : ( a ) We know 
mental as well as physical phenomena. ( b ) In knowing phenomena, whether 
mental or physical, we know substance as underlying the phenomena, and 
as manifested through them. ( c ) Our minds bring to the observation of 
phenomena not only this knowledge of substance, but also the knowledge 
of time, space, and cause, realities which are in no sense phenomenal. Since 
these objects of knowledge are not phenomenal, the fact that God is not 
phenomenal cannot prevent us from knowing him. 

Versus Comte, Positive Philosophy, Martineau's transl., 26, 28, 33 — " In order to observe, 
your intellect must pause from activity — yet it is this very activity you want to observe. 
If you cannot effect the pause, you cannot observe ; if you do effect it, there is nothing 
to observe." The phrase " Positive Philosophy " implies that all knowledge of mind 
is negative. This view is refuted by the two facts of (1) consciousness, and (2) mem- 
ory ; see Martineau, Essays Philos. and Theol., 1 : 24-40, 207-212. By phenomena we mean 
"facts, in distinction from their ground, principle, or law"; "neither phenomena nor 
qualities, as such, are perceived, but objects, percepts, or beings ; and it is by an after- 
thought or reflex process that these are connected as qualities and are referred to as 
substances " ; see Porter, Human Intellect, 51, 238, 520, 619-637, 640-645. Phenomena may 
be internal, e. g. thoughts; in this case the noumenon is the mind, of which these 
thoughts are the manifestations. Qualities, whether mental or material, imply the 
existence of a substance to which they belong — mind or matter: they can no more be 
conceived of as existing apart from substance than the upper side of a plank can be con- 
ceived of as existing without an under side ; see Bowne, Review of Herbert Spencer, 47, 
207-217. Without substance in which they inhere, the qualities of an object have no 
ground of unity. The characteristics of substance are (1) being, (2) power, (3) per- 
manence; see McCosh, Intuitions, 138-154 (Eng. ed., 161). "The theory that disproves 
God, disproves an external world and the existence of the soul"; see Diman, Theistic 
Argument, 337, 363. We know something beyond phenomena, viz.: law, cause, force— 
or we can have no science ; see Tulloch, on Comte, in Modern Theories, 53-73 ; see also 
Bib. Sac, 1874 : 211 ; Alden, Philosophy, 44; Hopkins, Outline Study of Man, 87 ; Fleming, 
Vocab. of Philosophy, art. : Phenomena ; New Englander, July, 1875 : 537-539 ; James 
Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory, 1 : 455, 456. 

B. Because we can know only that which bears analogy to our own nat- 
ure or experience. We reply: (a) It is not essential to knowledge that 
there be similarity of nature between the knower and the known. The 
mind knows matter, though mind and matter are opposite poles of existence. 
( b ) Our past experience, although greatly facilitating new acquisitions, is 
not the measure of our possible knowledge. Else the first act of knowledge 
would be inexplicable, and all revelation of higher characters to lower would 
be precluded, as well as all progress to knowledge which surpassed our 
present attainments. ( c ) Even if knowledge depended upon similarity of 



POSSIBILITY OF THEOLOGY. 5 

nature and experience, we might still know God, since we are made in 
God's image, and there are important analogies between the divine nature 
and our own. 

Versus Herbert Spencer, First Principles, 79 83- - "Knowledge is recognition and clas- 
sification." But we reply that a thing' must first he perceived, in order to be recog- 
nized, or compared with something else ; see Porter, Human Intellect, 306 ; Sir Wm. 
Hamilton, Metaphysics, 351, 353. We reject Monism in both its forms : 1. Materialism, 
which says that mind knows matter because mind is matter ; and 3. Idealism, which says 
that mind knows matter because matter is mind. Porter, Human Intellect, 486— 
"Induction is possible only upon the assumption that the intellect of man is a reflex of 
the divine intellect, or that man is made in the image of God." Note, however, that 
man is made in God's image, not God in man's. The painting is the image of the land- 
scape, not vice versa ; for there is much in the landscape that has nothing corresponding 
to it in the painting. Idolatry perversely makes God in the image of man. Murphy, 
Scientific Bases, 133 ; McCosh, in International Rev., 1875 : 105 ; Bib. Sac, 1867 : 634 ; Mar- 
tineau, Types of Ethical Theory, 3 : 4-8, and Study of Religion, 1 : 94. 

C. Because we know only that of which we can conceive, in the sense 
of forming an adequate mental image. "We reply : ( a ) It is true that we 
know only that of which w T e can conceive, if by the term ' conceive ' we 
mean our distinguishing in thought the object known from all other objects. 
But, ( b ) The objection confounds conception with that which is merely its 
occasional accompaniment and help, namely, the picturing of the object by 
the imagination. In this sense, conceivability is not a final test of truth. 
( c ) That the formation of a mental image is not essential to conception or 
knowledge, is plain when we remember that, as a matter of fact, we both 
conceive and know many things of which we cannot form a mental image of 
any sort that in the least corresponds to the reality ; for example, force, 
cause, law, space, our own minds. So we may know God, although we 
cannot form an adequate mental image of him. 

Versus Herbert Spencer, First Principles, 35-36, 98 — " The reality underlying appear- 
ances is totally and forever inconceivable by us." Per contra, see Mansel, Prolegomena 
Logica, 77, 78 ( cf. 36 ) — " The first distinguishing feature of a concept, viz. : that it can- 
not in itself be depicted to sense or imagination." Porter, Human Intellect, 393 (see 
also 439, 656 ) — " The concept is not a mental image : we recall an individual percept, one 
or many." Sir Wm. Hamilton: "The unpicturable notions of the intelligence." Mar- 
tineau, Religion and Materialism, 39, 40 — "This doctrine of Nescience stands in exactly 
the same relation to causal power, whether you construe it as Material Force or as 
Divine Agency. Neither can be observed ; one or the other must be assumed. If you 
admit to the category of knowledge only what we learn from observation, particular 
or generalized, then is Force unknown ; if you extend the word to what is imported by 
the intellect itself into our cognitive acts, to make them such, then is God known." 
Spencer himself calls the inscrutable reality back of phenomena the one, eternal, ubiqui- 
tous, infinite, ultimate, absolute Existence, Power, and Cause. "It seems," says Father 
Dalgairns, " that a great deal is known about the Unknowable." See McCosh, Intuitions, 
186-189 (Eng. ed., 314) ; Murphy, Scientific Bases, 133; Bowne, Review of Spencer, 30-34; 
New Englander, July, 1875 : 543, 544 ; Oscar Craig, in Presb. Rev., July, 1883 : 594-603. 

D. Because we can know truly only that which we know in whole and 
not in part. We reply: (a) The objection confounds partial knowledge 
with the knowledge of a part. We know the mind in part, but we do not 
know a part of the mind. ( b ) If the objection were valid, no real knowl- 
edge of anything would be possible, since we know no single thing in all 
its relations. We conclude that, although God is a being not composed of 
parts, we may yet have a partial knowledge of him, and this knowledge, 
though not exhaustive, may yet be real, and adequate to the purposes of 
science. 



6 PROLEGOMENA. 

Versus Mansel, Limits of Relig. Thought, 97, 98. Per contra, see Martineau, Essays, 
1 : 391. The mind does not exist in space, and has no parts ( sides, corners ). Yet we find 
the material for mental science in partial knowledge of the mind. We are not " geo- 
graphers of the divine nature "— Bowne, Review of Spencer, 72— but we say with Paul 
not " now know we a part of God," but " now know we [God] in part " ( 1 Cor. 13 : 12 ) ; cf. John 17 : 3 
— "this is life eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God" ; Jer. 9 : 24 —"let him that glorieth glory in 
this, that he understandeth and knoweth me." We may know truly what we do not know exhaust- 
ively; see Eph. 3:19 — "to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." Dorner: "Only he who 
knows God, knows his unfathomableness." 

E. Because all predicates of God are negative, and therefore furnish no 
real knowledge. We answer: (a) Predicates derived from our own con- 
sciousness, such as spirit, love, and holiness, are positive. ( b ) The terms 
* infinite ' and ' absolute ', moreover, express not merely a negative but a 
positive idea — the idea, in the former case, of the absence of all limit, the 
idea that the object thus described goes on and on forever ; the idea, in the 
latter case, of entire self-sufficiency. Since predicates of God, therefore, 
are not merely negative, the argument mentioned above furnishes no valid 
reason why we may not know him. 

Versus Sir Wm. Hamilton, Metaph., 530— "The absolute and the infinite can each only 
be conceived as a negation of the thinkable ; in other words, of the absolute and infinite 
we have no conception at all." Hamilton here confounds the infinite, or the absence of 
all limits, with the indefinite, or the absence of all known limits. Per contra, see Calder- 
wood, Moral Philosophy, 248 ; Philosophy of the Infinite, 272 — " Negation of one thing is 
possible only by affirmation of another." McCosh, Intuitions, 194, note ; Porter, Human 
Intellect, 651, 652 ; Mivart, Lessons from Nature, 363. Yet a plane which is unlimited in 
the one respect of length may be limited in other respects, such as breadth. Our doc- 
trine here is not therefore inconsistent with what immediately follows. 

~F. Because to know is to limit or define. Hence the Absolute as unlim- 
ited, and the Infinite as undefined, cannot be known. We answer: (a) 
God is absolute, not as existing in no relation, but as existing in no neces- 
sary relation ; and, ( b ) God is infinite, not as excluding all co-existence of 
the finite with himself, but as being the ground of the finite, and so unfet- 
tered by it. ( c ) God is actually limited by the unchangeableness of his 
own attributes and personal distinctions, as well as by his self -chosen rela- 
tions to the universe he has created and to humanity in the person of Christ. 
God is therefore limited and defined in such a sense as to render knowledge 
of him possible. 

Versus Mansel, Limits of Religious Thought, 75-84, 93-95. Cf. Spinoza : " Omnia deter- 
minatio est negatio " ; hence to define God is to deny him. But we deny that all limita- 
tion is imperfection. Man can be other than he is. Not so God— at least internally. 
But this limitation, inherent in his unchangeable attributes and personal distinctions, is 
his perfection. Externally, all limitations upon God are self-limitations, and so are 
consistent with his perfection. That God should not be able thus to limit himself in 
creation and redemption would render all self-sacrifice in him impossible, and so would 
subject him to the greatest of limitations. Perfection necessarily implies the power of 
self -limitation. See Pfleiderer, Die Religion, 1 : 189, 195 ; Porter, Human Intellect, 653; 
Murphy, Scientific Bases, 130; Calderwood, Philos. of Inf., 168; McCosh, Intuitions, 186; 
Hickok, Rational Cosmology, 85 ; Martineau, Study of Religion, 1 : 346 ; 2 : 85, 86, 362; 
Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 1 : 189-191. 

G. Because all knowledge is relative to the knowing agent ; that is, what 
we know, we know, not as it is objectively, but only as it is related to our 
own senses and faculties. In reply : ( a ) We grant that we can know only 
that which has relation to our faculties. But this is simply to say that we 
know only that which we come into mental contact with, that is, we know 
only what we know. But, ( b ) We deny that what we come into mental 



POSSIBILITY OF THEOLOGY. 7 

contact with is known by us as other than it is. So far as it is known at all, it 
is known as it is. In other words, the laws of our knowing are not merely 
arbitrary and regulative, but correspond to the nature of things. "We con- 
clude that, in theology, we are equally warranted in assuming that the laws 
of our thought are laws of God's thought, and that the results of normally 
conducted thinking with regard to God correspond to the objective reality. 

Versus Sir Wm. Hamilton, Metaph., 96-116, and H. Spencer, First Principles, 68-97. 
The doctrine of relativity is derived from Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, who holds 
that a priori judgments are simply " regulative." But we reply that when our primitive 
beliefs are found to be simply regulative, they will cease to regulate. The forms of 
thought are also facts of nature. The mind does not, like the glass of a kaleidoscope, 
itself furnish the forms ; it recognizes these as having an existence external to itself ; 
see Bishop Temple, Bampton Lectures for 1884 : 13. W. T. Harris, in Journ. Spec. Phi- 
losophy, 1 : 22, exposes Herbert Spencer's self-contradiction : "All knowledge is, not abso- 
lute, but relative ; our knowledge of this fact however is, not relative, but absolute." 
On Sir Wm. Hamilton's theory of knowledge, see H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy, 
297-336 ; J. S. Mill, Examination, 1 : 113-134 ; Herbert, Modern Realism Examined ; Pres. 
M. B. Anderson, art.: "Hamilton," in Johnson's Encyclopaedia; McCosh, Intuitions, 
139-146, 340, 341, and Christianity and Positivism, 97-123 ; Maurice, What is Revelation ? 
Alden, InteUectual Philos., 48-79 (esp. 71-79); Porter, Human Int., 523; Murphy, Scien- 
tific Bases, 103; Bib. Sac, Apr., 1868 : 341; Princeton Rev., 1864: 122; Bowne, Review of 
H. Spencer, 76; Bowen, in Princeton Rev., Mar., 1878:445-448; Mind, April, 1878:257; 
Carpenter, Mental Physiology, 117 ; Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 109-113 ; Inverach, 
in Present Day Tracts, 5 : no. 29 ; Martineau, Study of Religion, 1 : 79, 120, 121, 135, 136. 

3. In God's actual revelation of himself and certain of these rela- 
tions. As we do not in this place attempt a positive proof of God's exist- 
ence or of man's capacity for the knowledge of God, so we do not now 
attempt to prove that God has brought himself into contact with man's 
mind by revelation. We shall consider the grounds of this belief hereafter. 
Our aim at present is simply to show that, granting the fact of revelation, 
a scientific theology is possible. This has been denied upon the following 
grounds. 

A. That revelation, as a making known, is necessarily internal and sub- 
jective — either a mode of intelligence, or a quickening of man's cognitive 
powers — and hence can furnish no objective facts such as constitute the 
proper material for science. 

The objection here mentioned is urged by the idealistic school of thinkers, as the 
objections previously considered are mainly urged by those who incline to materialism. 
As the pendulum of thought seems now about to swing once more in the direction of 
idealism, a careful examination of the objection before us is indispensable. It may be 
found stated in Morell, Philos. of Religion, 128-131, 143— "The Bible cannot in strict 
accuracy of language be called a revelation, since a revelation always implies an actual 
process of intelligence in a living mind"; F. W. Newman, Phases of Faith, 152— "Of 
our moral and spiritual God we know nothing without —everything within " ; Theodore 
Parker: "Verbal revelation can never communicate a simple idea like that of God, 
Justice, Love, Religion " ; see review of Parker in Bib. Sac, 18 : 24-27. 

In reply to this objection, 

( a ) We grant that revelation, to be effective, must be the means of induc- 
ing a new mode of intelligence, or, in other words, must be understood. 
We grant that this understanding of divine things is impossible without a 
quickening of man's cognitive powers. We grant, moreover, that revela- 
tion, when originally imparted, was often internal and subjective. 

( b ) But we deny that external revelation is therefore useless or impossible. 
Even if religious ideas sprang up wholly from within, an external revelation 



8 PROLEGOMENA. 

might stir up the dormant powers of the mind. Religious ideas, however,, 
do not spring wholly from within. External revelation can impart them. 
Man can reveal himself to man by external communications, and if God has 
equal power with man, God can reveal himself to man in like manner. 

( c ) Hence God's revelation may be, and, as we shall hereafter see, it is, 
in great part, an external revelation in works and words. We claim, more- 
over, that in many cases where truth was originally communicated internally, 
the same Spirit who communicated it has brought about an external record 
of it and so has insured its preservation in permanent and written form. 

( d ) With this external record we shall also see that there is given upon 
proper conditions a special influence of God's Spirit, so to quicken our 
cognitive powers that the external record reproduces in our minds the ideas 
with which the minds of the writers were at first divinely filled. 

( e ) Internal revelations thus recorded, and external relevations thus inter- 
preted, both furnish objective facts which may serve as proper material for 
science. Although revelation in its widest sense may include, and as consti- 
tuting the ground of the possibility of theology does include, both insight 
and illumination, it may also be used to denote simply a provision of the 
external means of knowledge, and theology has to do with inward revelations 
only as they are expressed in, or as they agree with, this objective standard. 

"We may illustrate the need of internal revelation from Egyptology, which is impossible 
so long as the external revelation in the hieroglyphics is uninterpreted. External reve- 
lation ( 4>avepu>(ri<;, Rom. 1 : 19, 20 ) must be supplemented by internal revelation ( a.7ro/caA.vv|/ts, 
1 Cor. 2 : 10-12 ). Christ is the organ of external, the Holy Spirit the organ of internal, revela- 
tion. In Christ (2 Cor. 1 :20) are "the yea" and "the Amen "= the objective certainty and the 
subjective certitude, the reality and the realization. Revelation objective, as at Sinai ; 
subjective, as in Elisha's knowledge of Gehazi (2 K. 5:26). On the whole subject, see 
Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 37-43 ; Nitzsch, Syst. Christ. Doctrine, 72 ; Luthardt, Eund. Truths, 
193; Auberlen, Div. Rev., Introd., 29; Martineau, Essays, 1 : 171, 280; Bib. Sac, 1867:593, 
and 1872 : 428 ; Porter, Hum. Intellect, 373-375 ; Mead, in Boston Lectures, 1871 : 58 ; Rogers, 
Eclipse of Eaith : If Messrs. Morell and Newman can teach by a book, cannot God do 
the same ? 

B. That many of the truths thus revealed are too indefinite to constitute 
the material for science, because they belong to the region of the feelings, 
because they are beyond our full understanding, or because they are desti- 
tute of orderly arrangement. 

See Jacobi and Schleiermacher, who regard theology as a mere account of devout 
Christian feelings, the grounding of which in objective historical facts is a matter of 
comparative indifference ; see Hagenbach, Hist. Doctrine, 2 : 401-403. Allied to this is 
the view of Eeuerbach, to whom religion is a matter of subjective fancy, and the view 
of Tyndall, who would remit theology to the region of vague feeling and aspiration, but 
would exclude it from the realm of science; see Eeuerbach, Essence of Christianity, 
translated by Marian Evans ; also Tyndall, Belfast Address. 

"We reply: 

(a) Theology has to do with subjective feelings only as they can be 
defined, and shown to be effects of objective truth upon the mind. These 
are not more obscure than the facts of morals or psychology, and the same 
objection which would exclude such feelings from theology, would make 
these latter sciences impossible. Moreover, 

(b) Those facts of revelation which are beyond our full understanding, 
may, like the nebular hypothesis in astronomy or the atomic theory in 
chemistry, furnish a principle of union between great classes of other facts 



NECESSITY OF THEOLOGY. 9 

otherwise irreconcilable. We may define our concepts of God, and even 
of the Trinity, at least sufficiently to distinguish them from all other 
concepts, and whatever difficulty may encumber the putting of them into 
language only shows the importance of attempting it and the value of even 
an approximate success. 

( c ) Even though there were no orderly arrangement of these facts, either 
in nature or in Scripture, an accurate systematizing of them by the human 
mind would not thereby be proved impossible, unless a principle were 
assumed which would show all physical science to be equally impossible. 
Astronomy and geology are constructed by putting together multitudinous 
facts which at first sight seem to have no order. So with theology. And 
yet, although revelation does not present to us a dogmatic system ready- 
made, a dogmatic system is not only implicitly contained therein, but parts 
of the system are wrought out in the epistles of the New Testament, as for 
example in Eom. 5 : 12-19 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 3, 4; 8:6; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 6 : 1, 2. 

We may illustrate the construction of theology from the dissected map, two pieces of 
which are already put together. Origen : God gives us truth in single threads, which 
we must weave into a finished texture. Scripture hints at the possibilities of combina- 
tion, in Rom. 5 : 12-19, with its grouping of the facts of sin and salvation about the two 
persons, Adam and Christ ; in Rom. 4 : 24, 25, with its li nkin g of the resurrection of Christ 
and our justification ; in 1 Cor. 8 : 6, with its indication of the relations between the Father 
and Christ ; in 1 Tim. 3 : 16, with its poetical summary of the facts of redemption ( see 
Commentaries of DeWette, Meyer, Fairbairn ) ; in Heb. 6:1,2, with its statement of the first 
principles of the Christian faith. On the whole subject see Martineau, Essays, 1 : 29, 40 ; 
Am. Theol. Rev., 1859 : 101-136— art. on the Idea, Sources, and Uses of Christian Theology. 

TV. Necessity. — The necessity of theology has its grounds 
(a) In the organizing instinct of the human mind. This organizing 
principle is a part of our constitution. The mind cannot endure confusion 
or apparent contradiction in known facts. The tendency to harmonize and 
unify its knowledge appears so soon as the mind becomes reflective ; just in 
proportion to its endowments and culture, does the impulse to systematize 
and formulate increase. This is true of all departments of human inquiry, 
but it is peculiarly true of our knowledge of God. Since the truth with 
regard to God is the most important of all, theology meets the deepest 
want of man's rational nature. Theology is a rational necessity. If all 
existing theological systems were destroyed to-day, new systems would rise 
to-morrow. So inevitable is the operation of this law that those w T ho most 
decry theology, show nevertheless that they have made a theology for 
themselves, and often one sufficiently meagre and blundering. Hostility to 
theology, where it does not originate in mistaken fears for the corruption 
of God's truth, or in a naturally illogical structure of mind, often proceeds 
from a license of speculation which cannot brook the restraints of a complete 
Scriptural system. 

" Every man has as much theology as he can hold." Consciously or unconsciously, we 
philosophize, as naturally as we speak prose. " Se moquer de la philosophic c'est vrai- 
ment philosopher." See Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 27-52 ; Murphy, Scientific Bases 
of Faith, 195-199. 

( 6 ) In the relation of systematic truth to the development of character. 
Truth thoroughly digested is essential to the growth of Christian character 
in the individual and in the church. All knowledge of God has its influ- 
ence upon character, but most of all the knowledge of spiritual facts in 



10 PROLEGOMENA. 

their relations. Theology cannot, as has sometimes been objected, deaden 
the religious affections, since it only draws out from their sources and puts 
into rational connection with each other the truths which are best adapted 
to nourish the religious affections. On the other hand, the strongest Chris- 
tians are those who have firmest grasp upon the great doctrines of Christian- 
ity ; the heroic ages of the church have been those which have witnessed 
most consistently to them ; the piety that can be injured by the systematic 
exhibition of them must be weak, or mystical, or mistaken. 

Some theology is necessary to conversion — at least, knowledge of sin and knowledge 
of a Savior. For texts which represent truth as nourishment, see Jer. 3 : 15—" feed you with 
knowledge and understanding " ; Mat. 4 : 4 — "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedath 
out of the mouth of God" ; 1 Cor. 3:1, 2 — "babes in Christ .... I fed you with milk, not with meat" ; Heb. 5 : 14 
— " but solid food is for full-grown men." Christian morality is a fruit which grows only from the 
tree of doctrine. Christian character rests upon Christian truth as its foundation ; see 
1 Cor. 3:12-15— "I laid a foundation, and another buildeth thereon." See Dorus Clarke, Saying the 
Catechism ; Simon, on Christ. Doctrine and Life, in Bib. Sac, July, 1884 : 433-449. 

(c) In the importance to the preacher of definite and just views oj 
doctrine. His chief intellectual qualification must be the power clearly 
and comprehensively to conceive, and accurately and powerfully to express, 
the truth. He can be the agent of the Holy Spirit in converting and sanc- 
tifying men, only as he can wield "the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
word of God " (Eph. 6 : 17), or, in other language, only as he can impress 
truth upon the minds and consciences of his hearers. Nothing more cer- 
tainly nullifies his efforts than confusion and inconsistency in his statements 
of doctrine. His object is to replace obscure and erroneous conceptions 
among his hearers by those which are correct and vivid. He cannot do this 
without knowing the facts with regard to God in their relations — knowing 
them, in short, as parts of a system. With this truth he is put in trust. 
To mutilate it or misrepresent it, is not only sin against the Kevealer of it 
— it may also prove the ruin of men's souls. The best safeguard against 
such mutilation or misrepresentation, is the diligent study of the several 
doctrines of the faith in their relations to each other, and especially to the 
central theme of theology, the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

The more refined and reflective the age, the more it requires reasons for feeling. 
Imagination ( poetry, eloquence, political and military enthusiasm ) is not less strong, 
hut more rational. Progress from "Buncombe," in forensic oratory, to sensible and 
logical address. In pulpit oratory, mere Scripture quotation and fervid appeal are no 
longer sufficient. The preacher must furnish a basis for f eeling by producing intelligent 
conviction. He must instruct before he can move. Spurgeon : " We shall never have 
great preachers until we have great divines. You cannot build a man-of-war out of a 
currant-bush, nor can great soul-moving preachers be formed out of superficial stu- 
dents." Illustrate by mistake in physician's prescription, and by sowing crop of acorns. 

(d) In the intimate connection between correct doctrine and the safety 
and aggressive power of the church. The safety and progress of the 
church is dependent upon her "holding the pattern of sound words " (2 Tim. 
1: 13), and serving as "pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3: 15). 
Defective understanding of the truth results sooner or later in defects of 
organization, of operation, and of life. Thorough comprehension of Chris- 
tian truth as an organized system furnishes, on the other hand, not only an 
invaluable defense against heresy and immorality, but also an indispensable 
stimulus and instrument in aggressive labor for the world's conversion. 



KELATIOtf OF THEOLOGY TO EELIGIOK. 11 

The creeds of the church have not originated in mere speculative curiosity and logical 
hair-splitting. They are statements of doctrine in which the attacked and imperiled 
church has sought to express the truth which constitutes her very life. Those who 
deride the early creeds have small conception of the intellectual acumen and the moral 
earnestness which went to the making of them. The reeds of the third and fourth cen- 
turies embody the results of controversies which exhausted the possibilities of heresy 
with regard to the Trinity and the Person of Christ, and which set up bars against false 
doctrine to the end of time. 

(e) .In the direct and indirect injunctions of Scripture. The Scriptures 
urge upon us the thorough and comprehensive study of the truth (John 
5:39, marg., "Search the Scriptures"), the comparing and harmonizing 
of its different parts (1 Cor. 2:13, "comparing spiritual things with 
spiritual"), the gathering of all about the great central fact of revelation 
( Col. 1 : 27, " which is Christ in you, the hope of glory"), the xDreaching of 
it in its wholeness as well as in its due proportions (2 Tim. 4: 2, "Preach 
the word"). The minister of the gospel is called "a scribe who hath been 
made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 13 : 52); the "pastors" 
of the churches are at the same time to be "teachers" (Eph. 4: 11) ; the 
bishop must be "apt to teach" (1 Tim. 3:2), "handling aright the word of 
truth" (2 Tim. 2 : 15), "holding to the faithful word which is according to 
the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine and 
to convict the gainsay ers " (Tit. 1:9). 

As a means of instructing the church and of securing progress in his own under- 
standing of Christian truth, it is well for the pastor to preach regularly each month a 
doctrinal sermon, and to expound in course the principal articles of the faith. The 
treatment of doctrine in these sermons should be simple enough to be comprehensible 
by intelligent youth ; it should be made vivid and interesting by the help of brief illus- 
trations ; and at least one-third of each sermon should be devoted to the practical appli- 
cations of the doctrine propounded. 

V. Relation to Religion. — Theology and religion are related to each 
other as effects, in different spheres, of the same cause. As theology is an 
effect produced in the sphere of systematic thought by the facts respecting 
God and the relations between God and the universe, so religion is an effect 
which these facts produce in the sphere of individual or collective life. 
With regard to the term ' religion ', notice : 

1. Derivation. 

(a) The derivation from religare, 'to bind' or 'to bind back' (man to 
God), is negatived by the authority of Cicero and of the best modern ety- 
mologists; by the difficulty, on this hypothesis, of explaining such forms 
as religio, religens ; and by the necessity, in that case, of presupposing 
a fuller knowledge of sin and redemption than was common to the ancient 
heathen world. 

For advocacy of the derivation of religio, as meaning 'binding duty,' from religare, 
see Lange, Dogmatik, 1 : 185-196. Lange cites rebellio, from rebellare, and optio, from 
optare. But we reply that many verbs of the first conjugation are derived from obsolete 
verbs of the third conjugation. 

(b) The more correct derivation is from relegere, 'to go over again,' 
' carefully to ponder. ' Its original meaning is therefore ' reverent observ- 
ance ' (of duties due to the gods). 

For the derivation favored in the text, see Curtius, Griechische Etymologic, 5te Aufl., 



12 PROLEGOMENA. 

364; Fick, Vergl. Worterb. der indoger. Spr., 2:227; Vanicek, Gr.-Lat. Etym. Worterb., 
2 : 829 ; Andrews, Latin Lexicon, in voce ; Nitzsch, System of Christ. Doctrine, 7 ; Van 
Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 75-77 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 1:6; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 18. 

2. False conceptions. 

(a) Religion is not merely, as Hegel declared, a kind of knowing ; for it 
would then be only an incomplete form of philosophy, and the measure of 
knowledge in each case would be the measure of piety. 

In a system of idealistic pantheism, God is the subject of religion as well as its object. 
Religion = God's knowing himself through the human consciousness. The Gnostics, 
Stapfer, Henry VIII, show that there may be much theological knowledge without true 
religion. Inaccuracy of ChiUingworth's maxim : " The Bible only, the religion of Prot- 
estants." See Hamerton, Intel. Life, 214 ; Bib. Sac, 9 : 374. On Hegel, see Porter, Human 
Intellect, 59, 60, 412, 525, 529, 532, 536, 589, 650; Morell, Hist. Philos., 476, 477. 

( b ) Religion is not, as Schleiermacher held, the mere feeling of depend- 
ence; for such feeling is not religious, unless exercised toward God and 
accompanied by moral effort. 

Position of Schleiermacher in German theology, as transition from the old rationalism 
to evangelical faith. " Like Lazarus, with the grave-clothes of a pantheistic philosophy 
entangling his steps," yet with a Moravian experience of the life of God in the soul, he 
based religion upon the inner certainties of Christian feeling. But though faith begins 
in feeling, it does not end there. Valuelessness of mere f eeling shown in emotions of 
theatre-goers, and in occasional phenomena of revivals. Cf. James 1 : 27—" Pure religion .... 
is this, to visit the fatherless " ; 2 : 17—" faith without works is dead." On Schleiermacher, see Bib. Sac, 
Apr., 1852 : 375 ; July, 1883 : 534 ; Liddon, Elements of Religion, lect. i ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 
1:14; Julius Muller, Doct. Sin, 1:175: Hagenbach, Encyclop., 2te Aufl., 13:525-571; 
Fisher, Essays on Supernat. Orig. of Christianity, 563-570 ; Caird, Philos. of Religion, 
160-186 ; Martineau, Study of Religion, 2 : 357. On emotional excitement in preaching, 
see Kerfoot, in Bap. Rev., April, 1884 : 167-184. 

(c) Religion is not, as Kant maintained, morality or moral action; for 
morality is conformity to an abstract law of right, while religion is essen- 
tially a relation to a person, from whom the soul receives blessing and to 
whom it surrenders itself in love and obedience. 

Kant, Kritik der praktischen Vernunf t, Beschluss : "I know of but two beautiful 
things, the starry heavens above my head and the sense of duty within my heart." But 
the mere sense of duty only distresses. Objections to the word ' obey ' as the imperative 
of religion : ( 1 ) It makes religion a matter of will only. ( 2 ) Will presupposes affection. 
(3) Love is not subject to will. (4) It makes God all law and no grace. (5) It makes 
the Christian a servant only, not a friend. John 15 : 15— "No longer do I call you servants .... but 
friends"— a relation not of service but of love (Westcott, Bib. Com. in loco). See Shedd, 
Sermons to the Natural Man, 244-246 ; Liddon, Elements of Religion, 19. Versus Matthew 
Arnold : Religion is " Ethics heightened, enkindled, lit up by feeling." This leaves out 
of view the receptive element in religion, as well as its relation to a personal God. 

3. Essential idea. 

Religion in its essential idea is a life in God, or, in other words, a life 
lived in recognition of God, in communion with God, and under control of 
the indwelling Spirit of God. Since it is a life, it cannot be described 
as consisting solely in the exercise of any one of the powers of intellect, 
affection, or will. As physical life involves the unity and cooperation of 
all the organs of the body, so religion, or spiritual life, involves the united 
working of all the powers of the soul. To feeling, however, we must assign 
the logical priority, since holy affection toward God, imparted in regenera- 
tion, is the condition of truly knowing God and of truly serving him. 

See Godet, on the Ultimate Design of Man— "God in man and man in God"— in 
Princeton Rev., Nov., 1880; Pneiderer, Die Religion, 5-79, and Religionsphilosophie, 255; 



RELATION OF THEOLOGY TO RELIGION. 13 

Religion is " Sache des ganzen Geisteslebens." Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 81-85 ; Julius 
Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 227 ; Nitzsch, System of Christ. Doctrine, 10-28 ; Luthardb 
Fund. Truths, 117 ; Twesten, Dogmatik, 1 : 12. Query : Can a man, in strict propriety of 
speech, be said to " get religion " ? 

4. Inferences. 

From this definition of religion it follows : 

( a ) That in strictness there is but one religion. Man is a religious being, 
indeed, as having the capacity for this divine life. . He is actually religious, 
however, only when he enters into this living relation to God. False 
religions are the caricatures which men given to sin, or the imaginations 
which men groping after light, form of this life of the soul in God. 

Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 88-93; Peabody, Christianity the Religion of Nature, 18 — 
" If Christianity be true, it is not a religion, but the religion. If Judaism be also true, 
it is so not as distinct from but as coincident with Christianity, the one religion to which 
it can bear only the relation of the part to the whole. If there be portions of truth in 
other religious systems, they are not portions of other religions, but portions of the one 
religion which somehow or other became incorporated with fables and falsities." 

( b ) That the content of religion is greater than that of theology. The 
facts of religion come within the range of theology only so far as they can 
be definitely conceived, accurately expressed in language, and brought into 
rational relation to each other. 

( c ) That religion is to be distinguished from formal worship, which is 
simply the outward expression of religion. As such expression, worship 
is "formal communion between God and his people." In it God speaks 
to man and man to God. It, therefore, properly includes the reading of 
Scripture and preaching on the side of God, and prayer and song on the 
side of the people. 

On the relation between religion and worship, see art. by Prof. Day, in New Englander, 
Jan., 1882. Madame de Stael ended her brilliant soliloquy by saying : " What a delightful 
conversation Ave have had ! " But communion cannot be one-sided. We may find a bet- 
ter illustration of the nature of worship in Thomas a Kempis's dialogues between the 
saint and his Savior. 

In James 1 : 27—" Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows 
in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world"— "religion," dpr)<TKeia, is cultus exterior; and 
the meaning is that " the external service, the outward garb, the very ritual of Chris- 
tianity, is a life of purity, love and self-devotion. What its true essence, its inmost spirit 
may be, the writer does not say, but leaves this to be inferred." See Trench, Syn. N. 
T., 1 :sec. 48; Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, Introd., Aphorism 23; Lightfoot, Gal., 351, 
note 2. 



CHAPTER II. 

MATEKIAL OF THEOLOGY. 

I. Sources of Theology. — God himself, in the last analysis, must be 
the only source of knowledge with regard to his own being and relations. 
Theology is therefore a summary and explanation of the content of God's 
self -revelations. These are, first, the revelation of God in nature ; secondly 
and supremely, the revelation of God in the Scriptures. 

Ambrose: "To whom shall I give greater credit concerning God than to God him- 
self ? " Von Baader : " To know God without God is impossible ; there is no knowledge 
without him who is the prime source of knowledge." 

1. Scripture and Nature. By nature we here mean not only physical 
facts, or facts with regard to the substances, properties, forces, and laws 
of the material world, but also spiritual facts, or facts with regard to the 
intellectual and moral constitution of man, and the orderly arrangement of 
human society and history. 

We here use the word 'nature' in the ordinary sense, as including man. There is 
another and more proper sense of the word ' nature,' which makes it simply a complex 
of forces and beings under the law of cause and effect. To nature in this sense man 
belongs only as respects his body, while as immaterial and personal he is a supernatural 
being. Free will is not under the law of physical and mechanical causation. As Bush- 
nell has said : " Nature and the supernatural together constitute the one system of 
God." Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 232— "Things are natural or 
supernatural according to where we stand. Man is supernatural to the mineral ; God is 
supernatural to the man." We shall in subsequent chapters use the term 4 nature ' in the 
narrow sense. The universal use of the phrase "Natural Theology," however, compels 
us in this chapter to employ the word 4 nature ' in its broader sense as including man, 
although we do this under protest, and with this explanation of the more proper mean- 
ing of the term. See Hopkins, in Princeton Rev., Sept., 1882 : 183 sq. 

(a) Natural theology. — The Scriptures assert that God has revealed 
himself in nature. There is not only an outward witness to his existence 
and character in the constitution and government of the universe (Ps. 19; 
Acts 14 : 17 ; Horn. 1 : 20), but an inward witness to his existence and char- 
acter in the heart of every man (Eom. 1 : 17, 18, 19, 20, 32 ; 2 : 15). The 
systematic exhibition of these facts, whether derived from observation, 
history, or science, constitutes natural theology. 

Outward witness : Ps. 19 : 1-6 — "The heavens declare the glory of God " ; Acts 14 : 17 — "he left not himself 
without witness, in that he did good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons " ; Rom. 1 : 20 — " for the 
invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, 
even his everlasting power and divinity." Inward witness : Rom. 1 : 19 — to yvuio-Tbv toO #eo0 = " that which 
is known of God is manifest among them." Compare the airoKakvirTeTai. of the Gospel, in verse 17, 
with the aiTOKakvitT€Tai of wrath, in v. 18 — two revelations, one of opyrj, the other of 
X<ipis ; see Shedd, Homiletics, 11. Rom. 1 : 32 — ' knowing the ordinance of God " ; 12 : 5 — " they show the 
work of the law written in their hearts." Therefore even the heathen are " without excuse " ( Rom. 1 : 20). 
There are two books: Nature and Scripture — one writteD he other unwritten: and 
there is need of studying both. On the passages in Romans, see the Commentary of 
Hodge. 

14 



SOURCES OF THEOLOGY. 15 

(&) Natural theology supplemented. — The Scriptures declare, however, 
with equal plainness, that the revelation of God in nature does not supply 
all the knowledge which a sinner needs (Acts 17:23; Eph. 3:9). This 
revelation is therefore supplemented by another, in which divine attributes 
and merciful provisions only dimly shadowed forth in nature are made 
known to men. This latter revelation consists of a series of supernatural 
events and communications, the record of which is preserved in the Scrip- 
tures. There is, indeed, an internal work of the divine Spirit, by which 
the outer word is made an inner word, and its truth and power are mani- 
fested to the heart. This teaching of the Spirit, however, is not a giving 
of new truth, but an illumination of the mind to perceive the truth already 
revealed. Christian experience is but a testing and proving of the truth 
objectively contained in Scripture. While theology, therefore, depends 
upon the teaching of the Spirit to interpret, and upon Christian experience 
to illustrate, the Scriptures, it looks to the Scriptures themselves as its chief 
source of material and its final standard of appeal. We use the word reve- 
lation, therefore, henceforth, to designate the objective truth made known 
in Scripture. 

Acts 17:23 — Paul shows that, though the Athenians, in the erection of an altar to an 
unknown God, "acknowledged a divine existence beyond any which the ordinary rites 
of their worship recognized, that Being was still unknown to them; they had no just 
conception of his nature and perfections " ( Hackett, in loco). Eph. 3 : 9— "the mastery which 
from all ages hath been hid in God " — this mystery is in the gospel made known for man's salva- 
tion. " Experience," from experior, to test, try. Christian consciousness is not norma 
normans, but norma normata. Light, like life, comes to us through the mediation of 
others. Yet the first comes from God as really as the last, of which without hesitation 
we say : " God made me," though we have human parents. See Calvin, Institutes, book 
I : ch. 7— "As nature has an immediate manifestation of God in conscience, a mediate in 
his works, so revelation has an immediate manifestation of God in the Spirit, a mediate 
in the Scriptures." See Twesten, Dogmatik, 1 : 344r-348 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 15. We 
cannot make theology without Scripture, any more than the Israelites could make bricks 
without straw. 

(c) The theology of Scripture not unnatural. — Though we speak of the 
systematized truths of nature as constituting natural theology, we are not 
to infer that Scriptural theology is unnatural. Since the Scriptures have 
the same author as nature, the same principles are illustrated in one as in 
the other. All the doctrines of the Bible have their reason in that same 
nature of God which constitutes the basis of all material things. Christian- 
ity is a supplementary dispensation, not as contradicting, or correcting 
errors in, natural theology, but as more perfectly revealing the truth. 
Christianity, indeed, is the ground-plan upon which the whole creation is 
built — the original and eternal truth of which natural theology is but a 
partial expression. Hence the theology of nature and the theology of 
Scripture are mutually dependent. Natural theology not only prepares the 
way for, but it receives stimulus and aid from, Scriptural theology. Natural 
theology may now be a source of truth, which, before the Scriptures came, 
it could not furnish. 

See Peabody, Christianity the Religion of Nature, lect. 2 : Revelation is the unveiling, 
uncovering of what previously existed, and excludes the idea of newness, invention, 
creation. "The revealed religion of earth is the natural religion of heaven." Compare 
Rev. 13 : 8 — " The Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world " = the coming of Christ was no 
make-shift ; in a true sense the cross existed in eternity ; the atonement is a revelation 
of the heart of God. Note Plato's illustration of the cave which can be easily threaded 



16 PROLEGOMENA. 

by one who has previously entered it with a torch. Nature is the dim light from the 
cave's mouth ; the torch is Scripture. Kant to Jacobi, in Jacobi's Werke, 3 : 533— " If the 
gospel had not previously taught the universal moral laws, reason would not yet have 
obtained so perfect an insight into them." Dorner, Hist. prot. Theol., 252, 253 : Faith at 
the Reformation first gave scientific certainty ; it had God sure — hence it proceeded to 
banish scepticism in philosophy and science. See also Dove, Logic of the Christian 
Faith, 333 ; Bowen, Metaph. and Ethics, 442-463; Bib. Sac, 1874 : 436. 

2. Scripture and Rationalism. Although the Scriptures make known 
much that is beyond the power of man's unaided reason to discover or fully 
to comprehend, they contain nothing which contradicts a reason conditioned 
in its activity by a holy affection and enlightened by the Spirit of God. 
To reason in the large sense, as including the mind's power of cognizing 
God and moral relations — not in the narrow sense of mere reasoning, or the 
exercise of the purely logical faculty — the Scriptures continually appeal. 

A. The proper office of reason, in this large sense, is : (a) To furnish us 
with those primary ideas of space, time, cause, right, and God, which are the 
conditions of all subsequent knowledge. ( b ) To judge with regard to man's 
need of a special and supernatural revelation. ( c ) To examine the creden- 
tials of communications professing to be such a revelation. ( d ) To receive 
and reduce to system the facts of revelation, when such an one has been 
properly attested. ( e ) To deduce from these facts their natural and logical 
conclusions. Thus reason itself prepares the way for a revelation above 
reason, and warrants an implicit trust in such revelation when once given. 

Dove, Logic of the Christian Faith, 318— "Reason terminates in the proposition: Look 
for revelation." Leibnitz : " Revelation is the viceroy who first presents his credentials 
to the provincial assembly, and then presides." Reason can recognize truth after it is 
made known (e. g. demonstrations in geometry) which it never could discover of itself, 
"Above reason " is not " against reason." See Calderwood's illustration of the party lost 
in the woods, in Philosophy of the Infinite, 126. Path blazed. Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 
lect. viii : Reason could never have invented a self -humiliating God, cradled in a manger 
and dying on a cross. Lessing: "What is the meaning of a revelation that reveals 
nothing?" 

B. Eationalism, on the other hand, holds reason to be the ultimate source 
of all religious truth, while Scripture is authoritative only so far as its revela- 
tions agree with previous conclusions of reason, or can be rationally demon- 
strated. Every form of rationalism, therefore, commits at least one of the 
following errors : (a) That of confounding reason with mere reasoning, or 
the exercise of the logical intelligence. ( b ) That of ignoring the necessity 
of a holy affection as the condition of all right reason in religious things, 
and the absence of this holy affection in man's natural state, (c) That of 
regarding the unaided reason, even in its normal and unbiased state, as capa- 
ble of discovering, comprehending, and demonstrating all religious truth. 

See Fetich in Theology, by Miller, for criticism of Dr. Hodge's description of rational- 
ism as an " overuse of reason." It is rather the use of an abnormal, perverted, improp- 
erly conditioned reason. See Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1:34, 39, 55. "Sanctified intellect "= 
intellect accompanied by right affections toward God, and trained to work under their 
influence. Bishop Butler : " Let reason be kept to, but let not such poor creatures as we 
are go on objecting to an infinite scheme that we do not see the necessity or usefulness 
of all its parts, and call that reasoning." The most unreasonable people in the world are 
those who depend solely upon reason, in the narrow sense. Compare y^o-i? ( 1 Tim. 6:20 — 
"the knowledge which is falsely so called") with errt'yj/axris (2 Pet. 1 :2 — "the knowledge of God and of Jesus 
our Lord ' ' = full knowledge, or true knowledge ). See Twesten, Dogmatik, 1 : 467-500 ; Julius 
Mtiller, Proof -texts, 4, 5 ; Mansel, Limits of Relig. Thought, 96. 



SOURCES OF THEOLOGY. 17 

3. Scripture and Mysticism. 

A. True mysticism. — We have seen that there is an illumination of the 
minds of all believers by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, however, makes 
no new revelation of truth, but uses for his instrument the truth already 
revealed. The illuminating work of the Spirit is, therefore, an opening of 
men's minds to understand the Scriptures. As one thus initiated into the 
mysteries of Christianity, every true believer may be called a mystic. True 
mysticism is that higher knowledge and fellowship which the Holy Spirit 
gives through the use of the Scriptures as a means. 

"Mystic "=one initiated, from ixvu>, "to close the eyes"— probably in order that the 
soul may have inward vision of truth. But divine truth is a "mystery," not only as 
something' into which one must be initiated, but as vTreppdWovo-a -n)? yvdja-ems (Eph. 3 : 19) — 
surpassing full knowledge even to the believer. See Meyer on Rom. 11 : 25. The Germans 
have Mystik with a favorable sense, Mysticismus with an unfavorable sense,— corre- 
sponding respectively to our true and false mysticism. True mysticism, in John 16 : 13 — 
"Spirit . . . guide . . . into all truth " ; Eph. 3 : 9 — " fellowship of the mystary " ; 1 Cor. 2 : 10 — " God hath revealed 
them to us by his Spirit." Nitzsch, Syst. of Christ. Doct., 35 — " "Whenever true religion revives, 
there is an outcry against mysticism, i. e., higher knowledge, fellowship, activity, 
through the Spirit of God in the heart." Cf. the charge against Paul, that he was mad, 
in Acts 26 : 24, 25 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 13 — " beside ourselves." 

B. False mysticism. — Mysticism, however, as the term is commonly 
used, errs in holding to the attainment of religious knowledge by direct 
communication from God, and by passive absorption of the human activities 
into the divine. It either partially or wholly loses sight of ( a ) the out- 
ward organ of revelation, the Scriptures; (6) the activity of the human 
powers in the reception of all religious knowledge ; (c) the personality of 
man, and, by consequence, the personality of God. 

In opposition to false mysticism, we are to remember that the Holy Spirit works 
through the word ( Eph. 6 : 17—" sword of the Spirit ' ' ), and that by that word we are to test all 
new communications which would contradict or supersede it ( i Jo. 4 : 1 — " try the spirits " ; Eph. 
5 : 10 — " prove what is acceptable to the Lord " ), e. g. Spiritualism, Joseph Smith, Swedenborg. Note 
the mystical tendency in Francis de Sales, Thomas a Kempis, Madame Guy on, Upham. 
Using Scripture ad aperturam libri, — like guiding one's action by a throw of the dice. 
False abnegation of reason and will, and "swallowing up of man in God,"— implying 
that God and man are one substance, and that man is an incarnation of God. Cf. Ps. 16 : 7 
—"the Lord, who hath given me counsel : yea, my reins instruct me "= God teaches his people through the 
exercise of their own faculties. Dorner, Gesch. prot. Theol., 48-59, 243 ; Herzog, Encyclo- 
paedic, art. : Mystik, by Lange ; Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, 1 : 199 ; Morell, History 
of Philosophy, 58, 191-215, 556-S25, 726 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 61-69, 97, 104 ; Fleming, 
Vocab. of Philosophy, in voce ; Tholuck, Tntrod. to Bliithensammlung aus der morgen- 
l&ndischen Mystik. 

4. Scripture and Romanism. While the history of doctrine, as show- 
ing the progressive apprehension and unfolding by the church of the 
truth implicitly contained in the Scriptures, is a subordinate source of 
theology, Protestantism recognizes the Bible as the only primary and abso- 
lute authority. 

Komanism, on the other hand, commits the twofold error (a) Of making 
the church, and not the Scriptures, the immediate and authoritative source 
of religious knowledge ; and (o) Of making the relation of the individual 
to Christ depend upon his relation to the church, instead of making his 
relation to the church depend upon, follow, and express his relation to Christ. 
In Roman Catholicism there is a mystical element. The Scriptures are not the sole 
standard. God gives to the world from time to time, through popes and councils, new 
communications of truth. See Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 61-69. In reply to the Romanist 

2 



18 PROLEGOMENA. 

argument that the church was before the Bible, and that the same body that gave the 
truth at first can make additions to that truth, we say that the unwritten truth was before 
the church and made the church possible. The word of God existed before it was written 
down, and by that word the first disciples as well as the latest were begotten (1 Pet. 1:23 — 

" born again by the word of God " ). See Robinson, in Mad. Av. Lectures, 387. 

The Roman Church would keep men in perpetual childhood— coming to her for truth 
instead of going directly to the Bible. See Dorner, Gesch. prot. Theol., 227 ; Martensen, 
Christian Dogmatics, 30— "Romanism is so busy in building up a system of guarantees 
for Christianity, that she forgets the truth of Christ which she would guarantee." 
Schleiermacher, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 24. George Herbert : " What wretchedness can give 
him any room, Whose house is foul, while he adores his broom ! " Drummond, Nat. Law 
in Spir. AVorld, 327 : Romanist semi-parasitic doctrine of safety without spirituality. 

II. Limitations of Theology. — Although theology derives its material 
from God's twofold revelation, it does not profess to give an exhaustive 
knowledge of God and of the relations between God and the universe. 
After showing what material w r e have, we must show what material we have 
not. We have indicated the sources of theology ; we now examine its 
limitations. Theology has its limitations . 

(a) In the finiteness of the human understanding. This gives rise to a 
class of necessary mysteries, or mysteries connected with the infinity and 
incomprehensibleness of the divine nature (Job 11 : 7 ; Rom. 11 : 33). 

Job. 11 : 7 — " Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? " Rom. 11 : 33 
— " how unsearchable are his judgments." Every doctrine, therefore, has its inexplicable side. A 
system that explained all would be untrue. Here is the proper meaning of Tertullian's 
saying : " Credo quia impossibile est." Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World : 
"A science without mystery is unknown ; a religion without mystery is absurd." See 
Calderwood, Philos. of Infinite, 491 ; Sir Wm. Hamilton, Discussions, 22. 

( b ) In the imperfect state of science, both natural and metaphysical. 
This gives rise to a class of accidental mysteries, or mysteries which consist 
in the apparently irreconcilable nature of truths, which, taken separately, 
are perfectly comprehensible. 

Distance divine sovereignty and human freedom. Astronomy has its centripetal and 
centrifugal forces. The child cannot hold two oranges at once in the same hand. F. W. 
Robertson's conclusion. Theology helped by Bp. Butler's doctrine of conscience, and by 
Darwin's doctrine of heredity. 

(c) In the inadequacy of language. Since language is the medium 
through which truth is expressed and formulated, the invention of a proper 
terminology in theology, as well as in every other science, is a condition and 
criterion of its progress. The Scriptures recognize a peculiar difficulty in 
putting spiritual truths into earthly language ( 1 Cor. 2 : 13 ; 2 Cor. 3:6; 
12:4). 

1 Cor. 2 : 13 — " Not words "which man's wisdom teacheth " ; 2 Cor. 3 : 6 —"the letter killeth " ; 12 : 4 — "unspeakable 
words." God submits to conditions of revelation. Language has to be created. Words 
" stagger under their weight of meaning "— e. g. " day " in Genesis 1, and aydny] in N. T. "As 
fast as we tunnel into the sandbank of thought, the stones of language must be built 
into walls and arches, to allow further progress into the boundless mine." 

(d) In the incompleteness of our knowledge of the Scriptures. Since 
it is not the mere letter of the Scriptures that constitutes the truth, the 
progress of theology is dependent upon hermeneutics, or the interpretation 
of the word of God. 

Progress of commenting— from homiletical to grammatical, historical, dogmatic — 
illustrated in Scott, Ellicott, Stanley, Lightfoot. John Robinson: "I am verily per- 
Buaded that the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth from his holy word." On N. T. 
Lnterpretation, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 324-336. 



LIMITATIONS OF THEOLOGY. 19 

(e) In the silence of written revelation. For our discipline and pro- 
bation, much is probably hidden from ns, which we might even with our 
present powers comprehend. 

The origin of evil ; the method of the atonement ; the state after death. Paul's silence 
upon speculative questions which he must have pondered with absorbing interest. 
John Foster's "gathering questions for eternity." On Luther, see Hagenbach, Hist. 
Doctrine, 2 : 338. 

(/) In the lack of spiritual discernment caused by sin. Since holy 
affection is a condition of religious knowledge, all moral imperfection in 
the individual Christian and in the church serves as a hindrance to the 
working out of a complete theology. 

The spiritual ages make most progress in theology— witness the half -century succeed- 
ing the Reformation, and the half -century succeeding the great revival in New England 
in the time of Jonathan Edwards. 

We do not, therefore, expect to construct a perfect system of theology. 
All science but reflects the present attainment of the human mind. No 
science is complete or finished. However it may be with the sciences of 
nature and man, the science of God will never amount to an exhaustive 
knowledge. We must not expect to demonstrate all Scripture doctrines 
upon rational grounds, or even in every case to see the principle of con- 
nection between them. Where we cannot do this, we must, as in every 
other science, set the revealed facts in their places and wait for further 
light, instead of ignoring or rejecting any of them because we cannot 
understand them or their relation to other parts of our system. 

Theology is progressive, in the sense that our subjective understanding 
of the facts with regard to God, and our consequent expositions of these 
facts, may and do become more perfect. But theology is not progressive, if 
by this be meant that its objective facts change, either in their number or 
their nature. With Martineau we may say: " Eeligion has been reproached 
with not being progressive; it makes amends by being imperishable." 
Though our knowledge may be imperfect, it will have great value still. 
Our success in constructing a theology will depend upon the proportion 
which clearly expressed facts of Scripture bear to mere inferences, and 
upon the degree in which they all cohere about Christ, the central person 
and theme. 

The progress of theology is progress in apprehension by man, not progress in commu- 
nication by God. So originality in astronomy is not man's creation of new planets, but 
man's discovery of planets that were never seen before, or the bringing to light of rela- 
tions between them that were never before suspected. R. K. Eccles : " Originality is 
the habit of recurring to origins — the habit of securing personal experience by personal 
application to original facts. It is not an eduction of novelties either from nature, 
Scripture, or inner consciousness ; it is rather the habit of resorting to primitive facts, 
and of securing the personal experiences which arise from contact with those facts." 

Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory, 1 : 492, 493—" Metaphysics, so far as they are true 
to their work, are stationary, precisely because they have in charge, not what begins 

and ceases to be, but what always is It is absurd to praise motion for always 

making way, while disparaging space for still being what it ever was : as if the motion 
you prefer could be, without the space which you reproach." 



CHAPTEE III. 

METHOD OF THEOLOGY. 

I. Requisites to the Study. — The requisites to the successful study of 
theology have already in part been indicated in speaking of its limitations. 
In spite of some repetition, however, we mention the following : 

(a) A disciplined mind. Only such a mind can patiently collect the 
facts, hold in its grasp many facts at once, educe their connecting principles 
by continuous reflection, suspend final judgment until its conclusions are 
verified by Scripture and experience. 

On opportunities for culture in the Christian ministry, see N. Englander, Oct., 1875 : 
644. Chitty, to a father inquiring as to his son's qualifications for the law : " Can your 
son eat sawdust without any butter? " 

(6) An intuitional as distinguished from a merely logical habit 
of mind — or, trust in the mind's primitive cognitions, as well as in its 
processes of reasoning. The theologian must have insight as well as under- 
standing. He must accustom himself to ponder spiritual facts as well as 
those which are sensible and material ; to see things in their inner relations 
as well as in their outward forms ; to cherish confidence in the reality and 
the unity of truth. 

Vinet, Outlines of Philosophy, 39, 40— "If I do not feel that good is good, who will 
ever prove it to me ? " Pascal : " Logic, which is an abstraction, may shake everything. 
A being purely intellectual will be incurably skeptical." Calvin: "Satan is an acute 
theologian." Dove, Logic of Christian Faith, 1-29, and esp. 25 : Demonstration of the 
impossibility of motion. Hazard, Man a Creative First Cause, 109 : Bottom of a wheel 
does not move. Cf. 1 Tim. 3:2 — the bishop must be o-w^pwv = sober-minded, well-balanced. 

(c) An acquaintance with physical, mental, and moral science. The 
method of conceiving and expressing Scripture truth is so affected by our 
elementary notions of these sciences, and the weapons with which theology 
is attacked and defended are so commonly drawn from them as arsenals, 
that the student cannot afford to be ignorant of them. 

Advantage to the preacher of taking up, as did F. W. Robertson, one science after 
another. Chemistry entered into his mental structure " like iron into the blood." See 
A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 1-18; also in Baptist Quarterly, 2 : 393 sq. Sir 
Wm. Hamilton : " No difficulty arises in theology which has not first emerged in philos- 
ophy." N. W. Taylor : " Give me a young man in metaphysics and I care not who has 
him in theology." Meaning of the maxim: "Ubitres medici, ibi duo athei." Talbot: 
"I love metaphysics, because they have to do with realities." 

(d) A knowledge of the original languages of the Bible. This is 
necessary to enable us not only to determine the meaning of the funda- 
mental terms of Scripture, such as sin, righteousness, atonement, but also 
to interpret statements of doctrine by their connections with the context. 

20 



DIVISIONS OF THEOLOGY. 21 

Instance the £<•<* tovto and i<f>' <1>, in Rom. 5 : 12. Dr. Philip Lindsay to his pupils : " One of 
the best preparations for death is a thorough knowledge of the Greek Grammar." The 
dead languages are the only really living ones— free from danger of misunderstanding 
on account of changing usage. Divine Providence has put revelation into fixed forms 
in the Hebrew and the Greek. Sir Wm. Hamilton, Discussions, 330 — " To be a competent 
divine is in fact to be a scholar." 

(e) A holy affection toward God. Only the renewed heart can properly 
feel its need of divine revelation, or understand that revelation when given. 

Neander's motto: "Pectus est quod theologum facit." Goethe: "As are the inch- 
nations, so are the opinions." Fichte: "Our system of thought is very often only the 
history of our heart ; " " truth is descended from conscience ; " " men do not will accord- 
ing to their reason, but reason according to their will." Hobbes : " Even the axioms of 
geometry would be disputed, if men's passions were concerned in them." Pascal : " We 
know truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart." " Human things need only to be 
known in order to be loved, but divine things must first be loved before they can be 
known." Aristotle : " The power of attaining moral truth is dependent upon our acting 
rightly." W.C.Wilkinson: " The head is a magnetic needle with truth for its pole. But 
the heart is a hidden mass of magnetic iron. The head is drawn somewhat toward its 
natural pole, the truth ; but more it is drawn by that nearer magnetism." See Theodore 
Parker's Experiences as a Minister. Cf. Ps. 25 : 14 — "secret of the Lord " ; John 7 : 17 — " willeth to do 
his will " ; Rom. 12 : 2 — " prove what is the will of God." Also Ps. 36 : 1 — " the transgression of the wicked speaks 
in his heart like an oracle." The preacher cannot, like Dr. Kane, kindle fire with a lens of ice. 
Vauvenargues : "Great thoughts come from the heart." 

(/) The enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit. As only the Spirit 
fathoms the things of God, so only he can illuminate our minds to appre- 
hend them. 

Cicero, Nat. Deorum, 66— "Nemo igitur vir magnus sine aliquo adflatudivino unquam 
fuit." See Adolphe Monod's Sermons on Christ's Temptation, addressed to the theolog- 
ical students of Montauban, in Select Sermons from the French and German, 117-179. 

LT. Divisions of Theology. — Theology is commonly divided into Bib- 
Heal, Historical, Systematic, and Practical. 

1. Biblical Theology aims to arrange and classify the facts of revelation, 
confining itself to the Scriptures for its material, and treating of doctrine 
only so far as it was developed at the close of the apostolic age. 

% Instance DeWette, Biblische Theologie ; Hof mann, Schrif tbeweis ; Nitzsch, System of 
Christian Doctrine. The last, however, has more of the philosophical element than 
properly belongs to Biblical Theology. Notice a questionable use of the term Biblical 
Theology to designate the theology of a part of Scripture severed from the rest, as 
Steudel's Bib. Theol. of O. T. ; Schmid's Bib. Theol. of N. T. ; and in the common 
phrases : Bib. Theol. of Christ, or of Paul. See Reuss, Hist. Christian Theology in the 
Apostolic Age. 

2. Historical Theology traces the development of the Biblical doctrines 
from the time of the apostles to the present day, and gives account of the 
results of this development in the life of the church. By doctrinal develop- 
ment we mean the progressive unfolding and apprehension, by the church, 
of the truth explicitly or implicitly contained in Scrrpture. As giving 
account of the shaping of the Christian faith into doctrinal statements, 
Historical Theology is called the History of Doctrine. As describing the 
resulting and accompanying changes in the life of the church, outward and 
inward, Historical Theology is called Church History. 

Instance Cunningham's Historical Theology ; Hagenbach's and Shedd's Histories of 
Doctrine ; Neander's Church History. See Neander's Introduction, and Shedd's Philos- 
ophy of History- 



22 PROLEGOMENA. 

3. Systematic Theology takes the material furnished by Biblical and 
Historical Theology, and with this material seeks to build up into an 
organic and consistent whole all our knowledge of God and of the relations 
between God and the universe, whether this knowledge be originally derived 
from nature or from the Scriptures. It is to be clearly distinguished from 
Dogmatic Theology. Dogmatic Theology is the systematizing of the doc- 
trines as expressed in the symbols of the church, together with the ground- 
ing of these in the Scriptures, and the exhibition, so far as may be, of their 
rational necessity. Systematic Theology, on the contrary, begins, not with 
the symbols, but with the Scriptures. It asks first, not what the church has 
believed, but what is the truth of God's revealed word. It examines that 
word with all the aids which nature and the Spirit have given it, using 
Biblical and Historical Theology as its servants and helpers, but not as 
its masters. Systematic Theology, in fine, is theology proper, of which 
Biblical Theology and Historical Theology are the incomplete and pre- 
paratory stages. 

Symbol, from a-v^dWai, = a brief throwing together, or condensed statement, of the 
essentials of Christian doctrine. Synonyms are: Confession, creed, articles of faith. 
Dogmatism argues to foregone conclusions. The word is not, however, derived from 
' dog,' as Douglas Jerrold suggested : " Dogmatism is puppyism full-grown." 

4. .Practical Theology is the system of truth considered as a means of 
renewing and sanctifying men, or, in other words, theology in its publica- 
tion and enforcement. To this department of theology belong Homiletics 
and Pastoral Theology, since these are but scientific presentations of the 
true methods of unfolding Christian truth, and of bringing it to bear upon 
men individually and in the church. 

It has sometimes been asserted that there are other departments of 
theology not included in those above mentioned. But most of these, if 
not all, belong to other spheres of research and cannot properly be classed 
under theology at all. Moral theology, so-called, or the science of Chris- 
tian morals (ethics, or theological ethics), is indeed the proper result of 
theology, but is not to be confounded with it. Speculative theology 
so-called, respecting, as it does, such truth as is matter of opinion, is either 
extra-scriptural, and so belongs to the province of the philosophy of reli- 
gion, or is an attempt to explain truth already revealed, and so falls under 
the province of Systematic Theology. 

" Speculative theology starts from certain a priwi principles, and from them under- 
takes to determine what is and must be. It deduces its scheme of doctrine from the 
laws of mind or from axioms supposed to be inwrought into its constitution." Bib. 
Sac, 1852 : 375 —"Speculative theology tries to show that the dogmas agree with the 
laws of thought, while the philosophy of religion tries to show that the laws of thought 
agree with the dogmas." H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy, 18— Philosophy is "a 
mode of human knowledge— not the whole of that knowledge, but a mode of it— the 
knowing of things rationally." Science asks: "What do I know?" Philosophy asks: 
"What can I know?" See Luthardt, Compend. der Dogmatik, 4; Hagenbach, Encyc- 
lopaedic 109. Theological Encyclopaedia ( instruction in a circle ) = a general introduc- 
tion to all the divisions of Theology, together witn an account of the relations between 
them. Hegel's Encyclopaedia was an attempted exhibition of the principles and con- 
nections of all tne sciences. See Crooks and Hurst, Theological Encyclopaedia and 
Methodology ; Zockler, Handb. der theolog. Wissenschaf ten, 2 : 606-769. 



HISTORY OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. 23 

HI. Histoey of Systematic Theology. 

1. In the Eastern Church, Systematic Theology may be said to have had 
its beginning and end in John of Damascus (700-760). 

Ignatius ( + 115— Ad Trail., c. 9) gives us "the first distinct statement of the faith 
drawn up in a series of propositions. His systematizing- formed the basis of all later 
efforts" (Prof. A. H. Newman). Origen of Alexandria (186-254) wrote his Uepl 'Apx^v; 
Athanasius of Alexandria (300-373) his treatises on the Trinity and the Deity of Christ; 
and Gregory of Nyssa in Cappadocia (333-398) his Ad-yos /caT^x^Ti/cbs 6 fxeyas. While the 
Fathers just mentioned seem to have conceived the plan of expounding the doctrines 
in order and of showing their relations to one another, John of Damascus (700-760) was 
the first who actually carried out such a plan. His'ExSocri? axpi^rj? t% 6p#oS6£ou wto-Tews, 
or Summary of the Orthodox Faith, may be considered the earliest work of Systematic 
Theology. Neander : " The most important doctrinal text-book of the Greek Church." 
John, like the Greek Church in general, was speculative, theological, semi-Pelagian, 
sacramentarian. The "Apostles' Creed," so-called, is in its present form not earlier than 
the fifth century (see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 1 : 19). 

2. In the Western Church, we may ( with Hagenbach ) distinguish three 
periods: 

(a) The period of Scholasticism, — introduced by Peter Lombard (died 
1164), and reaching its culmination in Thomas Aquinas (1221-1274) and 
Duns Scotus (1265-1308). 

Though Systematic Theology had its beginning in the Eastern Church, its develop- 
ment has been confined almost wholly to the Western. Augustine (353-430) wrote his 
Encheiridion ad Laurentium and his De Civitate Dei, and John Scotus Erigena ( + 850), 
Roscelin ( 1092-1122 ), and Abelard ( 1079-1143 ), in their attempts at the rational explanation 
of Christian Doctrine, foreshadowed the works of the great scholastic teachers. Anselm 
of Canterbury (1034-1109), with his Proslogion de Dei Existentia and his Cur Deus Homo, 
has sometimes, though wrongly, been called the founder of scholasticism. 

But Peter Lombard (+1164), the magister sententiarum, was the first great systematizer 
of the Western Church, and his Libri Sententiarum Quatuor was the theological text- 
book of the Middle Ages. Teachers lectured on the "Sentences," as they did on the 
Books of Aristotle, who furnished to scholasticism its impulse and guide. Every doc- 
trine was treated in the order of Aristotle's four causes, the material, the formal, the 
efficient, the final. ( " Cause " here = requisite : ( 1 ) matter of which a thing consists ; ( 2 ) 
form it assumes; (3) producing agent; (4) end for which made). Thomas Aquinas 
( 1221-1274), the Dominican, doctor angelicus, Augustinian and Realist,— and Duns Scotus 
(1265-1308), the Franciscan, doctor subtilis— wrought out the scholastic theology more 
fully, and left behind them, in their Summce, gigantic monuments of intellectual indus- 
try and acumen. Scholasticism aimed at the proof and systematizing of the doctrines of 
the Church by means of Aristotle's philosophy. It became at last an illimitable morass 
of useless subtleties and unintelligible abstractions, and it finally ended in the nominal- 
istic scepticism of William of Occam ( + 1347). See Townsend, The Great Schoolmen of 
the Middle Ages ; A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 4. 

( 6 ) The period of Symbolism, — represented by the Lutheran theology of 
Philip Melancthon (1497-1560), and the Reformed theology of John Calvin 
(1509-1564); the former connecting itself with the Analytic theology of 
Calixtus (1585-1656), and the latter with the Federal theology of Cocceius 
(1603-1669). 

The new religious life of the Reformation led to intellectual revival. The churches 
were compelled to formulate their belief in symbols, and to define and expound 
Scripture doctrine in systematic treatises. The theology of this period, like the 
Reformation which produced it, had two branches, the Lutheran and the Reformed — 
Lutheranism being based on the material principle of the Reformation, justification 
by faith instead of by works ; the Reformed theology being based on the formal prin- 
ciple of the Reformation, the supreme authority of the Scriptures instead of that of 
the Church. 



24 PROLEGOMENA. 

The Lutheran theology. — Luther himself (1485-1546) was preacher rather than theo- 
logian. But Melancthon (1497-1560), "the preceptor of Germany," as he was called, 
embodied the theology of the Lutheran Church in his Loci Communes ( first edition 
Augustinian, afterwards substantially Arminian ; grew out of Lectures on the Epistle 
to the Romans). He was followed by Chemnitz (1522-1586 ), " clear and accurate," the 
most learned of the disciples of Melancthon. Leonhard Hutter (1563-1616), called 
"Lutherus redivivus," and John Gerhard (1582-1637), followed Luther rather than 
Melancthon. George Calixtus (1586-1656) separated ethics from systematic theology 
and applied the analytic method of investigation to the latter, beginning with the end, 
or final cause, of all things, viz. : blessedness. He was followed in his method by Dann- 
hauer ( 1603-1666 ), Calovius ( 1612-1686 ), Quenstedt ( 1617-1688 ), whom Hovey calls " learned, 
comprehensive, and logical," and Hollaz ( +1730). 

The Reformed t heology. — Zwingle, the Swiss reformer (1484-1531), differing from 
Luther as to the Lord's Supper and as to Scripture, was more than Luther entitled to 
the name of systematic theologian. Certain writings of his may be considered the 
beginning of the Reformed theology. But it was left to John Calvin ( 1509-1564 ), after the 
death of Zwingle, to arrange the principles of that theology in systematic form . Calvin 
dug channels for Zwingle's flood to flow in, as Melancthon did for Luther's. His Insti- 
tutes ( Institutio Religionis Christianas ), is one of the great works in theology ( superior 
as a systematic work to Melancthon's Loci ). Calvin was followed by Petrus Ramus 
("Peter Martyr"— in Saint Bartholomew, 1572 ), Chamier (+1621), and Theodore Beza 
( 1519-1605 ). Beza carried Calvin's doctrine of predestination to an extreme supralapsa- 
rianism, which is hyper-Calvinistic rather than Calvinistic. Cocceius ( 1603-1669 ), and 
after him Witsius ( 1626-1708 ), made theology centre about the idea of the covenants, and 
founded the Federal theology. Leydecker ( 1642-1721 ) treated theology in the order of 
the persons of the Trinity. Amyraldus (1596-1664) and Placeus of Saumur ( 1596-1632 ) 
modified the Calvinistic doctrine, the latter by his theory of mediate imputation, and the 
former by advocating the hypothetic universalism of divine grace. Turretin ( 1671-1737 ), 
a clear and strong theologian whose work is still a text-book at Princeton, and Pictet 
( 1655-1724 ), both of them Federalists, showed the influence of the Cartesian philosophy. 

In general, while the fine between Catholic and Protestant in Europe runs from west 
to east, the fine between Lutheran and Reformed runs from south to north, the 
Reformed theology flowing with the current of the Rhine northward from Switzerland 
to Holland and to England, in which latter country the Thirty-nine Articles represent 
the Reformed faith, while the Prayer-book of the English Church is Arminian; see 
Dorner, Gesch. prot. Theologie, Einleit., 9. On the differences between Lutheran and 
Reformed doctrine, see Schaff, Germany, its Universities, Theology and Religion, 167- 
177. On the Reformed Churches of Europe and America, see H. B. Smith, Faith and 
Philosophy, 87-124. 

(c) The- period of Criticism and Speculation, — in its three divisions : the 
Rationalistic, represented by Semler (1721-1791); the Transitional, by 
Schleiermacher (1768-1834) ; the Evangelical, by Nitzsch, Miiller, Tholuck 
and Dorner. 

First Division. — Rationalistic theologies : Though the Reformation had freed theology 
in great part from the bonds of scholasticism, other philosophies after a time took 
its place. The Leibnitz- (1646-1716) Wolffian ( 1679-1754 ) exaggeration of the powers of 
natural religion prepared the way for rationalistic systems of theology. Buddeus ( 1667- 
1729) combated the new principles, but Semler's (1725-1791) theology was built upon 
them, and represented the Scriptures as having a merely local and temporary character. 
Michaelis (1716-1784) and Doederlein (1714-1789) followed Semler, and the tendency 
toward rationalism was greatly assisted by the critical philosophy of Kant (1724-1804), 
to whom "revelation was problematical, and positive religion merely the medium 
through which the practical truths of reason are communicated" ( Hagenbach, Hist. 
Doct., 2 : 397 ). Ammon ( 1766-1850 ) and Wegscheider ( 1771-1848 ) were representatives of 
this philosophy. Storr (1746-1805), Reinhard (1753-1812), and Knapp (1753-1825), in the 
main evangelical, endeavored to reconcile revelation with reason, but were more or less 
influenced by this rationalizing spirit. Bretschneider ( 1776-1828 ) and De Wette (1780- 
1849 ) may be said to have held middle ground. 

Second Division. — Transition to a more Scriptural theology. Herder ( 1744-1803 ) and 
Jacobi ( 1743-1819 ), by their more spiritual philosophy, prepared the way for Schleier- 
macher's ( 1768-1834 ) grounding of doctrine in the facts of Christian experience. The 
writings of Schleiermacher constituted an epoch, and had great influence in delivering 



HISTORY OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. 25 

theology from the rationalistic toils into which it had fallen. Although rationalism is 
of late represented by Hase and Strauss, by Biedermann and Lipsius, we may now 
speakof a 

Third Division—and. in this division we may put the names of Neander and Tholuck, 
Twesten and Nitzsch, Miiller and Luthardt, Dorner and Philippi, Ebrard and Thomasius, 
Lange and Kahnis, all of them exponents of a far more pure and evangelical theology 
than was common in Germany a century ago. 

3. Among theologians of views diverse from the prevailing Protestant 
faith, may be mentioned : 

(a) Bellarmine (1542-1621), the Eoman Catholic. 

Besides Bellarmine, "the best controversial writer of his age" (Bayle), the Roman 
Catholic Church numbers among its noted modern theologians : — Petavius (1583-1652), 
whose dogmatic theology Gibbon calls "a work of incredible labor and compass"; 
Melchior Canus (1523-1560), an opponent of the Jesuits and of their scholastic method; 
Bossuet (1627-1704), who idealized Catholicism in his Exposition of Doctrine, and attacked 
Protestantism in his History of Variations of Protestant Churches ; Jansen (1585-1638), 
who attempted, in opposition to the Jesuits, to reproduce the theology of Augustine, 
and who had in this the powerful assistance of Pascal (1623-1662). Jansenism, so far as 
the doctrines of grace are concerned, but not as respects the sacraments, is virtual 
Protestantism within the Roman Catholic Church. Moehler's Symbolism, Perrone's 
Prelectwnes Theologicce, and Hurter's Compendium Theologke Dogmaticce are the latest 
and most approved expositions of Roman Catholic doctrine. 

(6 ) Armrm'us (1560-1609), the opponent of predestination. 

Among the followers of Arminius (1560-1609) must be reckoned Episcopius (1583-1643), 
who carried Arminianism to almost Pelagian extremes ; Hugo Grotius (1553-1645), the 
jurist and statesman, author of the governmental theory of the atonement ; and Lim- 
borch (1633-1712), the most thorough expositor of the Arminian doctrine. 

(c) Laelius Socinus (1525-1562), and Faustus Socinus (1539-1604), the 
leaders of the modern Unitarian movement. 

The works of Laelius Socinus (1525-1562) and his nephew, Faustus Socinus (1539-1604), 
constituted the beginnings of modern Unitarianism. Laelius Socinus was the reformer 
and Faustus Socinus was the theologian ; or, as Baumgarten-Crusius expresses it, " the 
former was the spiritual founder of Socinianism, and the latter the founder of the sect." 
Their writings are collected in the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum. The Racovian Cate- 
chism, taking its name from the Polish town Racow, contains the most succinct exposi- 
tion of their views. 

4. British theology, represented by : 

(a) The Baptists, John Bunyan (1628-1688), John Gill (1697-1771 ), and 
Andrew Fuller (1754-1815). 

Some of the best British Theology is Baptist. Among John Bunyan's works, we may 
notice his " Gospel Truths Opened." Macaulay calls Milton and Bunyan the two great 
creative minds of England during the latter part of the 17th century. John Gill's 
"Body of Practical Divinity" shows much ability, although the Rabbinical learning of 
the author occasionally displays itself in a curious exegesis. Andrew Fuller's " Letters 
on Systematic Divinity" is a brief compend of theology. His treatises upon special 
doctrines are marked by sound judgment and clear insight. They justify the epithets 
which Robert Hall, one of the greatest of Baptist preachers, gives him: "sagacious," 
"luminous," "powerful." 

(6) The Puritans, John Owen (1616-1683), Richard Baxter (1615-1691), 
John Howe (1630-1705), and Thomas Ridgeley (1666-1734). 

Of the Puritan theologians the Encyc. Brit, remarks : "As a theological thinker and 
writer, John Owen holds his own distinctly denned place among those Titanic intellects 
with which the age abounded. Surpassed by Baxter in point and pathos, by Howe in 
imagination and the higher philosophy, he is unrivalled in his power of unfolding the 
rich meanings of Scripture. In his writings he was preeminently the great theologian." 



26 PROLEGOMENA. 

Baxter wrote a " Methodus Theologice," and a " Catholic Theology " ; John Howe is chiefly 
known by his " Living Temple " ; Thomas Ridgeley by his " Body of Divinity." 

(c) The Scotch Presbyterians, Thomas Boston (1676-1732), John Dick 

(1764-1833), and Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847). 

Of the Scotch Presbyterians, Boston is the most voluminous. Dick the most calm and 
fair, Chalmers the most fervid and popular. 

(<2) The Methodists, John Wesley (1703-1791), and Kichard Watson 
(1781-1833). 

Of the Methodists, John Wesley's doctrine is presented in " Christian Theology," col- 
lected from his writings by the Rev. Thornley Smith. The great Methodist text-book, 
however, is the Institutes of Watson, who systematized and expounded the Wesleyan 
theology. Pope, a recent English theologian, follows Watson's modified and improved 
Arminianism ( while Whedon and Raymond, recent American writers, hold rather to a 
radical and extreme Arminianism ). 

(e) The English Churchmen, Eichard Hooker (1553-1600), Gilbert 

Burnet (1643-1715), and John Pearson (1613-1686). 

The English church has produced no great systematic theologian ( see reasons assigned 
in Dorner, Gesch. prot. Theologie, 470). The "judicious" Hooker is still its greatest 
theological writer, although his work is only on " Ecclesiastical Polity." Bishop Burnet 
is the author of the " Exposition of the XXXIX Articles," and Bishop Pearson of the 
"Exposition of the Creed." Both these are common English text-books. A recent 
" Compendium of Dogmatic Theology," by Litton, shows a tendency to return from the 
usual Arminianism of the Anglican church to the old Augustinianism. 

5. American theology, running in two lines : 

(a) The Beformed system of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), modified 
successively by Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790), Samuel Hopkins (1721-1803), 
Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), Nathaniel Emmons (1745-1840), Leonard 
Woods (1774-1854), Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), and Nathaniel W. 
Taylor (1786-1858). Calvinism, as thus modified, is often called the New 
England, or New School, theology. 

Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest of metaphysicians and theologians, thought 
too little of nature, and tended to Berkeleyanism as applied to mind. He regarded the 
chief good as happiness — a form of sensibility. Virtue was voluntary choice of this 
good. Hence union with Adam in acts and exercises was sufficient. This God's will 
made identity of being with Adam. This ed to the exercise-system of Hopkins and 
Emmons, on the one hand, and to Bellamy's and Dwight 's denial of any imputation of 
Adam's sin or of inborn depravity, on the other— in which last denial agree many other 
New England theologians who reject the exercise-scheme, as for example, Strong, Tyler, 
Smalley, Burton, Woods, and Park. Dr. N. W. Taylor added a more distinctly Arminian 
element, the power of contrary choice — and with this tenet of the New Haven theology, 
Charles G. Finney, of Oberlin, substantially agreed. Thus from certain principles 
admitted by Edwards, who held in the main to an Old School theology, the New School 
theology has been gradually developed. 

( b ) The older Calvinism, represented by Charles Hodge the father ( 1797- 
1878) and A. A. Hodge the son (1823-1886), together with Henry B. Smith 
(1815-1877), Bobert J. Breckinridge (1800-1871), Samuel J. Baird, and 
William G. T. Shedd (born 1820). All these, though with minor differ- 
ences, hold to views of human depravity and divine grace more nearly 
conformed to the doctrine of Augustine and Calvin, and are for this reason 
distinguished from the New England theologians and their followers by the 
popular title of Old School. 



ORDER OF TREATMENT. 2? 

Old School theology has for its characteristic tenet the guilt of inborn depravity. But 
among those who hold this view, some are federalists and creatianists, and justify God's 
condemnation of all men upon the ground that Adam represented his posterity. Such 
are the Princeton theologians generally, including Charles Hodge, A. A. Hodge, and the 
brothers Alexander. Among those who hold to the Old School doctrine of the guilt of 
inborn depravity, however, there are others who are traducians, and who explain the 
imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity upon the ground of the natural union between 
him and them. Baird's " ELohim Revealed " and Shedd's Essay on " Original Sin " ( Sin a 
Nature and that Nature Guilt ) represent this realistic conception of the relation of the 
race to its first father. R. J. Breckinridge, R. L. Dabney, and J. H. Thornwell assert the 
fact of inherent corruption and guilt, but refuse to assign any rationale for it, though 
they tend to realism. H. B. Smith holds guardedly to the theory of mediate imputation. 

On the history of Systematic Theology in general, see Hagenbach, History of Doctrine 
(from which many of the facts above given are taken ), and Shedd, History of Doctrine ; 
also, Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 44-100 ; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 1 : 15-128 ; Hase, Hutterus Redivi- 
vus, 24-52. On the history of New England Theology, see Fisher, Discussions and Essays, 
285-354. On Edwards's tendency to idealism, see Sanborn, in Journ. Spec. Philos., Oct., 
1883 : 401^20. 

IV. Order of Treatment in Systematic Theology. 

1. Various methods of arranging the topics of a theological system. 

(a) The Analytic method of Calixtus begins with the assumed end of all 
things, blessedness, and thence passes to the means by which it is secured. 
( b ) The Trinitarian method of Leydecker and Martensen regards Christian 
doctrine as a manifestation successively of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
(e) The Federal method of Cocceius, Witsius, and Boston treats theology 
under the two covenants, (d) The Anthropological method of Chalmers 
and Rothe ; the former beginning with the Disease of Man and passing to 
the Remedy; the latter dividing his Dogmatik into the Consciousness of 
Sin and the Consciousness of Redemption, (e) The Christological method 
of Hase, Thomasius and Andrew Fuller treats of God, man, and sin, as 
presuppositions of the person and work of Christ. Mention may also be 
made of (/) The Historical method, followed by Ursinus, and adopted in 
Jonathan Edwards's History of Redemption; and (g) The Allegorical 
method of Dannhauer, in which man is described as a wanderer, life as a 
road, the Holy Spirit as a light, the church as the candlestick, God as the 
end, and heaven as the home. 

See Calixtus, Epitome Theologiae; Leydecker, De CEconomia trium Personarum in 
Negotio Salutis humanae ; Martensen ( 1808-1884), Christian Dogmatics ; Cocceius, Summa 
Theologiae, and Summa Doctrinae de Fcedere et Testamento Dei, in Works, vol. vi; 
Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants ; Boston, A Complete Body of Divinity ( in 
Works, vol. 1 and 2), Questions in Divinity (vol. 6), Human Nature in its Fourfold State 
(vol.8); Chalmers, Institutes of Theology; Rothe (1799-1867), Dogmatik, and Theolo- 
gische Ethik; Hase (1800-), Evangelische Dogmatik; Thomasius (1802-1875), Christi 
Person und Werk ; Fuller, Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation (in Works, 2 : 328-416), and 
Letters on Systematic Divinity (1:684-711); Ursinus (1534-1583), Loci Theologici (in 
Works, 1 : 426-909) ; Edwards, History of Redemption (in Works, 1 : 296-516) ; Dannhauer 
( 1603-1666 ), Hodosophia Christiana, seu Theologia Positiva in Methodum redacta, 

2. The Synthetic method, which we adopt in this Compendium, is both 
the most common and the most logical method of arranging the topics of 
theology. This method proceeds from causes to effects, or, in the language 
of Hagenbach (Hist. Doctrine, 2 : 152), " starts from the highest principle, 
God, and proceeds to man, Christ, redemption, and finally to the end of 



28 PKOLEGOMENA. 

all things." In such a treatment of theology we may best arrange our 
topics in the following order : 

1st. The existence of God. 

2d. The Scriptures a revelation from God. 

3d. The nature, decrees and works of God. 

4th. Man, in his original likeness to God and subsequent apostasy. 

5th. Kedemption, through the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. 

6th. The nature and laws of the Christian church. 

7th. The end of the present system of things. 

V. Text-books in Theology, valuable for reference : — 

1. Confessions : Schaff, Creeds of Christendom. 

2. Compendiums : H. B. Smith, System of Christian Theology ; A. A. 
Hodge, Outlines of Theology; Hovey, Manual of Theology and Ethics; 
Pendleton, Christian Doctrine ; Dagg, Manual of Theology ; Hase, Hutterus 
Eedivivus ; Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik ; Kurtz, Eeligionslehre. 

3. Extended Treatises : Shedd, Dogmatic Theology ; Dorner, System 
of Christian Doctrine ; Calvin, Institutes ; Charles Hodge, Systematic The- 
ology ; Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics ; Baird, Elohim Revealed ; 
Luthardt, Fundamental, Saving, and Moral Truths; Philippi, Glaubens- 
lehre ; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk. 

4. Collected Works : Jonathan Edwards ; Andrew Fuller. 

5. Histories of Doctrine : Hagenbach ; Shedd. 

6. Monographs : Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin ; Shedd, Discourses 
and Essays ; Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity ; Dorner, History of the Doctrine 
of the Person of Christ. 

7. Theism : Martineau, Study of Religion ; Harris, Philosophical Basis 
of Theism. 

8. Christian Evidences: Butler, Analogy of Natural and Revealed 
Religion ; Fisher, Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief ; Row, Bampton 
Lectures for 1877 ; Peabody, Evidences of Christianity. 

9. Intellectual Philosophy : Porter, Human Intellect ; Hill, Elements 
of Psychology ; Alden, Intellectual Philosophy. 

10. Moral Philosophy : Robinson, Principles and Practice of Morality ; 
Calderwood, Moral Philosophy ; Porter, Elements of Moral Science ; Alex- 
ander, Moral Science. 

11. Theological Encyclopaedias: Schaff-Herzog (English); McClin- 
tock and Strong; Herzog (second German edition). 

12. Bible Dictionaries : Smith (edited by Hackett). 

13. Commentaries : Meyer, on the New Testament ; Philippi, Lange, 
Shedd, on the Epistle to the Romans. 

14. Bibles : Revised English Bible ; Revised Greek-English New Testa- 
ment (published by Harper and Brothers); Annotated Paragraph Bible 
(published by the London Religious Tract Society); Stier and Theile, 
Polyglotten-Bibel. 

An attempt has been made, in the list of textbooks given above, to put first in 
each class the book best worth purchasing by the average theological student, and to 
arrange the books that follow this first one in the order of their value. German books, 
however, when they are not yet accessible in an English translation, are put last, simply 
because they are less likely to be used as books of reference by tho average student. 



PAET II 

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 



CHAPTER I. 



God is the infinite and perfect Spirit in whom all things have their source, 
support, and end. 

On the definition of the term God, see Hodge, Syst. TheoL, 1 : 366. Other definitions 
are those of Calovius: "Essentia spiritualis infinita"; Ebrard: "The eternal source 
of all that is temporal"; Kahnis: "The infinite Spirit"; John Howe: "An eternal, 
uncaused, independent, necessary Being, that hath active power, life, wisdom, good- 
ness, and whatsoever other supposable excellency, in the highest perfection, in and of 
itself " ; Westminster Catechism : " A Spirit infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his 
being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth"; Andrew Puller: "The 
first cause and last end of all things." 

The existence of God is a first truth ; in other words, the knowledge 
of God's existence is a rational intuition. Logically, it precedes and con- 
ditions all observation and reasoning. Chronologically, only reflection 
upon the phenomena of nature and of mind occasions its rise in con- 
sciousness. 

The term intuition means simply direct knowledge. Lowndes ( Philos. of Primary 
Beliefs, 78 ) and Mansel ( Metaphysics, 52 ) would use the term only of our direct knowl- 
edge of substances, as self and body ; Porter applies it by preference to our cognition of 
first truths, such as have been already mentioned. Harris ( PhDos. Basis of Theism, 44- 
151, but esp. 45, 46 ) makes it include both. He divides intuitions into two classes : 1. 
Preservative intuitions, as self -consciousness ( in virtue of which I perceive the exist- 
ence of spirit and already come in contact with the supernatural ), and sense-perception 
( in virtue of which I perceive the existence of matter, at least in my own organism, and 
come in contact with nature ) ; 2. Rational intuitions, as space, time, substance, cause, 
final cause, right, absolute being. We may accept this nomenclature, using the terms 
"first truths "and "rational intuitions" as equivalent to each other, and classifying 
rational intuitions under the heads of ( 1 ) intuitions of relations, as space and time ; (2) 
intuitions of principles, as substance, cause, final cause, right; and (3) intuition of 
absolute Being, Power, Reason, Perfection, Personality, as God. 

We hold that, as upon occasion of the senses cognizing ( a ) extended matter, ( h ) suc- 
cession, (c) qualities, (d) change, (e) order, (/) action, respectively, the mind cognizes 
(a) space, (b) time, (c) substance, (d) cause, (e) design, (/) obligation, so upon occa- 
sion of our cognizing our finiteness, dependence and responsibility, the mind directly 
cognizes the existence of an Infinite and Absolute Authority, Perfection, Personality, 
upon whom we are dependent and to whom we are responsible. Among those who 
hold to this general view of an intuitive knowledge of God may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing : — Calvin, Institutes, book I, chap. 3; Nitzsch, System of Christian Doctrine, 



30 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

15-36, 134-140; Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 78-84; Ulrici, Leib und Seele, 688-725; 
Porter, Human Intellect, 497 ; Hickok, Kational Cosmology, 58-89 ; Farrar, Science in 
Theology, 27-29; Bib. Sac, July, 1872 : 553, and January, 1873 : 204; Miller, Fetich in The- 
ology, 110-122; Fisher, Essays, 565-572 ; Tulloch, Theism, 314-336; Hodge, Systematic 
Theology, 1:191-203; Christlieb, Mod. Doubt and Christian Belief, 75, 76; Raymond, 
Syst. Theology, 1 : 247-262 ; Bascom, Science of Mind, 246, 247 ; Knight, Studies in Philos. 
and Lit., 155-224 ; Martineau, Study, 1 :, 65, 199, 201 ; 2 : 2, 3, 51 ; and Types, 1 : 459 ; 2 : 5 ; A. 
H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 76-89. 

I. First truths in general. 

1. Their nature. 

A. Negatively. — A first truth is not ( a ) Truth written prior to conscious- 
ness upon the substance of the soul — for such passive knowledge implies a 
materialistic view of the soul ; ( 6 ) Actual knowledge of which the soul finds 
itself in possession at birth — for it cannot be proved that the soul has such 
knowledge ; ( c ) An idea, undeveloped at birth, but which has the power 
of self-development apart from observation and experience — for this is con- 
trary to all we know of the laws of mental growth. 

Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 1 : 17 — "Intelligi necesse est esse deos, quoniam insitas 
eorum vel potius innatas cogitationes habemus." Origen, Adv. Celsum, 1:4 — " Men 
would not be guilty, if they did not carry in their minds common notions of morality, 
innate and written in divine letters." Calvin, Institutes, 1:3: 3 — "Those who rightly 
judge will always agree that there is an indelible sense of divinity engraven upon 
men's minds." Fleming, Vocab. of Philosophy, art. : "Innate Ideas" — "Descartes is 
supposed to have taught ( and Locke devoted the first book of his Essays to refuting the 
doctrine) that these ideas are innate or connate with the soul; i. e., the intellect finds 
itself at birth, or as soon as it wakes to conscious activity, to be possessed of ideas to 
which it has only to attach the appropriate names, or of judgments which it only needs 
to express in fit propositions — i. e., prior to any experience of individual objects." 

B. Positively. — A first truth is a knowledge which, though developed 
upon occasion of observation and reflection, is not derived from observation 
and reflection, — a knowledge on the contrary which has such logical priority 
that it must be assumed or supposed, in order to make any observation or 
reflection possible. Such truths are not, therefore, recognized first in 
order of time ; some of them are assented to somewhat late in the mind's 
growth ; by the great majority of men they are never consciously formu- 
lated at all. Yet they constitute the necessary assumptions upon which all 
other knowledge rests, and the mind has not only the inborn capacity to 
evolve them so soon as the proper occasions are presented, but the recogni- 
tion of them is inevitable so soon as the mind begins to give account to itself 
of its own knowledge. 

Mansel, Metaphysics, 52, 279— "To describe experience as the cause of the idea of 
space would be as inaccurate as to speak of the soil in which it was planted as the 
cause of the oak— though the planting in the soil is the condition which brings into 
manifestation the latent power of the acorn." Coleridge: "We see before we know 
that we have eyes ; but when once this is known, we perceive that eyes must have 
pree'xisted in order to enable us to see." Coleridge speaks of first truths as "those 
necessities of mind or forms of thinking, which, though revealed to us by experience, 
must yet have preexisted in order to make experience possible." McCosh, Intuitions, 
48, 49— Intuitions are "like flower and fruit, which are in the plant from its embryo, 
but may not be actually formed till there have been a stalk and branches and leaves." 
Porter, Human Intellect, 501, 519— "Such truths cannot be acquired or assented to first 
of all." Some are reached last of all. The moral intuition is often developed late, and 
sometimes, even then, only upon occasion of corporal punishment. For account of 
the relation of the intuitions to experience, see especially Cousin, True, Beautiful and 
Good, 39-64, and History of Philosophy, 2 : 199-245. Compare Kant, Critique of Pure 
Reason, Introd., 1. See also Bascom, in Bib. Sac. 23 • 1-47 ; 27 : 68-90. 



THE EXISTENCE OF GOD A EIRST TRUTH. 31 

2. Their criteria. The criteria by which first truths are to be tested 
are three : 

A. Their universality. By this we mean, not that all men assent to 
them or understand them when propounded in scientific form, but that all 
men manifest a practical belief in them by their language, actions, and 
expectations. 

B. Their necessity. By this we mean, not that it is impossible to deny 
these truths, but that the mind is compelled by its very constitution to 
recognize them upon the occurrence of the proper conditions, and to employ 
them in its arguments to prove their non-existence. 

C. Their logical independence and priority. By this we mean that 
these truths can be resolved into no others, and proved by no others ; that 
they are presupposed in the acquisition of all other knowledge, and can 
therefore be derived from no other source than an original cognitive power 
of the mind. 

B. Instances of the professed and formal denial of first truths : — the positivist denies 
causality ; the idealist denies substance ; the pantheist denies personality ; the necessi- 
tarian denies freedom ; the nihilist denies his own existence. A man may in like man- 
ner argue that there is no necessity for an atmosphere ; but even while he argues, he 
breathes it. Instance the knock-down argument to demonstrate the freedom of the 
will. I grant my own existence in the very doubting of it; for cogito, ergo sum, 
as Descartes himself insisted, really means cogito, scilicet sum; H. B. Smith: "The 
statement is analysis, not proof." On the criteria of first truths, see Porter, Human 
Intellect, 510, 5U. On denial of them, see Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 1 : 213. 

II. The Existence of God a fzrst truth. 

1. That the knowledge of God's existence answers the first criterion 
of universality, is evident from the following considerations : 

A. It is an acknowledged fact that the vast majority of men have actu- 
ally recognized the existence of a spiritual being or beings, upon whom 
they conceived themselves to be dependent. 

The Vedas declare: "There is but one Being— no second." Max Muller, Origin and 
Growth of Religion, 34— "Xot the visible sun, moon and stars are invoked, but some- 
thing else that cannot be seen." The lowest tribes have conscience, fear death, believe 
in witches, propitiate or frighten away evil fates. Even the fetich-worshipper, who 
calls the stone or the tree a god, shows that he has already the idea of a God. We must 
not measure the ideas of the heathen by then capacity for expression, any more than 
we should judge the child's belief in the existence of his father by his success in draw- 
ing the father's picture. On heathenism, its origin and nature, see Tholuck, in Bib. 
Repos., 1832 : 86; Scholz, Gotzendienst und Zauberwesen. 

B. Those races and nations which have at first seemed destitute of such 
knowledge have uniformly, upon further investigation, been found to pos- 
sess it, so that no tribe of men with which we have thorough acquaintance 
can be said to be without an object of worship. We may presume that 
further knowledge will show this to be true of all. 

Moffat, who reported that certain African tribes were destitute of religion, was cor- 
rected by the testimony of his son-in-law, Livingstone: "The existence of God and of 
a future life is everywhere recognized in Africa." Where men are most nearly destitute 
of any formulated knowledge of God, the conditions for the awakening of the idea 
are most nearly absent. An apple-tree may be so conditioned that it never bears apples. 
"We do not judge of the oak by the stunted, flowerless specimens on the edge of the 
Arctic circle." On an original monotheism, see Diestel, in Jahrbuch fiir deutsche 
Theol., 1860, and vol. 5 : 669 ; Max Mttller, Chips, 1 : 337 ; Rawlinson, in Present Day 



32 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

Tracts, no. 11 ; Legge, Religions of China, 8-11 ; Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 1 : 301-308. Per 
contra, see Asmus, Indogerm. Relig., 3 : 1-8, and synopsis, in Bib. Sac, Jan., 1877 : 167-173. 

C. This conclusion is corroborated by the fact that those individuals, in 
heathen or in Christian lands, who profess themselves to be without any 
knowledge of a spiritual power or powers above them, do yet indirectly 
manifest the existence of such an idea in their minds and its positive influ- 
ence over them. 

Herbert Spencer himself affirms the existence of a " Power to which no limit in time 
or space is conceivable, of which all phenomena as presented in consciousness are mani- 
festations." The intuition of God, though formally excluded, is implicitly contained 
in Spencer's system, in the shape of the " irresistible belief " in Absolute Being, which 
distinguishes his position from that of Comte ; see Diman, Theistic Argument, 58-66. 
Hume to Ferguson, as they walked on a starry night : "Adam, there is a Gcd I " Voltaire 
prayed in an Alpine thunderstorm. Shelley, self-styled "Atheist," loved to think of a 
"fine intellectual spirit pervading the universe." Renan trusts in goodness, design, 
ends. See Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, 358 ; Martineau, Study, 3 : 353. 

D. This agreement among individuals and nations so widely separated 
in time and place can be most satisfactorily explained by supposing that it 
has its ground, not in accidental circumstances, but in the nature of man as 
man. The diverse and imperfectly developed ideas of the supreme Being 
which prevail among men are best accounted for as misinterpretations and 
perversions of an intuitive conviction common to all. 

On evidence of a universal recognition of a superior power, see Flint, Anti-theistic 
Theories, 350-389, 533-533; Renouf, Hibbert Lectures for 1879 : 100; Bib. Sac, Jan., 1884 : 
133-157 ; Peschel, Races of Men, 361 ; Ulrici, Leib und Seele, 688, and Gott und die Natur, 
658-670, 758; Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1:377, 381, 418; Alexander, Evidences of Chris- 
tianity, 33 ; Calderwood, Philosophy of the Infinite, 513 ; Liddon, Elements of Religion, 
50; Methodist Quar. Rev., Jan., 1875 : 1; J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, 3 : 17-31. 

2. That the knowledge of God's existence answers the second criterion 
of necessity, will be seen by considering : 

A. That men, under circumstances fitted to call forth this knowledge, 
cannot avoid recognizing the existence of God. In contemplating finite 
existence, there is inevitably suggested the idea of an infinite Being as its 
correlative. Upon occasion of the mind's perceiving its own finiteness, 
dependence, responsibility, it immediately and necessarily perceives the 
existence of an infinite and unconditioned Being upon whom it is depend- 
ent and to whom it is responsible. 

We could not recognize the finite as finite, except by comparing it with an already 
existing standard— the Infinite. Mansel, Limits of Religious Thought, lect. 3—" We are 
compelled by the constitution of our minds to believe in the existence of an Absolute 
and Infinite Being — a belief which appears forced upon us as the complement of our 
consciousness of the relative and finite." Fisher, Journ. Chr. Philos., Jan., 1883 : 113— 
" Ego and non-ego, each being conditioned by the other, presuppose unconditioned being 
on which both are dependent. Unconditioned being is the silent presupposition of all 
our knowing." Calderwood, Philos. of Infinite, 46, and Moral Philos., 77 ; Hopkins, Out- 
line Study of Man, 383-385 ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 311. 

B. That men, in virtue of their humanity, have a capacity for religion. 
This recognized capacity for religion is proof that the idea of God is a neces- 
sary one. If the mind upon proper occasion did not evolve this idea, there 
would be nothing in man to which religion could appeal. 

" It is the suggestion of the Infinite that makes the line of the far horizon, seen over 
land or sea, so much more impressive than the beauties of any limited landscape." In 



THE EXISTENCE OF GOD A FIRST TRUTH. 33 

danger men instinctively cry to God for help, and in the commands and reproaches of 
the moral nature the soul recognizes a Lawgiver and Judge, whose voice conscience 
merely echoes. O. P. Gifford : "As milk from which under proper conditions cream 
does not rise, is not milk, so the man who upon proper occasion shows no knowledge 
of God, is not man, but brute." Nitzsch, Christian Doctrine, § 7; on Wordsworth's 
recognition of divine personality in nature, see Knight, Studies, 282-317, 405-426. 

C. That he who denies God's existence must tacitly assume that exist- 
ence in his very argument, by employing logical processes whose validity 
rests upon the fact of God's existence. The full proof of this belongs under 
the next head. 

On the whole section, see A. M. Fairbairn on Origin and Development of Idea of God, 
in Studies m Philos. of Relig. and History; Martineau, Religion and Materialism, 45; 
Bp. Temple, Bampton Lect., 1884 : 37-65. 

3. That the knowledge of God's existence answers the third criterion 
of logical independence and priority ', may be shown as follows : 

A. It is presupposed in all other knowledge as its logical condition and 
foundation. The validity of the simplest mental acts, such as sense-percej)- 
tion, self-consciousness, and memory, depends upon the assumption that a 
God exists who has so constituted our minds that they give us knowledge 
of things as they are. 

B. The more complex processes of the mind, such as induction and 
deduction, can be relied on only by presupposing a thinking Deity who 
has made the various parts of the universe to correspond to each other and 
to the investigating faculties of man. 

C. Our primitive belief in final cause, or, in other words, our conviction 
that all things have their ends, that design pervades the universe, involves 
a belief in God's existence. In assuming that the universe is a rational 
whole, a system of thought-relations, we assume the existence of an abso- 
lute Thinker, of whose thought the universe is an expression. 

Peabody, Christianity the Religion of Nature, 23— "Induction is syllogism, with the 
immutable attributes of God for a constant term." Porter, Hum. Intellect, 492 — 
"Induction rests upon the assumption, as it demands for its ground, that a personal or 
thinking Deity exists " ; 658 — " It has no meaning or validity unless we assume that the 
universe is constituted in such a way as to presuppose an absolute and unconditioned 
originator of its forces and laws " ; 662—" AVe analyze the several processes of knowledge 
into their underlying assumptions, and we find that the assumption which underlies 
them all is that of a self -existent Intelligence who not only can be known by man, but 
must be known by man in order that man may know anything besides " ; see also pages 
486, 508, 509, 518, 519, 585, 616. Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 81 — " The processes of reflec- 
tive thought imply that the universe is grounded in, and is the manifestation of, reason"; 
560— "The existence of a personal God is a necessary datum of scientific knowledge." 
So also, Fisher, Essays on Supernat. Origin of Christianity, 564, and in Journ. Christ. 
Philos., Jan., 1883 : 129, 130. 

To repeat these three points in another form — the intuition of an Absolute 
Reason is (a) the necessary presupposition of all other knowledge, so that 
we cannot know anything else to exist except by assuming first of all that 
God exists ; (6) the necessary basis of all logical thought, so that we cannot 
put confidence in any one of our reasoning processes except by taking for 
granted that a thinking Deity has constructed our minds with reference to 
the universe and to truth ; and (c) the necessary implication of our primi- 
tive belief in design, so that we can assume all things to exist for a purpose, 
only by making the prior assumption that a purposing God exists — can 
regard the universe as a thought, only by postulating the existence of an 
3 



34 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

absolute Thinker. We cannot prove that God is, but we can show that, in 
order to the existence of any knowledge, thought, reason, in man, man 
must assume that God is. 

As Jacobi said of the beautiful : " Es kann gewiesen aber nicht bewiesen werden "—it 
can be shown, but not proved. Bowne, Metaphysics, 472— " Our objective knowledge of 
the finite must rest upon an ethical trust in the infinite " ; 480— "Theism is the absolute 
postulate of all knowledge, science and philosophy " ; " God is the most certain fact of 
objective knowledge." Ladd, Bib. Sac, Oct., 1877 : 611-616— "Cogito, ergo Deus est. We 
are obliged to postulate a not-ourselves which makes for rationality, as well as for 
righteousness." W. T. Harris: "Even natural science is impossible, where philosophy 
has not yet taught that reason made the world, and that nature is a revelation of the 
rational." Whately, Logic, 270; New Englander, Oct.. 1871, art. on Grounds of Con- 
fidence in Inductive Reasoning; Bib. Sac, 7:415-425; Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 1:197; 
Trendelenburg, Logische TJntersuchungen, ch. 'Zweck'; Ulrici, Gott und die Natur, 
540-626; Lachelier, Du Fondement de l'Induction, 78. Per contra, see Janet, Final 
Causes, 174, note, and 457-464, who holds final cause to be, not an intuition, but the 
result of applying the principle of causality to cases which mechanical laws alone will 
not explain 

III. Otheb Supposed Sources of our Idea or God's Existence. 

Our proof that the idea of God's existence is a rational intuition will not 
be complete, until we show that attempts to account in other ways for the 
origin of the idea are insufficient, and require as their presupposition the 
very intuition which they would supplant or reduce to a secondary place. 
We claim that it cannot be derived from any other source than an original 
cognitive power of the mind. 

1. Not from external revelation, — whether communicated (a) through 
the Scriptures, or (6) through tradition ; for, unless man had from another 
source a previous knowledge of the existence of a God from whom such a 
revelation might come, the revelation itself could have no authority for 
him. 

(a) See Gillespie, Necessary Existence of God, 10; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 117 ; H. B. 
Smith, Faith and Philosophy, 18— "A revelation takes for granted that he to whom it is 
made has some knowledge of God, though it may enlarge and purify that knowledge." 
We cannot prove God from the authority of the Scriptures, and then also prove the 
Scriptures from the authority of God. The very idea of Scripture as a revelation pre- 
supposes belief in a God who can make it. Newman Smyth, in New Englander, 1878 : 
355— We cannot derive from a sun-dial our knowledge of the existence of a sun. The 
sun-dial presupposes the sun, and cannot be understood without previous knowledge of 
the sun. Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 2 : 103— "The voice of the divine ego does not first 
come to the consciousness of the individual ego from without ; rather does every exter- 
nal revelation presuppose already this inner one ; there must echo out from within man 
something kindred to the outer revelation, in order to its being recognized and accepted 
as divine." 

( b ) Nor does our idea of God come primarily from tradition, for " tradition can per- 
petuate only what has already been originated" (Patton). If the knowledge thus 
handed down is the knowledge of a primitive revelation, then the argument just stated 
applies — that very revelation presupposed in those who first received it, and presup- 
poses in those to whom it is handed down, some knowledge of a Being from whom such 
a revelation might come. If the knowledge thus handed down is simply knowledge of 
the results of the reasonings of the race, then the knowledge of God comes originally 
from reasoning — an explanation which we consider further on. On the traditive theory 
of religion, see Flint, Theism, 23, 338 ; Cocker, Christianity and Greek Philosophy, 86-96 ; 
Fairbairn, Studies in Philos. of Relig. and Hist., 14, 15 ; Bowen, Metaph. and Ethics, 453, 
and in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1876 ; Pfleiderer, Religionsphilos., 312-322. 

2. Not from experience, — whether this mean (a) the sense-perception 
and reflection of the individual (Locke), (&) the accumulated results of the 
sensations and associations of past generations of the race (Herbert Spencer), 






OTHER SUPPOSED SOURCES OF THE IDEA. 35 

or ( c) the actual contact of our sensitive nature with God, the supersensible 
reality, through the religious feeling (Newman Smyth). 

The first form of this theory is inconsistent with the fact that the idea 
of God is not the idea of a sensible or material object, nor a combination 
of such ideas. Since the spiritual and infinite are direct opposites of the 
material and finite, no experience of the latter can account for our idea of 
the former. 

With Locke ( Essay on Hum. Understanding, 2:1:4), experience is the passive recep- 
tion of ideas by sensation or by reflection. Locke's tabula rasa theory mistakes the 
occasion of our primitive ideas for their cause. To his statement : " Nihil est in intel- 
lectu nisi quod ante fuerit in sensu, 1 ' Leibnitz replied: "Nisi intellectus ipse." .... 
Consciousness is sometimes called the source of our knowledge of God. But conscious- 
ness, as simply an accompanying knowledge of ourselves and our states, is not properly 
the source of any other knowledge. The German Gotteshewusstsein = not ' consciousness 
of God,' but 'knowledge of God'; Bewusstsein here = not a 'con-knowing,' but a 'be- 
knowing ' ; see Porter, Human Intellect, 86 ; Cousin, True, Beautiful and Good, 48, 49. 

The second form of the theory is open to the objection that the very first 
experience of the first man, equally with man's latest experience, presupposes 
this intuition, as well as the other intuitions, and therefore cannot be the 
cause of it. Moreover, even though this theory of its origin were correct, 
it would still be impossible to think of the object of the intuition as not 
existing, and the intuition would still represent to us the highest measure of 
certitude at present attainable by man. If the evolution of ideas is toward 
truth instead of falsehood, it is the part of wisdom to act upon the hypothesis 
that our primitive belief is veracious. 

Martineau, Study, 2 : 26— "Nature is as worthy of trust in her processes, as in her 
gifts." Bowne, Examination of Spencer, 163, 164— "Are we to seek truth in the minds 
of pre-human apes, or in the blind stirrings of some primitive pulp ? In that case we 
can indeed put away all our science, but we must put away the great doctrine of evolu- 
tion along with it. The experience-philosophy cannot escape this alternative ; either 
the positive deliverances of onr mature consciousness must be accepted as they stand, 
or all truth must be declared impossible." See also Harris, Philos. Basis Theism, 137-142. 

The third form of the theory seems to make God a sensuous object, to 
reverse the proper order of knowing and feeling, to ignore the fact that in 
all feeling there is at least some knowledge of an object, and to forget that the 
validity of this very f eeling can be maintained only by previously assuming 
the existence of a rational Deity. 

Newman Smith tells us that feeling comes first ; the idea is secondary. Intuitive ideas 
are not denied, but they are declared to be direct reflections, in thought, of the feelings. 
They are the mind's immediate perception of what it feels to exist. Direct knowledge 
of God by intuition is considered to be idealistic, reaching God by inference is regarded 
as rationalistic, in its tendency. Sec Smyth, The Religious Feeling ; reviewed by Harris, 
in New Englander, Jan., 1878 ; reply by Smyth, in New Englander, May, 1878. 

3. Not from reasoning, — because 

(a) The actual rise of this knowledge in the great majority of minds is 
not the result of any conscious process of reasoning. On the other hand, 
upon occurrence of the proper conditions, it flashes upon the soul with the 
quickness and force of an immediate revelation. 

( b ) The strength of men's faith in God's existence is not proportioned to 
the strength of the reasoning faculty. On the other hand, men of greatest 



36 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

logical power are often inveterate sceptics, while men of unwavering faith 
are found among those who cannot even understand the arguments for 
God's existence. 

(c) There is more in this knowledge than reasoning could ever have 
furnished. Men do not limit their belief in God to the just conclusions of 
argument. The arguments for the divine existence, valuable as they are for 
purposes to be shown hereafter, are not sufficient by themselves to warrant 
our conviction that there exists an infinite and absolute Being. It will 
appear U£>on examination that the a priori argument is capable of proving 
only an abstract and ideal proposition, but can never conduct us to the 
existence of a real Being. It will appear that the a posteriori arguments, 
from merely finite existence, can never demonstrate the existence of the 
infinite. In the words of Sir Wm. Hamilton ( Discussions, 23 ) — "A dem- 
onstration of the absolute from the relative is logically absurd, as in such 
a syllogism we must collect in the conclusion what is not distributed in 
the premises" — in short, from finite premises we cannot draw an infinite 
conclusion. 

Whately, Logic, 390-392; Jevons, Lessons in Logic, 81; Thompson, Outline Laws of 
Thought, sections 83-93 ; Calderwood, Philos. of Infinite, 60-£9, and Moral Philosophy, 338 ; 
Turnbull, in Bap. Quarterly, July, 1873 : 371 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 339 ; Dove, Logic 
of Christian Faith, 31. Sir Wm. Hamilton : " Departing from the particular, we admit 
that we cannot, in our highest generalizations, rise above the finite." 

(d) Neither do men arrive at the knowledge of God's existence by infer- 
ence ; for inference is condensed syllogism, and, as a form of reasoning, is 
equally open to the objection just mentioned. We have seen, moreover, 
that all logical processes are based upon the assumption of God's existence. 
Evidently that which is presupposed in all reasoning cannot itself be proved 
by reasoning. 

By inference, we of course mean mediate inference, for in immediate inference (e. g. 
" All good rulers are just ; therefore no unjust rulers are good " ) there is no reasoning, 
and no progress in thought. Mediate inference is reasoning— is condensed syDogism; 
and what is so condensed may be expanded into regular logical form. Deductive infer- 
ence : "A negro is a fellow-creature ; therefore he who strikes a negro strikes a fellow- 
creature." Inductive inference : " The first finger is before the second ; therefore it is 
before the third." On inference, see Martineau, Essays, 1 : 105-108 ; Porter, Human 
InteUect, 444-448 ; Jevons, Principles of Science, 1 : 14, 136-139, 168, 363. 

Flint, in his Theism, 77, and Herbert, in his Mod. Realism Examined, would reach the 
knowledge of God's existence by inference. The latter says God is not demonstrable, 
but his existence is inferred, like the existence of our fellow men. But we reply that in 
this last case we infer only the finite from the finite, while the difficulty in the case of 
God is in inferring the infinite from the finite. This very process of reasoning, more- 
over, presupposes the existence of God as the absolute Reason, in the way already 
indicated. 

Substantially the same error is committed by H. B. Smith, Introd. to Chr. Theol., 84-133, 
and by Diman, Theistic Argument, 316, 364, both of whom grant an intuitive element, 
but use it only to eke out the insufficiency of reasoning. They consider that the intui- 
tion gives us only an abstract idea, which contains in itself no voucher for the existence 
of an actual being corresponding to the idea, and that we reach real being only by 
inference from the facts of our own spiritual natures and of the outward world. But 
we reply, in the words of McCosh, that "the intuitions are primarily directed to indi- 
vidual objects." We know, not the infinite in the abstract, but infinite space and time, 
and the infinite God. See McCosh, Intuitions, 36, 199, who, however, holds the view here 
combated. 



CONTENTS OF THIS INTUITION. 37 

IV. Contents of this Intuition. 

1. In this fundamental knowledge that God is, it is necessarily implied 
that to some extent men know intuitively what God is, namely, (a) a 
Keason in which their mental processes are grounded ; ( b ) a Power above 
them upon which they are dependent ; (c) a Perfection which imposes law 
upon their moral natures ; ( d ) a Personality which they may recognize in 
prayer and worship. 

In maintaining that we have a rational intuition of God, we by no means 
imply that a presentative intuition of God is impossible. Such a presenta- 
tive intuition was perhaps characteristic of unfallen man ; it does belong 
at times to the Christian ; it will be the blessing of heaven ( Mat. 5:8 — 
" the pure in heart . . . shall see God"; Rev. 22: 4 — "they shall see his 
face " ). Men's experiences of face-to-face apprehension of God, in danger 
and guilt, give some reason to believe that a presentative knowledge of 
God is the normal condition of humanity. But, as this presentative intui- 
tion of God is not in our present state universal, we here claim only that all 
men have a rational intuition of God. 

It is to be remembered, however, that the loss of love to God has greatly 
obscured even this rational intuition, so that the revelation of nature and 
the Scriptures is needed to awaken, confirm, and enlarge it, and the special 
work of the Spirit of Christ to make it the knowledge of friendship and 
communion. Thus, from knowing about God, we come to know God (John 
17 : 3 — " This is life eternal, that they should know thee " ; 2 Tim. 1 : 12 — 
"I know him whom I have believed " ). 

Harris, Philosophical Basis of Theism, 308— "By rational intuition man knows that 
absolute Being exists; his knowledge of wluit it is, is progressive with his progressive 
knowledge of man and of nature." Hutton, Essays : "A haunting presence besets man 
behind and before. He cannot evade it. It gives new meanings to his thoughts, new 
terror to his sins. It becomes intolerable. He is moved to set up some idol, carved out 
of his own nature, that will take its place — a non-moral God who will not disturb his 
dream of rest. It is a righteous Life and Will, and not the mere idea of righteousness 
that stirs men so." Porter, Hum. Int., 661— "The Absolute is a thinking Agent." The 
intuition does not grow in certainty ; what grows is the mind's quickness in applying 
it and power of expressing it. The intuition is not complex ; what is complex is the 
Being intuitively cognized. See Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 333; Lowndes, Philos. 
of Primary Beliefs, 108-113; Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 157: Latent faculty of speech 
called forth by speech of others ; choked-up well flows again when debris is cleared 
away. Bowen, in Bib. Sac, 33 : 740-754 ; Bowne, Theism, 79. 

2. The Scriptures, therefore, do not attempt to prove the existence of 
God, but, on the other hand, both assume and declare that the knowledge 
that God is, is universal (Rom. 1 : 19-21, 28, 32 ; 2 : 15). God has inlaid 
the evidence of this fundamental truth in the very nature of man, so that 
nowhere is he without a witness. The preacher may confidently follow the 
example of Scripture by assuming it. But he must also explicitly declare 
it, as the Scripture does. "For the invisible things of him since the 
creation of the world are clearly seen " (Kja&opaTcu — spiritually viewed) ; the 
organ given for this purpose is the vcfbq ( vooitpeva ) ; but then — and this f< inns 
the transition to our next division of the subject — they are "perceived 
through the things that are made " (roZf iroiT/juaotv, Rom. 1 : 20). 

On Rom. l : 19-21, see Weiss, Bib. TheoL des N. T., 251, note; also Commentaries of Meyer. 



38 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

Alford, Tholuck, and Wordsworth ; to yvunnbv tov deov = not " that which may be known " (Rev. 
Vers.) but "that which is known" of God; voovfteva. Kadoparai = are clearly seen in that they 
are perceived by the reason— voov^eva expresses the manner of the Ka^oparai (Meyer); 
compare John 1:9; Acts 17 : 27 ; Rom. 1 : 28 ; 2 : 15. On 1 Cor. 15 : 34, see Calderwood, Philos. of Inf., 
466 — ayvucriav ®eov nves ixovcrL = do not possess the specially exalted knowledge of God 
which belongs to believers in Christ ( cf. 1 Jo. 4 : 7 — " every one that loveth is begotten of God, and 
knoweth God"). On Eph. 2 : 12, see Pope, Theology, 1 : 240— a#e<u Zv t<Z kovixw is opposed to 
being in Christ, and signifies rather f orsaken of God, than denying him or entirely 
ignorant of him. On Scripture passages, see Schmid, Bib. Theol. des N. T., 486 ; Hofmann, 
Schriftbeweis, 1 : 62. 

On the general subject of intuition as connected with our iaea of God, see Ladd, in 
Bib. Sac, 1877:1-36, 611-616; 1878:619; Journal of Christ, Philos., Jan., 1883:113-134 
( Final cause an intuition —by Fisher ), and Apr., 1883 : 283-307 ( Genesis of Idea of God — 
by Patton ) ; McCosh, Christianity and Positivism, 124-140 ; Mansel, Metaphysics, in Encyc. 
Britan., 8th ed., 14 : 604 sq., and 615 sq. ; Robert Hall, Sermon on Atheism ; Hutton on 
Atheism, in Essays, 1 : 3-37; Shairp, in Princeton Rev., Mar., 1881 : 264; Shedd, Dogmatic 
Theology, 1 : 195-220— "the earth and sky make the same sensible impression on the 
organs of a brute that they do upon those of a man ; but the brute never discerns the 
'invisible things ' of God, the ' eternal power and godhood.' " 



CHAPTER II. 

CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCES OF GOD'S EXISTENCE. 

Although the knowledge of God's existence is intuitive, it may be expli- 
cated and confirmed by arguments drawn from the actual universe and from 
the abstract ideas of the human mind. 

Remark 1. These arguments are probable, not demonstrative. For this 
reason they supplement each other, and constitute a series of evidences 
which is cumulative in its nature. Though, taken singly, none of them 
can be considered absolutely decisive, they together furnish a corroboration 
of our primitive conviction of God's existence, which is of great practical 
value, and is in itself sufficient to bind the moral action of men. 

Butler, Analogy, Introd., Bonn's ed., 72: Probable evidence admits of degrees, from 
the highest moral certainty to the lowest presumption. Yet probability is the guide of 
life. In matters of morals and religion, we are not to expect mathematical or demon- 
strative, but only probable, evidence, and the slightest preponderance of such evidence 
may be sufficient to bind our moral action. Dove, Logic of Christ. Eaith, 34 : Value of 
the arguments taken together is much greater than that of any single one. Illustrated 
from water, air and food, together but not separately, supporting lif e ; value of £ 1000 
note, not in paper, stamp, writing, signature, taken separately. A whole bundle of rods 
cannot be broken, though each rod in the bundle may be broken separately. The 
strength of the bundle is the strength of the whole. Lord Bacon, Essay on Atheism: 
"A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth 
men's minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second 
causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them and go no further, but, when it behold- 
eth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence 
and Deity." Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 221-223— "The proof of a God and of a 
spiritual world which is to satisfy us must consist in a number of different but converg- 
ing lines of proof." 

Remark 2. A consideration of these arguments may also serve to expli- 
cate the contents of an intuition which has remained obscure and only half 
conscious for lack of reflection. The arguments, indeed, are the efforts of 
the mind that already has a conviction of God's existence to give to itself a 
formal account of its belief. An exact estimate of their logical value and of 
their relation to the intuition which they seek to express in syllogistic form, 
is essential to any proper refutation of the prevalent atheistic and pantheis- 
tic reasoning. 

Diman, Theistic Argument, 363— "Nor have I claimed that the existence, even, of this 
Being can be demonstrated as we demonstrate the abstract truths of science. I have 
only claimed that the universe, as a great fact, demands a rational explanation, and 
that the most rational explanation that can possibly be given is that furnished in the 
conception of such a Being. Tn this conclusion reason rests, and refuses to rest in 
any other." Ruckert : "Wer Gott nicht ftihlt in sich und alien Lebenskreisen, Dcm 
werdet ihr nicht lhn beweisen mit Beweisen." Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 307 — 
" Theology depends on noetic and empirical science to give the occasion on which the 
idea of the Absolute Being arises, and to give content to the idea." Andrew Fuller, 



40 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

Part of Syst. of Divin., 4 : 283, questions "whether argumentation in favor of the exist- 
ence of God has not made more sceptics than believers." So far as this is true, it is due 
to an overstatement of the arguments and an exaggerated notion of what Is to be 
expected from them. See Nitzsch, Christian Doctrine, translation, 140 ; Ebrard, Dog- 
matik, 1 : 119, 120 ; Fisher, Essays on Supernatural Origin of Christianity, 572, 573 ; Van 
Oosterzee, 238, 241. 

Remark 3. The arguments for the divine existence may be reduced to 
four, namely I. The Cosmological ; II. The Teleological ; III. The 
Anthropological; and IV. The Ontological. We shall examine these in 
order, seeking first to determine the precise conclusions to which they 
respectively lead, and then to ascertain in what manner the four may be 
combined. 

I. The CosMonoGiCAii Argument, ok Argument from Change in 
Nature. 

This is not properly an argument from effect to cause ; for the proposition 
that every effect must have a cause is simply identical, and means only that 
every caused event must have a cause. It is rather an argument from 
begun existence to a sufficient cause of that beginning, and may be accu- 
rately stated as follows : 

Everything begun, whether substance or phenomenon, owes its existence 
to some producing cause. The universe, at least so far as its present form 
is concerned, is a thing begun, and owes its existence to a cause which is 
equal to its production. This cause must be indefinitely great. 

It is to be noticed that this argument moves wholly in the realm of nature. The 
argument from man's constitution and beginning upon the planet is treated under 
another head ( see Anthropological Argument). That the present form of the universe 
is not eternal in the past, but has begun to be, not only personal observation but the 
testimony of geology assures us. For statements of the argument, see Kant, Critique 
of Pure Reason ( Bonn's transl.), 370 ; Gillespie, Necessary Existence of God, 3 : 34-44 ; 
Bib. Sac, 1849 : 613 ; 1850 : 613 ; Porter, Hum. Intellect, 570 ; Herbert Spencer, First Prin- 
ciples, 93. It has often been claimed, as by Locke, Clarke, and Robert Hall, that this 
argument is sufficient to conduct the mind to an Eternal and Infinite First Cause. We 
proceed therefore to mention 

1. The defeats of the Cosmological Argument. 

A. It is impossible to show that the universe, so far as its substance is 
concerned, has had a beginning. The law of causality declares, not that 
everything has a cause — for then God himself must have a cause — but rather 
that everything begun has a cause, or, in other words, that every event or 
change has a cause. 

Hume, Philos. "Works, 2 : 411 sg., urges with reason that we never saw a world made. 
Many philosophers in Christian lands, as Martineau, Essays, 1 : 206, and the prevailing 
opinion of ante-Christian times, have held matter to be eternal. Bowne, Metaphysics, 
107— "For being itself, the reflective reason never asks a cause, unless the being show 
signs of dependence. It is change that first gives rise to the demand for cause." See 
also McCosh, Intuitions, 225-241; Calderwood, Philos. of Infinite, 61. Per contra, see 
Murphy, Scient. Bases of Faith, 49, 195, and Habit and Intelligence, 1 : 55-67 ; Knight, 
Lect. on Metaphysics, lect. ii, p. 19. 

B. Granting that the universe, so far as its phenomena are concerned, 
has had a cause, it is impossible to show that any other cause is required 
than a cause within itself, such as the pantheist supposes. 

Flint, Theism, 65 — "The cosmological argument alone proves only force, and no mere 



THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 41 

force is God. Intelligence must go with power to make a Being that can be caned 
God." Diman, Theistic Argument : "The cosmological argument alone cannot decide 
whether the force that causes change is permanent self -existent mind, or permanent 
self -existent matter." Only intelligence gives the basis for an answer. Only mind in the 
universe enables us to infer mind in the maker. But the argument from intelligence 
is not the Cosmological, but the Teleological, and to this last belong all proofs of Deity 
from order and combination in nature. 

C. Granting that the universe must have had a cause outside of itself, it 
is impossible to show that this cause has not itself been caused, i. e., consists 
of an infinite series of dependent causes. The principle of causality does 
not require that everything begun should be traced back to an uncaused 
cause ; it demands that we should assign a cause, but not that we should 
assign a first cause. 

So with the whole series of causes. The materialist is bound to find a cause for this 
series, only when the series is shown to have had a beginning. But the very hypothesis 
of an infinite series of causes excludes the idea of such a beginning. An infinite chain 
has no topmost link ( versus Robert Hall ) ; an uncaused and eternal succession does not 
need a cause (versus Clarke and Locke). See Whately, Logic, 270; New Englander, 
Jan., 1874 : 75 ; Alexander, Moral Science, 221 ; Pfleiderer, Die Religion, 1 : 160-164 ; Calder- 
wood, Moral Philos., 225; Herbert Spencer, First Principles, 37 — criticised by Bowne, 
Review of H. Spencer, 36. Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 128, says that the causal principle 
is not satisfied till by regress we come to a cause which is not itself an effect— to one 
who is causa sui ; Aids to Study of German Theology, 15-17 : Even if the universe be 
eternal, its contingent and relative nature requires us to postulate an eternal Creator ; 
Diman, Theistic Argument, 86—" While the law of causation does not lead logically up 
to the conclusion of a first cause, it compels us to afQrm it." We reply that it is not the 
law of causation which compels us to affirm it, for this certainly "does not lead logically 
up to the conclusion." If we infer an uncaused cause, we do it, not by logical process, 
but by virtue of the intuitive belief within us. So substantially Secretan, and Whewell, 
in Indications of a Creator, and in Hist, of Scientific Ideas, 2 : 321, 322—" The mind takes 
refuge, in the assumption of a First Cause, from an employment inconsistent with its 
own nature " ; " we necessarily infer a First Cause, although the palaetiological sciences 
only point towards it, but do not lead us to it." 

D. Granting that the cause of the universe has not itself been caused, 
it is impossible to show that this cause is not finite, like the universe itself. 
The causal principle requires a cause no greater than just sufficient to 
account for the effect. 

We cannot therefore infer an infinite cause, unless the universe is infinite — which 
cannot be proved, but can only be assumed — and this is assuming an infinite in order to 
prove an infinite. All we know of the universe is finite. An infinite universe implies 
infinite number. But no number can be infinite, for to any number, however great, a 
unit can be added, which shows that it was not infinite before. Here again we see that 
the most approved forms of the Cosmological Argument are obliged to avail themselves 
of the intuition of the infinite, to supplement the logical process. On the law of parsi- 
mony, see Sir Wm. Hamilton, Discussions, 628. 

2. The value of the Cosmological Argument, then, is simply this, — it 
proves the existence of some cause of the universe indefinitely great. 
When we go beyond this, and ask whether this cause is a cause of being, 
or merely a cause of change, to the universe; whether it is a cause apart 
from the universe, or one with it; whether it is an eternal cause, or a cause 
dependent upon some other cause ; whether it is intelligent or unintelligent, 
infinite or finite, one or many, — this argument cannot assure us. 

On the whole argument, see Flint, Theism, 96-130; Mozley, Essays, Hist, and TheoL, 
2 : 414-444; Hedge, Ways of the Spirit, 148-154 ; Studien und Kritikeu, 1876 : 9-31. 



42 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

II. The Teleological Argument, or Argument from Order and 
Useful Collocation in Nature. 

This is not properly an argument from design to a designer ; for that 
design implies a designer is simply an identical proposition. It may be 
more correctly stated as follows : Order and useful collocation pervading a 
system respectively imply intelligence and purpose as the cause of that order 
and collocation. Since order and useful collocation pervade the universe, 
there must exist an intelligence adequate to the production of this order, 
and a will adequate to direct this collocation to useful ends. 

Etymologically, " teleological argument " = argument to ends or final causes, that is, 
" causes which, beginning as a thought, work themselves out into a fact as an end or 
result" (Porter, Hum. Intellect, 592-618) ;— health, for example, is the final cause of 
exercise, while exercise is the efficient cause of health. This definition of the argument 
would be broad enough to cover the proof of a designing intelligence drawn from the 
constitution of man. This last, however, is treated as a part of the Anthropological 
Argument, which follows this, and the Teleological Argument covers only the proof of 
a designing intelligence drawn from nature. Hence Kant, Critique of Pure Reason 
(Bonn's trans.), 381, calls it the physico-theological argument. On methods of stating 
the argument, see Bib. Sac, Oct., 1867 : 625. See also Hedge, Ways of the Spirit, 155-185 
Mozley, Essays Hist, and Theol., 2 : 365-413. 

Hicks, in his Critique of Design-arguments, 347-389, makes two arguments instead of 
one : ( 1 ) the argument from order to intelligence, to which he gives the name Eutaxio- 
logical; (2) the argument from adaptation to purpose, to which he would restrict the 
name Teleological. He holds that Teleology proper cannot prove intelligence, because in 
speaking of " ends " at all, it must assume the very intelligence which it seeks to prove ; 
that it actually does prove simply the intentional exercise of an intelligence whose exist- 
ence has been previously established. " Circumstances, forces or agencies converging 
to a definite rational result imply volition — imply that this result is intended — is an end. 
This is the major premise of the new teleology." He objects to the term " final cause." 
The end is not a cause at all— it is a motive. The characteristic element of cause is 
power to produce an effect. Ends have no such power. The will may choose them or 
set them aside. As already assuming intelligence, ends cannot prove intelligence. 

With this in the main we agree, and count it a valuable help to the statement and 
understanding of the argument. In the very observation of order, however, as well as 
in arguing from it, we are obliged to assume the same all-arranging intelligence. We 
see no objection therefore to making Eutaxiology the first part of the Teleological 
Argument, as we do above. See review of Hicks, in Meth. Quar. Rev., July, 1883 : 569-576. 
We proceed however to certain 

1. Further explanations. 

A. The major premise expresses a primitive conviction. It is not inval- 
idated by the objections: (a) that order and useful collocation may exist 
without being purposed — for we are compelled by our very mental consti- 
tution to deny this in all cases where the order and collocation pervade a 
system; (6) that order and useful collocation may result from the mere 
operation of physical forces and laws — for these very forces and laws imply, 
instead of excluding, an originating and superintending intelligence and will. 

Janet, in his work on Final Causes, 8, denies that finality is a primitive conviction, like 
causality, and calls it the result of an induction. He therefore proceeds from ( 1 ) marks 
of order and useful collocation to (2) finality in nature, and then to (3) an intelligent 
cause of this finality or " pre-conf ormity to future event." So Diman, Theistic Argu- 
ment, 105, claims simply that, as change requires cause, so orderly change requires 
intelligent cause. We have shown, however, that induction and argument of every 
kind presupposes intuitive belief in final cause. Nature does not give us final cause; 
but no more does she give us efficient cause. Mind gives us both, and gives them as 
clearly upon one experience as after a thousand. 



THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 43 

(a) Illustration of unpurposed order, in the single throwing of " double sixes "— con- 
stant throwing of double sixes indicates design. So arrangement of detritus at mouth 
of river, and warming-pans sent to the West Indies,— useful, but not purposed. See 
Chauncey Wright, in N. Y. Nation, Jan. 15, 1871 ; Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 208. 

(b) Bowne, Keview of H. Spencer, 231-217 — " Law is method, not cause. A man cannot 
offer the very fact to be explained, as its sufficient explanation." Martineau, Essays, 
1 : 111—' 4 Patterned damask made not by the weaver but by the loom ? " Joseph Cook : 
"Books written by the laws of spelling and grammar?" Dr. Stevenson: "House 
requires no architect because it is built by stonemasons and carpenters ? " Huxley, 
Critiques and Addresses, 274, 275, 307 — "The teleological and the mechanical views of 
the universe are not mutually exclusive." Sir "Wm. Hamilton, Metaphysics: "Intelli- 
gence stands first in the order of existence. Efficient causes are preceded by final 
causes." See also Thornton, Old-fashioned Ethics, 199-265. Evolution has to do with 
the how, not with the why, of phenomena, and therefore is not inconsistent with design, 
but rather is a new and higher illustration of design. Frances Power Cobbe : " It is a 
singular fact that, whenever we find out how a thing is done, our first conclusion seems 
to be that God did not do it." Bp. Temple, Bampton Lect., 1881 : 99-123 ; Owen, Anat. of 
Vertebrates, 3 : 796 ; Peirce, Ideality in the Physical Sciences, 1-35. 

B. The minor premise expresses a working-principle of all science, 
namely, that all things have their uses, that order pervades the universe, 
and that the methods of nature are rational methods. Evidences of this 
appear in the correlation of the chemical elements to each other ; in the 
fitness of the inanimate world to be the basis and support of life ; in the typi- 
cal forms and unity of plan apparent in the organic creation; in the 
existence and cooperation of natural laws ; in cosmical order and com- 
pensations. 

This minor premise is not invalidated by the objections: (a) That we 
frequently misunderstand the end actually subserved by natural events and 
objects ; for the principle is, not that we necessarily know the actual end, 
but that we necessarily believe that there is some end, in every case of 
systematic order and collocation. (6) That the order of the universe is 
manifestly imperfect ; for this, if granted, would argue, not absence of 
contrivance, but some special reason for imperfection, either in the limita- 
tions of the contriving intelligence itself, or in the nature of the end sought 
(as, for example, correspondence with the moral state and probation of 
sinners). 

Diman, Theistic Argument : " Not only do we observe in the world the change which 
is the basis of the Cosmological Argument, but we perceive that this change proceeds 
according to a fixed and invariable rule. In inorganic nature, general order, or regu- 
larity ; in organic nature, special order, or adaptation." Bowne, Review of H. Spencer, 
113-115, 221-230 : " Inductive science proceeds upon the postulate that the reasonable 
and the natural are one." This furnished the guiding clue to Harvey and Cuvier; see 
Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sciences, 2 : 189-491. Kant : " The anatomist must assume that 
nothing in man is in vain." On molecules as manufactured articles, see Cooke, Reli- 
gion and Chemistry, New Chemistry, and Credentials of Science; also, Maxwell, in 
Nature, Sept. 25, 1873. See also Tulloch, Theism, 116, 120 ; LeConte, Religion and Science, 
lect. 2 and 3; McCosh, Typical Forms, 81, 120; Agassiz, Essay on Classification, 9, 10; Bib. 
Sac, 1819 : 626, and 1850 : 613; Hopkins, in Princeton Review, Sept., 1882 : 181. 

(a) Design, in fact that rivers always run by large towns? that springs are always 
found at gambling places? Plants made for man, and man for worms? Voltaire : 
"Noses are made for spectacles— let us wear them!" Pope : "While man exclaims 
'See all things for my use,' 'See man for mine' replies the pampered goose." Many of 
the objections to design arise from mistaking a part of the creation for the whole, or a 
structure in process of development for a structure completed. For illustration of 
mistaken ends, see Janet, Final Causes. 

(h ) Alphonso of Castile took offense at the Ptolemaic system. See John Stuart Mill's 
indictment of nature, in hia posthumous Essays on Religion. So also SHioix-nhauer 



44 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

and von Hartmann. Per contra, see Bowne, Review of H. Spencer, 264, 265 ; McCosh, 
Christianity and Positivism, 82 sq. ; Martineau, Essays, 1 : 50, and Study of Religion, 1 : 
351-398 ; Porter, Human Intellect, 599 ; Mivart, Lessons from Nature, 366-371 ; Princeton 
Review, Mar., 1878 : 272-303 ; Shaw on Positivism. 

2. Defects of the Teleological Argument. These attach not to the 
premises but to the conclusion sought to be drawn therefrom. 

A. The argument cannot prove a personal God. The order and useful 
collocations of the universe may be only the changing phenomena of an 
impersonal intelligence and will, such as pantheism supposes. The finality 
may be only immanent finality. 

There is such a thing as immanent and unconscious finality. National spirit, without 
set purpose, constructs language. The bee works unconsciously to ends. Strato of 
Lampsacus regarded the world as a vast animal. Hopkins, Miscellanies, 18-36—" So long 
as there is such a thing as impersonal and adapting intelligence in the brute creation, 
we cannot necessarily infer from unchanging laws a free and personal God." See Fisher, 
Supernat. Origin of Christianity, 576-578. Kant shows that the argument does not prove 
an intelligence apart from the woxid ( Critique, 370 ). We must bring mind to the world, 
if we would find mind in it. Leave out man, and nature cannot be properly interpreted : 
the intelligence and will in nature may still be unconscious. But, taking in man, we 
are bound to get our idea of the intelligence and will in nature from the highest type 
of intelligence and will we know, and that is man's. Nullus in microcosmo spiritus, 
nullus in macrocosmo Deus. " We receive but what we give, And in our life alone does 
Nature live." 

The Teleological Argument therefore needs to be supplemented by the Anthropolog- 
ical Argument, or the argument from the mental and moral constitution of man. By 
itself, it does not prove a Creator. See Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 26 ; Ritter, Hist. 
Anc. Philos., bk. 9, chap. 6 ; Foundations of our Faith, 38 ; Murphy, Scientific Bases, 
215 ; Habit and Intelligence, 2 : 6, and chap. 27. On immanent finality, see Janet, Final 
Causes, 345-415 ; Diman, Theistic Argument, 201-203. Since righteousness belongs only 
to personality, this argument cannot prove righteousness in God. Flint, Theism, 66— 
" Power and intelligence alone do not constitute God, though they be infinite. A being 
may have these, and, if lacking righteousness, may be a devil." Here again we see the 
need of the Anthropological Argument to supplement this. 

B. Even if this argument could prove personality in the intelligence 
and will that originated the order of the universe, it could not prove either 
the unity, the eternity, or the infinity of God; not the unity — for the use- 
ful collocations of the universe might be the result of oneness of counsel, 
instead of oneness of essence, in the contriving intelligence ; not the eter- 
nity — for a created demiurge might conceivably have designed the universe ; 
not the infinity — since all marks of order and collocation within our obser- 
vation are simply finite. 

Diman asserts ( Theistic Argument, 114 ) that all the phenomena of the universe must 
be due to the same source— since all alike are subject to the same method of sequence, 
e. g. gravitation — and that the evidence points us irresistibly to some one explanatory 
cause. We can regard this assertion only as the utterance of a primitive belief in a first 
cause, not as the conclusion of logical demonstration, for we know only an infinitesimal 
part of the universe. From the point of view of the intuition of an Absolute Reason, 
however, we can cordially assent to the words of F. L. Patton : " When we consider 
Matthew Arnold's 'stream of tendency,' Spencer's 'unknowable,' Schopenhauer's 
' world as will,' and Hartmann's elaborate defence of finality as the product of uncon- 
scious intelligence, we may well ask if the theists, with their belief in one personal 
God, are not in possession of the only hypothesis that can save the language of these 
writers from the charge of meaningless and idiotic raving" (Journ. Christ. Philos., 
April, 1883: 283-307). 

3. The value of the Teleological Argument is simply this, — it proves 
from certain useful collocations and instances of order which have clearly 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 45 

had a beginning, or in other words, from the present harmony of the uni- 
verse, that there exists an intelligence and will adequate to its contrivance. 
But whether this intelligence and will is j)ersonal or impersonal, creator or 
only fashioner, one or many, finite or infinite, eternal or owing its being to 
another, necessary or free, this argument cannot assure us. 

In it, however, we take a step forward. The causative power which we 
have proved by the Cosmological Argument has now. become an intelligent 
and voluntary power. 

John Stuart Mill, Three Essays on Theism, 168-170— "In the present state of our 
knowledge, the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of probability in favor of 
causation by intelligence." On the whole argument, see Bib. Sac, 1849 : 634; Murphy* 
Scientific Bases of Faith, 216 ; Flint, Theism, 131-210 ; Pfleiderer, Die Religion, 1 : 164-174 ; 
W. R. Benedict, on Theism and Evolution, in Andover Rev., 1886 : 307-350, 607-622. 

HI. The Anthropological Argument, or Argument from Man's 
Mental and Moral Nature. 

This is an argument from the mental and moral constitution of man to 
the existence of an Author, Lawgiver, and End. It is sometimes called 
the Moral Argument. 

The common title " Moral Argument " is much too narrow, for it seems to take account 
only of conscience in man, whereas the argument which this title so imperfectly desig- 
nates really proceeds from man's intellectual and emotional, as well as from his moral, 
nature. In choosing the designation we have adopted, we desire, moreover, to rescue 
from the mere physicist the term "Anthropology"— a term to which he has attached 
altogether too limited a signification, and which, in his use of it, implies that man is a 
mere animal. Anthropology means, not simply the science of man's physical nature, 
origin, and relations, but also the science which treats of his higher spiritual being. 
Hence, in Theology, the term Anthropology designates that division of the subject 
which treats of man's spiritual nature and endowments, his original state and his sub- 
sequent apostasy. As an argument, therefore, from man's mental and moral nature, we 
can with perfect propriety call the present argument the Anthropological Argument. 

The argument is a complex one, and may be divided into three parts. 

1. Man's intellectual and moral nature must have had for its author an 
intellectual and moral Being. The elements of the proof are as follows : — 
( a ) Man, as an intellectual and moral being, has had a beginning upon the 
planet. ( b ) Material and unconscious forces do not afford a sufficient cause 
for man's reason, conscience, and free will. ( c ) Man, as an effect, can be 
referred only to a cause possessing self -consciousness and a moral nature, 
in other words, personality. 

This argument is in part an application to man of the principles of both the Cos- 
mological and the Teleological Arguments. Flint, Theism, 74— "Although causality 
does not involve design, nor design goodness, yet design involves causality, and good- 
ness both causality and design." Jacobi : " Nature conceals God ; man reveals him." 

Man is an effect. The history of the geologic ages proves that man has not always 
existed, and even if the lower creatures were his progenitors, his intellect and freedom 
are not eternal a parte ante. We consider man, not as a physical, but as a spiritual, 
being. Thompson, Christian Theism, 75— "Every true cause must be sufficient to 
account for the effect." Locke, Essay, book 4, chap. 10 — " Cogitable existence cannot 
be produced out of incogitable." Martineau, Study of Religion, 1 : 258 sq. 

Personality = self -consciousness + self-determination in view of moral ends. The 
brute has intelligence and will, but has neither self-consciousness, conscience, nor free- 
will. See Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 76 sq. Diman, Theistic Argument, 91, 251 — 
.** Suppose 4 the intuitions of the moral faculty are the slowly organized results of experi- 
ence received from the race ' ; still, having found that the universe affords evidence 
of a supremely intelligent cause, we may believe that man's moral nature affords the 



46 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

highest illustration of its mode of working " ; 358 — " Shall we explain the lower forms 
of will by the higher, or the higher by the lower? 

2. Man's moral nature proves the existence of a holy Lawgiver and 
Judge. The elements of the proof are : — ( a ) Conscience recognizes the 
existence of a moral law which has supreme authority. ( b ) Known viola- 
tions of this moral law are followed by feelings of ill-desert and fears of 
judgment, (c) This moral law, since it is not self-imposed, and these 
threats of judgment, since they are not self-executing, respectively argue 
the existence of a holy will that has imposed the law, and of a punitive 
power that will execute the threats of the moral nature. 

See Bishop Butler's Sermons on Human Nature, in Works, Bonn's ed., 385-414. But- 
ler's great discoveiy was that of the supremacy of conscience in the moral constitution 
of man : " Had it strength as it has right, had it power as it has manifest authority, it 
would absolutely govern the world." Conscience = the moral judiciary of the soul— not 
law, nor sheriff, but judge ; see under Anthropology. Diman, Theistic Argument, 251 — 
" Conscience does not lay down a law ; it warns us of the existence of a law ; and not 
only of a law, but of a purpose —not our own, but the purpose of another, which it is 
our mission to realize." See Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 218 sq. It proves per- 
sonality in the Lawgiver, because its utterances are not abstract, like those of reason, 
but are in the nature of command ; they are not in the indicative, but in the imperative, 
mood ; it says, " thou shalt " and " thou shalt not." This argues will. 

Hutton, Essays, 1 : 11— "Conscience is an ideal Moses, and thunders from an invisible 
Sinai ; " " the Atheist regards conscience not as a skylight, opened to let in upon human 
nature an infinite dawn from above, but as a polished arch or dome, completing and 
reflecting the whole edifice beneath." But conscience cannot be the mere reflection 
and expression of nature, for it represses and condemns nature. Tulloch, Theism: 
" Conscience, like the magnetic needle, indicates the existence of an unknown Power 
whiCn from afar controls its vibrations and at whose presence it trembles." Nero 
spends mghts of terror in wandering through the halls of his Golden House. Kant 
holds that faith in duty requires faith in a God who will defend and reward duty —see 
Critique of Pure Reason, 359-387. See also Porter, Human Intellect, 524; Martineau, 
Types, 2 : 105 ; and Study, 1 : 26 ; 2 : 7, 46. 

3. Man's emotional and voluntary nature proves the existence of a Being 
who can furnish in himself a satisfying object of human affection and an 
end which will call forth man's highest activities and ensure his highest 
progress. 

Only a Being of power, wisdom, holiness, and goodness, and all these 
indefinitely greater than any that we know upon the earth, can meet this 
demand of the human soul. Such a Being must exist. Otherwise man's 
greatest need would be unsupplied, and belief in a lie be more productive 
of virtue than belief in the truth. 

Feuerbach calls God "the Brocken-shadow of man himself"; "consciousness of God 
= self -consciousness " ; " religion is a dream of the human soul " ; " all theology is 
anthropology." But conscience shows that man does not recognize in God simply his 
like, but also his opposite. Not as Galton : " Piety = conscience + instability." The finest 
minds are of the leaning type ; see Murphy, Scientific Bases, 370 ; Augustine, Confes- 
sions, 1 : 1— "Thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart is restless till it find rest in 
thee." On John Stuart Mill— "a mind that could not find God, and a heart that could 
not do without him"— see his Autobiography, and Browne, in Strivings for the Faith 
( Christ. E v. Soc'y ), 259-287. Comte, in his later days, constructed an object of worship in 
Universal Humanity, and invented a ritual which Huxley calls "Catholicism minus 
Christianity." See also Tyndall, Belfast Address ; "Did I not believe, said a great man 
to me once, that an Intelligence exists at the heart of things, my life on earth would be 
intolerable." Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory, 1 : 505, 506. 

We must freely grant, however, that this argument from man's aspirations has weight 
only upon the supposition that a wise, truthful, holy, and benevolent God exists, who 
has so constituted our minds that their thinking and their affections correspond to 



THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 47 

truth and to himself. An evil being might have so constituted us that all logic would 
lead us into error. The argument is therefore the development and expression of our 
intuitive idea of God. Luthardt, Fundamental Truths : " Nature is like a written docu- 
ment containing only consonants. It is we who must furnish the vowels that shall 
decipher it. Unless we bring with us the idea of God, we shall find nature but dumb." 
See also Pfleiderer, Die Religion, 1 : 174. 

A. The defects of the Anthropological Argument are: (a) It cannot 
prove a creator of the material universe. (6) It cannot prove the infinity 
of God, since man from whom we argue is finite. ( c ) It cannot prove the 
mercy of God. But, 

B. The value of the Argument is, that it assures us of the existence of 
a personal Being, who rules us in righteousness, and who is the proper 
object of supreme affection and service. But whether this Being is the 
original creator of all things, or merely the author of our own existence, 
whether he is infinite or finite, whether he is a Being of simple righteous- 
ness or also of mercy, this argument cannot assure us. 

Among the arguments for the existence of God, however, we assign to 
this the chief place, since it adds to the ideas of causative power (which 
we derived from the Cosmological Argument) and of contriving intelligence 
(which we derived from the Teleological Argument), the far wdder ideas of 
personality and righteous lordship. . 

Sir Wm. Hamilton, Works of Reid, 2 : 974, note U; Lect. on Metaph., 1 : 33— "The only 
valid arguments for the existence of God and for the immortality of the soul rest upon 
the ground of man's moral nature " ; " theology is wholly dependent upon psychology, 
for with the proof of the moral nature of man stands or falls the proof of the existence 
of a Deity." But Diman, Theistic Argument, 244, very properly objects to making this 
argument from the nature of man the sole proof of Deity : " It should be rather used 
to show the attributes of the Being whose existence has been already proved from other 
sources " ; " hence the Anthropological Argument is as dependent upon the Cosmologi- 
cal and Teleological Arguments as they are upon it." 

Yet the Anthropological Argument is needed to supplement the conclusions of the two 
others. Those who, like Herbert Spencer, recognize an infinite and absolute Being, 
Power and Cause, may yet fail to recognize this being as spiritual and personal, simply 
because they do not recognize themselves as spiritual and personal beings, that is, do not 
recognize reason, conscience, and free-will in man. Agnosticism in philosophy involves 
agnosticism in religion. R. K. Eccles : "All the most advanced languages capitalize the 
word ' God,' and the word ' I. ' " See Flint, Theism , 68 ; Mill, Criticism of Hamilton, 2 : 266 ; 
Dove, Logic of Christian Faith, 211-236, 261-299 ; Martineau, Types, Introd., 3 ; Cooke, 
Religion and Chemistry : " God is love ; but nature could not prove it, and the Lamb 
was slain from the foundation of the world in order to attest it." 

It is very common at this place to treat of what are called the Historical and the Bib- 
lical Arguments for the existence of God — the former arguing, from the unity of history, 
the latter arguing, from the unity of the Bible, that this unity must in each case have 
for its cause and explanation the existence of God. It is a sufficient reason for not dis- 
cussing thefee arguments, that, without a previous belief in the existence of God, no one 
will see unity either in history or in the Bible. 

IV. The Ontologicad. Abgument, ok Argument from our Abstract 
and Necessary Ideas. 

This argument infers the existence of God from the abstract and neces- 
sary ideas of the human mind. It has three forms : 

1. That of Samuel Clarke. Space and time are attributes of substance 
or being. But space and time are respectively infinite and eternal. There 
must therefore be an infinite and eternal substance or Being to whom these 
attributes belong. 



48 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

Gillespie states the argument somewhat differently. Space and time are 
modes of existence. But space and time are respectively infinite and eter- 
nal. There must therefore be an infinite and eternal Being who subsists in 
these modes. But we reply : 

Space and time are neither attributes of substance nor modes of exist- 
ence. The argument, if valid, would prove that God is not mind but matter, 
for that could not be mind, but only matter, of which space and time were 
either attributes or modes. 

The Ontological Argument is frequently called the a priori argument, that is, the 
argument from that which is logically prior, or earlier than experience, viz., our intuitive 
ideas. All the forms of the Ontological Argument are in this sense a priori. Space and 
time are a priori ideas. See Samuel Clarke, Works, 3 : 521 ; Gillespie, Necessary Exist- 
ence of God. Per contra, see Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, 364 ; Calderwood, Moral 
Philosophy, 336— "To begin, as Clarke did, with the proposition that 'something has 
existed from eternity,' is virtually to propose an argument after having assumed what 
is to he proved. Gillespie's form of the a priori argument, starting with the proposition 
'infinity of extension is necessarily existing,' is liable to the same objection, with the 
additional disadvantage of attributing a property of matter to the Deity. " 

H. B. Smith says that Brougham misrepresented Clarke : " Clarke's argument is in his 
sixth proposition, and supposes the e:s istence proved in what goes before. He aims here 
to establish the infinitude and omnipresence of this First Being. He does not prove 
existence from immensity." But we reply, neither can he prove the infinity of God 
from the immensity of space. Space and time are neither substances nor attributes, but 
are rather relations ; see Calderwood, Philos. of Infinite, 331-335 ; Cocker, Theistic Con- 
ception of the World, 66-96. The doctrine that space and time are attributes or modes 
of God's existence tends to a materialistic pantheism like that of Spinoza, who held that 
" the one and simple substance " ( substantia una et unica ) is known to us through the 
two attributes of thought and extension ; mind = God in the mode of thought ; matter 
= God in the mode of extension. Dove, Logic of the Christian Faith, 137, says well that 
an extended God is a material God ; " space and time are attributes neither of matter 
nor mind ; " " we must carry the moral idea into the natural world, not the natural idea 
into the moral world." See also, Blunt, Dictionary Doct. and Hist. Theol., 740 ; Porter, 
Human Intellect, 567. 

2. That of Descartes. We have the idea of an infinite and perfect 
Being. This idea cannot be derived from imperfect and finite things. 
There must therefore be an infinite and perfect Being who is its cause. 

But we reply that this argument confounds the idea of the infinite with 
an infinite idea. Man's idea of the infinite is not infinite but finite, and 
from a finite effect we cannot argue an infinite cause. 

This form of the Ontological Argument, while it is a priori, as based upon a necessary 
idea of the human mind, is, unlike the other forms of the same argument, a posteriori, 
as arguing from this idea, as an effect, to the existence of a Being who is its cause. A 
posteriori argument = from that which is later to that which is earlier, that is, from 
effect to cause. The Cosmological, Teleological, and Anthropological Arguments are 
arguments a posteriori. Of this sort is the argument of Descartes ; see Descartes, Med- 
itation 3 : " Haec idea quae in nobis est requirit Deum pro causa ; Deiisque proinde 
existit." The idea in men's minds is the impression of the workman's name stamped 
indelibly on his work — the shadow cast upon the human soul by that unseen One of 
whose being and presence it dimly informs us. Blunt, Diet, of Theol., 739 ; Saisset, Pan- 
theism, 1 : 54— "Descartes sets out from a fact of consciousness, while Anselm sets out 
from an abstract conception ; " " Descartes's argument might be considered a branch of 
the Anthropological or Moral Argument, but for the fact that this last proceeds from 
man's constitution rather than from his abstract ideas." See Bib. Sac, 1849 : 637. 

3. That of Anselm. We have the idea of an absolutely perfect Being. 
But existence is an attribute of perfection. An absolutely perfect Being 
must therefore exist. 



THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 49 

But we reply that this argument confounds ideal existence with real exist- 
ence. Our ideas are not the measure of external reality. 

Anselm, Proslogion, 2— "Id, quo majus cogitari nequit, non potest esse in intellectu 
solo." See translation of the Proslogion, in Bib. Sac, 1851 : 529, 699; Kant, Critique, 368. 
The arguments of Descartes and Anselm, with Kant's reply, are given in their original 
form by Harris, in Journ. Spec. Philos., 15 : 420-428. The major premise here is not that 
all perfect ideas imply the existence of the object which they represent, for then, as 
Kant objects, I might argue from my perfect idea of a $100 bill that I actuaDy possessed 
the same, which would be far from the fact. So I have a perfect idea of a perfectly 
evil being, of a centaur, of nothing,— but it does not follow that the evil being, that 
the centaur, that nothing, exists. The argument is rather from the idea of absolute 
and perfect Being — of " that, no greater than which can be conceived." There can be 
but one such Being, and there can be but one such idea. 

Yet, even thus understood, we cannot argue from the idea to the actual existence of 
such a being. " Anselm's argument implies," says Fisher, in Journ. Christ. Philos., Jan., 
1883 : 114, "that existence in re is a constituent of the concept. It would conclude the 
existence of a being from the definition of a word. This inference is justified only on 
the basis of philosophical realism." Dove, Logic of the Christ. Faith, 141— "The Onto- 
logical Argument is the algebraic formula of the universe, which leads to a valid conclu- 
sion with regard to real existence, only when we fill it in with the objects with which we 
become acquainted in the arguments a posteriori.'''' See also, Shedd, Hist. Doct., 1 : 231, 
Dogm. Theol., 1 : 221-211, and in Presb. Rev., April, 1884 : 212-227 (favoring the argument) ; 
Fisher, Essays, 574; Thompson, Christian Theism, 171; H. B. Smith, Introd. to Christ. 
Theol., 122 ; Pfleiderer, Die Religion, 1 : 181-187 ; Studien und Kritiken, 1875 : 611-^55. 

Dorner, in his Glaubenslehre, 1 : 197, gives us the best statement of the Ontological 
Argument : " Reason thinks of God as existing. Reason would not be reason, if it did 
not think of God as existing. Reason only is, upon the assumption that God is." But 
this is evidently not argument, but only vivid statement of the necessary assumption of 
the existence of an absolute Reason which conditions and gives validity to ours. 

Although this last must be considered the most perfect form of the Onto- 
logical Argument, it is evident that it conducts us only to an ideal conclusion, 
not to real existence. In common with the two preceding forms of the 
argument, moreover, it tacitly assumes, as already existing in the human 
mind, that very knowledge of God's existence which it would derive from 
logical demonstration. It has value, therefore, simply as showing what God 
must be, if he exists at all. 

But the existence of a Being indefinitely great, a personal Cause, Con- 
triver and Lawgiver, has been proved by the preceding arguments; for the 
law of parsimony requires us to apply the conclusions of the first three 
arguments to one Being, and not to many. To this one Being we may 
now ascribe the infinity and perfection, the idea of which lies at the basis 
of the Ontological Argument — ascribe them, not because they are demon- 
strably his, but because our mental constitution will not allow us to think 
otherwise. Thus clothing him Avith all perfections which the human mind 
can conceive, and these in illimitable fulness, we have one whom we may 
justly call God. 

McCosh, Div. Gov't, 12, note— "It is at this place, if we do not mistake, that the idea 
of the Infinite comes in. The capacity of the human mind to form such an idea, or 
rather its intuitive belief in an Infinite of which it feels that it cannot form an adequate 
conception, may be no proof (as Kant maintains) of the existence of an infinite Being; 
but it is, we are convinced, the means by which the mind is enabled to invest the Deity, 
shown on other grounds to exist, with the attributes of Infinity, t. <:., to look on his 
being, power, goodness, and all his perfect ions, as infinite." Even Flint, Theism, 68, who 
holds that we reach the existence of God by inference, speaks of "necessary conditions 
of thought and feeling, and ineradicable aspirations, which force on us Ideas of absolute 
existence, infinity, and perfection, and will neither permit us to deny these perfections 
4 



50 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

to God, nor to ascribe them to any other being." Belief in God is not the conclusion 
of a demonstration, but the solution of a problem. Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 
236—" Either the whole question is assumed in starting-, or the Infinite is not reached in 
concluding." 

As a logical process this is indeed defective, since all logic as well as all 
observation depends for its validity upon the presupposed existence of 
God, and since this particular process, even granting the validity of logic 
in general, does not warrant the conclusion that God exists, except upon a 
second assumption that our abstract ideas of infinity and perfection are to 
be applied to the Being to whom argument has actually conducted us. 

But although both ends of the logical bridge are confessedly wanting, the 
process may serve and does serve a more useful purpose than that of mere 
demonstration, namely, that of awakening, explicating, and confirming a 
conviction which, though the most fundamental of all, may yet have been 
partially slumbering for lack of thought. 

Morell, Philos. Fragments, 177, 179— "We can, in fact, no more prove the existence of 
a God by a logical argument, than we can prove the existence of an external world ; but 
none the less may we obtain as strong a practical conviction of the one, as the other." 
"We arrive at a scientific belief in the existence of God just as we do at any other 
possible human truth. We assume it, as a hypothesis absolutely necessary to account 
for the phenomena of the universe ; and then evidences from every quarter begin to 
converge upon it, until, in process of time, the common sense of mankind, cultivated 
and enlightened by ever accumulating knowledge, pronounces upon the validity of the 
hypothesis with a voice scarcely less decided and universal than it does in the case of our 
highest scientific convictions." 

Fisher, Essays on Supernat. Orig. of Christ 'y, 572 — " What then is the purport and force 
of the several arguments for the existence of God ? We reply that these proofs are the 
different modes in which faith expresses itself and seeks confirmation. In them faith, or 
the object of faith, is more exactly conceived and defined, and in them is found a corrobo- 
ration, not arbitrary but substantial and valuable, of that faith which springs from the 
soul itself. Such proofs, therefore, are neither on the one hand sufficient to create and 
sustain faith, nor are they on the other hand to be set aside as of no value." A. J. Bar- 
rett : " The arguments are not so much a bridge in themselves, as they are guys, to hold 
firm the great suspension-bridge of intuition, by which we pass the gulf from man to 
God. Or, while they are not a ladder by which we may reach heaven, they are the Ossa 
on Pelion, from whose combined height we may descry heaven." On the whole subject, 
see Cudworth, Intel. System of the Universe, 3:42; Calderwood, Philos. of the Infinite, 
150 sq. ; Curtis, Human Element in Inspiration, 242 ; Peabody, in Andover Review, July, 
1884 ; Hahn, History of the Arguments for the Existence of God ; Lotze, Philosophy of 
Religion, 8-34. 

Must I refuse to drink water or to breathe air, until I can manufacture both for 
myself ? Some things are given to us. Among these things are " grace and truth " ( John 1 : 17 : 
c/. 9 ). But there are ever those who are willing to take nothing as a free gift, and who 
insist on working out all knowledge, as well as all salvation, by processes of their own. 
Pelagianism, with its denial of the doctrines of grace, is but the further development of 
a rationalism which refuses to accept primitive truths unless these can be logically 
demonstrated. Since the existence of the soul, of the world, and of God cannot be 
proved in this way, rationalism is led to curtail, or to misinterpret, the deliverances of 
consciousness, and hence result certain systems now to be mentioned. 



CHAPTER III. 

ERRONEOUS EXPLANATIONS OF THE FACTS. 

Any correct explanation of the universe must postulate an intuitive 
knowledge of the existence of the external world, of self, and of God. 
The desire for scientific unity, however, has occasioned attempts to reduce 
these three factors to one, and according as one or another of the three has 
been regarded as the all-inclusive principle, the result has been Materialism, 
Idealism, or Pantheism. 

I. Materialism. 

Materialism is that method of thought which gives priority to matter, 
rather than to mind, in its explanations of the universe. Upon this view, 
material atoms constitute the ultimate and fundamental reality of which 
all things, rational and irrational, are but combinations and phenomena. 
Force is regarded as a universal and inseparable property of matter. 

l?he element of truth in materialism is the reality of second causes. Its 
error is in mistaking these second causes for first causes, and in supposing 
them able to account for their own existence, and for the existence of the 
universe. 

Herschel says that these atoms, in recognizing each other in order to combine, show 
a great deal of "presence of mind." The monad of Leibnitz =" parvus in suo genere 
deus. " Deprive matter of force ( impenetrability, motion, etc.), and you have only exten- 
sion left. This makes matter = space = zero. The impossibility of finding in matter, 
regarded as mere atoms, any of the attributes of a cause, has led to a general abandon- 
ment of this old Materialism of Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius, Condillac, Holbach, 
Feuerbach, Buchner; and Materialistic Idealism has taken its place, which instead of 
regarding force as a property of matter, regards matter as a manifestation of force. 
See Lange, History of Materialism ; Janet, Materialism ; Fabri, Materialismus ; Herzog, 
Encyclopaedic art. : Materialismus ; but esp., Stallo, Modern Physics, 148-170 ; H. N. Gard- 
iner, in Presb. Rev., 1885:301-314, 665, 666: Mind gives to matter its chief meaning,— 
hence matter alone can never explain the universe. 

In addition to the general error indicated above, we object to this system 
as follows : 

1. In knowing matter, the mind necessarily judges itself to be a sub- 
stance different in kind, and higher in rank, than the matter which it 

knows. 

We here state simply an intuitive conviction. The mind, in using its physical organ- 
tan] and through it bringing external nature into its service, recognizes itself as different 
from and superior to matter. Martincau, quoted In Brit. Quar., April, 1882 : 173— "The 
Inorganic and unconscious portion of the world, instead of being the potentiality of 
the organic and conscious, is rather its residual precipitate, formed as the Indwelling 
Mind concentrates an Intenser aim on the upper margin of the ordered whole, and 
ially on the inner life of the natures that can resemble him. 11 Pres. Thos. I fill, in 
Bib. Sac, April, 1852 : 353 — "All that Is really given by the ael of sense-perception Is the 

existence of the conscious self, floating in boundless space and boundless time, sur- 
rounded and sustained by boundless power. The material world, which we at first think 
the great reality, is only the shadow of a real being, which is immaterial." Harris' 

51 



52 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

Philosophical Basis of Theism, 317 — " Imagine an infinitesimal being in the brain, watch- 
ing the action of the molecules, but missing the thought. So science observes the uni- 
verse, and misses God." Hebberd, in Journ. Spec. Philos., April, 1886 : 135. 

2. Since the mind's attributes of (a) continuous identity, (6) self- 
activity, ( e ) unrelatedness to space, are different in kind and higher in 
rank than the attributes of matter, it is rational to conclude that the sub- 
stance underlying mental phenomena is a substance different in kind and 
higher in rank than that which underlies material phenomena. 

This is an argument from specific qualities to the nature of the substance underlying 
them. ( a ) Memory proves personal identity. This is not an identity of material atoms, 
for atoms change. The molecules that come cannot remember those that depart. 
Some immutable part in the brain ? organized, or unorganized ? Organized decays ; 
unorganized = soul, (b) Inertia shows that matter is not self -moving. It acts only as 
it is acted upon. A single atom would never move. Two portions are necessary, and 
these, in order to useful action, require adjustment by a power which does not belong to 
matter. Evolution of the universe inexplicable, unless matter were first moved by 
some power outside itself. See Duke of Argyll, Reign of Law, 92. (c) The highest 
activities of mind are independent of known physical conditions. Mind controls and 
subdues the body. It does not cease to grow when the growth of the body ceases. 
When the body nears dissolution, the mind often asserts itself most strikingly. 

See Porter, Human Intellect, 22, 131, 132. McCosh, Christianity and Positivism, chap, 
on Materialism ; Divine Government, 71-91 ; Intuitions, 140-145. Hopkins, Study of Man, 
53-56; Morell, Hist. Philos., 318-334 ; Hickok, Rational Cosmology, 403; Theol. Eclectic, 
6 : 555 ; Appleton, Works, 1 : 151-154 ; Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 235 ; TJlrici, Leib 
und Seele, 688-725, and synopsis, in Bap. Quar., July, 1873 : 380. 

3. This common judgment that mind and matter are distinct substances 
must be regarded as conclusive, until it is scientifically demonstrated that 
mind is material in its origin and nature. But all attempts to explain the 
psychical from the physical, or the organic from the inorganic, are acknowl- 
edged failures. The most that can be claimed is, that psychical are always 
accompanied by physical changes, and that the inorganic is the basis and 
support of the organic. Although the precise connection between the mind 
and the body is unknown, the fact that the continuity of physical changes 
is unbroken in times of psychical activity renders it certain that mind is not 
transformed physical force. 

The chemist can produce organic, but not organized, substances. The life cannot be 
produced from matter. Even in living things progress is secured only by plan. Multi- 
plication of desired advantage, in the Darwinian scheme, requires a selecting thought; 
in other words the natural selection is artificial selection after all. John Fiske, Destiny 
of the Creature, 109—" Cerebral physiology tells us that, during the present life, although 
thought and feeling are always manifested in connection with a peculiar form of matter, 
yet by no possibility can thought and feeling be in any sense the product of matter. 
Nothing could be more grossly unscientific than the famous remark of Cabanis, that 
the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile. It is not even correct to say that 
thought goes on in the brain. What goes on in the brain is an amazingly complex series 
of molecular movements, with which thought and f eeling are in some unknown way cor- 
related, not as effects or as causes, but as concomitants." 

Leibnitz's " pre-established harmony" indicates the difficulty of defining the relation 
between mind and matter. See British Quarterly, Jan., 1874 : art. by Herbert, On Mind 
and the Science of Energy; Spencer. Principles of Psychology, vol. 1, sec. 56— "Two 
things, mind and nervous action, exist together, but we cannot imagine how they are 
related." See Review of Spencer's Psychology, in N. Englander, July, 1873. Tyndall, 
Fragments of Science, 120—" The passage from, the physics of the brain to the facts of 
consciousness is unthinkable." Bain, Mind and Body, 131 : No break in physical con- 
tinuity. McCosh, Intuitions, 145 ; Talbot, in Bap. Quarterly, Jan., 1871 : 1. On Geulincx's 
" occasional causes " and Descartes's dualism, see Martineau, Types, 144, 145. 156-158, and 
Study, 2 : 77. 



MATERIALISTIC IDEALISM. 53 

4. The materialistic theory, denying as it does the priority of spirit, can 
furnish no sufficient cause for the highest features of the existing universe, 
namely, its personal intelligences, its intuitive ideas, its moral progress, its 
beliefs in God and immortality. 

Herbert, Modern Realism Examined : " Materialism has no physical evidence of the 
existence of consciousness in others. As it declares our fellow-men to be destitute of 
free volition, so it should declare them destitute of consciousness ; should call them, as 
well as brutes, pure automata. If physics are aU, there is no God, but there is also no 
man, existing." Some of the early followers of Descartes used to kick and beat their 
dogs, laughing meanwhile at their cries and calling them the " creaking of the machine." 
Huxley, who calls the brutes " conscious automata," believes in the gradual banishment, 
from all regions of human thought, of what we call spirit and spontaneity : "A sponta- 
neous act is an absurdity ; it is simply an effect that is uncaused." 

Diman, Theistic Argument, 348 — "Materialism can never explain the fact that matter 
is always combined with force. Coordinate principles? then dualism, instead of mon- 
ism. Force cause of matter ? then we preserve unity, but destroy materialism ; for we 
trace matter to an immaterial source. Behind multiplicity of natural forces we must 
postulate some single power— which can be nothing but coordinating mind." Mark 
Hopkins sums up Materialism in Princeton Rev., Nov., 1879 : 490— "1. Man, who is a 
person, is made by a thing, i. e., matter. 2. Matter is to be worshiped as man's maker, 
if anything is to be (Rom. 1 : 25). 3. Man is to worship himself —his God is his belly." 
See also Martineau, Religion and Materialism, 25-31, Types, 1 : preface, xh, xiii, and Study, 
1 : 248, 250, 345 ; Christlieb, Modern Doubt and Christian Belief . 145-161 ; Buchanan, Modern 
Atheism, 247, 248 ; McCosh, in International Rev., Jan., 1875; Contemp. Rev., Jan., 1875, 
art. : Man Transcorporal ; Calderwood, Relations of Mind and Brain ; Laycock, Mind 
and Brain ; Diman, Theistic Argument, 358 ; Wilkinson, in Present Day Tracts, 3 : no. 17 ; 
Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 487-499 ; A. H. Strong, Philos. and Relig., 31-38. 

II. Materialistic Idealism. 

Idealism proper is that method of thought which regards all knowledge 
as conversant only with affections of the percipient mind. 

Its element of truth is the fact that these affections of the percipient 
mind are the conditions of our knowledge. Its error is in denying that 
through these and in these we know that which exists independently of our 
consciousness. 

The idealism of the present day is mainly a materialistic idealism. It 
defines matter and mind alike in terms of sensation, and regards both as 
opposite sides or successive manifestations of one underlying and unknow- 
able force. 

Modern idealism is the development of a principle found as far back as Locke. Locke 
derived all our knowledge from sensation. Berkeley said that externally we could be 
sure only of sensations — could not therefore be sure that the external world exists at 
all. Hume carried the principle further and held that internally also we cannot be sure 
of anything but mental phenomena. We do not know mental substance within, any 
more than we know material substance without. As Berkeley held things to be only 
thoughts, Hegel held that thought thinks— there is thought without a thinker — thoughts 
that were never thought. Berkeley's view is to be found in his Principles of Human 
Knowledge, § 18 sq. Sec also Presb. Rev., April, 1885 : 301-313 ; Journ. Spec. Philos., 1884 : 
246-260, 383-399; Tulloch, Mod. Theories, 360, 361. 

The most complete refutation of idealism in all its forms, is that of Sir Win. Hamilton, 
in his Metaphysics, 348-372, and Theories of Sense-Perception — the Reply to Brown. See 
condensed statement of Hamilton's view, with estimate and criticism, in Porter, Human 
Intellect, 236-240; on Idealism, see also 129, 132. Porter holds that original perception 
gives us simply affections of our own sensorlum; as cause of these, we gain knowl- 
edge of extended externality. So Sir Win. Hamilton : " Sensation proper has no object 
but a subject-object." But both Porter and Hamilton hold that through these sensations 
we know that which exists independently of our sensations. 

Mill, however, in his Examination of Sir AVm. Hamilton, 1 : 284-268, makes sensations 
the only objects of knowledge; defines matter as a "permanent possibility of sensa- 



54 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

tion " and mind as a "series of feelings aware of itself." So Huxley calls matter "only 
a name for the unknown cause of states of consciousness." Mill and Huxley, with 
Spencer, Bain, and Tyndall, are Humists. See Fiske, Cosmic Philosophy, 1 : 75 ; 2 : 80- 
All these regard the material atom as a mere centre of force = hypothetical cause of 
sensations. Matter is therefore a manifestation of force, while, to the old materialism, 
force was a property of matter. See art. on Huxley, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 1872; Tyn- 
dall, Fragments of Science, 73. But if matter, mind, and God are nothing but sensations, 
then the body itself is nothing but sensations. There is no body, to have the sensations, 
and no spirit, either human or divine, to produce them. See Lowndes, Philos. of Primary 
Beliefs, 115-143 ; Atwater ( on Ferrier ), in Princeton Rev., 1857 : 258-280 ; Cousin, Hist. 
Philos., 2 : 239-343 ; F. E. Abbott, Scientific Theism, 171-177; Veitch's Hamilton (Black- 
wood's Philos. Classics), 176 191; A. H. Strong, Philos. and Relig., 58-74. 

To this view we make the following objections : 

1. Its definition of matter as a "permanent possibility of sensation" 
contradicts our intuitive judgment that, in knowing the phenomena of mat- 
ter, we have direct knowledge of substance as underlying phenomena, as 
distinct from our sensations, and as external to the mind which experi- 
ences these sensations. 

Bowne, Metaphysics, 432 — "How the possibility of an odor and a flavor can be the 
cause of the yellow color of an orange is probably unknowable, except to a mind that 
can see that two and two may make five." See Inverach's Philosophy of Spencer Exam- 
ined, in Present Day Tracts, 5 : no. 29. 

2. Its definition of mind as a "series of feelings aware of itself" 
contradicts our intuitive judgment that, in knowing the j)henomena of mind, 
we have direct knowledge of a spiritual substance of which these phenomena 
are manifestations, which retains its identity indejoendently of our conscious- 
ness, and which, in its knowing, instead of being the passive recipient of 
impressions from without, always acts from within by a power of its own. 

See, on Bain's Cerebral Psychology, Martineau's Essays, 1 : 265. On the physiological 
method of mental philosophy, see Talbot, in Bap. Quar., 1871 : 1 ; Bowen, in Princeton 
Rev., March, 1878 : 423-450; Murray, Psychology, 279-287. 

3. In so far as this theory regards mind as the obverse side of matter, or 
as a later and higher development from matter, the mere reference of both 
mind and matter to an underlying force does not save the theory from any 
of the difficulties of pure materialism already mentioned ; since in this case, 
equally with that, force is regarded as purely physical, and the priority of 
spirit is denied. 

Herbert Spencer, Psychology, quoted by Fiske, Cosmic Philosophy, 2 : 80— "Mind and 
nervous action are the subjective and objective faces of the same thing. Yet we remain 
utterly incapable of seeing, or even of imagining, how the two are related. Mind still 
continues to us a something without kinship to other things." Owen, Anatomy of 
Vertebrates, quoted by Talbot, Bap. Quar., Jan., 1871 : 5— "All that I know of matter 
and mind in themselves is that the former is an external centre of force, and the latter 
an internal centre of force." New Englander, Sept., 1883 : 636— "If the atom be a mere 
centre of force and not a real thing in itself, then the atom is a supersensual essence, an 
immaterial being. To make immaterial matter the source of conscious mind is to make 
matter as wonderful as an immortal soul or a personal Creator." See New Englander, 
July, 1875 : 532-535; Martineau, Study, 102-130, and Relig. and Mod. Materialism, 25— "If 
it takes mind to construe the universe, how can the negation of mind constitute it ? " 

4. In so far as this theory holds the underlying force of which matter 
and mind are manifestations to be in any sense intelligent or voluntary, it 
leads to the conclusion that second causes, whether material or spiritual, 
have no proper existence, and that there is but one agent in the universe — 
a conclusion which involves all the difficulties of pantheism. 



PANTHEISM. 55 

Some recent Christian thinkers, as Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 13-15, 39-36, 42-53, 
-would define mind as a function of matter, matter as a function of force, force as a 
function of will, and therefore as the power of an omnipresent and personal God. All 
force, except that of man's free -will, is the will of God. So Herschel, Lectures, 460; 
Argyll, Reign of Law, 121-137 ; "Wallace on Nat. Selection, 363-371 ; Martineau, Essays, 1 : 
63, 131, 145, 365 ; Bowen, Metaph. and Ethics, 146-163. But if man's will exhibits a force 
distinguishable f rom the divine, why may there not be physical forces distinguishable 
from the divine? If God can disengage from himself the force displayed in living 
human beings, then he can disengage from himself the force displayed in inanimate 
nature. The same reasoning which assures us of the existence of the former assures us 
of the existence of the latter. Matter, moreover, cannot be mere centres of force. 
Created force, in matter as well as in mind, implies created substance which exerts 
it, — otherwise God himself must exert the force, and the physical universe be only 
another name for God. 

To deny second causes is therefore idealism, and tends to pantheism. This tendency we 
find in the recent Metaphysics of Bowne, who regards only personality as real. Matter 
is phenomenal, although it is an activity of the divine will outside of us. Bowne's phe- 
nomenalism is therefore an objective idealism, as distinguished from the subjective 
idealism of Berkeley, who held to God's energizing only within the soul. But since, 
according to Bowne, space is only a form of our thinking, the difference between God's 
ceaseless production of phenomena within, and God's ceaseless production of phenomena 
without, is purely verbal. Royce, The Religious Aspect of Philosophy, makes man's 
consciousness a part or aspect of a universal consciousness, and so, instead of making- 
God come to consciousness only in man, as Hegel did, makes man come to consciousness 
only in God. While this scheme seems, in one view, to save God's personality, it practi- 
cally identifies man's personality with God's, which is subjective pantheism. Per contra, 
see Martineau, Study, 1 : 214-230, 341. On the substantive existence of second causes, see 
Porter, Human InteUect, 583-588; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 596; Alden, Philosophy, 48-70; 
Hodgson, Time and Space, 149-318. 

III. Pantheism. 

Pantheism is that method, of thought which conceives of the universe as 
the development of one intelligent and voluntary, yet impersonal, sub- 
stance, which reaches consciousness only in man. It therefore identifies 
God, not with each individual object in the universe, but with the totality 
of things. 

The elements of truth in Pantheism are the intelligence and voluntariness 
of God, and his immanence in the universe ; its error lies in denying God's 
personality and transcendence. 

Pantheism denies the real existence of the finite, at the same time that it deprives the 
Infinite of self -consciousness and freedom. See Hunt, History of Pantheism ; Manning, 
Half-truths and the Truth ; Bayne, Christian Life, Social and Individual, 31-53 ; Hutton, 
on Popular Pantheism, in Essays, 1 : 55-76— "The pantheist's 'I believe in God,' is a con- 
tradiction. He says : ' I perceive the external as different from myself ; but on further 
reflection, I perceive that this external was itself the percipient agency.' So the wor- 
shiped is really the worshiper after all." Harris, Philosophical Basis of Theism, 173 — 
11 Man is a bottle of the ocean's water, in the ocean, temporarily distinguishable by its 
limitation within the bottle, but lost again in the ocean, so soon as these fragile limits 
are broken." Martineau, Types, 1 : 23 — Mere immanency excludes Theism: transcend- 
ency leaves it still possible ; 331-335— Pantheism declares that " there is nothing but God ; 
he is not only sole cause but entire effect ; he is all in all." Spinoza has been falsely 
called " the God-intoxicated man." " Spinoza, on the contrary, translated God into the 
universe ; it was Malebranche who ti-ansngured the universe into God." 

The later Brahmanism is pantheistic. Rowland Williams, Christianity and Hinduism, 
quoted in Mozley on Miracles, 384— "In the final state personality vanishes. You will 
not, says the Brahman, accept the term ' void ' as an adequate description of the myste- 
rious nature of the soul, but you will clearly apprehend soul, in the final state, to be 
unseen and ungrasped being, thought, knowledge, joy — no other than very God." 
Flint, Theism, 69— "Where the will is without energy, and rest is longed for as the end 
of existence, as among the Hindus, there is marked inability to think of God as cause or 
will, and constant inveterate tendency to pantheism." 



56 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

We object to this system as follows : 

1. Its idea of God is self -contradictory, since it makes him infinite, yet 
consisting only of the finite ; absolute, yet existing in necessary relation 
to the universe ; supreme, yet shut up to a process of self -evolution and 
dependent for self- consciousness on man ; without self-determination, yet 
the cause of all that is. 

Saisset, Pantheism, 148— "An imperfect God, yet perfection arising from imperfection." 
Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 1 : 13—" Pantheism applies to God a principle of growth and imper- 
fection, which belongs only to the finite." Calderwood, Moral Philos.,245— "Its first 
requisite is moment, or movement, which it assumes, hut does not account for." Caro's 
sarcasm applies here: "Your God is not yet made— he is in process of manufacture." 
See H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy, 25. 

2. Its assumed unity of substance is not only without proof, but it 
directly contradicts our intuitive judgments. These testify that we are 
not parts and particles of God, but distinct personal subsistences. 

Martineau, Essays, 1 : 158 — " Even for immanency, there must be something wherein to 
dwell, and for life, something whereon to act." Any system of monism contradicts 
consciousness ; it confounds harmony between two with absorption in one. " In Scrip- 
ture we never find the universe called to nav, for this suggests the idea of a self-con- 
tained unity : we have everywhere t<x iravTa. instead." The Bible recognizes the element 
of truth in pantheism — God is ' through all ' ; also the element of truth in mysticism — God is 
'in you all ' ; but it adds the element of transcendence which both these fail to recognize — 
God is ' above all ' ( Eph. 4 : 6). See Fisher, Essays on Supernat. Orig. of Christ'y, 539. 

3. It assigns no sufficient cause for that fact of the universe which is 
highest in rank, and therefore most needs explanation, namely, the existence 
of personal intelligences. A substance which is itself unconscious, and 
under the law of necessity, cannot produce beings who are self-conscious 
and free. 

Gess, Foundations of our Faith, 36— "Animal instinct, and the spirit of a nation work- 
ing out its language, might furnish analogies, if they produced personalities as their 
result, but not otherwise. Nor were these tendencies self-originated, but received from 
an external source." McCosh, Intuitions, 215, 393, and Christianity and Positivism, 180. 

4. It therefore contradicts the affirmations of our moral and religious 
natures by denying man's freedom and responsibility ; by making God to 
include in himself all evil as well as all good ; and by precluding all prayer, 
worship, and hope of immortality. 

Conscience is the eternal witness against pantheism. Conscience witnesses to our 
freedom and responsibility, and declares that moral distinctions are not illusory. Renouf , 
Hibbert Lect., 234 — "It is only out of condescension to popular language that panthe- 
istic systems can recognize the notions of right and wrong, of iniquity and sin. If 
everything really emanates from God, there can be no such thing as sin. And the ablest 
philosophers who have been led to pantheistic views, have vainly endeavored to harmon- 
ize these views with what we understand by the notion of sin or moral evil. The great 
systematic work of Spinoza is entitled 4 .Et7itca' ; but for real ethics we might as profit- 
ably consult the Elements of Euclid." Hodge, System. Theology, 1 : 299-330— "Panthe- 
ism is f atalistic. On this theory, duty = pleasure ; right = might ; sin = good in the mak- 
ing. Satan, as well as Gabriel, is a self -development of God. The practical effects of 
pantheism upon popular morals and life, wherever it has prevailed, as in Buddhist India 
and China, demonstrate its falsehood." See also Dove, Logic of the Christian Faith, 118 ; 
Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 202; Bib. Sac, Oct., 1867:603-615; Dix, Pantheism, 
Lntrod., 12. On the fact of sin as refuting the pantheistic theory, see Bushnell, Nature 
and the Supernat., 140-164. 

5. Our intuitive conviction of the existence of a God of absolute per- 
fection compels us to conceive of God as possessed of every highest quality 



PANTHEISM. 57 

and attribute of men, and therefore, especially, of that which constitutes 
the chief dignity of the human spirit, its personality. 

Diman, Theistic Argument, 328— "We have no right to represent the supreme Cause 
as inferior to ourselves, yet we do this when we describe it under phrases derived from 
physical causation." Mlvart, Lessons from Nature, 351— "We cannot conceive of any- 
thing as impersonal, yet of higher nature than our own,— any being that has not knowl- 
edge and will must be indefinitely inferior to one who has them." 

6. Its objection to the divine personality, that over against the Infinite 
there can be in eternity past no non-ego to call forth self-consciousness, is 
refuted by considering that even man's cognition of the non-ego logically 
presupposes knowledge of the ego, from which the non-ego is distinguished ; 
that, in an absolute mind, self-consciousness cannot be conditioned, as in 
the case of finite mind, upon contact with a not- self ; and that, if the dis- 
tinguishing of self from a not-self were an essential condition of divine 
self -consciousness, the eternal personal distinctions in the divine nature or 
the eternal states of the divine mind might furnish such a condition. 

Pfleiderer, Die Religion, 1 : 190 sq — " Before the soul distinguishes self from the not-self, 
it must know self — else it could not see the distinction. Its development is connected 
with the knowledge of the non-ego, but this is due, not to the fact of personality, but 
to the fact of finite personality. The mature man can live for a long time upon his own 
resources. God needs no other, to stir him up to mental activity. Finiteness is a hin- 
drance to the development of our personality. Infiniteness is necessary to the highest 
personality." Lotze, Microcosmos, vol. 3, chapter 4; transl. in N. Eng., March, 1881: 
191-200— "Finite spirit, not having conditions of existence in itself, can know the ego 
only upon occasion of knowing the non-ego. The Infinite is not so limited. He alone 
has an independent existence, neither introduced nor developed through anything not 
himself, but, in an inward activity without beginning or end, maintains himself in him- 
self." See also Lotze, Philos. of Religion, 55-69, and H. N. Gardiner on Lotze, in Presb. 
Rev., 1885 : 669-673. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre : " Absolute Personality = perfect consciousness of self, and 
perfect power over self. We need something external to waken our consciousness — yet 
self -consciousness comes [ logically ] before consciousness of the world. It is the soul's 
act. Only after it has distinguished self from self, can it consciously distinguish self 
from another." British Quarterly, Jan., 1874 : 32, note; July, 1884 : 108 — "The ego is 
thinkable only in relation to the non-ego ; but the ego is liveable long before any such 
relation." Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 185, 186 — In the pantheistic scheme, " God distin- 
guishes himself from the world, and thereby finds the object required by the subject ; 
.... in the Christian scheme, God distinguishes himself from himself, not from some- 
thing that is not himself." See Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 122-126 ; Christlieb, Mod. 
Doubt and Christ. Belief, 161-190; Hanne, Idee der absoluten Personlichkeit ; Eichhorn, 
Die Personlichkeit Gottes; Seth, Hegelianism and Personality ; Knight, on Personality 
and the Infinite, in Studies in Philos. and Lit., 70-118. 

On the whole subject of Pantheism, see Martineau, Study of Religion, 2 : 141-194, 
esp. 192— "The personality of God consists in his voluntary agency as free cause in an 
unpledged sphere, that is, a sphere transcending that of immanent law. But precisely 
this also it is that constitutes his infinity, extending his sway, after it has filled the 
actual, over all the possible, and giving command over indefinite alternatives. Though 
you might deny his infinity without prejudice to his personality, you cannot deny his 
personality without sacrificing his infinitude : for there is a mode of action — the prefer- 
ential, the very mode which distinguishes rational beings — from which you exclude 
him"; 341 — "The metaphysicians who, in their impatience of distinction, insist on 
taking the sea on board the boat, swamp not only it but the thought it holds, and leave 
an infinitude which, as it can look into no eye and whisper into no ear, they contradict 
in the very act of affirming." Jean Paul Richter's "Dream": "I wandered to the 
farthest verge of Creation, and there I saw a Socket, where an Eye should have been, 
and I heard the shriek of a Fatherless World" (quoted in David Brown's Memoir of 
John Duncan, 49-70). 



PAET III. 

THE SCBIPTUEES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 



CHAPTER I. 



PKELIMIKARY CONSIDERATIONS. 

I. Reasons a priori for expecting a Revelation from God. 

1. Needs of man's nature. Man's intellectual and moral nature requires, 
in order to preserve it from constant deterioration, and to ensure its moral 
growth and progress, an authoritative and helpful revelation of religious 
truth, of a higher and completer sort than any to which, in its present state 
of sin, it can attain by the use of its unaided powers. The proof of this 
proposition is partly psychological, and partly historical. 

A Psychological proof. — (a) Neither reason nor intuition throws light 
upon certain questions whose solution is of the utmost importance to us ; for 
exanrple, Trinity, atonement, pardon, method of worship, personal existence 
after death. (6) Even the truth to which we arrive by our natural powers 
needs divine confirmation and authority when it addresses minds and wills 
perverted by sin. ( c ) To break this power of sin, and to furnish encourage- 
ment to moral effort, we need a special revelation of the merciful and helpful 
aspect of the divine nature. 

(a) Bremen Lectures, 72, 73; Plato, Second Alcibiades, 22, 23; Phaedo, 85 — \6yov deiov 
tlvos. Iamblicus, nepl rov nv&ayopucov jStov, chap. 28. (b) Versus Socrates: Men will do 
right if they only know the right. Flint, Theism, 305 ; Martineau, in Nineteenth Century, 
1 : 331, 531, and Types, 1 : 112— Plato dissolved the idea of the right into that of the good, 
and this again was indistinguishably mingled with that of the true and the beautiful. 
Curtis, Hum. Element in Inspiration, 250 ; Emerson, Essays, 2 : 41 ; Murphy, Scientific 
Bases, 172. (c) Versus Thomas Paine: "Natural religion teaches us, without the possi- 
bility of being mistaken, all that is necessary or proper to be known." Plato, Laws, 
9 : 854, c, for substance : "Be good ; but if you cannot, then kill yourself." 

B. Historical proof. — (a) The knowledge of moral and religious truth 
possessed by nations and ages in which special revelation is unknown is 
grossly and increasingly imperfect, (b) Man's actual condition in ante- 
Christian times, and in modern heathen lands, is that of extreme moral 
depravity ( c ) With this depravity is found a general conviction of help- 
lessness, and on the part of some nobler natures, a longing after, and hope 
of, aid from above. 

Pythagoras : "It is not easy to know [duties], except men were taught them by God 
himself, or by some person who had received them from God, or obtained the knowledge 

58 



REASONS A PRIORI FOR EXPECTING REVELATION. 59 

of them through some divine means. 1 ' Socrates : " Wait with patience, till we know 
with certainty how we ought to behave ourselves toward God and man." Plato : "We 
will wait for one, be he a God or an inspired man, to instruct us in our duties and to take 
away the darkness from our eyes. 1 ' Disciple of Plato : "Make probability our raft, 
while we sail through life, unless we could have a more sure and safe conveyance, such 
as some divine communication would be." 

See references and quotations in Peabody, Christianity the Relig. of Nature, 35, and in 
Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 156-172, 335-338 ; Farrar, Seekers after God ; Garbett, Dogmatic 
Faith, 187. 

2. Presumption of supply. What we know of God, by nature, affords 
ground for hope that these wants of our intellectual and moral being will be 
met by a corresponding supply, in the shape of a special divine revelation. 
We argue this : 

( a ) From our necessary conviction of God's wisdom . Having made man 
a spiritual being, for spiritual ends, it may be hoped that he will furnish the 
means needed to secure these ends. ( b ) From the actual, though incom- 
plete, revelation already given in nature. Since God has actually undertaken 
to make himself known to men, we may hope that he will finish the work he 
has begun. ( c ) From the general connection of want and supply. The 
higher our needs, the more intricate and ingenious are, in general, the con- 
trivances for meeting them. We may therefore hope that the highest want 
wall be all the more surely met. (d) From analogies of nature and history. 
Signs of reparative goodness in nature and of forbearance in providential 
dealings lead us to hope that, while justice is executed, God may still make 
known some way of restoration for sinners. 

In the natural arrangements for the healing of bruises in plants and for the mending 
of broken bones in the animal creation, in the provision of remedial agents for the cure 
of human diseases, and especially in the delay to inflict punishment upon the trans- 
gressor and the space given him for repentance, we have some indications, which, if 
uncontradicted by other evidence, might lead us to regard the God of nature as a God 
of forbearance and mercy. Plutarch's treatise De Sera JSTuminis Vindicta is proof that 
this thought had occurred to the heathen. It may be doubted, indeed, whether a heathen 
religion could even continue to exist, without embracing in it some element of hope. 

The New Testament intimates the existence of this witness to God's goodness among 
the heathen, while at the same time it declares that the full knowledge of forgiveness 
and salvation is brought only bj" Christ. Compare Acts 14 : 17 — " And yet he left not himself -without 
witness, in that he did good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and 
gladness " ; 17 : 25-27 — " he himself giveth to all life and breath and all things ; and he made of one every nation of 
men .... that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him " ; Rom. 2 : 4 — " the goodness 
of God leadeth thee to repentance" ; 3 : 25 — "the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God" : 
Eph. 3 : 9 — "to make all mon see what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God" ■ 
2 Tim. 1 : 10 — " our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the 
gospel. " See Hackett's edition of the treatise of Plutarch, as also Bowen, Metaph. and 
Ethics, 462-487 ; Diman, Theistic Argument, 371 

We conclude this section upon the reasons a priori for expecting a rev- 
elation from God with the acknowledgment that the facts warrant that 
degree of expectation which we call hope, rather than that larger degree of 
expectation which we call assurance ; and this, for the reason that, while 
conscience gives proof that God is a God of holiness, we have not, from the 
light of nature, equal evidence that God is a God of love. Reason teaches 
man that, as a sinner, he merits condemnation; but he cannot, from reason 
alone, know that God will have mercy upon him and provide salvation. His 
doubts can be removed only by God's own voice, assuring him of "redemp- 
tion .... the forgiveness of .... trespasses "( Eph. ] : 7), and revealing 
to him the way in which that forgiveness has been rendered possible. 



60 THE SCULPTURES A REVELATION" FROM GOD. 

II. Marks of the Bevelation man mat expect. 

1. As to its substance. We may expect this later revelation not to con- 
tradict, but to confirm and enlarge, the knowledge of God which we derive 
from nature, while it remedies the defects of natural religion and throws 
light upon its problems. 

2. As to its method. We may expect it to follow God's methods of 
procedure in other communications of truth. 

Bishop Butler ( Analogy, part ii, chap, iii ) has denied that there is any possibility of 
judging a priori how a divine revelation will be given. " We are in no sort judges 
beforehand," he says, "by what methods, or in what proportion, it were to be expected 
that this supernatural Light and instruction would be afforded us." But Bishop Butler 
somewhat later in his great work ( part ii, chap, iv ) shows that God's progressive plan 
in revelation has its analogy in the slow, successive steps by which God accomplishes his 
ends in nature. We maintain that the revelation in nature affords certain presumptions 
with regard to the revelation of grace, such for example as those mentioned below. 

(a) That of continuous historical development, — that it will be given in 

germ to early ages, and will be more fully unfolded as the race is prepared 

to receive it. 

Instances of continuous development in God's impartations are found in geological 
history ; in the growth of the sciences ; in the progressive education of the individual 
and of the race. No other religion but Christianity shows " a steady historical progress 
of the vision of one infinite Character unfolding itself to man through a period of many 
centuries." See sermon by Dr. Temple, on the Education of the World, in Essays and 
Reviews ; Rogers, Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 374-384 ; Walker, Philosophy of the 
Plan of Salvation. 

( b ) That of original delivery to a single nation, and to single persons in 
that nation, that it may through them be communicated to mankind. 

Each nation represents an idea. As the Greek had a genius for liberty and beauty, 
and the Roman a genius for organization and law, so the Hebrew nation had a " genius 
for religion " ( Renan ) ; this last, however, would have been useless without special divine 
aid and superintendence, as witness other productions of this same Semitic race, such 
as Bel and the Dragon, in the Old Testament Apocrypha ; the gospels of the Apocryphal 
New Testament ; and later still, the Talmud and the Koran. See British Quarterly, 
Jan., 1874 : art. : Inductive Theology. 

(c) That of preservation in written and accessible documents, handed 
down from those to whom the revelation is first communicated. 

Alphabets, writing, books, are our chief dependence for the history of the past ; all 
the great religions of the world are book-religions ; the Karens expected their teachers 
in the new religion to bring to them a book. See Rogers, Eclipse of Faith, chapters on 
Book-revelation, 73-96, 281-304. But notice that false religions have scriptures, but not 
Scripture ; their sacred books lack the principle of unity which is furnished by divine 
inspiration. 

3. As to its attestation. We may expect that this revelation will be 
accompanied by evidence that its author is the same being whom we have 
previously recognized as God of nature. This evidence must constitute 
(a) a manifestation of God himself; (6) in the outward as well as the inward 
world; (c) such as only God's power or knowledge can make; and (d) such 
as cannot be counterfeited by the evil, or mistaken by the candid, soul. In 
short, we may expect God to attest, by miracles and by prophecy, the divine 
mission and authority of those to whom he communicates a revelation. Some 
such outward sign would seem to be necessary, not only to assure the original 
recipient that the supposed revelation is not a vagary of his own imagination, 
but also to render the revelation received by a single individual authoritative 



MIRACLES AS ATTESTING REVELATION. 61 

to all ( compare Judges 6 : 17, 36-40 — Gideon asks a sign, for himself; 1 K. 
18: 36-38 — Elijah asks a sign, for others). 

But in order that our positive proof of a divine revelation may not be 
embarrassed by the suspicion that the miraculous and prophetic elements 
in the Scripture history create a j)resumption against its credibility, it will 
be desirable to take up at this point the general subject of miracles and 
prophecy. 

ILT. Miracles, as attesting a Divine Revelation. 

1. Definition of Miracle. A miracle is an event palpable to the senses, 
produced for a religious purpose by the immediate agency of God ; an 
event therefore which, though not contravening any law of nature, the laws 
of nature, if fully known, would not be competent to explain. 

This definition corrects several erroneous conceptions of the miracle : — 
(a) A miracle is not a suspension or violation of natural law; since natural 
law is in operation at the time of the miracle just as much as before. ( b ) 
A miracle is not a sudden product of natural agencies — a product merely 
foreseen, by him who appears to work it ; it is the effect of a will outside of 
nature. ( c ) A miracle is not an event without a cause ; since it has for its 
cause a direct volition of God. (d) A miracle is not an irrational or capri- 
cious act of God ; but an act of wisdom, performed in accordance with the 
immutable laws of his being, so that in the same circumstances the same 
course would be again pursued. ( e ) A miracle is not contrary to experi- 
ence ; since it is not contrary to experience for a new cause to be followed 
by a new effect. (/) A miracle is not a matter of internal experience, like 
regeneration or illumination ; but is an event palpable to the senses, which 
may serve as an objective j)roof to all that the worker of it is divinely com- 
missioned as a religious teacher. 

For various definitions of miracles, see Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 302. On 
the whole subject, see Mozley, Miracles ; Christlieb, Mod. Doubt and Christ. Belief, 285- 
339 ; Fisher, in Princeton Rev., Nov., 1880, and Jan., 1881 ; A. H. Strong-, Philosophy and 
Religion, 129-147, and in Baptist Review, April, 1879. The definition given above is 
intended simply as a definition of the miracles of the Bible, or, in other words, of the 
events which profess to attest a divine revelation in the Scriptures. The New Testa- 
ment designates these events in a twofold way, viewing them either subjectively, as 
producing effects upon men, or objectively, as revealing the power and wisdom of God. 
In the former aspect they are caned repaTa, 'wonders,' and ar^ela, 'signs,' (John 4 : 48; Acts2 : 22-. 
In the latter aspect they are called Wei/ueis, 'powers,' and epya, 'works' (Mat. 7 : 22 ; John 14 : 11). 
See H. B. Smith, Lect. on Apologetics, 90-116, esp. 94— "cnqtxelov, sign, marking the pur- 
pose or object, the moral end, placing the event in connection with revelation." 

It has been claimed by some that the Biblical miracle need not be defined as an event 
produced by the direct and immediate agency of God, but that it may be regarded as 
belonging to a higher order of nature, and so as being only indirectly and mediately 
the work of God. We grant that there are wonderful events narrated in Scripture 
which may belong to the class of 'providential miracles,' or marvelous special provi- 
dences, in which the result is due to the operation of natural laws which are themselves, 
however, ordained and superintended by God. If all miracles were of this sort, we 
might define the miracle as "an event in nature, so extraordinary in itself and so coin- 
ciding with the prophecy or command of a religious teacher or leader, as fully to war- 
rant the conviction, on the part of those who witness it, that God has wrought it with 
the design of certifying that this teacher or leader has been commissioned by him." 

See this view stated and illustrated by Babbage, Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, chap, 
viii. Bonnet held this view; see Dorner, Glaubenslchre, 1 : 591, 683; Eng. translation, 
2:155, 156; so Matthew Arnold, quoted in Bruce, Miraculous Element in Gospels, 52. 
In favor of this view, it may be claimed that it does not dispense with the divine 



62 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

working, but only puts it further back at the origination of the system, while it still 
holds God's work to be essential, not only to the upholding- of the system, but also to 
the inspiring of the religious teacher or leader with the knowledge needed to predict 
this unusual working of the system. The wonder is confined to the prophecy, which 
may equally attest a divine revelation. See Matheson, in Christianity and Evolution, 1-26. 
But it is plain that a miracle of this sort lacks to a large degree the element of ' signality ' 
which is needed, if it is to accomplish its purpose. It surrenders the great advantage 
which miracle, as first defined, possessed over special providence, as an attestation of 
revelation — the advantage, namely, that while special providence affords some warrant 
that this revelation comes from God, miracle gives full warrant that it comes from God. 
Since man may by natural means possess himself of the knowledge of physical laws, 
the true miracle which God works, and the pretended miracle which only man works, 
are upon this theory far less easy to distinguish from each other. Certain typical 
miracles, like the resurrection of Lazarus, refuse to be classed as events within the 
realm of nature, in however wide a sense the term nature may be used. Our Lord, 
moreover, seems clearly to exclude such a theory as this, when he says : "If I by the finger 
of God cast out demons" (Luke 11 : 20). Since therefore the Scriptures seem to represent the 
miracle as an event wrought by the immediate agency of God, our further discussion 
of the subject is a discussion of miracles as first defined. See Mozley, Miracles, preface, 
ix-xxvi; 7, 143-166; Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 333-336; Smith's Diet, of 
Bible, art. : Miracles, by Bp. Fitzgerald and Edwards A. Park ; Bp. Temple, Bampton 
Lectures for 1884 : 193-221 ; Shedd, Dogm. TheoL, 1 : 541, 542. 

2. Possibility of Miracles. An event in nature may be caused by an 
agent outside of and above nature. This is evident from the following- 
considerations : 

(a) Lower forces and laws in nature are frequently counteracted and 
transcended by the higher ( as mechanical forces and laws by chemical, and 
chemical by vital), while yet the lower forces and laws are not suspended 
or annihilated, but are merged in the higher, and made to assist in accom- 
plishing purposes to which they are altogether unequal when left to them- 
selves. 

By nature we mean nature in the proper sense— not 'everything that is not God,' but 
' everything that is not God or made in the image of God ' ; see Hopkins, Outline Study 
of Man, 258, 259. Man's will does not belong to nature, but is above nature. On the 
transcending of lower forces by higher, see Murphy, Habit and Intelligence, 1 : 88. 

( b ) The human will acts upon its physical organism, and so upon nature, 
and produces results which nature left to herself never could accomplish, 
while yet no law of nature is suspended or violated. Gravitation still ope- 
rates upon the axe, even while man holds it at the surface of the water — for 
the axe still has weight (c/. 2 K. 6 : 5-7). 

Versus Hume, Philos. Works, 4 : 130— " A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature." 
Christian apologists have too often needlessly embarrassed their argument by accept- 
ing Hume's definition. The stigma is entirely undeserved. If man can support the axe 
at the surface of the water while gravitation still acts upon it, God can certainly, at 
the prophet's word, make the iron to swim, while gravitation still acts upon it. But this 
last is miracle. See Mansel, Essay on Miracles, in Aids to Faith, 26, 27 ; Fisher, Supernat. 
Origin of Christianity, 471; Hamilton, Autology, 685-690; Bowen, Metaph. and Ethics, 
445 ; Row, Bampton Lectures on Christian Evidences, 54-72 ; A. A. Hodge : Pulling out 
a new stop of the organ does not suspend the working or destroy the harmony of the 
other stops. 

( c ) In all free causation, there is an acting without means. Man acts 
upon external nature through his physical organism, but, in moving his 
physical organism, he acts directly upon matter. In other words, the 
human will can use means, only because it has the power of acting initially 
without means. 
See Hopkins, on Prayex'-gauge, 10, and in Princeton Review, Sept., 1882 : 188. 



MIRACLES AS ATTESTING REVELATION. 63 

( d ) What the human will, considered as a supernatural force, and what 
the chemical and vital forces of nature itself, are demonstrably able to 
accomplish, cannot be regarded as beyond the power of God, so long as 
God dwells in and controls the universe. If man's will can act directly 
upon matter in his own physical organism, God's will can work imme- 
ately upon the system which he has created and which he sustains. In 
other words, if there be a God, and if he be a personal being, miracles are 
possible. The impossibility of miracles can be maintained only upon prin- 
ciples of atheism or pantheism. 

See "Westcott, Gospel of the Resurrection, 19; Cox, Miracles, an Argument and a 
Challenge: "Anthropomorphism is preferable to hylomorphism." Newman Smyth, 
Old Faiths in a New Light, ch. 1— "A miracle is not a sudden blow struck in the face 
of nature, but a use of nature, according to its inherent capacities, by higher powers." 
See also Gloatz, Wunder und Naturgesetz, in Studien und Kritiken, 1886 : 403-546 ; Gun- 
saulus, Transfiguration of Christ, 18, 19, 36; Andover Review, on "Robert Elsmere." 
1888:303. 

3. Probability of Miracles. 

A. We acknowledge that, so long as we confine our attention to nature, 
there is a presumption against miracles. Experience testifies to the uni- 
formity of natural law. A general uniformity is needful, in order to make 
possible a rational calculation of the future, and a proper ordering of life. 

See Butler, Analogy, part ii, chap, ii ; F. W. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, 3-45 ; 
Modern Scepticism, 1 : 179-227 ; Chalmers, Christian Revelation, 1 : 47. 

B. But we deny that this uniformity of nature is absolute and universal. 
( a ) It is not a truth of reason that can have no exceptions, like the axiom 
that a whole is greater than its parts. ( b ) Experience could not warrant a 
belief in absolute and universal uniformity, unless experience were identical 
with absolute and universal knowledge, (c) We know, on the contrary, 
from geology, that there have been breaks in this uniformity, such as the 
introduction of vegetable, animal and human life, which cannot be accounted 
for, except by the coming down upon nature of a supernatural power. 

(a) Compare the probability that the sun will rise to-morrow morning with a cer- 
tainty that two and two make four. Huxley, Lay Sermons, 158, indignantly denies that 
there is any ' must ' about the uniformity of nature. See Edward Hitchcock, in Bib. 
Sac, 20 : 489-561, on "The law of Nature's Constancy subordinate to the Higher Law of 
Change " ; Jevons, Principles of Science, 2 : 430-438 ; Mozley, Miracles, 26. ( b ) Coleridge : 
"Experience, like the stern-lights of a ship, illuminates only the track over which it 
has passed." ( c ) Other breaks in the uniformity of nature are the coming of Christ and 
the regeneration of the human soul. See British Quarterly Rev., Oct., 1881 : 154; Marti- 
neau, Study, 2 : 200, 203, 209. 

C. Since the inworking of the moral law into the constitution and course 
of nature shows that nature exists, not for itself, but for the contemplation 
and use of moral beings, it is probable that the God of nature will produce 
effects aside from those of natural law, whenever there are sufficiently im- 
portant moral ends to be served thereby. 

Beneath the expectation of uniformity is the intuition of final cause ; the former may 
therefore give way to the latter. See Porter, Human Intellect, 592-616 : Efficient causes 
and final causes may conflict, and then the efficient give place to the final. This is 
miracle. See Hutton, in Nineteenth Century, Aug., 1885, and Channing, Evidences of 
Revealed Ueligion, quoted in Shcdd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 534, 535. 

D. The existence of moral disorder consequent upon the free acts of 
man's will, therefore, changes the presumption against miracles into a pie- 



64 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

sumption in their favor. The non-appearance of miracles, in this case, 
would be the greatest of wonders. 

See Mozley, Miracles, preface, xxiv ; Turner, Wish and Will, 291-315 ; N. W. Taylor, 
Moral Government, 2 : 388-423. 

E. As belief in the possibility of miracles rests upon our belief in the 
existence of a personal God, so belief in the probability of miracles rests 
upon our belief that God is a moral and benevolent being. He who has 
no God but a God of physical order will regard miracles as an impertinent 
intrusion upon that order. But he who yields to the testimony of con- 
science and regards God as a God of holiness, will see that man's unholi- 
ness renders God's miraculous interposition most necessary to man and 
most becoming to God. Our view of miracles will therefore be determined 
by our belief in a moral, or in a non-moral, God. 

It is commonly, but very erroneously, taken for granted that miracle requires a 
greater exercise of power than does God's upholding of the ordinary processes of 
nature. But to an omnipotent Being our measures of power have no .application. 
"The earth is crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God." The 
question is not a question of power, but of rationality and love. Miracle implies self- 
restraint, as well as self -unfolding, on the part of him who works it. It is therefore 
not G od's common method of action ; it is adopted only when regular methods will not 
suffice ; it often seems accompanied by a sacrifice of f eeling on the part of Christ ( Mat. 
17:17 — "0 faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? 
bring him hither to me"; Mark 7: 34 — "Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that 
is, Be opened" ; cf. Mat. 12: 39 — "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign 
be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. 

Like creation and providence, like inspiration and regeneration, miracle is a work in 
which God limits himself, by a new and peculiar exercise of his power, — limits himself 
as part of a process of condescending love and as a means of teaching sense-environed 
and sin-burdened humanity what it would not learn in any other way. Self -limitation, 
however, is the verv perfection and glory of God, for without it no self-sacrificing love 
would be possible (see page 6, F.). The probability of miracles is therefore argued not 
only from God's holiness but also from his love. His desire to save men from their sins 
must be as infinite as his nature. The incarnation, the atonement, the resurrection, 
when once made known to us, commend themselves, not only as satisfying our human 
needs, but as worthy of a God of moral perfection. 

4. The amount of testimony necessary to prove a miracle is no greater 
than that which is requisite to prove the occurrence of any other unusual 
but confessedly possible event. 

Hume, indeed, argued that a miracle is so contradictory of all numan 
experience that it is more reasonable to believe any amount of testimony 
false than to believe a miracle to be true. 

The original form of the argument can be found in Hume's Philosophical Works, 4 : 
124-150. See also Bib. Sac, Oct., 1867 : 615. For the most recent and plausible statement 
of it, see Supernatural Religion, 1 : 55-94. 

The argument is fallacious, because 

(a) It is chargeable with a petitio principii, m making our own per- 
sonal experience the measure of all human experience. The same principle 
would make the proof of any absolutely new fact impossible. Even though 
God should work a miracle, he could never prove it. 

This is granted by John Stuart Mill, in his Essays on Theism, 216-241. 

( b ) It involves a self-contradiction, since it seeks to overthrow our faith 
in human testimony by adducing to the contrary the general experience of 
men, of which we know only from testimony. This general experience, 



MIKACLES AS ATTESTING REVELATION. 65 

moreover, is merely negative, and cannot neutralize that which is positive, 
except upon principles which would invalidate all testimony whatever. 

Fichte : " We are born in faith — we learn unbelief." Our faith in testimony cannot 
be due to experience. 

(c) It requires belief in a greater wonder than those which it would 
escape. That multitudes of intelligent and honest men should against all 
their interests unite in deliberate and persistent falsehood, under the cir- 
cumstances narrated in the New Testament record, involves a change in the 
sequences of nature far more incredible than the miracles of Christ and his 
apostles. 

On this point see Chalmers, Christian Revelation, 3 : 70 ; Starkie on Evidence, 739 ; De 
Quincey, Theol. Essays, 1 : 163-188 ; Thornton, Old-fashioned Ethics, 143-153 ; Campbell 
on Miracles. 

5. Evidential force of Miracles. 

(a) Miracles are the natural accompaniments and attestations of new 
communications from God. The great epochs of miracles — represented by 
Moses, the prophets, the first and second comings of Christ — are coincident 
with the great epochs of revelation. Miracles serve to draw attention to 
new truth, and cease when this truth has gained currency and foothold. 

Miracles are not scattered evenly over the whole course of history. Few miracles are 
recorded during the 2500 years from Adam to Moses. When the N. T. Canon is completed 
and the internal evidence of Scripture has attained its greatest strength, the external 
attestations by miracle are either wholly withdrawn or begin to disappear. The spiritual 
wonders of regeneration remain, and for these the way has been prepared by the long 
progress from the miracles of power wrought by Moses to the miracles of grace wrought 
by Christ. On the cessation of miracles in the early church, see Henderson, Inspiration, 
443-490 ; Buckmann, in Zeitschr. f . luth. Theol. u. Kirche, 1878 : 216. John Foster : Miracles 
are the great bell of the universe which draws men to God's sermon. H. W. Beecher : 
Miracles are the midwives of great moral truths ; candles lit before the dawn, but put 
out after the sun has risen. See Diman, Theistic Argument, 376. Miracles and inspira- 
tion go together ; if the former remain in the church, the latter should remain also ; see 
Marsh, in Bap. Quar. Rev., 1887 : 225-242. 

( b ) Miracles, however, certify to the truth of doctrine, not directly, but 
indirectly ; otherwise a new miracle must needs accompany each new doc- 
trine taught. Miracles primarily and directly certify to the divine com- 
mission and authority of a religious teacher, and therefore warrant accept- 
ance of his doctrines and obedience to his commands as the doctrines and 
commands of God, whether these be communicated at intervals or all 
together, orally or in written documents. 

See Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 147-167 ; Farrar, Life of Christ, 1 : 168-172. 

(c) Miracles, therefore, do not stand alone as evidences. Power alone 
cannot prove a divine commission. Purity of life and doctrine must go 
with the miracles to assure us that a religious teacher has come from God. 
The miracles and the doctrine in this maimer mutually support each other, 
and form parts of one whole. The internal evidence for the Christian 
system may have greater power over certain minds and over certain ages 
than the external evidence. 

Pascal's aphorism that " doctrines must be judged by miracles, miracles by doctrines," 

needs to be supplemented by Mozley's statement that "a supernatural fact is the proper 

proof of a supernatural doctrine, while a supernatural doc trine is not the proper proof 

of a supernatural fact." Verms Sui>ernatural Religion, 1 : 23, and Stearns, in N. Eug- 

5 



66 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

lander, Jan., 1882 : 80. See Mozley, Miracles, 15; Nicoll, Life of Jesus Christ, 133; Mill,, 
Logic, 374-382; H. B. Smith, Introd. to Christ. Theology, 167-169; Fisher, in Journ. Christ. 
Philosophy, Apr., 1883 : 270-283. 

(d) Yet the Christian miracles do not lose their value as evidences in the 
process of ages. The loftier the structure of Christian life and doctrine the 
greater need that its foundation be secure. The authority of Christ as a 
teacher of supernatural truth rests upon his miracles, and specially upon 
the miracle of his resurrection. That one miracle to which the church looks 
back as the source of her life carries with it irresistibly all the other miracles 
of the Scripture record ; upon it alone we may safely rest the proof that 
the Scriptures are an authoritative revelation from God. 

The miracles of Christ are simple correlates of the Incarnation — proper insignia of his 
royalty and divinity. By mere external evidence however we can more easily prove the 
resurrection than the incarnation. In our arguments with sceptics, we should not begin 
with the ass that spoke to Balaam, or the fish that swallowed Jonah, but with the resur- 
rection of Christ ; that once conceded, all other Biblical miracles will seem only natural 
preparations, accompaniments, or consequences. Godet, Lectures in Defence of the 
Christian Faith, lect. i : Dilemma for those who deny the fact of Christ's resurrection : 
Either his body remained in the hands of his disciples, or it was given up to the Jews. 
If the disciples l-etained it, they were impostors ; but this is not maintained by modern 
rationalists. If the Jews retained it, why did they not produce it as conclusive evidence 
against the disciples ? See Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 9, 158-224, 302 ; Mill, Theism, 
216 ; Auberlen, Divine Revelation, 56 ; Boston Lectures, 203-239. On the Resurrection of 
Christ, see works of Milligan, Morrison, Kennedy, J. Baldwin Brown ; Christlieb, Mod. 
Doubt and Christ. Belief, 448-503 ; Row, Bampton Lect. for 1877 : 358-423 ; Hutton, Essays, 
1 : 119 ; Schaff, in Princeton Rev., May, 1880 : 411-419 ; Fisher, Christian Evidences, 41-46, 
82-85 ; West, in Defence and Confirmation of the Faith ( Elliott Lectures for 1885), 80-129. 

6. Counterfeit Miracles. 

Since only an act directly wrought by God can properly be called a mir- 
acle, it follows that surprising events brought about by evil spirits or by 
men, through the use of natural agencies beyond our knowledge, are not 
entitled to this appellation. The Scriptures recognize the existence of such, 
but denominate them "lying wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9). 

These counterfeit miracles in various ages argue that the belief in miracles 
is natural to the race, and that somewhere there must exist the true. They 
serve to show that not all supernatural occurrences are divine, and to impress 
upon us the necessity of careful examination before we accept them as divine. 

False miracles may commonly be distinguished from the true by (a) their 
accompaniments of immoral conduct or of doctrine contradictory to truth 
already revealed — as in modern spiritualism; (6) their internal character- 
istics of inanity and extravagance — as in the liquefaction of the blood of St. 
Januarius, or the miracles of the Apocryphal New Testament ; ( c ) the insuf- 
ficiency of the object which they are designed to further — as in the case of 
Apollonius of Tyana, or of the miracles said to accompany the publication 
of the doctrine of the immaculate conception ; (d) their lack of substantiat- 
ing evidence — as in mediaeval miracles, so seldom attested by contemporary 
and disinterested witnesses. 

Mozley, Miracles, 15, 161 ; F. W. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, 72 ; A. S. Farrar, 
Science and Theology, 208 ; Tholuck, Vermischte Schrif ten, 1 : 27 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 
1 : 630 ; Presb. Rev., 1881 : 687-719. For the view that the gift of miracles still remains 
in the church, see Boys, Proofs of the Miraculous in the Experience of the Church ; 
Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 446-492 ; Gordon, Ministry of Healing. Review 
of Gordon, by Vincent, in Presb. Rev., 1883:473-502; Review of Vincent, in Presb. 
Rev., 1884 : 49-79 ; Vincent's reply, in Presb. Rev., April, 1884. On the power of the will 



PEOPHECY AS ATTESTING REVEL ATIOX. 67 

over the body, see Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 381-386. We incline to the view that 
in these later ages God answers prayer for healing-, not by miracle, but by special provi- 
dence and by special gifts of courage, faith, and will, thus acting by his Spirit directly 
upon the soul, and only indirectly upon the body. See Buckley on Faith-healing, in 
Century Magazine, June, 1886 : 221-236 ; Bruce, Miraculous Element in Gospels, lecture 8 ; 
Andover Rev., 1887 : 249-264 (Mind-cure ). 

IT. Pkophecy as attesting a Divine Revelation. 

We here consider prophecy in its narrow sense of mere prediction. 

1. Definition. Prophecy is the foretelling of future events by virtue of 
direct communication from God — a foretelling, therefore, which, though 
not contravening any laws of the human mind, those laws, if fully known, 
would not be sufficient to explain. 

Payne Smith, Prophecy a Preparation for Christ ; Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 
225 ; Newton on Prophecy ; Fairbairn on Prophecy ; Farrar, Science and Theology, 106. 

2. Relation of Prophecy to Miracles. Miracles are attestations of rev- 
elation proceeding from divine power ; prophecy is an attestation of revelation 
proceeding from divine knowledge. Only God can know the contingencies 
of the future. The possibility and probability of jDrophecy may be argued 
upon the same grounds upon which we argue the possibility and probability 
of miracles. As an evidence of divine revelation, however, proiDhecy pos- 
sesses two advantages over miracles, namely: (a) The proof, in the case 
of prophecy, is. not derived from ancient testimony, but is under our eyes. 
( b ) The evidence of miracles cannot become stronger, whereas every new 
fulfillment adds to the argument from prophecy. 

Hume : " All prophecies are real miracles, and only as such can be admitted as proofs 
of any revelation." Wardlaw, Syst. Theol., 1 : 347. 

3. Requirements in Prophecy, considered as an evidence of revelation. 
(a) The utterance must be distant from the event. 

( b ) Nothing must exist to suggest the event to merely natural prescience. 

Stanley instances the natural sagacity of Burke, which enabled him to predict the 
French Revolution. 

(c) The utterance must be free from ambiguity. 

Illustrate ambiguous prophecies by the Delphic oracle to Croesus : " Crossing the river 
thou destroyest a great nation "— whether his own or his enemy's the oracle left unde- 
termined. " Ibis et redibis nunquam peribis in bello." 

(d) Yet it must not be so precise as to secure its own fulfillment. 

Strauss held that O. T. prophecy itself determined either the events or the narratives 
of the gospels. See Gregg, Creed of Christendom, chap. 4. 

( e ) It must be followed in due time by the event predicted. 

4. General features of Prophecy in the Scriptures. 

(a) Its vast amount — occupying a large jm >rti< >n of the Bible from Genesis 
to Revelation, and extending over a period of lour thousand years. 

( b ) Its unity in diversity — finding its central point in Christ ; and exclud- 
ing all possibility of human fabrication. 

Acts 10 : 43— "To him bear all the prophets witness"; Rev. 19 : 10— "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 

(c) Its actual fulfillment as regards many of its predictions, — while all 
attempts have failed to show that any single one of these predictions 
has been falsified by the event. 



68 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

Instances of specific predictions fulfilled are the mentioning of Cyrus by name a 
hundred and fifty years before his birth, and the foretelling of the sending back of the 
Jews from Babylon (Is. 44 : 26-28 ). 

5. Different kinds of Prophecy, (a) Direct predictions of events — 
as in Old Testament prophecies of Christ and of the fate of the Jewish nation. 
( b ) General prophecy of the kingdom in the Old Testament, and by Christ 
himself in the New. ( c ) Historical types in the nation and in individuals — 
as Jonah and David, (d) Prefigurations of the future in rites and ordi- 
nances — as in sacrifice, circumcision, and the passover. 

Types are intended resemblances, designed prefigurations ; for example, the people of 
Israel is a type of the Christian church ; outside nations are types of the hostile world ; 
Jonah and David are types of Christ. 

6. Special Prophecies uttered by Christ, (a) As to his own death and 
resurrection, (b) As to events occurring between his death and the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem ( multitudes of imposters ; wars and rumors of wars ; 
famine and pestilence), (c) As to the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
Jewish polity (Jerusalem compassed with armies ; abomination of desolation 
in the holy place; flight of Christians; misery; massacre; dispersion). 
(d) As to the world-wide diffusion of his gospel (the Bible already the 
most widely circulated book in the world). 

See Gardiner, O. T. and N. T. in their Mutual Relations, 170-194. 

7. On the double sense of Prophecy. 

( a ) Certain prophecies apparently contain a fullness of meaning which is 
not exhausted by the event to which they most obviously and literally refer. 
A jjrophecy which had a partial fulfillment at a time not remote from its 
utterance, may find its chief fulfillment in an event far distant. Since the 
principles of God's administration find ever recurring and ever enlarging 
illustration in history, prophecies which have already had a partial fulfill- 
ment may have whole cycles of fulfillment yet before them. 

In prophecy there is an absence of perspective ; as in Japanese pictures, the near and 
the far appear equally distant ; the prophet seems freed from the law of space and time ; 
as in dissolving views, the immediate future melts into a future immeasurably far away. 
In Is. 10 and 11, for example, the fall of Lebanon ( the Assyrian ) is immediately connected 
with the rise of the Branch ( Christ ) ; in Jer. 51 : 41, the first capture and the complete 
destruction of Babylon are connected with each other, without notice of the interval 
of a thousand years between them. 

Instances of the double sense of prophecy may be found in Is. 7 : 14-16; 9 : 6, 7— "A virgin 
shall conceive and bear a son" ... . "Unto us a son is born" — compared with Mat. 1 : 22, 23, where the 
prophecy is applied to Christ (see Meyer, in loco) ; Hosea 11 : 1, compared with Mat. 2 : 15 — 
" first-born son"= both Israel and Christ; Mat. 24 and 25, especially 24 : 34 and 25 : 31 — where 
Christ's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem passes into a prophecy of the end of 
the world. Lord Bacon : " Divine prophecies have springing and germinant accomplish- 
ment though many ages, though the height or fullness of them may refer to some one 
age." For this reason the preterist, the continuist, and the f uturist interpretation of the 
Book of Revelation may each have its elements of truth ; see further, on Eschatology. 
See also Dr. Arnold of Rugby, Sermons on the Interpretation of Scripture, Appendix 
A, pages 441-454; Aids to Faith, 449-462; Smith's Bible Diet., 4 : 2727. Per contra, see 
Elliott, Horae Apocalypticag, 4 : 662. Gardiner, O. T. and N. T., 262-274, denies double 
sense, but affirms manifold applications of a single sense. 

( b ) The prophet was not always aware of the meaning of his own prophe- 
cies (1 Pet. 1 : 11). It is enough to constitute his prophecies a proof of 
divine revelation, if it can be shown that the correspondences between them 
and the actual events are such as to indicate divine wisdom and purpose in 



PRINCIPLES OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 69 

the giving of them — in other words, it is enough if the inspiring Spirit 
knew their meaning, even though the inspired prophet did not. 

It is not inconsistent with this view, but rather confirms it, that the near event, 
and not the distant fulfillment, was often chiefly, if not exclusively, in the mind of the 
prophet when be wrote. Scripture declares that the prophets did not always under- 
stand their own predictions : 1 Pet 1 : 11 — " Searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of 
Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should 
follow them." Emerson : " Himself from God he could not free ; He builded better than he 
knew." Keble: "As Uttle children lisp and tell of heaven. So thoughts beyond their 
thoughts to those high bards were given.' ' 

8. Purpose of Prophecy — so far as it is yet unfulfilled, (a) Not to 
enable us to map out the details of the future ; but rather ( b ) To give 
general assurance of God's power and foreseeing wisdom, and of the cer- 
tainty of his triumph ; and ( c ) To furnish, after fulfillment, the proof that 
God saw the end froin the beginning. 

Dan. 12 : 8, 9 — " And I heard, but I understood not ; then said I, my Lord, what shall be the issue of these things? 
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end ' ' ; 2 Pet. 119 — 
prophecy is " a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn " = not until day dawns can distant 
objects be seen; 20 — "No prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation " = only God, by the 
event, can interpret it. Sir Isaac Xewton : M God gave the prophecies, not to gratify 
men's curiosity by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled 
they might be interpreted by the event, and his own providence, not the interpreter's, 
be thereby manifested to the world." 

9. Evidential force of Prophecy — so far as it is fulfilled. Prophecy, 
like miracles, does not stand alone as evidence of the divine commission of 
the Scripture writers and teachers. It is simply a corroborative attestation, 
which unites with miracles to prove that a religious teacher has come from 
God and speaks with divine authority. We cannot, however, dispense with 
this portion of the evidences, — for unless the death and resurrection of Christ 
are events foreknown and foretold by himself, as well as by the ancient 
prophets, we lose one main proof of his authority as a teacher sent from God. 

See Stanley Leathes, O. T. Prophecy, xvii — M Unless we have access to the supernat- 
ural, we have no access to God " ; Annotated Paragraph Bible, Introd. to Prophetical 
Books ; Cairns, on Present State of Christian Argument from Prophecy, in Present Day 
Tracts, 5 : no. 27 ; Edersheim, Prophecy and History ; Brigg-s, Messianic Prophecy ; Red- 
ford. Prophecy, its Nature and Evidence. 

Having thus removed the presumption originally existing against miracles 
and prophecy, we may now consider the ordinary laws of evidence and 
determine the rules to be followed in estimating the weight of the Scripture 
testimony. 

V. Principles of Historical Evidence applicable to the Proof of a 
Divine Revelation (mainly derived from Greenleaf, Testimony of the 
Evangelists, and from Starkie on Evidence). 

1. As to documentary evidence. 

( a ) Documents apparently ancient, not bearing upon their face the marks 
of forgery, and found in proper custody, are presumed to be genuine until 
sufficient evidence is brought to the contrary. The New Testament docu- 
ments, since they are found in the custody of the church, their natural and 
legitimate depository, must by this rule be presumed to be genuine. 

The Christian documents were not found, like the Hook ol Mormon, in a cave, or in 
the custody of angels. Bee starkie on Evidence, 4so .«</. ; Chalmers, christian Revela- 
tion, in Works.:;: 147-171. 



70 THE SCRIPTUKES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

( 6 ) Copies of ancient documents, made by those most interested in their 
faithfulness, are presumed to correspond with the originals, even although 
those originals no longer exist. Since it was the church's interest to have 
faithful copies, the burden of proof rests upon the objector to the Christian 
documents. « 

Upon the evidence of a copy of its own records, the originals having been lost, the 
House of Lords decided a claim to the peerage ; see Starkie on Evidence, 51. There is 
no manuscript of Sophocles earlier than the tenth century, while at least two manu- 
scripts of the N. T. go back to the fourth century. 

( c ) In determining matters of fact, after the lapse of considerable time, 
documentary evidence is to be allowed greater weight than oral testimony. 
Neither memory nor tradition can long be trusted to give absolutely correct 
accounts of particular facts. The New Testament documents, therefore, 
are of greater weight in evidence than tradition would be, even if only 
thirty years had elapsed since the death of the actors in the scenes they 
relate. 

See Starkie on Evidence, 51, 730. The Roman Catholic Church, in its legends of the 
saints, shows how quickly mere tradition can become corrupt. 

2. As to testimony in general. 

(a) In questions as to matters of fact, the proper inquiry is not whether 
it is possible that the testimony may be false, but whether there is sufficient 
probability that it is true. It is unfair, therefore, to allow our examination 
of the Scripture witnesses to be prejudiced by suspicion, merely because 
their story is a sacred one. 

( b ) A proposition of fact is proved when its truth is established by com- 
petent and satisfactory evidence. By competent evidence is meant such 
evidence as the nature of the thing to be proved admits. By satisfactory 
evidence is meant that amount of proof which ordinarily satisfies an 
unprejudiced mind beyond a reasonable doubt. Scripture facts are there- 
fore proved, when they are established by that kind and degree of evidence 
which w T ould in the affairs of ordinary life satisfy the mind and conscience 
of a common man. When we have this kind and degree of evidence it is 
unreasonable to require more. 

(c) In the absence of circumstances which generate suspicion, every wit- 
ness is to be presumed credible, until the contrary is shown ; the burden 
of impeaching his testimony lying upon the objector. The principle which 
leads men to give true witness to facts is stronger than that which leads 
them to give false witness. It is therefore unjust to compel the Christian 
to establish the credibility of his witnesses before proceeding to adduce 
their testimony, and it is equally unjust to allow the uncorroborated testi- 
mony of a profane writer to outweigh that of a Christian writer. Christian 
witnesses should not be considered interested, and therefore untrustworthy ; 
for they became Christians against their worldly interests, and because they 
could not resist the force of testimony. Varying accounts among them 
should be estimated as we estimate the varying accounts of profane writers. 

John's account of Jesus differs from that of the synoptic gospels ; but, in a very 
similar manner, and probably for a very similar reason, Plato's account of Socrates 
differs from that of Xenophon. Each saw and described that side of his subject which 
he was by nature best fitted to comprehend,— compare the Venice of Canaletto with 
the Venice of Turner. 



PRINCIPLES OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 71 

( d ) A slight amount of positive testimony, so long as it is uncontradicted, 
outweighs a very great amount of testimony that is merely negative. The 
silence of a second witness, or his testimony that he did not see a certain 
alleged occurrence, cannot counterbalance the positive testimony of a first 
witness that he did see it. We should therefore estimate the silence of pro- 
fane writers with regard to facts narrated in Scripture precisely as we should 
estimate it if the facts about which they are silent were narrated by other 
profane writers, instead of being narrated by the writers of Scripture. 

Egyptian monuments make no mention of the destruction of Pharaoh and his army ; 
but then, Napoleon's dispatches also make no mention of his defeat at Trafalgar. Even 
though we should grant that Josephus does not mention Jesus, we should have a par- 
allel in Thucydides, who never once mentions Socrates, the most important character 
of the twenty years embraced in his history. Wieseler, however, in Jahrbuch f. d. 
Theologie, 23 : 98, maintains the essential genuineness of the commonly rejected passage 
with regard to Jesus in Josephus, Antiq., 18 : 3 : 3, omitting, however, as interpolations, 
the phrases: "if it be right to call him man"; "this was the Christ"; "he appeared 
alive the third day according to prophecy " ; for these, if genuine, would prove Josephus 
a Christian, which he, by all ancient accounts, was not. 

(e) " The credit due to the testimony of witnesses depends upon : first, 
their ability ; secondly, their honesty ; thirdly, their number and the con- 
sistency of their testimony ; fourthly, the conformity of their testimony 
with experience ; and fifthly, the coincidence of their testimony with col- 
lateral circumstances. " We confidently submit the New Testament witnesses 
to each and all of these tests. 

See Starkie on Evidence, 736. 



CHAPTER II. 

POSITIVE PROOFS THAT THE SCRIPTURES ARE A DIVINE 
REVELATION. 

I. The Genuineness of the Christian Documents, or proof that the 
books of the Old and New Testaments were written at the age to which they 
are assigned and by the men or class of men to whom they are ascribed. 

Our present discussion comprises the first part, and only the first part, of the doctrine 
of the Canon ( <avu>v, a measuring-reed ; hence, a rule, a standard ). It is important to 
observe that the determination of the Canon, or list of the books of sacred Scripture, 
is not the work of the church as an organized body. We do not receive these books 
upon the authority of Fathers or Councils. We receive them, only as the Fathers and 
Councils received them, because we have evidence that they are the writings of the 
men, or class of men, whose names they bear, and that they are also credible and 
inspired. 

We reserve to a point somewhat later the proof of the credibility and the inspiration 
of the Scriptures. We now show their genuineness, as we would show the genuineness 
of other religious books, like the Koran, or of secular documents, like Cicero's Orations 
against Catiline. Genuineness, in the sense in which we use the term, does not neces- 
sarily imply authenticity (i. e., truthfulness and authority) ; see Blunt, Diet. Doct. and 
Hist. Theol., art. : Authenticity. 

Documents may be genuine which are written in whole or in part by persons other 
than they whose names they bear, provided these persons belong to the same class, 
The Epistle to the Hebrews, though not written by Paul, is genuine, because it proceeds 
from one of the apostolic class. The addition of Deut. 34, after Moses' death, does not 
invalidate the genuineness of the Pentateuch ; nor would the theory of a later Isaiah, 
even if it were established, disprove the genuineness of that prophecy; provided, in 
both cases, that the additions were made by men of the prophetic class. On the general 
subject of the genuineness of the Scripture documents, see Alexander, Mcllvaine, 
Chalmers, Dodge, and Peabody, on the Evidences of Christianity. 

1. Genuineness of the Books of the New Testament. 

"We do not need to adduce proof of the existence of the books of the New 
Testament as far back as the third century, for we possess manuscripts of 
them which are at least fourteen hundred years old, and, since the third 
century, references to them have been inwoven into all history and litera- 
ture. We begin our proof, therefore, by showing that these documents not 
only existed, but were generally accepted as genuine, before the close of 
the second century. 

A. All the books of the New Testament, with the single exception of 
2 Peter, were not only received as genuine, but were used in more or less 
collected form, in the latter half of the second century. These collections 
of writings, so slowly transcribed and distributed, imply the long continued 
previous existence of the separate books, and forbid us to fix their origin 
later than the first half of the second century. 

72 



THE GEXUI^E^ESS OP THE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS. 73 

(a) Tertullian (160-230) appeals to the 'New Testament' as made up of 
the 'Gospels' and 'Apostles.' He vouches for the genuineness of the four 
gospels, the Acts, 1 Peter, 1 John, thirteen epistles of Paul, and the Apoc- 
alypse ; in short, to twenty-one of the twenty-seven books of our Canon. 

( 6 ) The Muratorian Canon in the West and the Peshito Version in the 
East (having a common date of about 160) in their catalogues of the New 
Testament writings mutually complement each other's slight deficiencies, 
and together witness to the fact that at that time every book of our present 
New Testament, with the exception of 2 Peter, was received as genuine. 

(c) The Canon of Marcion (140), though rejecting all the gospels but 
that of Luke, and all the epistles but ten of Paul's, shows, nevertheless, 
that at that early day "apostolic writings were regarded as a complete 
original rule of doctrine." Even Marcion, moreover, does not deny the 
genuineness of those writings which for doctrinal reasons he rejects. 

Marcion, the Gnostic, was the enemy of all Judaism, and regarded the God of the 
O. T. as a restricted divinity, entirely different from the God of the X. T. On the Mura- 
torian Canon, see Tregelles, Muratorian Canon. On the Peshito, see Schaff, Introd. 
to Rev. Gk.-Eng. X. T., xxxvii ; Smith's Bible Diet., pp. 3388, 3389. On the whole sub- 
ject, see Westcott, History of the X. T. Canon, and art. : Canon, in Smith's Bible Dic- 
tionary. Also, Reuss, History of the Canon ; Mitchell, Crit. Handbook, Part I. 

B. The Christian and Apostolic Fathers who lived in the first half of the 
second century not only quote from these books and allude to them, but 
testify that they were written by the apostles themselves. We are therefore 
compelled to refer their origin still further back, namely, to the first 
century, when the apostles lived. 

(a) Irenseus (120-200) mentions and quotes the four gospels byname, 
and among them the gospel according to John: "Afterwards John, the 
disciple of the Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, he likewise pub- 
lished a gospel, while he dwelt in Ephesus in Asia." And Irenseus was the 
disciple and friend of Polycarp (80-166), who was himself a personal 
acquaintance of the Apostle John. The testimony of Irenseus is virtually 
the evidence of Polycarp, the contemporary and friend of the Apostle, that 
each of the gospels was written by the person whose name it bears. 

To this testimony it is objected that Irenseus says there are four gospels because there 
are four quarters of the world and four living- creatures in the cherubim. But we re- 
ply that Irenaeus is here stating-, not his own reason for accepting four and only four 
gospels, but what he conceives to be God's reason for ordaining that there should be 
four. We are not warranted in supposing that he had accepted the four gospels on any 
other ground than that of testimony that they were the productions of apostolic men. 

(b) Justin Martyr ( died 148) speaks of 'memoirs [-imofanffuwevfmTa) of 
Jesus Christ,' and his quotations, though sometimes made from memory, 
are evidently cited from our gospels. 

To this testimony it is objected : ( 1) That Justin Martyr uses the term 'memoirs' in- 
Btead of 'gospels.' We reply that be elsewhere uses the term 'gospels' and identities the 

'memoirs * with them i Apol., 1 :66). In writing his apology to the heathen Emperors, 

Marcus An rebus and Marcus Antoninus, he chooses t lie term ' memoirs' or 'memorabilia,' 
which Xenophon had used as the title Of his account of Socrates, simply in order that 
he may avoid ecclesiastical expressions unfamiliar to his readers, in a similar manner 
he always uses the term "Sunday" Instead of "Sabbath." (2 | That in quoting the 
words spoken from heaven at the BavlO^fl baptism, he makes them to be: "My Son, 
thi- (lay have I begotten thee." We reply that this was probably a Blip Of memory, 



74 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION" FROM GOD. 

natural in a day when the gospels existed only in the cumbrous form of manuscript 
rolls. Justin also refers to the Pentateuch for two facts which it does not contain; 
but we should not argue from this that he did not possess our present Pentateuch. See 
Abbot, Genuineness of the Fourth Gospel, 49, note. 

( c ) Papias ( 80-164 ), whom Irenseus calls a ' hearer of John, ' testifies that 
Matthew ' ' wrote in the Hebrew dialect the sacred oracles ( ra Xoy.a ) , " and that 
"Mark, the interpreter of Peter, wrote after Peter (vcrepov ILfrpcj) [or under 
Peter's direction], an unsystematic account (ov ragei) " G f the same events 
and discourses. 

To this testimony it is objected : ( 1 ) That Papias could not have had our gospel of 
Matthew, for the reason that this is Greek. We reply, either with Bleek, that Papias 
erroneously supposed a Hebrew translation of Matthew, which he possessed, to be 
the original; or, with Weiss, that the original Matthew was in Hebrew, while our 
present Matthew is an enlarged version of the same. Palestine, like modern Wales, was 
bilingual ; Matthew, like James, might write both Hebrew and Greek. ( 2 ) That Mark 
is the most systematic of all evangelists, presenting events as a true annalist, in chron- 
ological order. We reply that while, so far as chronological order is concerned, Mark is 
systematic, so far as logical order is concerned he is the most unsystematic of the evan- 
gelists, showing little of the power of historical grouping which is so discernible in 
Matthew. See Bleek, Introduction to N. T., 1 : 108, 126 ; Weiss, Life of Jesus, 1 : 25-39. 

(d) The Apostolic Fathers, — Clement of Rome (died 101), Ignatius of 
Antioch (martyred 115), and Polycarp (80-166), — companions and friends 
of the apostles, have left us in their writings over one hundred quotations 
from or allusions to the New Testament writings, and among these every book, 
except four minor epistles (2 Peter, Jude, 2 and 3 John), is represented. 

Although these are single testimonies, we must remember that they are the testimonies 
of the chief men of the churches of their day, and that they express the opinion of 
the churches themselves. "Like banners of a hidden army, or peaks of a distant 
mountain range, they represent and are sustained by compact, continuous bodies below." 
See Ante-Nicene Library of T. and T. Clark ; also, art. : Apostolic Fathers, in McClin- 
tock & Strong's Cyclopaedia, 1 : 315-317 ; Thayer, in Boston Lectures for 1871 : 324. 

( e ) In the Synoptic Gospels, the omission of all mention of the fulfill- 
ment of Christ's prophecies with regard to the destruction of Jerusalem is 
evidence that these gospels were written before the occurrence of that 
event. In the Acts of the Apostles, universally attributed to Luke, we have 
an allusion to 'the former treatise,' or the gospel by the same author, which 
must, therefore, have been written before the end of Paul's first imprison- 
ment at Rome, and probably with the help and sanction of that apostle. 

Acts 1:1 "The former treatise I made, Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach." If 

the Acts was written A. D. 63, two years after Paul's arrival at Rome, then " the former 
treatise," the gospel according to Luke, can hardly be dated later than 60 ; and since the 
destruction of Jerusalem took place in 70, Matthew and Mark must have published their 
gospels at least as early as the year 68, when multitudes of men were still living who had 
been eye-witnesses of the events of Jesus' life. See Norton, Genuineness of the Gospels ; 
Alf ord, Greek Testament, Prolegomena, 30, 31, 36, 45-47. 

C. It is to be presumed that this acceptance of the New Testament doc- 
uments as genuine, on the part of the fathers of the churches, was for good 
and sufficient reasons, both internal and external, and this presumption is 
corroborated by the following considerations : 

(a) There is evidence that the early churches took every care to assure 

themselves of the genuineness of these writings before they accepted them. 

Evidences of care are the folio wing : — Paul, in 2 Thess. 2 : 2, urged the churches to use 

care ; Melito ( 169 ), Bishop of Sardis, who wrote a treatise on the Revelation of John, 



THE GENUINENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS. 75 

went as far as Palestine in order to ascertain on the spot the facts relating to the Canon 
of the O. T., and as a result of his investigations excluded the Apocrypha ; Serapion, 
Bishop of Antioch (191-213, Abbot), says: "We receive Peter and the other apostles as 
Christ,b ut as skillful men we reject those writings which are falsely ascribed to them"; 
Tertullian (160-230) gives an example of the deposition of a presbyter in Asia Minor for 
publishing a pretended work of Paul. See Tertullian, De Baptismo, referred to by 
Godet on John, Introduction; Lardner, Works, 2:304, 305; Mcllvaine, Evidences of 
Christianity, 92. 

( b ) The style of the Xew Testament writings, and their complete corre- 
spondence with all we know of the lands and times in which they profess to 
have been written, affords convincing proof that they belong to the apostolic 
age. 

Notice the mingling of Latin and Greek, as in o-n-eicov\dT<ap (Mark 6 : 27) and Kevrvpiav 
( Mark 15 : 39 ) ; of Greek and Aramaean, as in -npacnai npaa-iai ( Mark 6 : 40 ) and P8e\vyixa rijs 
tp-qnuaeuv; ( Mat. 24 : 15 ) ; this could hardly have occurred after the first century. Compare 
the anachronisms of style and description in Thackeray's "Henry Esmond." See 
Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 27-37 ; Blunt, Scriptural Coincidences, 244-354. 

(c) The genuineness of the fourth gospel is confirmed by the fact that 
Tatian (155-170), the Assyrian, a disciple of Justin, repeatedly quotes it 
without naming the author, and composed a Harmony of our four gospels 
which he named the Diatessaron ; while Basilides ( 130) and Valentinus ( 150), 
the Gnostics, both quote from it. 

The difference in style between the Apocalypse and the gospel of John is due to the 
fact that the Apocalypse was written during John's exile in Patmos, under Nero, in 67 
or 68, soon after John had left Palestine and had taken up his residence at Ephesus. He 
had hitherto spoken Aramaean, and Greek was comparatively unfamiliar to him. The 
Gospel was written thirty years after, probably about 97, when Greek had become to him 
like a mother tongue. See Lightf oot on Galatians, 343, 347 ; per contra^ see Milligan, 
Revelation of St. John. Phrases and ideas which indicate a common authorship of the 
Apocalypse and the Gospel are the following : M the Lamb of G od," u the AVord of G od," 
" the True " as an epithet applied to Christ, "the Jews" as enemies of God, "manna," 
" him whom they pierced " ; see Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae, 1 : 4, 5; Riddle, in Popular 
Com., 1 : 25 — "If a forger wrote the fourth gospel, then Beelzebub has been casting out 
devils for these eighteen hundred years." 

On the genuineness of the fourth gospel, see Bleek, Introd. to N. T., 1 : 250; Fisher, 
Essays on Supernat. Origin of Christianity, 33, also Beginnings of Christianity, 320-362, 
and Foundations of Theistic and Christian Belief, 221-226 ; Sanday, Authorship of the 
Fourth Gospel, and Gospels in the Second Century ; Ezra Abbot, Genuineness of the 
Fourth Gospel, 52, 80-87 ; Row, Bampton Lectures on Christian Evidences, 249-287 ; Brit- 
ish Quarterly, Oct., 1872 : 216 ; Godet, in Present Day Tracts, 5 : no. 25 ; Westcott, in Bib. 
Com. on John's Gospel, Introd., xxviii-xxxii. 

( d ) The epistle to the Hebrews appears to have been accepted during 
the first century after it was written ( so Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, 
and the Peshito Version witness). Then for two centuries, especially in the 
Roman and North African churches, and probably because its internal 
characteristics were inconsistent with the tradition of a Pauline authorship, 
its genuineness was doubted ( so Tertullian, Cyprian, Irenaeus, Muratorian 
Canon ). At the end of the fourth century, Jerome examined the evidence 
and decided in its favor; Augustine did the same; the third Council of 
Carthage formally recognized it (397) ; from that time the Latin churches 
united with the East in receiving it, and thus the doubt was finally and 
forever removed. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews, the style of which is so unlike that of the Apostle Paul, 
was possibly written by Apollos, who was an Alexandrian Jew, " a learned man " and " mighty 
ia the Scriptures " ( Acts 18 : 24 ) ; but it may notwithstanding have been written at the suggest i< >n 
and under the direction of Paul, and so l>e essentially Pauline. On Hebrews, see art. in 
Smith's Bible Dictionary, and Lange's Com. (ed. Keudrick), Introduction. 



76 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

(e) As to 2 Peter, Jude, and 2 and 3 John, the epistles most frequently 
held to be spurious, we may say that, although we have no conclusive ex- 
ternal evidence earlier than A. D. 160, and in the case of 2 Peter none 
earlier than A. D. 230-250, we may fairly urge in favor of their genuineness 
not only their internal characteristics of literary style and moral value, but 
also the general acceptance of them all since the third century as the actual 
productions of the men or class of men whose names they bear. 

Firmilianus (250), Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, is the first clear witness to 
2 Peter. Origen (230) names it, but, in naming- it, admits that its genuineness is ques- 
tioned. The Council of Laodicea (372) first received it into the Canon. With this very 
gradual recognition and acceptance of 2 Peter, compare DeWette's first publication 
of certain letters of Luther after the lapse of three hundred years, yet without occa- 
sioning dispute as to their genuineness ; or the concealment of Milton's Treatise on 
Christian Doctrine for nearly two hundred years. The epistle was probably sent from 
the East shortly before Peter's martyrdom, and nersecution may have prevented its 
rapid circulation in other countries. See Plumptre, on Epistles of Peter, Introd., 73-81 ; 
Afford on 2 Peter, 4 : Prolegomena, 157 ; Westcott, on Canon, in Smith's Bible Diet., 
1 : 370, 373 ; Blunt, Diet. Doct. and Hist. Theol., art. : Canon. 

(/) Upon no other hypothesis than that of their genuineness can the 
general acceptance of these four minor epistles since the third century, and 
of all the other books of the New Testament since the middle of the second 
century, be satisfactorily accounted for. If they had been mere collections 
of floating legends, they could not have secured wide circulation as sacred 
books for which Christians must answer with their blood. If they had been 
forgeries, the churches at large could neither have been deceived as to their 
previous non-existence, nor have been induced unanimously to pretend that 
they were ancient and genuine. Inasmuch, however, as other accounts of 
their origin, inconsistent with their genuineness, are now current, we pro- 
ceed to examine more at length the most important of these opposing views. 
See Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 23-27 ; Hovey, Am.Com. on N. T., General Introd. 

D. nationalistic Theories as to the origin of the gospels. These are 
attempts to eliminate the miraculous element from the New Testament 
records, and to reconstruct the sacred history upon principles of naturalism. 

Against them we urge the general objection that they are unscientific in 
their principle and method. To set out in an examination of the New Tes- 
tament documents with the assumption that all history is a mere natural 
development, and that miracles are therefore impossible, is to make history 
a matter, not of testimony, but of a -priori speculation. It indeed renders 
any history of Christ and his apostles .impossible, since the witnesses whose 
testimony with regard to miracles is discredited can no longer be considered 
worthy of credence in their accounts of Christ's life or doctrine. Only 
three of these theories require special notice : 

1st. The Myth-theory of Strauss. 

According to this view, the gospels are crystallizations into story of Mes- 
sianic ideas which had for several generations filled the minds of imaginative 
men in Palestine. The myth is a narrative in which such ideas are uncon- 
sciously clothed, and from which the element of intentional and deliberate 
deception is absent. 

This early view of Strauss, which has become identified with his name, was exchanged 
in late years for a more advanced view which extended the meaning of the word 
' myths ' so as to include all narratives that spring out of a theological idea, and it ad- 



THE GENUINENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS. 77 

mitted the existence of ' pious frauds ' in the g-ospels. Baur, he says, first convinced 
him that the author of the Fourth Gospel had "not unfrequently composed mere 
fables, knowing- them to be mere fictions." The animating spirit of both the old view 
and the new is the same. Strauss says : •* "We know with certainty what Jesus was not, 
and what he has not done, namely, nothing superhuman and supernatural." " No gospel 
can claim that degree of historic credibility that would be required in order to make us 
debase our reason to the point of believing miracles." He calls the resurrection of 
Christ "ein weltgeschichtlicher Humbug." See Strauss, Life of Jesus; New Life of 
Jesus, 1 : preface, xii ; also Carpenter, Mental Philosophy, 362 ; Grote, Plato, 1 : 349. 

We object to this view that 

(a) The time between the death of Christ and the publication of the gos- 
pels was far too short for the growth and consolidation of such mythical 
histories. Myths, on the contrary, are the slow growth of centuries. 

Instance the Indian, Greek, Roman, and Scandinavian myths. See Cox, Miracles, 50. 

( b ) The first century was not a century when such formation of myths 
was possible. Instead of being a credulous and imaginative age, it was an 
age of historical inqmry and of Sadduceeism in matters of religion. 

Arnold of Rugby : " The idea of men writing mythic histories between the times of 
Livy and of Tacitus, and of St. Paul mistaking such for realities ! " Pilate's sceptical 
inquiry, "What is truth?" better represented the age. "The mythical age is past 
when an idea is presented abstractly — apart from narrative." The Jewish sect of the 
Sadducees shows that the rationalistic spirit was not confined to Greeks or Romans. 

( c ) The gospels cannot be a mythical outgrowth of Jewish ideas and 
expectations, because, in their main features, they run directly counter to 
these ideas and expectations. The sullen and exclusive nationalism of the 
Jews could not have given rise to a gosj)el for all nations, nor could their 
expectations of a temporal monarch have led to the story of a suffering 
Messiah. 

See Rogers, Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 61. John 10 : 41— "John indeed did no sign"— 
shows how little inclination tnere was to invest popular teachers with miraculous pow- 
ers ( Westcott, Bible Com., in loco). 

( d ) The belief and propagation of such myths are inconsistent with what 
we know of the sober characters and self-sacrificing lives of the apostles. 

Witness Thomas's doubting, and Paul's shipwrecks and scourgings: Cf. 2 Pet. 1 : 16 — ou 
yap o-eero^io-fieVot? ixv9oi<; e£aKo\ovdr)<rai>Tes =" we have not been on the false track of myths 
artificially elaborated." See F. W. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, 49-88. 

(e) The mythical theory cannot account for the acceptance of the gospels 
among the Gentiles, who had none of these Jewish ideas and expectations. 

(/) It cannot explain Christianity itself, with its belief in Christ's cruci- 
fixion and resurrection, and the ordinances which commemorate these facts. 

Like the Jewish Passover and our own Independence Day, Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper cannot be accounted for, except as monuments and remembrances of historical 
facts at the beginnings of the Christian church. See Muir, on the Lord's Supper an 
abiding Witness to the Death of Christ, in Present Day Tracts, 6 : no. 36. 

On Strauss and his theory, see Hackett, in Christian Rev., 1845 : 48; Weiss, Life of 
JeBUS, 156-163; Christlieb, Mod. Doubt and Christ. Belief, 379-425; MacLear, in Strivings 
for the Faith, 1-36; H. B. Smith, in Faith and Philosophy, 442-4(58; Bayne, Review of 
St muss's New Life, in Theol. Eclectic, 4 : 74 ; Row, in Lectures on Modern Scepticism, 
806 380; Blbliotheca Sacra, Oct., 1871 : art. by Prof. W. A. Stevens; Burgess, Antiquity 
and Unity of Man, 263, 264; Curtis on Inspiration, U^i7 ; Alexander, Christ and Chris- 
tianity, 92 126; A. P. Peabody, in Smith's Bible Diet., 2 : D54-958. 

2nd. The Tendency-theory of Baur. 

This maintains that the gospels originated in the middle of the second 
century, and were written under assumed names as a means of reconciling 



78 THE SCRIPTUKES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

opposing Jewish and Gentile tendencies in the church. "These great 
national tendencies find their satisfaction, not in events corresponding to 
them, but in the elaboration of conscious fictions. " 

Baur dates the fourth gospel at 160-170 A. D. ; Matthew at 130 ; Luke at 150 ; Mark at 
150-160. Baur never inquires who Christ was. He turns his attention from the facts to 
the documents. If the documents be proved unhistorical, there is no need of examining 
the facts, for there are no facts to examine. He indicates the presupposition of his inves- 
tigations, when he says : " The principal argument for the later origin of the gospels 
must forever remain this, that separately, and still more when taken together, they 
give an account of the life of Jesus which involves impossibilities "—i. e., miracles. He 
would therefore remove their authorship far enough from Jesus' time to permit 
regarding the miracles as inventions. See Baur, Die kanonischen Evangelien ; Canoni- 
cal Gospels (Engl, transl.), 530; Supernatural Religion, 1 : 212-444 and vol. 2; Pfleiderer, 
Hibbert Lectures for 1885. For accounts of Baur's position, see Herzog, Encyclopaedic, 
art. : Baur ; Clarke's transl. of Hase's Life of Jesus, 34-36 ; Farrar, Critical History of 
Free Thought, 277, 278. 

We object to this view that 

( a ) The destructive criticism to which it subjects the gospels, if applied 
to secular documents, would deprive us of any certain knowledge of the 
past, and render all history impossible. 

The assumption of artifice is itself unfavorable to a candid examination of the docu- 
ments. A perverse acuteness can descry evidences of a hidden animus in the most simple 
and ingenuous literary productions. Instance the philosophical interpretation of " Jack 
and Jill." 

( b ) The antagonistic doctrinal tendencies which it professes to find in the 
several gospels are more satisfactorily explained as varied but consistent 
aspects of the one system of truth held by all the apostles. 

Baur exaggerates the doctrinal and official differences between the leading apostles. 
Peter was not simply a Judaizing Christian, but was the first preacher to the Gentiles, 
and his doctrine appears to have been subsequently influenced to a considerable extent 
by Paul's ( see Plumptre on 1 Pet., 68-70 ). Paul was not an exclusively Hellenizing Chris- 
tian, but invariably addressed the gospel to the Jews before he turned to the Gentiles. 
The evangelists give pictures of Jesus from different points of view. As the Parisian 
sculptor constructs his bust with the aid of a dozen photographs of his subject, all taken 
from different points of view, so from the four portraits furnished us by Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John we are to construct the solid and symmetrical life of Christ. The 
deeper reality which makes reconciliation of these different views possible is the actual 
historical Christ. See Aids to the Study of German Theology, 148-155 ; F. W. Farrar, 
Witness of History to Christ, 61. 

(c) It is incredible that productions of such literary power and lofty 
religious teaching as the gospels should have sprung up in the middle of 
the second century, or that, so springing up, they should have been pub- 
lished under assumed names and for covert ends. 

The general character of the literature of the second century is illustrated by Igna- 
tius's fanatical desire for martyrdom, the value ascribed by Hermas to ascetic rigor, 
the insipid allegories of Barnabas, Clement of Rome's belief in the phoenix, and the 
absurdities of the Apocryphal Gospels. The author of the fourth gospel among the 
writers of the second century would have been a mountain among mole-hills. On the 
Apocryphal Gospels, see Cowper, in Strivings for the Faith, 73-108. 

(d) The theory requires us to believe in a moral anomaly, namely, that 
a faithful disciple of Christ in the second century could be guilty of fabri- 
cating a life of his master, and of claiming authority for it on the ground 
that the author had been a companion of Christ or his apostles. 

"A genial set of Jesuitical religionists "— with mind and heart enough to write the 
Gospel according to John, and who at the same time have cold-blooded sagacity enough 



THE GENUINENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS. 79 

to keep out of their -writings every trace of the developments of church authority- 
belonging to the second century. The newly discovered " Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
tles," if dating from the early part of that century, shows that such a combination is 
impossible. 

( e ) This theory cannot account for the universal acceptance of the gos- 
pels at the end of the second century, among widely separated communities 
where reverence for writings of the apostles was a mark of orthodoxy, and 
where the Gnostic heresies would have made new documents instantly liable 
to suspicion and searching examination. 

Abbot, Genuineness of the Fourth Gospel, 52, 80, 88, 89. The Johannine doctrine of the 
Logos, if first propounded in the middle of the second century, would have ensured the 
instant rejection of that gospel by the Gnostics, who ascribed creation, not to the Logos, 
but to successive "^Eons." 

(/) The acknowledgment by Baur that the epistles to the Romans, Gala- 
tians and Corinthians were written by Paul in the first century is fatal to 
his theory, since these epistles testify not only to miracles at the period at 
which they were written, but to the main events of Jesus' life and to the 
miracle of his resurrection, as facts already long acknowledged in the 
Christian church. 

On the evidential value of the epistles here mentioned, see Lorimer, in Strivings for 
the Faith, 109-144 ; Howson, in Present Day Tracts, 4 : no. 24 ; Row, Bampton Lect. for 
1877 : 289-356. On Baur and his theory in general, see Weiss, Life of Jesus, 1 : 175 sq. ; 
Christlieb, Mod. Doubt and Christ. Belief , 504-549 ; Hutton, Essays, 1 : 176-215 ; Theol. 
Eclectic, 5 : 1-42 ; Auberlen, Div. Revelation ; Bib. Sac, 19 : 75 ; Answers to Supernatural 
Religion, in Westcott, Hist. N. T. Canon, 4th ed., Introd. ; Lightfoot, in Contemporary 
Review, Dec, 1874, and Jan., 1875 ; Salmon, Introd. to N. T., 6-31 ; A. B. Bruce, in Present 
Day Tracts, 7 : no. 38. 

3rd. The Eomance-theory of Renan. 

This theory admits a basis of truth in the gospels and holds that they 
were all written in the first century. "According to " Matthew, Mark, etc., 
however, means only that Matthew, Mark, etc. , wrote these gospels in sub- 
stance. Renan claims that the facts of Jesus' life were so sublimated by 
enthusiasm, and so overlaid with pious fraud, that the gospels in then- 
present form cannot be accepted as genuine, — in short, the gospels are to be 
regarded as historical romances which have only a foundation in fact. 

The animus of this theory is plainly shown in Renan 's Life of Jesus, preface to 13th 
ed.— " If miracles and the inspiration of certain books are realities, my method is detest- 
able. If miracles and the inspiration of books are beliefs without reality, my method 
is a good one. But the question of the supernatural is decided for us with perfect cer- 
tainty by the single consideration that there is no room for believing in a thing of 
which the world offers no experimental trace." " On the whole, 1 ' says Renan, " I admit 
as authentic the four canonical gospels. All, in my opinion, date from the first century, 
and the authors are, generally speaking, those to whom they are attributed." He denies 
to .lesus " sincerity with himself " ; attributes to him " innocent artifice " and the tolera- 
tion of pious fraud, as for example in the case of the stories of Lazarus and of his own 
resurrection. Of the highly wrought imagination of Mary Magdalene, he says: "O 
divine power of love ! sacred moments, in which the passion of one whose senses were 
deceived gives us a resuscitated God ! " See Renan, Life of Jesus, 21. 

To this view we object that 

(a) It involves an arbitrary and partial treatment of the Christian docu- 
ments. The claim that one writer not only borrowed from others, but 
interpolated ad libitum, is contradicted by the essential agreement of the 
manuscripts as quoted by the Fathers, and as now extant. 



80 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

(6) It attributes to Christ and to the apostles an alternate fervor of 
romantic enthusiasm and a false pretense of miraculous power which are 
utterly irreconcilable with the manifest sobriety and holiness of their lives 
and teachings. If Jesus did not work miracles, he was an impostor. 

(c) It fails to account for the power and progress of the gospel, as a 

system directly opposed to men's natural tastes and prepossessions — a 

system which substitutes truth for romance and law for impulse. 

For reviews of Renan, see Hutton, Essays, 263-281 ; H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy, 
401-441 ; Christlieb, Mod. Doubt, 425-447 ; Pressense, in Theol. Eclec., 1 : 199 ; Uhlhorn, 
Mod. Representations of the Life of Jesus, 1-33 ; Bib. Sac., 22 : 207 ; 23 : 353, 529 ; Present 
Day Tracts, 3 : no. 16, and 4 : no. 21. 

2. Genuineness of the Books of the Old Testament. 
We show this : 

( a ) From the witness of the New Testament, in which all but six books 
of the Old Testament are either quoted or alluded to as genuine. 

" The N. T. shows coincidences of language with the O. T. Apocryphal books, but it 
does not contain one authoritative or direct quotation from them ; while, with the 
exception of Judges, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah, every other 
book in the Hebrew canon is used either for illustration or proof." The only possible 
exception to this statement is found in Jude 14, which some hold to be a quotation from 
the Apocryphal book of Enoch ( 160 B. C. ? ). But Jude more probably quoted the same 
primitive tradition of which the author of the Apocryphal book made use,— Volkmar, 
indeed, puts the date of the Book of Enoch at 132 A. D. See Schodde, Book of Enoch, 
with Introd. by Ezra Abbot ; Plumptre on Jude, 210, 216, 217. 

( b ) From the testimony of Jewish authorities, ancient and modern, who 
declare the same books to be sacred, and only the same books, that are now 
comprised in our Old Testament Scriptures. 

Josephus enumerates twenty-two of these books '* which are justly believed to be 
divine." Our present Hebrew Bible makes twenty-four, by separating Ruth from 
Judges, and Lamentations from Jeremiah. See Josephus, Against Apion, 1:8; Smith's 
Bible Dictionary, article on the Canon, 1 : 359, 360. Philo never quotes an Apocryphal 
book. 

( c ) From the testimony of the Septuagint translation, dating from the 
first half of the third century, or from 280 to 180 B. C. 

MSS. of the Septuagint contain, indeed, the O. T. Apocrypha, but the writers of the 
latter do not recognize their own work as on a level with the Canonical Scriptures, 
which they regard as distinct from all other books ( Ecclus., prologue, and 48 : 24 ; also 24 : 
23-27; 1 Mac. 12:9; 2 Mac. 6:23; 1 Esd. 1 : 28; 6:1; Baruch2:21). So both ancient and 
modern Jews. See Bissell, in Lange's Commentary on the Apocrypha, Introduction, 44. 

( d ) From the testimony of the Samaritan Pentateuch, dating from the 
time of the exile, or 600 B. C. 

Samaritan colonists would not have accepted their Pentateuch from the Jews after the 
exile, on account of the enmity between them ; they would not have accepted it during 
the exile, if they had not known it to be the immemorial and sacred book of the Jews. 
They received nothing but the Pentateuch, because the other Jewish literature recog- 
nized the claims of Jerusalem, while the Pentateuch ante-dated -these claims. See 
Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. : Samaritan Pentateuch ; Stanley Leathes, Structure of 
the O. T., 1-41. 

( e ) From indications that the books of the Old Testament were collected 
by competent authority so early as the time of Ezra (450-500 B. C. ), and 
were thenceforth preserved with the utmost care. 
See Bib. Sac, 1863 : 381, 660, 799 ; Smith's Bible Diet., art. : Pentateuch ; Theologl- 



the ge:n"utn t e:n"ess of the christian documents. 81 

cal Eclectic, 6 : 215 ; Bissell, Hist. Origin of the Bible, 398-403. On the " Men of the Great 
Synagogue," see Wright, Ecclesiastes, 5-12, 475-487. 

(/) From the impossibility, on any hypothesis of forgery or of gradual 
accretion, of accounting for the internal characteristics of works which 
combine such manifest antiquity with a moral and religious teaching so 
consistent and sublime. 

As the controversy with regard to the genuineness of the O. T. hooks has turned of 
late upon the claims of the Pentateuch to he regarded as the production of Moses, we 
subjoin a note upon 

The Authorship of the Pentateuch. Recent critics, especially Kuenen and Robertson 
Smith, have maintained that the Pentateuch is Mosaic only in the sense of being- a gradu- 
ally growing body of traditional law, which was codified as late as the time of Ezekiel, 
and, as the development of the spirit and teachings of the great lawgiver, was called 
by a legal fiction after the name of Moses and was attributed to him. The actual order 
of composition is therefore : ( 1 ) Decalogue ; ( 2 ) Deuteronomy ; ( 3 ) Leviticus. 

Among the reasons assigned for this view are the facts ( a ) that Deuteronomy ends 
with an account of Moses' death, and therefore could not have been written by Moses ; 
( b ) that in Leviticus Levites are mere servants to the priests, while in Deuteronomy 
the priests are officiating Levites, or, in other words, all the Levites are priests ; ( c ) that 
the book of Judges, with its record of sacrifices offered in many places, gives no evidence 
that either Samuel or the nation of Israel had any knowledge of a law confining wor- 
ship to a local sanctuary. See Kuenen, Prophets and Prophecy in Israel ; Wellhausen, 
Geschichte Israels, Band 1 ; and art. : Israel, in Encyc. Brit., 13 : 398, 399, 415 ; W. Robert- 
son Smith, O. T. in Jewish Church, 306, 380, and Prophets of Israel. 

We may grant, in reply, (1) that Moses may have written, not autographically, but 
through a scribe ( perhaps Joshua), and that this scribe may have completed the history 
in Deuteronomy with the account of Moses' death ; ( 2 ) that Ezra or subsequent prophets 
may have subjected the whole Pentateuch to recension, and may have added explanatory 
notes ; ( 3 ) that documents of previous ages may have been incorporated, in course of 
its composition by Moses, or subsequently by his successors. See Bib. Com., 1 : 13. But, 
as positive objections to the theory of later authorship, we urge the following : 

1. Universal Jewish tradition attributes the Pentateuch to Moses. Only indubitable 
evidence to the contrary can outweigh the presumption that this tradition is correct. 

2. This is the express testimony of Christ (John 5 : 46, 47— "Moses," "his writings," "he wrote of 
me " ) and of his apostles ( Petei in Acts 3 : 22—" Moses said," and Paul in Rom. 10 : 5 — " Moses writeth " ). 

3. The dignity and majesty of Deuteronomy befit Mosaic authorship, and its horta- 
tory design explains any differences of style between it and the earlier books. 

4. The later books of the O. T. would be a tree without roots, if the composition of 
the Pentateuch were transferred to a later period of Hebrew history ( Kartz). 

"). The apparent lack of distinction between the different classes of Levites in Deuter- 
onomy is explained by the fact that, while Leviticus was written with exact detail, for 
the priests, Deuteronomy is the record of a brief general and oral summary of the law, 
addressed to the people as a whole, and therefore naturally mentions the clergy as a 
whole. In Deut. 18 : 1-8, however, the distinction is certainly made. There "the priests, the 
Levites"=the Levitical priests. 

♦5. The silence of the Book of Judges as to the Mosaic ritual is explained by the design 
of the book to describe only general history, and by the probability that at the taber- 
nacle a ritual was observed of which the people in general were ignorant. Sacrifices in 
other places only accompanied special divine manifestations which made the recipient 
temporarily a priest. Even if it were proved that the law with regard to a central 
sanctuary was not observed, it would not show that the law did not exist, any more than 
violation of the second commandment by Solomon proves his ignorance of the deca- 
logue, oi- the mediaeval neglect of the N. T. by the Roman church proves that the N. T. 
did not then exist. We cannot argue that "where there was transgression, there was 
no law" ( Watts). 

7. The theory is chargeable with an over-rigid interpretation of the Levitical system. 
Bobertson Smith calls that system "a complete theory of the religious life." He does 
not admit that it allows any worship but that at Jerusalem. This is inconsistent with 

the history of Israel, both before and after the exile. Solomon recognizes the existence 
of prayer in other places than the sanctuary, when bespeak! of praying toward God's 
house (1 K. 8 : 38, 48; c/. Ps. 138 : 2— "I will worship toward thy holy temple" ). 

6 



82 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

8. The time of the exile, when there were no sacrifice and no sanctuary, was according 
to this theory the time when the leading- minds of the nation were constructing a system 
of costly ceremonial. This contradicts the general principle that literary activity is 
coincident with periods of national prosperity, rather than of national depression. 

9. In a historical and legal document, such as the Pentateuch professes to be, the put- 
ting of later laws and regulations into the mouth of Moses, with the declaration that 
Jehovah spoke by him, is nothing less than forgery and profanity, to which the expanded 
poetical version of Job's speeches furnishes no proper parallel. 

10. The hypothesis of a veritable Mosaic authorship is far the simpler and more natural. 
As poets like Homer and Shakespeare do not rise in successive generations, and the theor y 
of one Homer and one Shakespeare is far more probable than that of many Homers and 
many Shakespeares, so the theory of one Moses is preferable to that of many lawgivers 
and many writers of law, among the Jews. As the theory of Baur with regard to the 
later and piecemeal authorship of the gospels had only temporary currency and is now 
well-nigh laid to rest, so we may expect to see the speedy collapse of the destructive 
criticism with respect to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. 

See Presb. Rev., arts, by Green, Jan., 1882, and Oct., 1886 ; by H. P. Smith, Apr., 1882 ; 
by Patton, 1883 : 341-410; Bib. Sac, Apr., 1882 : 291-544; Brit. Quar., July, 1881 : 123; Jan., 
1884 : 138-143 ; Green, Moses and the Prophets, and The Hebrew Feasts ; Stebbins, A Study 
in the Pentateuch ; Watts, The Newer Criticism ; Bissell, Historic Origin of the Bible, 
277-342, and The Pentateuch, its Authorship and Structure ; Murray, Origin and Growth 
of the Psalms, 58 ; Bartlett, Sources of History in the Fentateuch, 180-216 ; Payne-Smith, 
in Present Day Tracts, 3 : no. 15 ; Edersheim, Prophecy and History ; Kurtz, Hist. Old 
Cov., 1 : 46; Leathes, Structure of O. T., 54; Perowne, in Contemp. Rev., Jan. and Feb., 
1888 ; Howard Osgood, in Essays on Pentateuchal Criticism, and in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1888. 

11. Credibility of the Writers of the Scriptures. 

We shall attempt to prove this only of the writers of the gospels ; for if 
they are credible witnesses, the credibility of the Old Testament, to which 
they bore testimony, follows as a matter of course. 

1. They are able or competent witnesses, — that is, they possessed actual 
knowledge with regard to the facts they professed to relate, (a) They had 
opportunities of observation and inquiry. ( b ) They were men of sobriety 
and discernment, and could not have been themselves deceived. ( c ) Their 
circumstances were such as to impress deeply upon their minds the events 
of which they were witnesses. 

2. They are honest witnesses. This is evident when we consider that : 
( a ) Their testimony imperiled all their worldly interests. ( b ) The moral 
elevation of their writings, and their manifest reverence for truth and con- 
stant inculcation of it, show that they were not willful deceivers, but good 
men. ( c ) There are minor indications of the honesty of these writers in 
the circumstantiality of their story, in the absence of any expectation that 
their narratives would be questioned, in their freedom from all disposition 
to screen themselves or the apostles from censure. 

3. The writings of the evangelists mutually support each other. We 
argue their credibility upon the ground of their number and of the consist- 
ency of their testimony. While there is enough of discrepancy to show 
that there has been no collusion between them, there is concurrence 
enough to make the falsehood of them all infinitely improbable. Four 
points under this head deserve mention : ( a ) The evangelists are independ- 
ent witnesses. This is sufficiently shown by the futility of the attempts to 
prove that any one of them has abridged or transcribed another. ( b ) The 
discrepancies between them are none of them irreconcilable with the truth 
of the recorded facts, but only present those facts in new lights or with 
additional detail. ( c ) That these witnesses were friends of Christ does not 



CREDIBILITY OF THE WRITERS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 83 

essen the value of their united testimony, since they followed Christ only 
because they were convinced that these facts were true, (d) While one 
witness to the facts of Christianity might establish its truth, the combined 
evidence of four witnesses gives us a warrant for faith in the facts of the 
gospel such as we possess for no other facts in ancient history whatsoever. 
The same rule which would refuse belief in the events recorded in the 
gospels "would throw doubt on any event in history." 

4. The conformity of the gospel testimony with experience. We have 
already shown that, granting the fact of sin and the need of an attested 
revelation from God, miracles can furnish no presumption against the testi- 
mony of those who record such a revelation, but, as essentially belonging 
to such a revelation, miracles may be proved by the same kind and degree 
of evidence as is required in proof of any other extraordinary facts. We 
may assert, then, that in the New Testament histories there is no record of 
facts contrary to experience, but only a record of facts not witnessed in ordi- 
nary experience — of facts, therefore, in which we may believe, if the evi- 
dence in other respects is sufficient. 

5. Coincidence of this testimony with collateral facts and circum- 
stances. Under this head we may refer to (a) the numberless correspond- 
ences between the narratives of the evangelists and contemporary history ; 
( b ) the failure of every attempt thus far to show that the sacred history is 
contradicted by any single fact derived from other trustworthy sources ; 
( c ) the infinite improbability that this minute and complete harmony should 
ever have been secured in fictitious narratives. 

6. Conclusion from the argument for the credibility of the writers of 
the gospels. These writers having been proved to be credible witnesses, 
their narratives, including the accounts of the miracles and prophecies of 
Christ and his apostles, must be accepted as true. But God would not 
work miracles or reveal the future to attest the claims of false teachers. 
Christ and his apostles must, therefore, have been what they claimed to be, 
teachers sent from God, and their doctrine must be what they claimed it to 
be, a revelation from God to men. 

On the whole subject, see Ebrard, Wissensch. Kritik der evang. Geschichte ; Greenleaf , 
Testimony of the Evangelists, 30, 31 ; Starkie on Evidence, 734 ; Whately, Historic Doubts 
as to Napoleon Bonaparte; Haley, Examination of Alleged Discrepancies; Birks, in 
Strivings for the Faith, 37-72 — " Discrepancies are like the slight diversities of the differ- 
ent pictures of the stereoscope." Renan calls the land of Palestine a fifth gospel. Weiss 
compares 1 he Apocryphal Gospels, where there is no historical setting and all is in the air, 
with the Evangelists, where time and place are always stated. 

No modern apologist has stated the argument for the credibility of the New Testament 
writers with greater clearness and force than Paley, — Evidences, chapters 8 and 10 — "No 
historical fact is more certain than that the original propagators of the gospel volun- 
tarily subjected themselves to lives of fatigue, danger, and suffering, in the prosecution 
of their undertaking'. The nature of the undertaking, the character of the persons 
employed In it, the opposition of their tenets to the fixed expectations of the country In 
which they at first advanced them, their undissemhlcd condemnation of the religion Of 
all Other countries, their total want of power, authority, or force, render it in the high- 
est degree probable I bat this must have been the case. 

"The probability la increased by what we know of the fate of the Founder of the 
institution, who was put to death for his at tempt , and by what we also know of the cruel 

treatment of the converts to the institution within thirty yean after its commencement 
— both which points are attested by heathen writers, and, being once admitted, leave it 

very incredible that the primitive emissaries of the religion who exercised their minis- 



84 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

try first amongst the people who had destroyed their Master, and afterward amongst 
those who persecuted their converts, should themselves escape with impunity or pursue 
their purpose in ease and safety. 

k ' This probability, thus sustained by foreign testimony, is advanced, I think, to histori- 
cal certainty by the evidence of our own books, by the accounts of a writer who was 
the companion of the persons whose sufferings he relates, by the letters of the persons 
themselves, by predictions of persecutions, ascribed to the Founder of the religion, 
which predictions would not have been inserted in this history, much less, studiously 
dwelt upon, if they had not accorded with the event, and which, even if falsely ascribed 
to him, could only have been so ascribed because the event suggested them ; lastly, by 
incessant exhortations to fortitude and patience, and by an earnestness, repetition and 
urgency upon the subject which were unlikely to have appeared, if there had not been, 
at the time, some extraordinary call for the exercise of such virtues. It is also made 
out, I think, with sufficient evidence, that both the teachers and converts of the religion, 
in consequence of their new profession, took up a new course of life and conduct. 

" The next great question is, what they did this for. It was for a miraculous story 
of some kmd, since for the proof that Jesus of Nazareth ought to be received as the 
Messiah, or as a messenger for God, they neither had nor could have anything but mira- 
cles to stand upon. * * * If this be so, the religion must be true. These men could 
not be deceivers. By onlv not bearing testimony, they might have avoided all these suf- 
ferings and lived quietly. Would men in such circumstances pretend to have seen what 
they never saw, assert facts which they had no knowledge of, go about lying to teach 
virtue, and though not ouly convinced of Christ's being an impostor, but having seen the 
success of his imposture in his crucifixion, yet persist in carrying it on, and so persist as 
to bring upon themselves, for nothing, and with a full knowledge of the consequence, 
enmity and hatred, danger and death ? " 

Those who maintain this, moreover, require us to believe that the Scripture writers 
were " villians for no end but to teach honesty, and martyrs without the least prospect 
of honor or advantage." Imposture must have a motive. The self-devotion of the 
apostles is the strongest evidence of their truth, for even Hume declares that " we can- 
not make use of a more convincing argument in proof of honesty than to prove that 
the actions ascribed to any persons are contrary to the course of nature, and that no 
human motives, in such circumstances, could ever induce them to such conduct." 

III. The Supernatural Character of the Scripture Teaching. 

1. Scripture teaching in general. 

A. The Bible is the work of one mind. 

( a ) In spite of its variety of authorship and the vast separation of its 
writers from one another in point of time, there is a unity of subject, spirit, 
and aim throughout the whole. 

The Bible is made up of sixty-six books, by forty writers, of all ranks,— shepherds, 
fishermen, priests, warriors, statesmen, kings, — composing their works at intervals 
through a period of seventeen centuries. Evidently no collusion between them is pos- 
sible. Scepticism tends ever to ascribe to the Scriptures greater variety of authorship 
and date, but all this only increases the wonder of the Bible's unity. If unity in a half 
dozen writers is remarkable, in forty it is astounding. 

( b ) Not one moral or religious utterance of all these writers has been 
contradicted or superseded by the utterances of those who have come later, 
but all together constitute a consistent system. 

In this unity the Bible stands alone. Hindu, Persian, and Chinese religious books con- 
tain no consistent system of faith. There is progress in revelation from the earlier to the 
later books of the Bible, but this is not progress through successive steps of falsehood ; 
it is rather progress from a less to a more clear and full unfolding of the truth. The 
whole truth lay germinally in the protevangelium uttered to our first parents ( Gen. 3 : 15 — 
the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head ; Mat. 5 : 17 — " Think not that I came to 
destroy the law or the prophets : I came not to destroy, but to fulfill " ). 



SUPERNATUBAL CHARACTER OF SCRIPTURE TEACHING. 85 

( c ) Each of these -writings, whether early or late, has represented moral 
and religious ideas greatly in advance of the age in which it has appeared, 
and these ideas still lead the world. 

All our ideas of progress, with all the forward-looking spirit of modern Christendom. 
are due to Scripture. The classic nations had no such ideas and no such spirit. 

( d ) It is impossible to account for this unity without supposing such a 
supernatural suggestion and control that the Bible, while in its various 
parts written by human agents, is yet equally the work of a superhuman 
intelligence. 

Compare with the harmony between the different Scripture writers the contradictions 
and refutations which follow merely human philosophies — e. y., the Hegelian idealism 
and the Spencerian materialism. 

B. This one mind that made the Bible is the same mind that made the 
soid, for the Bible is divinely adapted to the soul. 

( a ) It shows complete acquaintance with the soul. 

The Bible addresses all parts of man's nature. There are Law and Epistles for man's 
reason ; Psalms and Gospels for his affections ; Prophets and Revelation for his imag- 
ination. Hence the popularity of the Scriptures. Their variety holds men. The Bible 
has become interwoven iuto modern life. Law, literature, art, all show its moulding 
influence. 

(6) It judges the soul — contradicting its passions, revealing its guilt, and 
humbling its pride. 

No product of mere human nature could thus look down upon human nature and 
condemn it. The Bible speaks to us from a higher level. The Samaritan woman's words 
apply to the whole compass of divine revelation : it tells us all things that ever we did 
(John 4 : 29 ). The Brahmin declared that Romans 1, with its description of heathen vices, 
must have been forged after the missionaries came to India. 

( c ) It meets the deepest needs of the soul — by solutions of its problems, 
disclosures of God's character, presentations of the way of pardon, conso- 
lations and promises for life and death. 

Neither Socrates nor Seneca sets forth the nature, origin, and consequences of sin as 
committed against the holiness of God, nor do they point out the way of pardon and 
renewal. The Bible teaches us what nature cannot, viz. : God's creatorship, the origin 
of evil, the method of restoration, the certainty of a future state, and the principle of 
rewards and punishments there. 

(d) Yet it is silent upon many questions for which writings of merely 

human origin seek first to provide solutions. 

Compare the account of Christ's infancy in the Gospels with the fables of the Apocry- 
phal New Testament; compare the scant utterances of Scripture with regard to the 
future state with Mohammed's and Swedenborg's revelations of Paradise. 

(e) There are infinite depths and inexhaustible reaches of meaning in 
Scripture, which difference it from all other books, and which compel us to 
believe that its author must be divine. 

Sir Walter Scott, on his death bed: "Bring me the Book!" "What book?" said 
Lookhart, his son-in-law. "There is but one book 1 " said the dying man. Reville con- 
Qtndea an Essay in the Revue dee deux Mondes ( 1864 ) : " One day the question was started, 
in an assembly, what book a man condemned to lifelong imprisonment, and to whom 
hut one book would be permitted, had better take into his cell with him. The company 
consist* <l of Catholics, Protestants, philosophers, and even materialists, but all agreed 
t ha t t heir choice would fall only on the Bible." 

On the whole subject, see Garbett, God's Word Written, 3-68 ; Luthardt, Saving Truths, 



86 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

310 ; Rogers, Superhuman Origin of Bible, 155-181 ; W. L. Alexander, Connection and Har- 
mony of O. T. and N. T. ; Stanley Leathes, Structure of the O. T. ; Bernard, Progress of 
Doctrine in the N. T. ; Rainy, Delivery and Development of Doctrine ; Titcomb, in 
Strivings for the Faith ; Immer, Hermeneutics, 91 ; Present Day Tracts, 4 : no. 23 ; 5 : no. 
28; 6: no. 31 ; Lee on Inspiration, 26-32. 

2. Moral system of the New Testament. 

The perfection of this system is generally conceded. All will admit that 
it greatly surpasses any other system known among men. Among its dis- 
tinguishing characteristics may be mentioned : 

(a) Its comprehensiveness, — including all human duties in its code, even 
those most generally misunderstood and neglected, while it permits no vice 
whatsoever. 

(b) Its spirituality, — accepting no merely external conformity to right 
precepts, but judging all action by the thoughts and motives from which it 
springs. 

(c) Its simplicity, — inculcating principles rather than imposing rules; 
reducing these principles to an organic system ; and connecting this system 
with religion by summing up all human duty in the one command of love 
to God and man. 

(d) Its practicality, — exemplifying its precepts in the life of Jesus 
Christ ; and, while it declares man's depravity and inability in his own 
strength to keep the law, furnishing motives to obedience, and the divine 
aid of the Holy Spirit to make this obedience possible. 

We may justly argue that a moral system so pure and perfect, since it 
surpasses all human powers of invention and runs counter to men's natural 
tastes and passions, must have had a supernatural, and if a supernatural, 
then a divine, origin. 

Heathen systems of morality are in general defective, in that they furnish for man's 
moral action no sufficient example, rule, motive, or end. They cannot do this, for the 
reason that they practically identify God with nature, and know of no clear revelation 
of his holy will. Man is left to the law of his own being, and since he is not conceived 
of as wholly responsible and free, the lower impulses are allowed sway as well as the 
higher, and selfishness is not regarded as sin. As heathendom does not recognize man's 
depravity, so it does not recognize his dependence upon divine grace, and its virtue is 
self -righteousness. Heathenism is man's vain effort to lift himself to God ; Christianity 
is God's coming down to man to save him ; see Gunsaulus, Transfig. of Christ, 11, 12 ; 
Martineau, Types, 1 : 15, 16. 

See Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 1 : 37-173 ; Porter, in Present Day Tracts, 4 : no. 19, pp. 
33-64 ; Blackie, Four Phases of Morals ; Faiths of the World ( St. Giles Lectures, second 
series ) ; J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, 2 : 280-317 ; Garbett, Dogmatic Faith ; Farrar, 
Witness of History to Christ, 134, and Seekers after God, 181, 182, 320 ; Curtis on Inspira- 
tion, 288. For denial of the all-comprehensive character of Christian Morality, see John 
Stuart Mill, on Liberty ; per contra, see Review of Mill, in Theol. Eclectic, 6 : 508-512 ; 
Row, in Strivings for the Faith, pub. by Christian Evidence Society, 181-220 ; also, Bamp- 
ton Lectures, 1877 : 130-176 ; Fisher, Beginnings of Christianity, 28-38, 174. We append 
certain facts and references with regard to particular heathen systems. 

1. Confucianism. Confucius ( Kung-fu-tse ), B. C. 551-478, contemporary with Pythag- 
oras and Buddha. Socrates was born ten years after Confucius died. Mencius ( 371-278 ) 
was a disciple of Confucius. Matheson, in Faiths of the World ( St. Giles Lectures ), 73-108, 
claims that Confucianism was "an attempt to substitute a morality for a theology." 
Legge, however, in Present Day Tracts, 3 : no. 18, shows that this is a mistake. Confu- 
cius simply left religion where he found it. God, or Heaven, is worshiped in China, 
but only by the emperor. Chinese religion is apparently a survival of the worship of 
the patriarchal family. The father of the family was its only head and priest. In China, 
though the family widened into the tribe, and the tribe into the nation, the father still 
retained his sole authority, and, as the father of his people, the emperor alone worshiped 
God. Between God and the people the gulf has so widened that the people may be said 
to have no practical knowledge of God or communication with him. 






SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER OF SCRIPTURE TEACHING. 87 

Confucius did nothing to put morality upon a religious basis, in practice, the rela- 
tions between man and man are the only relations considered. Benevolence, righteous- 
ness, propriety, wisdom, sincerity, are enjoined, but not a word is said with regard to 
man's relations to God. Love to God is not only not commanded — it is not thought of 
as possible. Though man's being is theoretically an ordinance of God, man is practically 
a law to himself. The first commandment of Confucius is that of filial piety. But this 
includes worship of dead ancestors, and is so exaggerated as to bury from sight the 
related duties of husband to wife and of parent to child. 

While Confucianism excludes polytheism, idolatry, and deification of vice, it is a shal- 
low and tantalizing system, because it does not recognize the hereditary corruption of 
human nature, or furnish any remedy for moral evil except the " doctrines of the sages." 
"The heart of man, "it says, "is naturally perfectly upright and correct." Sinissimply 
" a disease, to be cured by self-discipline ; a debt, to be canceled by meritorious acts ; 
an ignorance, to be removed by stud}- and contemplation." See Bib. Sac, 1883 : 292, 293 ; 
X. Englander, Sept., 1883 : 565. Ezra Abbot says that Confucius gave the golden rule in 
positive as well as in negative form ; see Harris, Philosophical Basis of Theism, 222. 
This, however, seems to be denied by Legge, Religions of China, 1-58. 

2. The Ixdiax Systems. Brahmanism, as expressed in the Vedas, dates back to 
1000-1500 B. C. As Caird ( in Faiths of the World, St, Giles Lectures, lecture i ) has shown, 
it originated in the contemplation of the power of nature apart from the moral Person- 
ality that works in and through nature. Indeed we may say that all heathenism is 
man's choice of a non-moral in place of a moral God. Brahmanism is a system of pan- 
theism, "a false or illegitimate consecration of the finite." All things are a manifesta- 
tion of Brahma. Hence evil is deified as well as good. And many thousand gods were 
worshiped as partial representations of the living principle which moved through all. 
Caste is fixed and consecrated as a manifestation of God. 

Buddhism, beginning with Buddha, 600 B. C, "recalls the mind to its elevation above 
the finite," from which Brahmanism had fallen away. Buddha was in certain respects 
a reformer. He protested against caste, and proclaimed that truth and morality are for 
all. Hence Buddhism, through its possession of this one grain of truth, appealed to the 
human heart, and became, next to Christianity the greatest missionary religion. 
Buddha would deliver man, not by philosophy, or by asceticism, but by self-renuncia- 
tion. All isolation and personality are sin, the guilt of which rests, however, not on 
man, but on existence in general. 

While Brahmanism is pantheistic, Buddhism is atheistic in its spirit. Finiteness and 
separateness are evil, and the only way to purity and rest is by ceasing to exist. This 
is essential pessimism. The highest morality is to endure that which must be, and to 
i scape from reality and from personal existence as soon as possible. Hence the doctrine 
of Nirvana. Rhys Davids, in his Hibbert Lectures, claims that early Buddhism meant 
by Nirvana, not annihilation, but the extinction of the self -life, and that this was attain- 
able during man's present mortal existence. But the term Kiwana now means, to 
the great mass of those who use it, the loss of all personality and consciousness, and 
absorption into the general life of the universe. 

Buddhism is also fatalistic. It inculcates submission and compassion — merely nega- 
tive virtues. But it knows nothing of manly freedom, or of active love — the positive 
virtues of Christianity. It leads men to spare others, but not to help them. Its moral- 
ity revolves around self, not around God. It has in it no organizing principle, for it 
recognizes no God, no inspiration, no soul, no salvation, no personal immortality. 
Buddhism would save men only by inducing them to flee from existence. To the Hindu, 
family life is sinful. The perfect man must forsake wife and children. All gratification 
of natural appetites and passions ta sin. Salvation is not from sin, but from desire, and 
from this men can be saved only by escaping from life Itself. Christianity buries sin, 
but saves the man; Buddha would save the man by killing him. 

For comparison Of the sage Of India, Bakya Muni, more commonly called Buddha 
(properly "the Buddha" the enlightened; but who, in spite of Edwin Arnold's 
"Light of Asia." is represented as not pure from carnal pleasures before he began his 
work), with Jesus Christ, see Bib. Sac, July, 1882:468-498; W. C.Wilkinson, Edwin 
Arnold, Poetizer and Paganizer; Kellogg, The Light of Asia and the Light of the 
World. Buddhism and Christianity are compared in Presb. Bev., July, 1888:506-648; 
Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 1 : 47-64 : Mitchell, in Present Day Tracts, : no. 88. Sec also 
Oldenberg, Buddha; Lillie, Popular Lile of Buddha; BeaL Catena of Buddhist Script- 
ures 153— "Buddhism declares itself Ignorant of any mode of personal existence com- 
patible with the idea of spiritual perfection, and bo far it is ignorant of God"; ir>7 — 
"The earliest idea of Nirvana Beems to have included in it no more than the enjoyment 

of a state of rest consequent on the extinction of all causes of sorrow." 



88 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

3. The Greek Systems. Pythagoras (584-504) bused morality upon the principle of 
numbers. "Moral good was identified with unity; evil with multiplicity; virtue was 
the harmony of the soul and its likeness to God. The aim of life was to make it repre- 
sent the beautiful order of the Universe. The whole practical tendency of Pythagore- 
nnism was ascetic, and inculcated a strict self-control and an earnest culture." Here 
already we seem to see the defect of Greek morality in confounding- the good with the 
beautiful, and in making morality a mere self -development. 

Socrates ( 469-400 ) made knowledge to be virt ue. Morality consisted in subordinating 
irrational desires to rational knowledge. Although here we rise above a sxibjeetivcly 
determined good as the goal of moral effort, we have no proper sense of sin. Knowl- 
edge, and not love, is the motive. If men know the right, they will do the right. 

Plato (430-348) held that morality is pleasure in the good, as the truly beautiful, and 
that knowledge produces virtue. The good is likeness to God,— here we have glimpses 
of an extra-human goal and model. The body, like all matter, being inherently evil, is 
a hindrance to the soul,— here we have a glimpse of hereditary depravity. But Plato 
"reduced moral evil to the category of natural evil." He failed to recognize God as 
creator and master of matter; tailed to recognize man's depravity as due to his own 
apostasy from God; ftdled to found morality on the divine will rather than oilman's 
own consciousness. He knew nothing of a common humanity, and regarded virtue as 
Only for the few. As there was no common sin, so there was no common redemption. 

Aristotle (884-322) leaves out of view even the elements of God-likeness and antemun- 
daneevil which Plato so dimly recognized, and made morality the fruit Of mere rational 
selt'-eonseiousness. He grants evil proolh it teS, but he ictuses to call them immoral. He 
advocates freedom of will, and he recognizes inborn tendencies which war against this 
freedom, but how these tendencies originated he cannot say, nor how men may be deliv- 
ered from them. Not all can be moral; the majority must be restrained by fear. He 
finds in God no motive, and love to God is not so much as mentioned as the source of 
moral action. A proud, composed, self-centered, and self-contained man is his ideal 
character. Bee Nleomachean Ethics, 7 : 6, and 10: 10; Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 1 : 98-126. 

Wuttke describes Epicureanism and Stoicism as alike making morality subjective; 
although Epicureanism regarded spirit as determined by nature, Stoicism regarded 
nature as determined by spirit. To BpteUMU | 842 870 I hapjiiness, or the subjective feel- 
ing of pleasure, was t he highest criterion of t ruth and good. A prudent calculating for 
prolonged pleasure is the blghesl wisdom. Beregards'onlythis life. Concern for retri- 
bution and for a future existence is folly. II there are gods, they have no concerntfor 
men. "Epicurus, on pretense Of consulting for their ease, complimented the gods, and 
bowed them out of existence." Death is the Calling apart of material atoms and the 
eternal cessation of consciousness. The miseries of this life are due to imperfection in 
the fortuitously constructed universe. The more numerous these undeserved miseries, 
the greater our right to seek pleasure. 

To Zoio, the founder of the Stoic philosophy (340-2(54), virtue is the only good. 
Thought is to subdue nature. The free spirit is self -legislating, self-dependent, self- 
sufficient. Thinking, not feeling, is the criterion of the true and the good. Pleasure is 
the consequence, not the end of moral action. There is an irreconcilable antagonism of 
existence. Man cannot reform the world, but he can make himself perfect. Hence an 
unbounded pride in virtue. The sage never repents. There is not the least recognition 
of the moral corruption of mankind. There is no objective divine ideal, or revealed 
divine will. The Stoic discovers moral law only within, and never suspects his own 
moral perversion. Hence he shows self-control and justice, but never humility or love. 
He needs no compassion or forgiveness, and he grants none to others. 

Virtue is not an actively outworking character, but a passive resistance to irrational 
reality. Man may retreat into himself. The Stoic is indifferent to pleasure and pain, not 
because he believes in a divine government, or in a divine love for mankind, but as a 
proud defiance of the irrational world. He has no need of God or of redemption. As the 
Epicurean gives himself to enjoyment of the world, the Stoic gives himself to contempt 
of the world. In all burdens, each can say, " The door is open." To the Epicurean, the 
refuge is intoxication ; to the Stoic, the refuge is suicide. " If the house smokes, quit it." 

In the Roman Epictetus ( 89 ), Seneca ( + 65 ), and Marcus Aurelius ( 121-180 ), the religious 
element comes more into the foreground, and virtue appears once more as God-likeness ; 
but it is possible that this later Stoicism was influenced by Christianity. The foregoing 
synopsis of the Greek systems is condensed from "Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 1 : 62-161. 
On Marcus Aurelius, see N. Englander, July, 1881 : 415-431 ; Capes, Stoicism. 

4. Systems of Western Asia. Zoroaster ( 1000 B. C. ? ), the founder of the Parsees, 
was a dualist, at least so far as to explain the existence of evil and of good by the orig- 



SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER OF SCRIPTURE TEACHING. 89 

inal presence in the author of all things of two opposing principles. Here is evidently 
a limi t, put upon the sovereignty and holiness of God. Man is not perfectly dependent 
upon him, nor is God's will an unconditional law for his creatures. As opposed to the 
Indian systems, Zoroaster's insistence upon the divine personality furnished a far better 
basis for a vigorous and manly morality. Virtue was to be won by hard struggle of free 
beings against evil. But then, on the other hand, this evil was conceived as originally 
due, not to finite free beings themselves, but either to an evil deity who warred against 
the good, or to an evil principle in the one deity himself. The burden of guilt is there- 
fore shifted from man to his maker. Morality becomes subjective and unsettled. Not 
love to God or imitation of God, but rather self-love and self-development, furnish the 
motive and aim of morality. No fatherhood or love is recognized in the deity, and 
other things besides God ( e. g. fire ) are worshiped. There can be no depth to the con- 
sciousness of sin, and no hope of divine deliverance. See Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 1 : 
47-54 ; Faiths of the World ( St. Giles Lectures), 109-144 ; Mitchell, in Present Day Tracts, 
5 : no. 25 ; Whitney on the Avesta, in Oriental and Linguistic Studies. 

Mohammed ( 570-633 A. D. ), the founder of Islam, gives us in the Koran a system 
containing four dogmas of fundamental immorality, namely, polygamy, slavery, perse- 
secution, and suppression of private judgment. Mohammedanism is heathenism in 
monotheistic form. Its good points are its conscientiousness and its relation to God. 
But there is no basing of morality in love. The highest good is the sensuous happiness 
of the individual. The power of sin is not recognized. Evil belongs to the individual, 
not to the race. There is no need of redemption, but only of good works on the basis of 
prophetic teaching. God and man are external to one another. There is no atonement 
and no communion. Mohammed is a teacher, but not a priest. Morality is not a fruit 
of salvation, but a means. There is no penitence or humility, but only self -righteous- 
ness, and this self -righteousness is consistent with great sensuality, unlimited divorce, 
and with absolute despotism in family, civil and religious affairs. There is no knowledge 
of the fatherhood of God or of the brotherhood of man. Fairbairn, in Contemp. Rev., 
Dec, 1882 : 866 — " The Koran has frozen Mohammedan thought ; to obey it is to abandon 
progress." Muir, in Present Day Tracts, 3 : no. 14— " Mohammedanism reduces men to 
a dead level of social depression, despotism, and semi-barbarism. Islam is the work of 
man; Christianity of God." See also Faiths of the World (St. Giles Lectures, second 
series), 361-396 ; J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, 1 : 448-488, and 2 : 280-317. 

3. The person and character of Christ. 

A. The conception of Christ's person as presenting deity and humanity 
indissolubly united, and the conception of Christ's character, with its fault- 
less and all-comprehending excellence, cannot be accounted for upon any 
other hypothesis than that they were historical realities. 

The Galilean peasant who should minutely describe the peculiarities of the Parthenon 
would prove, not only that it was a historical reality, but that he had seen it. Theodore 
Parker : " It would take a Jesus to forge a Jesus." Row, Bampton Lectures, 1877 : 178- 
219, and in Present Day Tracts, 4 : no. 22 ; F. W. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ ; 
Barry, Boyle Lecture on Manifold Witness for Christ. 

{a) No sources can be assigned from which the evangelists could have 
derived such a conception. The Hindu avatars were only temporary unions 
of deity with humanity. The Greeks had men half-deified, but no unions 
of God and man. The monotheism of the Jews found the person of Christ 
a perpetual stumbling-block. The Essenes were in principle more opposed 
to Christianity than the Rabbinists. 

For comparison of Christ's incarnation with Hindu, Greek, Jewish, and Essene ideas, 
see Dorner, Hist. Doct. Person of Christ, Introduction. On the Essenes, see Herzog, 
Encyclop., art. : Essener; Pressense, Jesus Christ, Life, Times, and Work, 84-87; Light- 
foot on Colossians, 349-419 ; Godet, Lectures in Defence of the Christian Faith. 

( b ) No mere human genius, and much less the genius of Jewish fisher- 
men, could have originated this conception. Bad men invent only such 
characters as they sympathize with. But Christ's character condemns bad- 
ness. Such a portrait could not have been drawn without supernatural aid. 



90 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

But such aid would not have been given to fabrication. The conception 
can be explained only by granting that Christ's person and character were 
historical realities. 



For a remarkable exhibition of the argument from the character of Jesus, see 
nell, Nature and the Supernatural, 276-332. Bushnell mentions the originality and vast- 
ness of Christ's plan, yet its simplicity and practical adaptation ; his moral traits of 
independence, compassion, meekness, wisdom, zeal, humility, patience ; the combination 
in him of seemingly opposite qualities. With all his greatness, he was condescending 
and simple ; he was unworldly, yet not austere ; he had strong feeling, yet was self-pos- 
sessed ; he had indignation toward sin, yet compassion toward the sinner ; he showed 
devotion to his work, yet calmness under opposition ; universal philanthropy, yet sus- 
ceptibility to private attachments ; the authority of a Savior and a Judge, yet the grati- 
tude and tenderness of a son ; the most elevated devotion, yet a life of activity and 
exertion. See chapter on The Moral Miracle, in Bruce, Miraculous Element of the 
Gospels, 43-78. 

B. The acceptance and belief in the New Testament descriptions of 
Jesus Christ cannot be accounted for except upon the ground that the 
person and character described had an actual existence. 

( a ) If these descriptions were false, there were witnesses still living who 
had known Christ and who would have contradicted them. ( b ) There was 
no motive to induce acceptance of such false accounts, but every motive to 
the contrary. ( c ) The success of such falsehoods could be explained only 
by supernatural aid, but God would never have thus aided falsehood. This 
person and character, therefore, must have been not fictitious but real ; and 
if real, then Christ's words are true, and the system of which his person 
and character are a part is a revelation from God. 

John Stuart Mill, Essays on Religion, 254— "The most valuable part of the effect on 
the character which Christianity has produced, by holding up in a divine person a 
standard of excellence and a model for imitation, is available even to the absolute 
unbeliever, and can never more be lost to humanity. For it is Christ rather than God 
whom Christianity has held up to believers as the pattern of perfection for humanity. 
It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or of nature, who, being ideal- 
ized, has taken so great and salutary hold on the modern mind. And whatever else may 
be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left : a unique figure, not 
more unlike all his precursors than all his followers, even those who had the direct 
benefit of his personal preaching. . . . Who among his disciples, or among their prose- 
lytes, was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life 
and character revealed in the Gospels ? . . . 

" About the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined 
with profundity of insight which, if we abandon the idle expectations of finding scien- 
tific precision where something very different was aimed at, must place the Prophet of 
Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no belief in his inspiration, in the 
very first rank of the men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When 
this preeminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral 
reformer and martyr to that mission who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be 
said to have made a bad choice in pitching on this man as the ideal representative and 
guide of humanity ; nor even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a 
better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete than the 
endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life. 

"When to this we add that, to the conception of the rational sceptic, it remains a 
possibility that Christ actually was ... a man charged with a special, express and 
unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue, we may well con- 
clude that the influences of religion on the character, which will remain after rational 
criticism has done its utmost against the evidences of religion, are well worth preserving, 
and that what they lack in direct strength as compared with those of a firmer belief is 
more than compensated by the greater truth and rectitude of the morality they sanction." 

See also Ullmann, Sinlessness of Jesus ; Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 129-157 ; 
Schaff , Person of Christ ; Young, the Christ of History. 



HISTORICAL RESULTS OF SCRIPTURE TEACHING. 91 

4. The testimony of Christ to himself — as being a messenger from God 
and as being one with God. 

Only one personage in history has claimed to teach absolute truth, to be 
one -with God, and to attest his divine mission by works such as only God 
could perform. 

A. This testimony cannot be accounted for upon the hypothesis that 
Jesus was an intentional deceiver : for ( a ) the perfectly consistent holiness 
of his life; (6) the unwavering confidence with which he challenged 
investigation of his claims and staked all upon the result ; ( c ) the vast 
improbability of a lifelong lie in the avowed interests of truth ; and ( d ) 
the impossibility that deception should have wrought such blessing to the 
world, — all show that Jesus was no conscious impostor. 

Fisher, Essays on the Supernat. Origin of Christianity, 515-538 : Christ knew how vast 
his claims -were, yet he staked all upon them. Though others doubted, he never doubted 
himself. Though persecuted unto death, he never ceased his consistent testimony. 

B. Nor can Jesus' testimony to himself be explained upon the hypoth- 
esis that he was self-deceived: for this would argue (a) a weakness and 
folly amounting to positive insanity. But his whole character and life 
exhibit a calmness, dignity, equipoise, insight, self-mastery, utterly incon- 
sistent with such a theory. Or it would argue (b) a self -ignorance and 
self-exaggeration which could spring only from the deepest moral per- 
version. But the absolute purity of his conscience, the humility of his 
spirit, the self-denying beneficence of his life, show this hypothesis to be 
incredible. 

Rogers, Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 39 : If he were man, then to demand that 
all the world should bow down to him would be worthy of scorn like that which we feel 
for some straw-crowned monarch of Bedlam. Theological Eclectic, 4 : 137 ; Liddon, Our 
Lord's Divinity, 153 ; J. S. Mill, Essays on Religion, 253 ; Young, Christ of History. 

If Jesus, then, cannot be charged with either mental or moral unsound- 
ness, his testimony must be true, and he himself must be one with God and 
the revealer of God to men. 

Neither Confucius nor Buddha claimed to be divine, or the organs of divine revelation, 
though both were moral teachers and reformers. Zoroaster and Pythagoras apparently 
believed themselves charged with a divine mission, though their earliest biographers 
wrote centuries after their death. Socrates claimed nothing for himself which was 
beyond the power of others. Mohammed believed his extraordinary states of body and 
soul to be due to the action of celestial beings. For Confucius or Buddha, Zoroaster or 
Pythagoras, Socrates or Mohammed to claim all power in heaven and earth, would show 
insanity or moral perversion. But this is precisely what Jesus claimed. He was either 
mentally and morally unsound, or his testimony is true. 

IY. The Historical Results of the Propagation of Scripture 
Doctrine. 

1. The rapid progress of the gospel in the first centuries of our era 
shows its divine origin. 

A. That Paganism should have been in three centuries supplanted by 
Christianity, is an acknowledged wonder of history. 

The conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity was the most astonishing revo- 
lution of faith and worship ever known. Fifty years after the death of Christ, there 
churches in all the principal cities of the Roman Empire. Nero ( oT 68 ) found (as 
Tacitus declares; an "iugeus inultitudo" of Christians to persecute. Pliny writes tu 



92 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

Trajan ( 52-117 ) that they " pervaded not merely the cities but the villages and country 
places, so that the temples were nearly deserted." Tertullian ( 160-230 ) writes : " We are 
but of yesterday, and yet we have filled all your places, your cities, your islands, your 
castles, your towns, your council-houses, even your camps, your tribes, your senate, 
your forum. We have left you nothing 1 but your temples." In the time of the emperor 
Valerian ( 253-268 ), the Christians constituted half the population of Rome. The conver- 
sion of the emperor Constantine ( 272-337 ) brought the whole empire, only 300 years after 
Jesus' death, under the acknowledged sway of the gospel. See Mcllvaine and Alexander, 
Evidences of Christianity. 

B. The wonder is the greater when we consider the obstacles to the 
progress of Christianity : 

(a) The scepticism of the cultivated classes. 

Missionaries even now find it difficult to get a hearing among the cultivated classes of 
the heathen. But the gospel appeared in the most enlightened age of antiquity — the 
Augustan age of literature and historical inquiry. Tacitus called the religion of Christ 
" exitiabilis superstitio "— " quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat." 
Pliny : " Nihil aliud inveni quam superstitionem pravam et immodicam." If the gospel 
had been false, its preachers would not have ventured into the centres of civilization and 
refinement ; or if they had, they would have been detected. 

( b ) The prejudice and hatred of the common people. 

Consider the interweaving of heathen religions with all the relations of life. Chris- 
tians often had to meet the furious zeal and blind rage of the mob, — as at Lystra and 
Ephesus. 

( c ) The persecutions set on foot by government. 

Rawlinson, in his Historical Evidences, claims that the Catacombs of Rome comprised 
nine hundred miles of streets and seven millions of graves within a period of four hun- 
dred years — a far greater number than could have died a natural death— and that vast 
multitudes of these must have been massacred for their faith. The Encyclopaedia Bri- 
tannica, however, calls the estimate of De Marchi, which Rawlinson appears to have taken 
as authority, a great exaggeration. Instead of nine hundred miles of streets, Northcote 
has three hundred fifty. The number of interments to correspond would be less than 
three millions. The Catacombs began to be deserted by the time of Jerome. The times 
when they were universally used by Christians could have been hardly more than two 
hundred years. They did not begin in sand-pits. There were three sorts of tufa : ( 1 ) 
rocky, used for quarrying and too hard for Christian purposes ; ( 2 ) sandy, used for sand- 
pits, too soft to permit construction of galleries and tombs ; ( 3 ) granular, that used 
by Christians. The existence of the Catacombs must have been well known to the 
heathen. After Pope Damasus the exaggerated reverence for them began. They were 
decorated and improved. Hence many paintings are of later date than 400, and testify 
to papal polity, not to that of early Christianity. The bottles contain, not blood, but 
wine of the eucharist celebrated at the funeral. 

C. The wonder becomes yet greater when we consider the natural insuffi- 
ciency of the means used to secure this progress. 

( a ) The proclaimers of the gospel were in general unlearned men, belong- 
ing to a despised nation. 

The early Christians were more unlikely to make converts than modern Jews are to 
make proselytes, in vast numbers, in the principal cities of Europe and America. Celsus 
called Christianity "a religion of the rabble." 

( b ) The gospel which they proclaimed was a gospel of salvation through 
faith in a Jew who had been put to an ignominious death. 
The cross was the Roman gallows — the punishment of slaves. 

( c ) This gospel was one which excited natural repugnance, by humbling 
men's pride, striking at the root of their sins, and demanding a life of labor 
and self-sacrifice. 



HISTORICAL RESULTS OF SCRIPTURE TEACHING. 93 

(d) The gospel, moreover, was an exclusive one, suffering no rival and 
declaring itself to be the universal and only religion. 

Heathenism, being without creed or principle, did not care to propagate itself. " A 
man must be very weak," said Celsus, "to imagine that Greeks and barbarians, in Asia, 
Europe, and Libya, can ever unite under the same system of religion." So the Roman 
government would allow no religion which did not participate in the worship of the 
State. "Keep yourselves from idols," "We worship no other God," was the Christian's 
answer. 

Gibbon, Hist. Decline and Fall, 1 : chap. 15, mentions as secondary causes: (1) the 
zeal of the Jews; (2) the doctrine of immortality ; (3) miraculous powers ; (4) virtues 
of early Christians; (5) privilege of participation in church government. But these 
causes were only secondary, and all would have been insufficient without an invincible 
persuasion of the truth of Christianity. For answer to Gibbon, see Perrone, Prelectiones 
Theologicae, 1 : 133. 

The progress of a religion so unprepossessing and uncompromising to 
outward acceptance and dominion, within the space of three hundred years, 
cannot be explained without supposing that divine power attended its pro- 
mulgation, and therefore that the gospel is a revelation from God. 

On the whole section, see F. W. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, 91 ; McHvaine, 
Wisdom of Holy Scripture, 139. 

2. The beneficent Influence of the Scripture doctrines and precepts, 
wherever they have had sway, shows their divine origin. Notice : 

A. Their influence on civilization in general, securing a recognition of 
principles which heathenism ignored, such as Garbett mentions : ( a ) the 
importance of the individual ; ( b ) the law of mutual love ; ( c ) the sacred- 
ness of human life ; (d) the doctrine of internal holiness; [e) the sanctity 
of home ; (/) monogamy, and the religious equality of the sexes ; (g) iden- 
tification of belief and practice. 

The continued corruption of heathen lands shows that this change is not 
due to any laws of merely natural progress. The confessions of ancient 
writers show that it is not due to philosophy. Its only explanation is that 
the gospel is the power of God. 

B. Their influence upon individual character and happiness, wherever 
they have been tested in practice. This influence is seen ( a ) in the moral 
transformations they have wrought — as in the case of Paul the apostle, and 
of persons in every Christian community ; ( b ) in the self-denying labors 
for human welfare to which they have led — as in the case of Wilberforce and 
Judson ; (c) in the hopes they have inspired in times of sorrow and death. 

These beneficent fruits cannot have their source in merely natural causes, 
apart from the truth and divinity of the Scriptures ; for in that case the con- 
trary beliefs should be accompanied by the same blessings. But since we 
find these blessings only in connection with Christian teaching, we may 
justly consider this as their cause. This teaching, then, must be true, and 
the Scriptures must be a divine revelation. Else God has made a he to be 
the greatest blessing to the race. 

Garbett, Dogmatic Faith, 177-186 ; F. W. Farrar, Witness of History to Christ, chap, 
on Christianity and the Individual; Brace, Gesta Christi, preface, vi — " Practices and 
principles implanted, stimulated or supported by Christianity, such as regard for the 
personality of the weakest and poorest ; respect for woman ; duty of each member of 
the fortunate classes to raise up the unfortunate ; humanity to the child, the prisoner, 
the stranger, the needy, and even to the brute ; unceasing opposition to all forms of 



94 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

cruelty, oppression, and slavery ; the duty of personal purity, and the sacredness of mar- 
riage ; the necessity of temperance ; obligation of a more equitable division of the profits 
of labor, and of greater cooperation between employers and employed ; the right of every 
human being to have the utmost opportunity of developing his faculties, and of all per- 
sons to enjoy equal politioal and social privileges ; the principle that the injury of one 
nation is the injury of all, and the expediency and duty of unrestricted trade and inter- 
course between all countries ; and finally, a profound opposition to war, a determina- 
tion to limit its evils when existing, and to prevent its arising by means of international 
arbitration." 

Max M filler : " The concept of humanity is the gift of Christ." Guizot, History of 
Civilization, 1 : Introd., tells us that in ancient times the individual existed for the sake 
of the State ; in modern times the State exists for the sake of the individual. On the 
beneficent influence of the Gospel, see Schmidt, Social Results of Early Christianity ; 
D. J. Hill, The Social Influence of Christianity. On the relations between Christianity 
and Political Economy, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 443-460. 



CHAPTEK III. 

INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

I. Definition of Inspiration. 

By the inspiration of the Scriptures, we mean that special divine influence 
upon the minds of the Scripture writers in virtue of which their produc- 
tions, apart from errors of transcription, and when rightly interpreted, 
together constitute an infallible and sufficient rule of faith and practice. 

( a ) Inspiration is therefore to be defined, not by its method, but by its 
result. It is a general term including all those kinds and degrees of the 
Holy Spirit's influence which were brought to bear upon the minds of the 
Scripture writers, in order to secure the putting into permanent and written 
form of the truth best adapted to man's moral and religious needs. 

( 6 ) Inspiration may often include revelation, or the direct communica- 
tion from God of truth to which man could not attain by his unaided 
powers. It may include illumination, or the quickening of man's cognitive 
powers to understand truth already revealed. Inspiration, however, does 
not necessarily and always include either revelation or illumination. It is 
simply the divine influence which secures a correct transmission of the truth 
to the future, and, according to the nature of the truth to be transmitted, it 
may be only an inspiration of superintendence, or it may be also and at the 
same time an inspiration of illumination or revelation. 

(c ) It is not denied, but affirmed, that inspiration may qualify for oral 
utterance of infallible truth, or for wise leadership and daring deeds. We 
are now concerned with inspiration, however, only as it pertains to the 
authorship of Scripture. 

It may help us to understand the meaning of the terms above employed, if we adduce 
instances of 

( 1 ) Inspiration without revelation, as in Luke or Acts, Luke 1:1-3; 

( 2 ) Inspiration including revelation, as in the Apocalypse, Rev. 1 : 1, 11 ; 

( 3 ) Inspiration without iDumination, as in the prophets, 1 Pet. 1:11; 

( 4 ) Inspiration including illumination, as in the case of Paul, 1 Cor. 2 : 12 ; 

( 5 ) Revelation without inspiration, as in God's words from Sinai, Ex. 20 : 1, 22 ; 

(6) Illumination without inspiration, as in modern preachers, Eph. 2 : 20. 

Some, Like Priestley, have held that the gospels are authentic but not inspired. We 
therefore add to the proof of the genuineness and credibility of Scripture the proof of 
its inspiration. 

Other definitions are those of Park : " Inspiration is such an influence over the writers 
of the Bible that all their teachings which have a religious character are trustworthy ; " 
and of Wilkinson : " Inspiration is help from God to keep report of divine revelation free 
from error. Help to whom ? No matter to whom, so the result is secured. The final 
result, viz.: the record or report of revelation, this must be free from error. Inspiration 
may affect one or all of the agents employed. 1 ' 

On the idea of Revelation, see Ladd, in Journ. Christ. Philos., Jan., 1883 : 156-178 ; on 
Inspiration, ibid., Apr., 1883:225-248. See Henderson on Inspiration (2nd e<i. ), 58,205, 
24!i, 303, 310. For other works on the general subject of Inspiration, sec Lee, Hannei- 
mann, Jamieson, McNaught ; Garbett, God's Word Written; Aids to Faith, essay <>n 
Inspiration. Also, Philippi, Glaubcnslehre, 1 :205; Westcott, Introd. to Study of the 

05 



96 THE SCRIPTUKES A REVELATION" FROM GOD. 

Gospels, 27-65 ; Bib. Sac, 1 : 9T ; 4 : 154 ; 12 : 217 ; 15 : 29, 314 ; 25 : 192-198 ; Dr. Barrows, in 
Bib. Sac, 1867 : 593 ; 1872 : 428 ; Farrar, Science in Theology, 208 ; Hodge and Warfleld, in 
Presb. Rev., Apr., 1881 : 225-261 ; Manly, The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration. 

II. Proof of Inspiration. 

1. Since we have shown that God has made a revelation of himself to 
man, the presumption becomes doubly strong that he will not trust this 
revelation to human tradition and misrepresentation, but will also provide 
a correct and authoritative record of it. 

The physician commits his prescriptions to writing ; the Clerk of Congress records its 
proceedings ; the State Department of our government instructs our foreign ambassa- 
dors, not orally, but by dispatches. There is yet greater need that revelation should be 
recorded, since it is to be transmitted to distant ages ; it contains long discourses ; it 
embraces mysterious doctrines. Jesus did not write himself ; for he was the subject, not 
the mere channel, of revelation. His unconcern about the apostles immediately com- 
mitting to writing what they saw and heard is inexplicable, if he did not expect that 
inspiration would assist them. 

2. Jesus, who has been proved to be not only a credible witness, but a 
messenger from God, vouches for the inspiration of the Old Testament, by 
quoting it with the formula: "it is written"; by declaring that "one jot 
or one tittle" of it "shall in no wise pass away"; and by calling it "the 
word of God" which "cannot be broken." 

Jesus quotes from four out of the five books of Moses, and from the Psalms, Isaiah, 
Malachi, and Zechariah, with the formula, " it is written ' ' ; see Mat. 4 : 4, 6, 7 ; 11 : 10 ; Mark 14 : 27 ; 
Luke 4 : 4-12. This formula among the Jews indicated that the quotation was from a sacred 
book and was divinely inspired. Jesus certainly regarded the Old Testament with as 
much reverence as the Jews of his day. He declared that " one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
away from the law" (Mat. 5 : 18). He called it "the word of God"; said that "the scripture cannot be 
broken " ( John 10 : 35 ) =" the normative and judicial authority of the Scripture cannot be set 
aside ; notice here [ in the singular, ^ ypa.^ ] the idea of the unity of Scripture " ( Meyer ). 
Luke 11 : 49 —" Therefore also said the wisdom of God." The apostles quote the O. T. as God's word 
(Eph. 4 : 8 — Sib Ae'yei, sc. 6 #e6s ). On the testimony of N. T. writers to O. T. inspiration, see 
Henderson, Inspiration, 254. 

3. Jesus commissioned his apostles as teachers and gave them promises 
of a supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit in their teaching, like the promises 
made to the Old Testament prophets. 

Mat. 28 : 19, 20 — "Go ye . . . teaching ... and lo, I am with you." Compare promises to Moses 
( Ex. 3 : 12 ), Jeremiah ( Jer. 1 : 5-8 ), EzeMel ( Ezek. 2 and 3 ). See also Is. 44 : 3 and Joel 2 : 28 — " I will pour 
my spirit upon thy seed " ; Mat. 10 : 7 — " as ye go, preach " ; 19 — " be not anxious how or what ye shall speak " ; John 
14 : 26 — "the Holy Spirit .... shall teach you all things" ; 15 : 26, 27— "the Spirit of truth .... shall bear wit- 
ness of me: and ye also bear witness "= the Spirit shall witness in and through you; 16:13— "he 
shall guide you into all the truth "= (1) limitation — all the truth of Christ, i. e. not of philosophy 
or science, but of religion ; (2) comprehension— all the truth within this limited range, 
i. e. sufficiency of Scripture as rule of faith and practice ( Hovey ) ; 17 : 8— "the words which 
thou gavest me I have given unto them " ; Acts 1 : 4 — " he charged them .... to wait for the promise of the Father " ; 
John 20 : 21, 22— "he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Here was both 
promise and communication of the personal Holy Spirit. Compare Mat. 10 : 19, 20 —"it shall 
be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh 
in you." See Henderson, Inspiration, 247, 248. 

4. The apostles claim to have received this promised Spirit, and under 
his influence to speak with divine authority, putting their writings upon a 
level with the Old Testament Scriptures. We have not only direct state- 
ments that both the matter and the form of their teaching were supervised 
by the Holy Spirit, but we have indirect evidence that this was the case in 
the tone of authority which pervades their addresses and epistles. 

Statements : — 1 Cor. 2 : 10, 13 — " Unto us God revealed them through the Spirit .... Which things also we speak, 
not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth " ; 11 : 23 — " I received of the Lord that which 



THEORIES OF INSPIRATION*. 97 

also I delivered unto you" ; 12 : 8, 28 — the Ao-yos crodia? was apparently a gift peculiar to the 
apostles ; 14 : 37, 38 — "the things which I write unto you . . . they are the commandment of the Lord ' ' ; Gal. 1 : 12 
—"neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ" 
1 Thess. 4 : 2, 8 — "ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus .... Therefore he that rejecteth, 
rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you." The following- passages put the 
teaching of the apostles on the same level with O. T. Scripture: 1 Pet. 1 : 11, 12— "Spirit of 
Christ which was in them" [O. T. prophets]; — [N. T. preachers] "preached the gospel unto you by the 
HolyGhost" ; 2 Pet. 1 : 21 — O. T. prophets "spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost" ; 3 : 2 — "remem- 
ber the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets " [O. T.], "and the commandment of the Lord and 
Savior through your apostles " [ X. T.] ; 16 : " wrest [ Paul's Epistles ], as they do also the other scriptures, 
unto their own destruction." Cf. Ex. 4 : 14-16 ; 7 : 1. 

Implications : — 2 Tim. 3 : 16 — " Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable " — a clear implication 
of inspiration, though not a direct statement of it = there is a divinely inspired Scripture. 
In i Cor. 5 : 3-5, Paul, commanding the Corinthian church with regard to the incestuous 
person, was arrogant if not inspired. There are more imperatives in the Epistles than 
in any other writings of the same extent. Notice the continual asseveration of author- 
ity, as in Gal. 1 : 1, 2, and the declaration that disbelief of the record is sin, as in 1 John 5 : 10, 11. 
Jude 3 — " The faith which was once for all ( a-a% ) delivered unto the samts." See Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 122 ; 
Henderson, Inspiration ( 2nd ed. ), 34, 234 ; Conant, Genesis, Introd., xiii, note ; Charteris, 
New Testament Scriptures : They claim truth, unity, authority. 

5. The apostolic writers of the New Testament, unlike professedly 
inspired heathen sages and poets, gave attestation by miracles or prophecy 
that they were inspired by God, and there is reason to believe that the 
productions of those who were not apostles, such as Mark, Luke, Hebrews, 
James, and Jude, were recommended to the churches as inspired, by apos- 
tolic sanction and authority. 

The twelve wrought miracles ( Mat. 10:1). Paul's " signs of an apostle " ( 2 Cor. 12 : 12 )=miracles. 
Internal evidence confirms the tradition that Mark was the "interpreter of Peter," and 
that Luke's Gospel and the Acts had the sanction of Paul. Since the purpose of the 
Spirit's bestowment was to qualify those who were to be the teachers and founders of 
the new religion, it is only fair to assume that Christ's promise of the Spirit was valid 
not simply to the twelve but to all who stood in their places, and to these not simply as 
speakers, but, since in this respect they had a still greater need of divine guidance, to 
them as writers also. 

The epistle to the Hebrews, with the letters of James and Jude, appeared in the life- 
time of some of the twelve, and passed unchallenged ; and the fact that they all, with 
the possible exception of 2 Peter, were very early accepted by churches founded and 
watched over by the apostles, is sufficient evidence that the apostles regarded them as 
inspired productions. As evidences that the writers regarded their writings as of uni- 
versal authority, see 1 Cor. 1 : 2 — "unto the Church of God which is at Corinth .... with all that call upon 
the name of our Lord Jesus Chnst in every place," etc. ; 7 : 17— "so ordain I in all the churches " ; Col. 4 :16— "and 
when this epistle hath been read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans " ; 2 Pet. 3 : 15, 
16— "our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you." See Bartlett, in 
Princeton Rev., Jan., 1880: 23-57; Bib. Sac, Jan., 1884 : 204, 205. 

III. Theories of Inspiration. 

1. The Intuition-theory. 

This holds that inspiration is but a higher development of that natural 
insight into truth which all men possess to some degree ; a mode of intelli- 
gence in matters of morals and religion which gives rise to sacred books, as 
a corresponding mode of intelligence in matters of secular truth gives rise 
to great works of philosophy or art. 

This theory naturally connects itself with Pelagian and rationalistic views of man's 
independence of God, or with pantheistic conceptions of man as being himself the high- 
art manifestation of an all-pervading but unconscious intelligence. Morelland F. W. 
Newman in England, and Theodore Parker in America, are representatives of this 
theory. See Morel), PhilOS. of Religion, 127-179— "Inspiration is only a higher potency 
of what every man possesses in some degree." But we reply that the inspiration of 
7 



98 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

everybody is equivalent to the inspiration of nobody. See also Francis W. Newman 
(brother of John Henry Newman), Phases of Faith ( = phases of unbelief); Theodore 
Parker, Discourses of Religion, and Experiences as a Minister. On Parker, see Mar- 
tineau, Study, 2 : 178-180. Kuenen belongs to this school. 

With regard to this theory we remark : 

(a) Man has, indeed, a certain natural insight into truth, and we grant 
that inspiration uses this, so far as it will go, and makes it an instrument in 
discovering and recording facts of nature or history. 

In the investigation, for example, of purely historical matters, such as Luke records, 
merely natural insight may at times have been sufficient. When this was the case, Luke 
may have been left to the exercise of his own faculties, inspiration only inciting and 
supervising- the work. 

(6) In all matters of morals and religion, however, man's insight into 
truth is vitiated by wrong affections, and, unless a supernatural wisdom can 
guide him, he is certain to err himself, and to lead others into error. 

1 Cor. 2 : 14 — " Row the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; 
and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged " ; 10— "But unto us God revealed them through the 
Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." See quotation from Coleridge, in 
Shairp, Culture and Religion, 114— "Water cannot rise higher than its source; neither 
can human reasoning " ; Emerson, Prose Works, 1 : 474 ; 2 : 468—" ' T is curious we only 
believe as deep as we live " ; Ullmaun, Sinlessness of Jesus, 183, 184. 

( c ) The theory in question, holding as it does that natural insight is the 
only source of religious truth, involves a self-contradiction ; — if the theory 
be true, then one man is inspired to utter what a second is inspired to pro- 
nounce false. The Vedas, the Koran and the Bible cannot be inspired to 
contradict each other. 

The Vedas permit thieving, and the Koran teaches salvation by works ; these cannot 
be inspired and the Bible also. Paul cannot be inspired to write his epistles, and Swe- 
denborg also inspired to reject them. 

( d) It makes moral and religious truth to be a purely subjective thing — 
a matter of private opinion — having no objective reality independently of 
men's opinions regarding it. 

On this system truth is what men l trow ' ; things are what men ' think ' — words repre- 
senting only the subjective. " Better the Greek aArj&eta = ' the unconcealed ' ( objective 
truth ) " — Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 182. If there be no absolute truth, Lessing's 
'search for truth ' is the only thing left to us. But who will search, if there is no truth 
to be found? See Dix, Pantheism, Introd., 12. 

(c) It logically involves the denial of a personal God who is truth and 
reveals truth, and so makes man to be the highest intelligence in the uni- 
verse. 

The animus of this theory is denial of the supernatural. Like the denial of miracles, 
it can be maintained only upon grounds of atheism or pantheism. 

(/) It explains inspiration only by denying its existence ; since, if there 
be no personal God, inspiration is but a figure of speech for a purely 
natural fact. 

The view in question, as Hutton in his Essays remarks, would permit us to say that 
the word of the Lord came to Gibbon, amid the ruins of the Coliseum, saying: "Go, 
write the history of the Decline and Fall ! " But, replies Hutton : Such a view is panthe- 
istic. Inspiration is the voice of a living friend* in distinction from the voice of a dead 
friend, i. e. the influence of his memory. The inward impulse of genius, Shakespeare's 
for example, is not properly denominated inspiration. See Row, Bampton Lectures for 
1877 : 428-474 ; Rogers, Eclipse of Faith, 73 sq. and 283 sq. ; Henderson, Inspiration ( 2nd 
ed.), 443-469, 481-490. 



THEORIES OF INSPIRATION. 99 

2. The Illumination-theory. 

This regards inspiration as merely an intensifying and elevating of the 
religious perceptions of the Christian, the same in kind, though greater in 
degree, with the illumination of every believer by the Holy Spirit. It 
holds, not that the Bible is, but that it contains, the word of God, and that 
uot the writings, but only the writers, were inspired. 

This theory naturally connects itself with Arminian views of mere cooperation with 
God. It differs from the Intuition-theory by containing several distinctively Christian 
elements : ( 1 ) the influence of a personal God ; ( 2 ) an extraordinary work of the Holy 
Spirit; (3) the Christ ological character of the Scriptures, putting into form a revelation 
of which Christ is the centre (Rev. 19 : 10 ). But while it grants that the Scripture writers 
were ''moved by the Holy Ghost " ( Qeponevoi — 2 Pet. 1 : 21 ), it ignores the complementary fact that 
the Scripture itself is "inspired of God" ( deonvevo-ros — 2 Tim. 3 : 16). 

This view was represented in Germany by Schleiermacher, with the more orthodox 
Xeander and Tholuck. See Essays by Tholuck in Herzog, Encyclopaedic, and in Noyes, 
Theological Essays. In England, Coleridge propounded this view in his Confessions of 
an Inquiring Spirit ( Works, 5 : 569) — " Whatever finds me bears witness that it has pro- 
ceeded from a Holy Spirit; in the Bible there is more that finds me than I have experi- 
enced in all other books put together." [Shall we then call Baxter's "Saints' Rest" 
inspired, while the Books of Chronicles are not ? ] See also F. "W. Robertson, Sermon I ; 
Life and Letters, letter 53, vol. 1:270; 2 : 143-150 — u The other way, some twenty or 
thirty men in the world's history have had special communication, miraculous and from 
God; in this way, all have it, and by devout and earnest cultivation of the mind and 
heart may have it inimitably increased." See also Farrar, Critical History of Free 
Thought, 473, note 50 ; Martineau, Studies of Christianity : " One Gospel in many Dia- 
lects"; Godet, in Revue Chretienne, Jan., 1878; Cremer, Worterb. d. N. T., 3 Aufl., 369. 
art. : deoirvevo-ros ; also in Herzog, Encyclop., 2 Aufl., 6 : 746, 747. Luther's view resembled 
this ; see Dorner, Gesch. prot. Theol., 236, 237. Of American writers who favor this view, 
see J. F. Clarke, Orthodoxy, its Truths and Errors, 74 ; Curtis, Human Element in Inspi- 
ration ; Whiton, in N. Eng., Jan., 1882 : 63-72; Ladd, in Andover Review, July, 1885, and 
in Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, 1 : 759—" a large proportion of its writings inspired " : 
2:178, 275, 497— "that fundamental misconception which identifies the Bible and the 
word of God." 

With regard to this theory we remark : 

(a) There is unquestionably an illumination of the mind of every be- 
liever by the Holy Spirit, and we grant that there may have been instances 
in which the influence of the Spirit, in inspiration, amounted only to illu- 
mination. 

Certain applications and interpretations of Old Testament Scripture, as for example, 
John the Baptist's application to Jesus of Isaiah's prophecy (John 1 : 29— "Behold, the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away [marg. 'beareth'] the sin of the world"), and Peter's interpretation of 
Diivid's words (Acts 2 : 27— "Thoa wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see 
corruption " ), may have required only the illuminating influence of the Holy Spirit. 

(b) But we deny that this was the constant method of inspiration, or 
that such an influence can account for the revelation of new truth to the 
prophets and apostles. The illumination of the Holy Spirit gives no new 
truth, but only a vivid apprehension of the truth already revealed. Any 
original communication of truth must have required a work of the Spirit 
different, not in degree, but in kind. 

The Scriptures clearly distinguish between revelation, or the communication of new 
truth, and Illumination, or the quickening or man's cognitive powers to perceive truth 
ly revealed. No increase in the power of the eye or the telescope will do more 
than to bring into clear view what is already within its range. Illumination will not 
lilt 1 he veil that hides what is beyond. Revelation, on the other hand, is an 'unveiling '— 
the raising of a curtain, or the bringing within our range of what was hidden before. 
Such a special operation Of God Is described in 2 Sam. 23:2, 3 — " The spirit of the Lord spake by me, 
And his word was upon my tongue. The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me " ; Mat. 10 : 20 — " For it is 



100 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION" FROM GOD. 

not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you" ; 2 Pet. 1 : 21 — "men spake from God, being 
moved by the Holy Ghost." 

Revelation sometimes, indeed, excluded illumination as to the meaning of that which 
was communicated, for the prophets are represented in 1 Pet. 1 : 11 as "searching what time or 
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings 
of Christ, and the glories that should follow them." Since no degree of illumination can account for 
the prediction of "things that are to come " (John 16 : 13), this theory tends to the denial of any 
immediate revelation in prophecy so-called, and the denial easily extends to any imme- 
diate revelation of doctrine. 

( c ) Mere illumination could not secure the Scripture writers from fre- 
quent and grievous error. The spiritual perception of the Christian is 
always rendered to some extent imperfect and deceptive by remaining de- 
pravity. The subjective element so predominates in this theory, that no 
part of the Scriptures can be absolutely depended on. 

Those who hold this theory frequently render it more naturalistic by making the 
measure of holiness the measure of inspiration. But knowledge, in the Christian, may 
go beyond conduct. Balaam and Caiaphas were not holy men, yet they were inspired. 
The theory therefore grants the existence of errors in matters of history and science, if 
not of morality ; the " ethico-religious consciousness " must determine what is true and 
binding. We claim, on the contrary, that Christ's promise assured the " impeccability 
of memory " and the " perfection of judgment " which some deny. Versus Eisher, Begin- 
nings of Christianity, 404 ; Ladd, Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, passim. 

(d) An inspiration of this sort, therefore, still leaves us destitute of any 
authoritative standard of truth and duty. An additional revelation would, 
upon this theory, still be needed to tell us what parts of that which we have 
are true and binding. 

Notice the progress from Thomas Arnold ( Sermons, 2 : 185 ) to Matthew Arnold ( Litera- 
ture and Dogma, 134, 137 ). C. H. M. on Genesis 3 : 1, 4 — " Yea, hath God said ? " is quickly followed 
by "Ye shall not surely die." Questioning of God's word is quickly followed by open con- 
tradiction. There is no security but in taking the whole Bible as of absolute authority. 

( e ) Since no such additional revelation is given us, the individual reason 
must determine what parts of Scripture it is to receive, and what to reject. 
The theory in effect makes reason, and not the Scriptures, the ultimate 
authority in morals and religion. 

Notice also Swedenborg's rejection of nearly one half the Bible ( Ruth, Chronicles, 
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and the whole of 
the N. T. except the Gospels and the Apocalypse ), connected with the claim of divine 
authority for his new revelation. " His interlocutors all Swedenborgianize " ( Emerson ). 
On Swedenborg, see Hours with the Mystics, 2 : 230 ; Moehler, Symbolism, 436-466 ; New 
Englander, Jan., 1874 : 195 ; Baptist Review, 1883 : 143-157 ; Pond, Swedenborgianism. Eor 
answer to Dr. Ladd's view, see Manly, Bible Doctrine of Inspiration, 110-112. 

3. The Dictation-theory. 

This theory holds that inspiration consisted in such a possession of the 
minds and bodies of the Scripture writers by the Holy Spirit, that they 
became passive instruments or amanuenses — pens, not penmen, of God. 

This theory naturally connects itself with that view of miracles which regards them 
as suspensions or violations of natural law. Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 624 ( transl. 2 : 
186-189), calls it a "docetic view of inspiration. It holds to the abolition of second 
causes, and to the perfect passivity of the human instrument ; denies any inspiration of 
persons, and maintains inspiration of writings only. This exaggeration of the divine 
element led to the hypothesis of a multiform divine sense in Scripture, and, in assigning 
the spiritual meaning, a rationalizing spirit led the way." Representatives of this view 
are Quenstedt, Theol. Didact., 1 : 76— "The Holy Ghost inspired his amanuenses with 
those expressions which they would have employed, had they been left to themselves " ; 



THEORIES OF INSPIRATION. 101 

Hooker, Works, 2 : 383— "They neither spake nor wrote any word of their own, but 
uttered syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths"; Gaussen, Theo- 
pneusty. 61— "The Bible is not a book which God charged men already enlig-htened to 
make under his protection; it is a book which God dictated to them"; Cunning-ham, 
Theol. Lectures, 349— "The verbal inspiration of the Scriptures [which he advocates] 
implies in general that the words of Scripture were suggested or dictated by the Holy 
Spirit, as well as the substance of the matter, and this, not only in some portion of the 
Scriptures, but through tfte whole." This reminds us of the old theory that God created 
fossils in the rocks, as they would be had ancient seas existed. 

Of this view we may remark :— 

( a ) We grant that there are instances when God's communications were 
littered in an audible voice and took a definite form of words, and that this 
was sometimes accompanied with the command to commit the words to 
writing. 

For examples, see Numbers 7 : 89 — "And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, then 
he heard the Voice speaking unto him from above the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between 
the two cherubim : and he spake unto him " ; 8:1 — "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying ", etc. ; Dan. 4 : 31 — 
" While the word was in the King's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is 
spoken : the kingdom is departed from thee " ; Acts 9 : 5 — "And he said, "Who art thou, Lord ? And he said, I am Jesus 
whom thou persecutest " ; Rev. 19 : 9 —"And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are bidden to the marriage- 
supper of the Lamb " ; 21 : 5 —"And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new " ; cf. 1 : 10, 11 — 
"And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the 
seven churches." 

( b ) The theory in question, however, rests upon a partial induction of 
Scripture facts, — unwarrantably assuming that such occasional instances 
of direct dictation reveal the invariable method of God's communications of 
truth to the writers of the Bible. 

Scripture nowhere declares that this immediate communication of the words was uni- 
versal. On 1 Cor. 2 : 13 — om kv SiSaKTOts av9puiirivr)<; ero^ias Ao-yois, aAA' kv SiSaKTOi? nvevfj.aTO<;, the 

text usually cited as proof of invariable dictation— Meyer says : " There is no dictation 
here ; Si^ox-Tois excludes everything mechanical." Henderson, Inspiration ( 2nd ed. ), 333, 
'MU: "As human wisdom did not dictate word for word, so the Spirit did not." Paul 
claims for Scripture simply a general style of plainness which is due to the influence of 
t he Spirit. Manly : " Dictation to an amanuensis is not teaching.' 1 '' 

(c) It cannot account for the manifestly human element in the Script- 
ures. There are peculiarities of style which distinguish the productions 
of each writer from those or every other, and there are variations in accounts 
of the same transaction which are inconsistent with the theory of a solely 
divine authorship. 

Notice Paul's anacoloutha and his bursts of grief and indignation (Rom. 5 : 12 sq., 2 Cor 
ll-.lsq.), and his ignorance of* the precise number whom he had baptized (1 Cor. 1:16). 
One beggar or two (Mat. 20 : 30 ; cf. Luke 18: 35); " about five and twenty or thirty furlongs " (John 6: 19); 
"shed for many " ( Mat. 26 : 28 has irepi, Mark 14 : 24 and Luke 22 : 21 have vnep ). Dictation of words 
whieli wen- Immediately to be lost by imperfect transcription? 

(d) It is inconsistent with a wise economy of means, to suppose that the 
Scripture writers should have had dictated to them what they knew already, 
or what they could inform themselves of by the use of their natural powers. 

Why employ eye-witnesses at all? Why not dictate the gospels to Gentiles livings 
thousand years before? 

It contradicts what we know of the law of God's working in the soul. 
The, higher and nobler God's communications, the more fully is man in pos- 



102 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

session and use of his own faculties. We cannot suppose that this highest 
work of man under the influence of the Spirit was purely mechanical. 

Joseph receives communication by vision ( Mat. 1 : 20 ) ; Mary, by words of an angel spoken 
in her waking moments ( Luke 1 : 28 ). The more advanced the recipient, the more con- 
scious the communication. These four theories might almost be called the Pelagian, 
the Arminian, the Docetic, and the Dynamical. 

4. The Dynamical Theory. 

The true view holds, in opposition to the first of these theories, that 
inspiration is not a natural but a supernatural fact, and that it is the imme- 
diate work of a personal God in the soul of man. 

It holds, in opposition to the second, that inspiration belongs, not only to 
the men who wrote the Scriptures, but to the Scriptures which they wrote, 
and to every part of them, so that they are in every part the word of God. 

It holds, in opposition to the third theory, that the Scriptures contain a 
human as well as a divine element, so that while they constitute a body of 
infallible truth, this truth is shaped in human moulds and adapted to ordi- 
nary human intelligence. 

In short, inspiratiou is neither natural, partial, nor mechanical, but super- 
natural, plenary, and dynamical. Further explanations will be grouped 
under the following head : 

IT. The Union of the Divine and Human Elements in Inspiration. 

1. The Scriptures are the production equally of God and of man, and 
are therefore never to be regarded as merely human or merely divine. 

The mystery of insi3iration consists in neither of these terms separately, 
but in the union of the two. Of this, however, there are analogies in the 
interpenetration of human powers by the divine efficiency in regeneration 
and sanctification, and in the union of the divine and human natures in the 
person of Jesus Christ. 

According to "Dalton's law," each gas is as a vacuum to every other: "Gases are 
mutually passive, and pass into each other as into vacua." Each interpenetrates the 
other. But this does not furnish a perfect illustration of our subject. The atom of 
oxygen and the atom of nitrogen, in common air, remain side by side, but they do not 
unite. In inspiration the human and the divine elements do unite. The Lutheran 
maxim, Mens humana capax divince, is one of the most important principles of a true 
theology. 

2. This union of the divine and human agencies in inspiration is not to 
be conceived of as one of external impartation and reception. 

On the other hand, those whom God raised up and providentially qualified 
to do this work, spoke and wrote the words of God, when inspired, not as 
from without, but as from within, and that not passively, but in the most 
conscious possession and the most exalted exercise of their own powers of 
intellect, emotion, and will. 

The Holy Spirit does not dwell in man as water in a vessel. We may rather illustrate 
the experience of the Scripture writers by the experience of the preacher who under the 
influence of God's Spirit is carried beyond himself, and is conscious of a clearer appre- 
hension of truth and of a greater ability to utter it than belong to his unaided nature, 
yet knows himself to be no passive vehicle of a divine communication, but to be as never 
before in possession and exercise of his own powers. The inspiration of the Scripture 
writers, however, goes far beyond the illumination granted to the preacher, in that it 
qualifies them to put the truth, without error, into permanent and written form. This 
inspiration, moreover, is more than providential preparation. Like miracles, inspiration 



DIVINE AND HUMAN ELEMENTS IN INSPIRATION. 103 

may use man's natural powers, but man's natural powers do not explain it. Moses, 
David, Paul, and John were providentially endowed and educated for their work of 
writing- Scripture, but this endowment and education were not inspiration itself, but 
only the preparation for it. 

3. Inspiration, therefore, did not remove, but rather pressed into its 
own service, all the personal peculiarities of the writers, together with their 
defects of culture and literary style. 

Every imperf ection not inconsistent with truth in a human composition 
may exist in inspired Scripture. The Bible is God's word, in the sense 
that it presents to us divine truth in human forms, and is a revelation not 
for a select class but for the common mind. Rightly understood, this very 
humanity of the Bible is a j>roof of its divinity. 

Locke: "When God made the prophet, he did not unmake the man." Prof. Day: 
" The bush in which God appeared to Moses remained a bush, while yet burning- with the 
brightness of God and uttering forth the majesty of the mind of God." The paragraphs 
•of the Koran are called ayat, or "sign," from their supposed supernatural elegance. 
But elegant literary productions do not touch the heart. The Bible is not merely the 
word of God ; it is also the word made flesh. The Holy Spirit hides himself, that he may 
show forth Christ (John. 3:8); he is known only by his effects — a pattern for preachers, 
who are ministers of the Spirit ( 2 Cor. 3:6). See Conant on Genesis, 65. 

4. Inspiration went no further than to secm*e an infallible transmission 
by the sacred writers of the special truth which they were commissioned to 
deliver. 

Inspiration was not omniscience. It w r as -KokvTpoTtuQ (Heb. 1 :1), — a 
bestowment of various kinds and degrees of knowledge and aid, according 
to need; sometimes suggesting new truth, sometimes j)residing over the 
collection of preexisting material, though always guarding from error in the 
final elaboration. As inspiration was not omniscience, so it was not com- 
plete sanctincation. It involved neither personal infallibility nor entire 
freedom from sin. 

The Scripture writers were perfect teachers, but not perfect men. Paul at Antioch 
resisted Peter, "because he stood condemned" (Gal. 2 : 11). But Peter differed from Paul, not in 
public utterances, nor in written words, but in following his own teachings ( cf. Acts 15: 
6-11) ; versus Norman Fox, in Bap. Rev. 1885 : 469-482. Personal defects do not invalidate 
an ambassador, though they may hinder the reception of his message. So with the 
apostles' ignorance of the time of Christ's second coming. It was only gradually that 
they came to understand Christian doctrines ; they did not teach the truth all at once; 
their final utterances supplemented and completed the earlier ; and all together fur- 
nished only that measure of knowledge which God saw needful for the moral and relig- 
ious teaching of mankind. Many things are yet unrevealed, and many things which 
inspired men uttered, they did not, when they uttered them, fully understand. 

5. Inspiration did not always, or even generally, involve a direct com- 
munication to the Scripture writers of the words they wrote. 

Thought is possible without words, and in the order of nature precedes 
words. The Scripture writers appear to have been so influenced by the 
Holy Spirit that they perceived and felt even the new truths they were to 
publish, as discoveries of their own minds, and were left to the action of 
their own minds in the expression of these truths, with the single excep- 
tion that they were supernaturally held back from the selection of wrong 
words, and when needful were provided with right ones. Inspiration is 
therefore verbal as to its result, but not verbal as to its method. 

Before expression there must be something to be expressed. Thought is possible 
without, language. The concept may exist without words. See experience of deaf- 



104 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

mutes, in Princeton Rev., Jan., 1881 : 104-128. The prompter interrupts only when the 
speaker's memory fails. The writing-master guides the pupil's hand only when it would 
otherwise go wrong. The father suffers the child to walk alone, except when it is in 
danger of stumbling. If knowledge be rendered certain, it is as good as direct revela- 
tion. But whenever the mere communication of ideas or the direction to proper 
material would not suffice to secure a correct utterance, the sacred writers were guided 
in the very selection of their words. Minute criticism proves more and more conclu- 
sively the suitableness of the verbal dress to the thoughts expressed; all Biblical 
exegesis is based, indeed, upon the assumption that divine wisdom has made the out- 
ward form a trustworthy and exact vehicle of the inward substance of revelation. See 
Henderson, Inspiration (2nd ed.), 102, 114; Bib. Sac, 1872 : 428, 640. 

6. Yet, notwithstanding the ever-present human element, the all-per- 
vading inspiration of the Scriptures constitutes these various writings an 
organic whole. 

Since the Bible is in all its parts the work of God, each part is to be 
judged, not by itself alone, but in its connection with every other part. 
The Scriptures are not to be interpreted as so many merely human produc- 
tions by different authors, but as also the work of one divine mind. 
Seemingly trivial things are to be explained from their connection with the 
whole. One history is to be built up from the several accounts of the life 
of Christ. One doctrine must supplement another. The Old Testament is 
part of a progressive system, whose culmination and key are to be found in 
the New. The central subject and thought which binds all parts of the 
Bible together, and in the light of which they are to be interpreted, is the 
person and work of Jesus Christ. 

The Bible says : " There is no God " ( Ps. 14 : i ) ; but then, this is to be taken with the context : 
" The fool hath said in his heart." Satan's " It is written " ( Mat. 4 : 6 ) is supplemented by Christ's " It is 
written again " ( Mat. 4:7). Trivialities are like the hair and nails of the body — they have 
their place as parts of a complete and organic whole ; see Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 40. The 
verse which mentions Paul's cloak at Troas (2 Tim. 4 : 13 ) is (1 ) a sign of ( genuineness — a 
forger would not invent it ; (2) an evidence of temporal need endured for the gospel ; 
(3) an indication of the limits of inspiration,— even Paul must have books and parch- 
ments. 

7. The preceding discussion enables us, at least, to lay down two cardinal 
principles, and to answer two common questions, with regard to inspiration. 

Principles: — (a) The human mind can be inhabited and energized by 
God, while yet attaining and retaining therein its own highest intelligence 
and freedom. ( b ) The Scriptures, being the work of the one God, as well 
as of the men in whom God moved and dwelt, constitute an articulated and 
organic unity. Questions: — {a) Is any part of Scripture uninspired? 
Answer : Every part of Scripture is inspired in its connection and relation 
with every other part. (6) Are there degrees of inspiration? Answer: 
There are degrees of value, but not of inspiration. Each part in its con- 
nection with the rest is made completely true, and completeness has no 
degrees. 

Notice the value of the Old Testament, revealing as it does the natural attributes of 
God, as a basis and background for the revelation of mercy in the New Testament. 
Revelation was in many parts ( jroAuju.ejod>s — Heb. 1 :1) as well as in many ways. "Each 
individual oracle, taken by itself, was partial and incomplete " ( Robertson Smith, O. T. 
in Jewish Ch., 21). But the person and the words of Christ sum up and complete the 
revelation, so that, taken together and in their connection with him, the various parts 
of Scripture constitute an infallible and sufficient rule of faith and practice. See 
Browne, Inspiration of the N. T. ; Bernard, Progress of Doctrine in the N. T. ; Stanley 
Leathes, Structure of the O. T. ; Rainy, Delivery and Development of Doctrine. See 
A. H. Strong, on Method of Inspiration, in Philosophy and Religion, 148-155. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRIXE OF INSPIRATION". 105 

V. Objections to the Doctrine of Inspiration. 

In connection with a divine-human work like the Bible, insoluble diffi- 
culties may be expected to present themselves. So long, however, as its 
inspiration is sustained by competent and sufficient evidence, these difficul- 
ties cannot justly prevent our full acceptance of the doctrine, any more than 
disorder and mystery in nature warrant us in setting aside the proofs of its 
divine authorship. These difficulties are lessened with time ; some have 
already disappeared ; many may be due to ignorance, and may be removed 
hereafter ; those which are permanent may be intended to stimulate inquiry 
and to discipline faith. 

It is noticeable that the common objections to inspiration are urged, not 
so much against the religious teaching of the Scriptures, as against certain 
errors in secular matters which are supposed to be interwoven with it. But 
if these were proved to be errors indeed, it would not necessarily overthrow 
the doctrine of inspiration ; it would only compel us to give a larger place 
to the human element in the composition of the Scriptures, and to regard 
them more exclusively as a text-book of religion. As a rule of religious 
faith and practice, they might still be the infallible word of God. 

But we deny that such errors have as yet been proved to exist. While 
we are never to forget that the Bible is to be judged as a book whose one 
great aim is man's rescue from sin, and reconciliation to God, we still hold 
that it is not only in religious respects, but in all respects, a record of sub- 
stantial truth. This will more fully appear from an examination of the 
objections in detail. 

"The Scriptures are given to teach us, not how the heavens go, but how to go to 
heaven." Their aim is certainly not to teach science or history. Yet certain of their 
doctrines are historical facts, and certain of their facts are doctrines. It seems difficult, 
if not impossible, to separate between the historical and scientific credibility, and the 
religious credibility, of the Scriptures. As the undermining of the scientific trust- 
worthiness of the Vedas is an undermining of the religion which they teach, so with the 
Christian Scriptures. "With John Smyth (died, Amsterdam, 1612), we say : "I profess I 
have changed, and shall be ready still to change, for the better " ; and with John Robin- 
son, in his farewell address to the Pilgrim Fathers : " I am verily persuaded that the 
Lord hath more truth yet to break forth from his holy word." 

But we do not yet see reason to give up our belief that the Bible, even in historical 
and scientific matters, so far as it commits itself to definite statements, and when it is 
fairly interpreted, is worthy of all credence. As to obscurities, " we may say, as Isocrates 
did of the work of Heraclitus : ' What I understand of it is so excellent that I can draw 
conclusions from it concerning what I do not understand.' " " If Bengel finds things 
in the Bible too hard for his critical faculty, he finds nothing too hard for his believing 
faculty." See Luthardt, Saving Truths, 205 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 205 sq.; Bap. Rev., 
April, 1881, art. by O. P. Eaches. Cardinal Newman, in 19th Century, Feb., 1884. 

1. Errors in matters of Scien* ■■< . 

Upon this objection we remark : 

(a) We do not admit the existence of scientific error in the Scripture. 
What is charged as such is simply truth presented in popular and impressive 
forms. 

The common mind receives a more correct idea of unfamiliar facts when 
th< so are narrated in phenomenal language and in summary form than 
when they are described in the abstract terms and in the exact detail of 
bciruce. 



106 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

Herbert Spencer's principle of style : Economy of the reader's and hearer's attention— 
the more mental energy is expended upon the form, the less remains for the substance 
(Essays, 1-47). In narrative, to substitute for "sunset" some scientific description 
would divert attention from the main subject. The language of appearance is prob- 
ably used in Gen. 7 : 19— "all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered"— such 
would be the appearance, even if the deluge were local instead of universal ; in Josh. 10 : 
12, 13 — "and the sun stood still"— such would be the appearance, even if the sun's rays were 
merely refracted so as preternatural ly to lengthen the day; in Ps. 93 : 1— "the world also is 
stablished that it cannot be moved"— such is the appearance, even though the earth turns on its 
axis and moves round the sun. 

( b ) It is not necessary to a proper view of inspiration to suppose that the 
human authors of Scripture had in mind the proper scientific interpretation 
of the natural events they recorded. 

It is enough that this was in the mind of the inspiring Spirit. Through 
the comparatively narrow conceptions and inadequate language of the 
Scripture writers, the Spirit of inspiration may have secured the expression 
of the truth in such germinal form as to be intelligible to the times in which 
it was first published, and yet capable of indefinite expansion as science 
should advance. In the miniature picture of creation in the first chapter of 
Genesis, and in its power of adjusting itself to every advance of scientific 
investigation, we have a strong proof of inspiration. 

The word " day " in Genesis 1 is an instance of this germinal mode of expression. It would 
be absurd to teach early races, that deal only in small numbers, about the myriads of 
years of creation. The child's object-lesson, with its graphic summary, conveys to his 
mind more of truth than elaborate and exact statement would convey. Conant (Genesis 
2 : 10 ) says of the description of Eden and its rivers : " Of course the author's object is 
not a minute topographical description, but a general and impressive conception as a 
whole." Yet the progress of science only shows that these accounts are not less but 
more true than was supposed by those who first received them. Neither the Hindu 
Shasters nor any heathen cosmogony can bear such comparison with the results of 
science. Why change our interpretations of Scripture so often ? Answer : We do not 
assume to be original teachers of science, but only to interpret Scripture with the new 
lights we have. See Dana, Manual of Geology, 741-746 ; Guyot, in Bib. Sac, 1855 : 324 ; 
Dawson, Story of Earth and Man, 32. 

( c ) It may safely be said that science has not yet shown any fairly 
interpreted passage of Scripture to be untrue. 

With regard to the antiquity of the race, we may say that owing to the 
differences of reading between the Septuagint and the Hebrew there is room 
for doubt whether either of the received chronologies has the sanction of 
inspiration. If science should prove the existence of man upon the earth 
at a period preceding the dates hitherto assigned, no statement of inspired 
Scripture would necessarily be proved false. But such antiquity cannot as 
yet be considered a matter of demonstration. 

Usher's scheme of chronology, on the basis of the Hebrew, puts the creation 4004 
years before Christ. Hales's, on the basis of the Septuagint, puts it 5411 B. C. The 
Fathers followed the LXX. But the genealogies before and after the flood may present 
us only with the names of " leading and representative men." Some of these names 
seem to stand, not for individuals, but for tribes, e.g.: Gen. 10 : 16 — where Canaan is said 
to have begotten the Jebusite and the Amorite ; 29 — Joktan begot Ophir and Havilah. 
The appearance of completeness in the text may be due to alteration of the text in the 
course of centuries ; see Bib. Com., 1 : 30. In the phrase "Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of 
Abraham" (Mat. 1:1) thirty-eight to forty generations are omitted. It may be so in some 
of the Old Testament genealogies. There is room for a hundred thousand years, if 
necessary ( Conant ). 

But no such extent of time seems necessary. Rawlinson ( Journ. Christ. Philos., 1883 : 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 107 

339-364), dates the beginning of the Chaldean monarchy at 2400 B. C. Lenormant puts 
the entrance of the Sanskritic Indians into Hindustan at 2500 B. C. The earliest Vedas 
are between 1200 and 1000 B. C. ( Max Miiller ). Call of Abraham, probably 1945 B. C. Chi- 
nese history possibly began as early as 2356 B. C. ( Legge ). The old Empire in Egypt 
possibly began as early as 2650 B. C. Rawlinson puts the flood at 3600 B. C, and adds 
2000 years between the deluge and the creation, making the age of world 1886 + 3600 - 
2000 = 7486. S. R. Pattison, in Present Day Tracts, 3 : no. 13, concludes that " a term of 
about 8000 years is warranted by deductions from history, geology, and Scripture." See 
also Duke of Argyll, Primeval Man, 76-128; Cowles on Genesis, 49-80; Dawson, Fossil 
Men, 246; Hicks, in Bap. Rev., July, 1884 (15000 years) ; Zockler, Urgeschichte der Erde 
und des Menschen, 137-163. 

2. Errors in matters of History. 

To this objection we reply : 

(a) "What are charged as such are often mere mistakes in transcription, 
and have no force as arguments against inspiration, unless it can first be 
shown that inspired documents are by the very fact of their inspiration 
exempt from the operation of those laws which affect the transmission of 
other ancient documents. 

We have no right to expect that the inspiration of the original writer will be followed 
by a miracle in the case of every copyist. Why believe in inf allible copyists, more than 
in infallible printers ? God educates us to care for his word, and for its correct trans- 
mission. Reverence has kept the Scriptures more free from various readings than 
are other ancient manucripts. None of the existing variations endanger any important 
article of faith. Yet some mistakes in transcription there probably are. In 1 Chron. 22 : 14, 
instead of 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver ( = $3,750,000,000), Jose- 
phus divides the sum by ten. Dr. Howard Osgood : " A French writer, Revillout, has 
accounted for the differing numbers in Kings and Chronicles, just as he accounts for 
the same differences in Egyptian and Assyrian later accounts, by the chauge in the value 
of monej r and debasement of issues. He shows the change all over Western Asia." In 
2 Chron. 13 : 3, where the numbers of men in the armies of little Palestine are stated as 
400,000, 800,000 and 500,000, "some ancient copies of the Vulgate and Latin translations of 
Josephus have 40,000, 80,000 and 50,000 " ; see Annotated Paragraph Bible, in loco. Simi- 
larly, compare 2 Sam. 8:4 ("1700 horsemen") with 1 Chron. 18:4 ("7000 horsemen"); see Pope, 
Theology, 1 : 188. In Mat. 27 : 9, we have "Jeremiah" for "Zechariah" —this Calvin allows to be 
a mistake. In Acts 7 : 16 — " the tomb that Abraham bought "— Hackett regards " Abraham " as a cleri- 
cal error for " Jacob " ( compare Gen. 33 : 18, 19 ). See Bible Com., 3 : 165, 249, 251, 317. 

(6) Other so-called errors are to be explained as a permissible use of 
round numbers, which cannot be denied to the sacred writers except upon 
the principle that mathematical accuracy was more important than the 
general impression to be secured by the narrative. 

In Numbers 25 : 9, we read that there fell in the plague 24,000 ; 1 Cor. 10 : 8 says 23,000. The 
actual number was possibly somewhere between the two. Upon a similar principle, we 
do not scruple to celebrate the Landing of the Pilgrims on December 22nd and the 
birth of Christ on December 25th. We speak of the Battle of Bunker Hill, although at 
Bunker Hill no battle was really fought. 

(c) Diversities of statement in accounts of the same event, so long as 
khey touch no substantial truth, may be due to the meagreness of the 
narrative, and might be fully explained if some single fact, now unrecorded, 
only known. To explain these apparent discrepancies would not only 
be beside the purpose of the record, but would destroy one valuable 
I viilence of the independence of the several writers or witnesses. 

On the Stokes trial, the judge spoke of two apparently conflicting testimonies as 
neither of them necessarily false. On the difference between Matthew and Luke as to 
the scene of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5 : 1; cf. Luke 6 : 17 ) see Stanley, Sinai ;m<l Pules- 



108 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

tine, 360; as to one blind man or two (Mat. 20 : 30 ; cf. Luke 18 : 35) see Bliss, Com. on Luke, 
275, and Gardiner, in Bib. Sac, July, 1879 : 513, 514. On Christ's last Passover, see Rob- 
inson, Harmony, 212 ; E. H. Sears, Fourth Gospel, Appendix A ; Edersheim, Life and 
Times of the Messiah, 2 : 507. Augustine: "Locutiones variae, sed non contrariae: 
divers?B, sed non adversas." 

Bartiett, in Princeton Rev., Jan., 1880 : 46, 47, gives the following modern illustrations : 
Winslow's Journal (of Plymouth Plantation) speaks of a ship sent out "by Master 
Thomas Weston." But Bradford, in his far briefer narrative of the matter, mentions it 
as sent " by Mr. Weston and another." John Adams, in his letters, tells the story of the 
daughter of Otis about her father's destruction of his own manuscripts. At one time 
he makes her say : "In one of his unhappy moments he committed them all to the 
flames " ; yet, in the second letter, she is made to say that " he was several days in doing 
it. " One newspaper says : Preside at Hayes attended the Bennington centennial ; another 
newspaper says : the President and Mrs. Hayes ; a third : the President and his Cabinet ; 
a fourth : the President, Mrs. Hayes and the majority of his Cabinet. See, on the gen- 
eral subject, Haley Alleged Discrepancies ; Fisher, Beginnings of Christianity, 406-412. 

[d) Every advance in historical and archaeological discovery goes to 
sustain the correctness of the Scripture narratives, while the objector may 
be confidently challenged to point out a single statement really belonging 
to the inspired record which has been proved to be false. 

With regard to the great age of the O. T. patriarchs, we are no more warranted in 
rejecting the Scripture accounts upon the ground that life in later times is so much 
shorter, than we are entitled to reject the testimony of botanists as to trees of the 
Sequoia family between four and five hundred feet high, or the testimony of geologists 
as to Saurians a hundred feet long, upon the ground that the trees and reptiles with which 
we are acquainted are so much smaller. Every species, at its introduction, seems to 
exhibit the maximum of size and vitality. On the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, 
see Lord Harvey, Genealogies of our Lord, and his art. in Smith's Bible Dictionary ; 
per contra, see Andrews, Life of Christ, 55 sq. On Quirinius and the enrollment for taxa- 
tion ( Luke 2:2), see Pres. Woolsey, art. in N. Englander, 1870. On the general subject, see 
Rawlinson, Historical Evidences, and essay in Modern Scepticism, published by Christian 
Evidence Society, 1 : 265. 

3. Errors in Morality. 

(a) What are charged as such are sometimes evil acts and words of good 
men — acts and words not sanctioned by God. These are narrated by the 
inspired writers as simple matters of history, and subsequent results, or the 
story itself, is left to point the moral of the tale. 

Instances of this sort are Noah's di-unkenness ( Gen. 9 : 20-27 ) ; Lot's incest ( Gen. 19 : 30-38 ) ; 
Jacob's falsehood (Gen. 27 : 19-24); David's adultery (2 Sam. 11 : 1-4); Peter's denial (Mat. 2G :. 
69-75 ). See Lee, Inspiration, 265, note. 

( b ) Where evil acts appear at first sight to be sanctioned, it is frequently 
some right intent or accompanying virtue, rather than the act itself, upon 
which commendation is bestowed. 

As Rahab's faith, not her duplicity (Josh. 2 : 1-24; cf. Heb. 11 : 31 and James 2 : 25) ; Jael's 
patriotism, not her treachery (Judges 4 : 17-22 ; cf. 5 : 24 ). Or did they cast in their lot with 
Israel and use the common stratagems of war ( see next paragraph ) ? 

(c) Certain commands and deeds are sanctioned as relatively just — ex- 
pressions of justice such as the age could comprehend, and are to be judged 
as parts of a progressively unfolding system of morality whose key and 
culmination we have in Jesus Christ. 

Ez. 20 : 25 — " I gave them statutes that were not good " — as Moses' permission of divorce and retalia- 
tion ( Deut. 24 : 1 ; cf. Mat. 5 : 31, 32 ; 19 : 7-9. Ex. 21 : 24 ; cf. Mat. 5 : 38, 39 ). Compare Elijah's calling 
down fire from heaven ( 2 K. 1 : 10-12 ) with Jesus' refusal to do the same, and his intimation 
that the spirit of Elijah was not the spirit of Christ ( Luke 9 : 52-56 ). The appeal in the O. 
T. to the hope of earthly rewards was suitable to a stage of development not yet 
instructed as to heaven and hell by the coming and work of Christ ; compare Ex. 20 : 12 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTKISTE OF INSPIRATION. 109 

with Mat. 5 : 19 ; 25 : 46. The Old Testament aimed to fix in the mind of a selected people 
the idea of the unity and holiness of God ; in order to exterminate idolatry, much other 
teaching was postponed. See Peabody, Religion of Nature, 45 ; Moziey, Ruling Ideas of 
Early Ages ; Green, in Presb. Quar., April, 1877 : 221-255 ; Mcllvaine, Wisdom of Holy 
Scripture, 328-368 ; Brit, and For. Evang. Rev., Jan., 1878 : 1-32 ; Martineau, Study, 2 : 137. 

{d) God's righteous sovereignty affords the key to other events. He 
has the right to do what he will with his own, and to punish the trans- 
gressor when and where he will ; and he may justly make men the fore- 
tellers or executors of his purposes. 

Foretellers, as in the imprecatory Psalms (Ps. 137 : 9; cf. Is. 13 : 16-18 and Jer. 50 : 15, 29); 
executors, as in the destruction of the Canaanites ( Dent. 7 : 2, 16 ). In the former case the 
Psalm was not the ebullition of personal anger, but the expression of judicial indigna- 
tion against the enemies of God. TVe must distinguish the substance from the form. 
The substance was the denunciation of God's righteous judgments ; the form was taken 
from the ordinary customs of war in the Psalmist's time. See Park, in Bib. Sac, 1862 : 
165; Cowles, Com. on Ps. 137; Perowne on Psalms, Introd., 61. In the latter case, an 
exterm in ating war was only the benevolent surgery that amputated the putrid limb, 
and so saved the religious life of the Hebrew nation and of the after- world. See Dr. 
Thomas Arnold, Essay on the Right Interpretation of Scripture ; Fisher, Begirnungs of 
Christianity, 11-24. 

(e) Other apparent immoralities are due to unwarranted interpretations. 
Symbol is sometimes taken for literal fact ; the language of irony is under- 
stood as sober affirmation ; the glow and freedom of Oriental description are 
judged by the unimpassioned style of Western literature. 

In Hosea 1 : 2, 3, the command to the prophet to marry a harlot was probably received 
and executed in -vision, and was intended only as symbolic : compare Jer. 25 : 15-18 — " Take 
the cup ... . and cause all the nations ... to drink." Literal obedience would have made the 
propnet contemptible to those whom he would instruct, and would require so long a 
time as to weaken, if not destroy, the designed effect ; see Ann. Par. Bible, in loco. In 
2 K. 6 : 19, Elisha's deception, so called, was probably only ironical and benevolent ; the 
enemy dared not resist, because they were completely in his power. In the Song of Solomon, 
we have, as Jewish writers have always held, a highly- wrought dramatic description of 
the union between Jehovah and his people, which we must judge by Eastern and not by 
Western literary standards. On the whole subject, see Hessey, Moral Difficulties of the 
Bible ; Jellett, Moral Diff. of O. T. ; Faith and Free Thought (Lect. by Christ. Ev. Soc. ), 
2 : 173 ; Rogers, Eclipse of Faith ; Butler, Analogy, part ii, chap. iii. 

4. Errors of Reasoning. 

(a) What are charged as such are generally to be explained as valid 
argument expressed in highly condensed form. The appearance of error 
may be due to the suppression of one or more links in the reasoning. 

In Mat. 22 : 32, Christ's argument for the resurrection, drawn from the fact that God is 
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is perfectly and obviously valid, the moment we 
put in the suppressed premise that the living relation to God which is here implied can- 
not properly be conceived as something merely spiritual, but necessarily requires a new 
and restored life of the body. If God is the God of the living, then Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob shall rise from the dead. See more full exposition, under Eschatology, pages 561, 
562. 

(6) Where we cannot see the propriety of the conclusions drawn from 
given premises, there is greater reason to attribute our failure to ignorance 
1 >t divine logic on our part, than to accommodation or ad hominem arguments 
on the part of the Scripture writers. 

By divine logic we mean simply a logic whose elements and processes are correct, 
though not understood by us. In Heb. 7 : 9, 10 ( Levi's paying tithes In Abraham), there is 
probably a recognition of the organic unity of the family, which in miniature illustrates 



110 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

the organic unity of the race. In Gal. 3 : 20 —"A mediator is not a mediator of one ; but God is one " — the 
law, with its two contracting parties, is contrasted with the promise, which proceeds 
from the sole fiat of God and is therefore unchangeable. Paul's argument here rests 
on Christ's divinity as its foundation — otherwise Christ would have been a mediator in 
the same sense in which Moses was a mediator ( see Lightf oot, in loco). John 10 : 34 — " I said, 
Ye are gods "= Judaism was not a system of mere monotheism, but of theism tending to 
theanthropism, a real union of God and man ( Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco ). 

(c) The adoption of Jewish methods of reasoning, where it could be 
proved, would not indicate error on the part of the Scripture writers, but 
rather an inspired sanction of the method as applied to that particular case. 

In Gal. 3 : 16 — " he saith not, And to seeds, as of many ; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Here it 
is intimated that the very form of the expression in Gen. 22 : 18, which denotes unity, was 
selected by the Holy Spirit as significant of that one person, Christ, who was the true 
seed of Abraham and in whom all nations were to be blessed. Argument from the form 
of a single word is in this case correct, although the Rabbins often made more of single 
words than the Holy Spirit ever intended. In 1 Cor. 10 : 1-6 — " and the rock was Christ " — the Rab- 
binic tradition that the smitten rock followed the Israelites in their wanderings is 
declared to be only the absurd literalizing of a spiritual fact— the continual presence of 
Christ, as preexistent Logos, with his ancient people. Per contra, see Row, Rev. and 
Mod. Theories, 98-138. 

5. Errors in quoting or interpreting the Old Testament. 

(a) What are charged as such are commonly interpretations of the mean- 
ing of the original Scripture by the same Spirit who first inspired it. 

In Eph. 5 : 14, "Arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee" is an inspired interpretation of 
Is. 60 : 1— "Arise, shine, for thy light is come." Ps. 68 : 18 —" Thou hast received gifts among men"— is quoted in 
Eph. 4 : 8 as "gave gifts to men." The words in Hebrew are probably a concise expression for 
" thou hast taken spoil which thou mayest distribute as gifts to men." Eph. 4 : 8 agrees 
exactly with the sense, though not with the words, of the Psalm. 

( b ) Where an apparently false translation is quoted from the Septuagint, 
the sanction of insrjiration is given to it, as expressing a part at least of the 
fullness of meaning contained in the divine original — a fullness of meaning 
which two varying translations do not in some cases exhaust. 

Ps. 4 : 4 — Heb. : " Tremble, and sin not " ( = no longer ) ; LXX : " Be ye angry, and sin not." Eph. 4 : 26 
quotes the LXX. The words may originally have been addressed to David's comrades, 
exhorting them to keep their anger within bounds. Both translations together are 
needed to bring out the meaning of the original. Ps. 40 ; 6-8 — "Mine ears hast thou opened" is 
translated in leb. 10 : 5-7 — "A body didst thou prepare for me." Here the Epistle quotes from the 
LXX. But the Hebrew means literally : " Mine ears hast thou bored "—an allusion to the cus- 
tom of pinning a slave to the doorpost of his master by an awl driven through his ear, 
in token of his complete subjection. The sense of the verse is therefore given in the 
Epistle : "Thou hast made me thine in body and soul— lo, I come to do thy will." 

(c) The freedom of these inspired interpretations, however, does not 
warrant us in like freedom of interpretation in the case of other passages 
whose meaning has not been authoritatively made known. 

We have no reason to believe that the scarlet thread of Rahab (Josh. 2:18) was a 
designed prefiguration of the blood of Christ, nor that the three measures of meal in 
which the woman hid her leaven (Mat. 13 : 33) symbolized Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the 
three divisions of the human race. C. H. M., in his notes on the tabernacle in Exodus, 
tells us that " the loops of blue = heavenly grace ; the taches of gold = the divine energy 
of Christ ; the rams' skins dyed red = Christ's consecration and devotedness ; the badg- 
ers' skins = his holy vigilance against temptation " ! The tabernacle was indeed a type 
of Christ (John 1 : 14 — eo-K^aicrev. 2:19,21 — " in three days I will raise it up .... but he spake of the temple 
of his body " ) ; yet it does not follow that every detail of the structure was significant. So 
each parable teaches some one main lesson,— the particulars may be mere drapery ; and 
while we may use the parables for illustration, we should never ascribe divine authority 
to our private impressions of their meaning. See Toy, Quotations in the N. T. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. Ill 

6. Errors in Prophecy. 

(a) What are charged as such may frequently be explained by remem- 
bering that much of prophecy is yet unfulfilled. 

It is sometimes taken for granted that the book of Revelation, for example, refers 
entirely to events already past. Moses Stuart, in his Commentary, and Warren's 
Parousia, represent this preterist interpretation. Thus judged, however, many of the 
predictions of the book might seem to have failed. 

(b) The personal surmises of the prophets as to the meaning of the 
prophecies they recorded may have been incorrect, while yet the prophe- 
cies themselves are inspired. 

In 1 Pet. 1 : 10, 11, the apostle declares that the prophets searched " what time or what manner of 
time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glories that should follow them." So Paul, although he does not announce it as certain, seems to 
have some hope that he might live to witness Christ's second coming. See 2 Cor. 5:4 — 
"not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon " ( enev8vaa<T&aL — put on the spirit- 
ual body, as over the present one, without the intervention of death ) ; 1 Thess. 4 : 15, 17 — 
"we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord." 

( c ) The prophet's earlier utterances are not to be severed from the later 
utterances which elucidate them, nor from the whole revelation of which 
they form a part. It is unjust to forbid the prophet to explain his own 
meaning. 

2 Thessalonians was written expressly to correct wrong inferences as to the apostle's 
teaching drawn from his peculiar mode of speaking in the first epistle. In 2 Thess. 2 : 2-5 
he removes the impression "that the day of the Lord is now present" or "just at hand" ; declares that 
"it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed" ; reminds the Thessalo- 
nians : " when I was yet with you, I told you these things." Yet still, in verse 1, he speaks of " the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him." 

These passages, taken together, show : ( 1 ) that the two epistles are one in their teach- 
ing ; ( 2) that in neither epistle is there any prediction of the immediate coming of the 
Lord ; ( 3 ) that in the second epistle great events are foretold as intervening before that 
coming ; ( 4 ) that while Paul never taught that Christ would come during his own life- 
time, he hoped at least during the earlier part of his life that it might be so — a hope 
that seems to have been dissipated in his later years. ( See 2 Tim. 4 : 6— "I am already being 
offered, and the time of my departure is come." ) 

The second Epistle to the Thessalonians, therefore, only makes more plain the mean- 
ing of the first, and adds new items of prediction. It is important to recognize in Paul's 
epistles a progress in prophecy, in doctrine, in church polity. The full statement of the 
truth was gradually drawn out, under the influence of the Spirit, upon occasion of 
successive outward demands and inward experiences. Much is to be learned by study- 
ing the chronological order of Paul's epistles, as well as of the other N. T. books. For 
evidence of similar progress in the epistles of Peter, compare i Pet. 4 : 7 with 2 Pet. 3 : 4 sq. 

{d) The character of prophecy as a rough general sketch of the future, in 
highly figurative language, and without historical perspective, renders it 
peculiarly probable that what at first sight seem to be errors are due to a 
misinterpretation on our part, which confounds the drapery with the sub- 
stance, or applies its language to events to which it had no reference. 

James 5 : 9 and Phil. 4 : 5 are instances of that large prophetic speech which regards the 
distant future as near at hand, because so certain to the faith and hope of the church. 
See the more full statement of the nature of prophecy, on pages 68, 69. Also Bernard, 
Progress of Doctrine in the N. T. 

7. Certain books unworthy of a place in inspired Scripture. 

(a) This charge may be shown, in each single case, to rest upon a mis- 
apprehension of the aim and method of the book, and its connection with 



. 112 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION" FROM GOD. 

the remainder of the Bible, together with a narrowness of nature or of 

doctrinal view, which prevents the critic from appreciating the wants of the 

peculiar class of men to which the book is especially serviceable. 

Luther called James "a rig-lit strawy epistle." His constant pondering" of the doc- 
trine of justification by faith alone made it difficult for him to grasp the complemen- 
tary truth that we are justified only by such faith as brings forth good works, or to 
perceive the essential agreement of James and Paul. Thomas Arnold, with his exagger- 
ated love for historical accuracy and definite outline, found the Oriental imagery and 
sweeping visions of the book of Revelation so bizarre and distasteful that he doubted 
their divine authority. 

( b ) The testimony of church history and of general Christian experience 
to the profitableness and divinity of the disputed books is of greater weight 
than the personal impressions of the few who criticise them. 

Instance the testimonies of the ages of persecution to the worth of the prophecies, 
which assure God's people that his cause shall surely triumph. 

( c ) Such testimony can be adduced in favor of the value of each one of 
the books to which exception is taken, such as Esther, Job, Song of Solo- 
mon, Ecclesiastes, James, Revelation. 

Esther is the book, next to the Pentateuch, held in highest reverence by the Jews. 
Rutherford, McCheyne, and Spurgeon have taken more texts from the Song of Solomon 
than from any other portion of Scripture of like extent. Charles G. Finney, Autobio- 
graphy, 378— u At this time it seemed as if my soul was wedded to Christ in a sense which 
I never had any thought or conception of before. The language of the Song of Solomon 
was as natural to me as my breath. I thought I could understand well the state he was 
in when he wrote that Song, and concluded then, as I have ever thought since, that that 
Song was written by him after he had been reclaimed from his great backsliding. I not 
only had all the fullness of my first love, but a vast accession to it. Indeed, the Lord 
lifted me up so much above anything that I had experienced before, and taught me so 
much of the meaning of the Bible, of Christ's relations and power and willingness, that 
I found myself saying to him : I had not known or conceived that any such thing was 
true." 

8. Portions of the Scripture books written by others than the persons 
to whom they are ascribed. 

The objection rests upon a misunderstanding of the nature and object of 
inspiration. It may be removed by considering that 

(a) In the case of books made up from preexisting documents, inspira- 
tion simply preserved the compilers of them from selecting inadequate or 
false material. The fact of such compilation does not impugn their truth- 
fulness and value. 

Luke distinctly informs us that he secured the materials for his gospel from the 
reports of others who were eye-witnesses of the events he recorded ( Luke i : i— 4 ). The 
book of Genesis bears marks of having incorporated documents of earlier times. The 
account of creation which begins with Gen. 2 .- 4 is evidently written by a different hand 
from that which penned 1 : 1-31 and 2 : 1-3. Instances of the same sort may be found in 
the books of Chronicles. In like manner, Marshall's Life of Washington incorporates 
documents by other writers. By thus incorporating them, Marshall vouches for their 
truth. See Bible Com., 1 : 2, 22. 

(6) In the case of additions to Scripture books by later writers, it is 

reasonable to suppose that the additions, as well as the originals, were made 

by inspiration, and no essential truth is sacrificed by allowing the whole to 

go under the name of the chief author. 

Mark 16 : 9-20 appears to have been added by a later hand ( see English Revised Version ). 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 113 

The Eng. Rev. Vers, also brackets or segregates a part of verse 3 and the whole of verse 4 
in John 5 ( the moving- of the water by the angel ), and the whole passage John 7 : 53 — 8 : 11 
fthe woman taken in adultery). TVestcott and Hort regard the latter passage as an 
interpolation, probably " Western " in its origin (so also Mark 16 : 9-20 ). Others regard it 
as authentic, though not written by John. 

Isaiah is again sawn asunder by the recent criticism. But his prophecy opens ( Is. 1 : 1 ) 
with the statement that it was composed during a period which covered the reigns of 
four Kings — Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah — nearly forty years. In so long a 
time the style of a writer greatly changes. Chapters 40-66 may have been written in Isaiah's 
later age, after he had retired from public life. Compare the change in the style of 
Zechariah, John and Paul, with that in Thomas Carlyle and George William Curtis. On 
Isaiah, see Smyth, Prophecy a Preparation for Christ ; Bib. Sac, Apr., 1881 : 230-253 ; also 
July, 1881 ; Stanley, Jewish Ch., 2 : 646, 647 ; Nagelsbach, Int. to Lange's Isaiah. The closing' 
chapter of Deuteronomy was apparently added after Moses' death — perhaps by Joshua. 
If criticism should prove portions of the Pentateuch to have been composed after Moses' 
time, the inspiration of the Pentateuch would not be invalidated, so long as Moses was 
its chief author ( John 5 : 46 — " he wrote of me " ). 

( c ) It is unjust to deny to inspired Scripture the right exercised by all 
historians of introducing certain documents and sayings as simply historical, 
while their complete truthfulness is neither vouched for nor denied. 

An instance in point is the letter of Claudius Lysias in Acts 23 : 26-30 — a letter which 
represents his conduct in a more favorable light than the facts would justify — for he 
had not learned that Paul was a Roman when he rescued him in the temple ( Acts 21 : 31- 
33; 22:26-29). 

9. Sceptical or fictitious Narratives. 

(a) Descriptions of human experience may be embraced in Scripture, 
Dot as models for imitation, but as illustrations of the doubts, struggles, and 
needs of the souL In these cases inspiration may vouch, not for the cor- 
rectness of the views expressed by those who thus describe their mental 
history, but only for the correspondence of the description with actual fact, 
and for its usefulness as indirectly teaching important moral lessons. 

The book of Ecclesiastes, for example, is a record of the mental struggles of a soul 
seeking satisfaction without God. If written by Solomon during the time of his religious 
declension, or near the close of it, it would constitute a most valuable commentary 
upon the inspired history. Yet it might be equally valuable, though composed by some 
later writer under divine direction and inspiration. 

( b ) Moral truth may be put by Scripture writers into parabolic or dra- 
matic form, and the sayings of Satan and of perverse men may form parts 
of such a production. In such cases, inspiration may vouch, not for the 
historical truth, much less for the moral truth of each separate statement, 
but only for the correspondence of the whole with ideal fact; in other 
words, inspiration may guarantee that the story is true to nature, and is 
valuable as conveying divine instruction. 

1 1 is not necessary to suppose that the poetical speeches of Job's friends were actually 
delivered in the words that have come down to us. Though Job never had had a histori- 
cal existence, the book would still be of the utmost value, and would convey to us a vast 
amount of true teaching with regard to the dealings of God and the problem of evil. 
I •'.!< t Is local; truth is universal. Some novels contain more truth than can be found 
in some histories. Other books of Scripture, however, assure us that Joh was an actual 
historical character (Ez. 14 : 14; James 5: 11). Nor is it necessary tO suppose thai our Lord, 
in telling the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15 : 11-32) or that of the Unjust Steward 
(16 : 1-8), had in mind actual persons of whom each parable was an exact description. 

(c) In none of these cases ought the difficulty of distinguishing man's 
words from God's words, or ideal truth from actual truth, to prevent our 

8 



114 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

acceptance of the fact of inspiration ; for in this very variety of the Bible, 
combined with the stimulus it gives to inquiry and the general plainness of 
its lessons, we have the very characteristics we should expect in a book 
whose authorship was divine. 
God's word is a stream in which " the lamb may wade and the elephant may swim." 

10. Acknowledgment of the non-inspiration of Scripture teachers 
and their writings. 

This charge rests mainly upon the misinterpretation of two particular 



(a) Acts 23 : 5 ("I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest") 
may be explained either as the language of indignant irony : "I would not 
recognize such a man as high priest " ; or, more naturally, as an actual con- 
fession of personal ignorance and fallibility, which does not affect the inspi- 
ration of any of Paul's final teachings or writings. 

Of a more reprehensible sort was Peter's dissimulation at Antioeh, or practical 
disavowal of his convictions by separating- or withdrawing- himself from the Gentile 
Christians ( Gal. 2 : 11-13 ). Here was no public teaching, but the influence of private 
example. But neither in this case, nor in that mentioned above, did God suffer the 
error to be a final one. Through the agency of Paul, the Holy Spirit set the matter 
right. 

(6)1 Cor. 7 : 12, 10 ( " I, not the Lord " ; " not I, but the Lord " ). Here 
the contrast is not between the apostle inspired and the apostle uninspired, 
but between the apostle's words and an actual saying of our Lord, as in 
Mat. 5 : 32 ; 19 : 3-10 ; Mark 10 : 11 ; Luke 16 : 18 (Stanley on Corinthians). 
The expressions may be paraphrased: — "With regard to this matter no 
express command was given by Christ before his ascension. As one inspired 
by Christ, however, I give you my command. " 

Meyer on 1 Cor. 7:10 — "Paul distinguishes, therefore, here and in verses 12, 25, not 
between his own and inspired commands, but between those which proceeded from his 
own ( God-inspired ) subjectivity, and those which Christ himself supplied by his object- 
ive word." "Paul knew from the living voice of tradition what commands Christ had 
given concerning divorce." Or if it should be maintained that Paul here disclaims 
inspiration,— a supposition contradicted by the following Sokw — "I think that I also have the 
Spirit of God" (verse 40),— it only proves a single exception to his inspiration, and since it is 
expressly mentioned, and mentioned only once, it implies the inspiration of all the rest 
of his writings. 



PART IV. 

THE NATURE, DECEEES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 

In contemplating the words and acts of God, as in contemplating the 
words and acts of individual men, we are compelled to assign uniform and 
permanent effects to uniform and permanent causes. Holy acts and words, 
we argue, must have their source in a principle of holiness ; truthful acts 
and words, in a settled proclivity to truth ; benevolent acts and words, in a 
benevolent disposition. 

Moreover, these permanent and uniform sources of expression and action 
to which we have applied the terms principle, proclivity, disposition, since 
they exist harmoniously in the same person, must themselves inhere, and 
hud their unity, in an underlying spiritual substance or reality of which 
they are the inseparable characteristics and partial manifestations. 

Thus we are led naturally from the works to the attributes, and from the 
attributes to the essence, of God. 

For all practical purposes we may use the words essence, substance, being, nature, as 
synonymous with each other. So, too, we may speak of attribute, quality, character- 
principle, proclivity, disposition, as practically one. As, in cognizing matter, we 
pass from its effects in sensation to the qualities which produce the sensations, and then 
to the material substance to which the qualities belong ; and as, in cognizing mind, we 
pass from its phenomena in thought and action to the faculties and dispositions which 
give rise to these phenomena, and then to the mental substance to which these faculties 
and dispositions belong ; so, in cognizing God, we pass from his words and acts to his 
qualities or attributes, and then to the substance or essence to which these qualities or 
attributes belong. 

I. Definition of the term Attributes. 

The attributes of God are those distinguishing characteristics of the divine 
nature which are inseparable from the idea of God and which constitute the 
basis and ground for his various manifestations to his creatures. 

We call them attributes, because we are compelled to attribute them to God 
as fundamental qualities or powers of his being, in order to give rational 
account of certain constant facts in God's self-revelations. 

Shecld, History of Doctrine, 1 : 240; Kahilis, Dogmatik, 3 : 172-188. 

115 



116 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

IE. Relation of the divine Attributes to the divine Essence. 

1. The attributes have an objective existence. They are not mere 
names for human conceptions of God — conceptions which have their only 
ground in the imperfection of the finite mind. They are qualities object- 
ively distinguishable from the divine essence and from each other. 

The nominalistic notion that God is a being of absolute simplicity, and 
that in his nature there is no internal distinction of qualities or powers, 
tends directly to pantheism ; denies all reality to the divine perfections ; or, 
if these in any sense still exist, precludes all knowledge of them on the part 
of finite beings. To say that knowledge and power, eternity and holiness, 
are identical with the essence of God and with each other, is to deny that 
we can know God at all. 

The Scripture declarations of the possibility of knowing God, together 
with the manifestation of the distinct attributes of his nature, are conclu- 
sive against this false notion of the divine simplicity. 

Aristotle says well that there is no such thing- as a science of the unique, of that which 
has no analogies or relations. Knowing is distinguishing ; what we cannot distinguish 
from other things we cannot know. Yet a false tendency to regard God as a being of 
absolute simplicity has come down from mediaeval scholasticism, has infected much of 
the post-reformation theology, and is found even so recently as Schleiermacher, Rothe, 
and Olshausen. 

Illustrations of this tendency are found in Scotus Erigena : " Deus nescit se quid est, 
quia non est quid " ; and in Occam : The divine attributes are distinguished neither sub- 
stantially nor logically from each other or from the divine essence ; the only distinction 
is that of names ; so Gerhard and Quenstedt. Charnock, the Puritan writer, identifies 
both knowledge and will with the simple essence of God ; Schleiermacher makes all the 
attributes to be modifications of power, Rothe of omniscience ; Olshausen, on John 1 : 1, 
attempts to prove that the Word of God must have objective and substantial being, by 
assuming that knowing = willing ; whence it would seem to follow that, since God wills 
all that he knows, he must will moral evil. Bushnell and others identify righteousness 
in God with benevolence, and therefore cannot see that any atonement needs to be made 
to God. Herbert Spencer only carries the principle further, when he concludes God to 
be simple unknowable force. 

But to call God everything is the same as to call him nothing. With Dorner, we say 
that "definition is no limitation." As we rise in the scale of creation from the mere 
jelly-sac to man, the homogeneous becomes the heterogeneous, there is differentiation 
of functions, complexity increases. We infer that God, the highest of all, instead of 
being simple force, is infinitely complex, that he has an infinite variety of attributes 
and powers. Tennyson, Palace of Art (lines omitted in the later editions) : " All nature 
widens upward : evermore The simpler essence lower lies : More complex is more per- 
fect, owning more Discourse, more widely wise." 

Jer. 10 : 10 — God is "the living God" ; John 5 : 26 — he "hath life in himself "= unsearchable riches of 
positive attributes ; John 17 : 23, " thou lovedst me "= manif oldness in unity. This complexity in 
God is the ground of blessedness for him and of progress for us: 1 Tim. 1 : 11— "the blessed 
God" ; Jer. 9 : 23, 24 — "let him glory in this, that he knoweth me." The complex nature of God permits 
anger at the sinner and compassion for him at the same moment: Ps. 7 : 11— "a God that 
hath indignation every day" ; John 3 : 16 — "God so loved the world" ; Ps. 85 : 10, 11 — "mercy and truth are met 
together." See Julius Muller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 116 sq. ; Schweizer, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 229-235 ; 
Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 43, 50 ; Martensen, Dogmatics, 91 — " If God were 
the simple One, to a7rAco? eV, the mystic abyss in which every form of determination were 
extinguished, there would be nothing in the Unity to be known." Hence " nominalism 
is incompatible with the idea of revelation. We teach, with realism, that the attributes 
of God are objective determinations in his revelation and as such are rooted in his 
inmost essence." 

2. The attributes inhere in the divine essence. They are not separate 
existences. They are attributes of God. 



RELATION OF THE ATTRIBUTES TO THE ESSEKCE OF GOD. 117 

While we oppose the nominalistic view which holds them to be mere 
names with which, by the necessity of our thinking, we clothe the one sim- 
ple divine essence, we need equally to avoid the opposite realistic extreme 
of making them separate parts of a composite God. 

We cannot conceive of attributes except as belonging to an underlying 
essence which furnishes their ground of unity. In representing God as a 
compound of attributes, realism endangers the living unity of the Godhead. 

Notice the analogous necessity of attributing the properties of matter to an underly- 
ing substance, and the phenomena of thought to an underlying spiritual essence ; else 
matter is reduced to mere force, and mind, to mere sensation, — in short, all things are 
swallowed up in a vast idealism. The purely realistic explanation of the attributes 
tends to low and polytheistic conceptions of God. Instance Christmas Evans's sermon 
describing a Council in the Godhead, in which the Attributes of Justice, Mercy, Wisdom, 
and Power argue with one another. " Realism may so exalt the attributes that no per- 
sonal subject is left to constitute the ground of unity. Looking upon personality as 
anthropomorphism, it falls into a worse personification, that of omnipotence, holiness, 
benevolence, which are mere blind thoughts, unless there is one who is the Omnipotent, 
the Holy, the Good." See Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 70. 

3. The attributes belong to the divine essence as such. They are to be 
distinguished from those other powers or relations which do not appertain 
to the divine essence universally. 

The personal distinctions (proprietates ) in the nature of the one God are 
not to be denominated attributes ; for each of these personal distinctions 
belongs not to the divine essence as such and universally, but only to the 
particular person of the Trinity who bears its name, while on the contrary 
all of the attributes belong to each of the persons. 

The relations which God sustains to the world (predicata ), moreover, 
such as creation, preservation, government, are not to be denominated 
attributes ; for these are accidental, not necessary or inseparable from the 
idea of God. God would be God, if he had never created. 

To make creation eternal and necessary is to dethrone God and to enthrone a fatalistic 
development. It follows that the nature of the attributes is to be illustrated, not alone 
or chiefly from wisdom and holiness in man, which are not inseparable from man's 
nature, but rather from intellect and will in man, without which he would cease to be 
man altogether. Only that is an attribute, of which it can be safely said that he who 
possesses it would, if deprived of it, cease to be God. Shedd : " The attribute is the 
whole essence acting in a certain way. The centre of unity is not in any one attribute, 
but in the essence." 

4. The attributes manifest the divine essence. The essence is revealed 
only through the attributes. Apart from its attributes it is unknown and 
unknowable. 

But though we can know God only as he reveals to us his attributes, we 
do, notwithstanding, in knowing these attributes, know the being to whom 
these attributes belong. That this knowledge is partial does not prevent its 
corresponding, so far as it goes, to objective reality in the nature of God. 

All God's revelations are, therefore, revelations of himself in and through 
his attributes. Our aim must be to determine from God's works and words 
what qualities, dispositions, determinations, powers of his otherwise unseen 
and unsearchable essence lie has actually made known to us ; or in other 
words, what are the revealed attributes of God. 

John 1 : 18 — " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath 



118 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OP GOD. 

declared him " ; 1 Tim. 6 : 16 — " whom no man hath seen, nor can see " ; Mat. 5 : 8 — " Blessed are the pure in heart; 
for they shall see God " ; 11 : 27 — " neither doth any man know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 
willeth to reveal him." 

III. Methods of determining the divine Attributes. 

We have seen that the existence of God is a first truth. It is presupposed 
in all human thinking, and is more or less consciously recognized by all men. 
This intuitive knowledge of God we have seen to be corroborated and expli- 
cated by arguments drawn from nature and from mind. Eeason leads us to 
a causative and personal Intelligence upon whom we depend. This Being 
of infinite greatness we clothe, by a necessity of our thinking, with all the 
attributes of perfection. The two great methods of determining what these 
attributes are, are the Eational and the Biblical. 

1. The Rational method. This is threefold : — (a) the via negationis, 
or the way of negation, which consists in denying to God all imperfections 
observed in created beings ; ( b ) the via eminentice, or the way of climax, 
which consists in attributing to God in infinite degree all the perfections 
found in creatures ; and (c) the via causalitatis, or the way of causality, 
which consists in predicating of God those attributes which are required in 
him to explain the world of nature and of mind. 

This rational method explains God's nature from that of his creation, 
whereas the creation itself can be fully explained only from the nature of 
God. Though the method is valuable, it has insuperable limitations, and 
its place is a subordinate one. While we use it continually to confirm and 
supplement results otherwise obtained, our chief means of determining the 
divine attributes must be 

2. The Biblical method. This is simply the inductive method, applied 
to the facts with regard to God revealed in the Scriptures. Now that we 
have proved the Scriptures to be a revelation from God, inspired in every 
part, we may properly look to them as decisive authority with regard to 
God's attributes. 

The rational method of determining the attributes of God is sometimes said to have 
been originated by Dionysius the Areopagite, reputed to have been a judge at Athens 
at the time of Paul and to have died A. D. 95. It is more probably eclectic, combining 
the results attained by many theologians, and applying the intuitions of perfection and 
causality which hie at the basis of all religious thinking. It is evident from our pre- 
vious study of the arguments for God's existence, that from nature we cannot learn 
either of the Trinity or of the mercy of God, and that these deficiencies in our rational 
conclusions with respect to God must be supplied, if at all, by revelation. See Kahnis, 
Dogmatik, 3 : 181. 

TV. Classification op the Attributes. 

The attributes may be divided into two great classes : Absolute or Imma- 
nent, and Relative or Transitive. 

By Absolute or Immanent Attributes, we mean attributes which respect 
the inner being of God, which are involved in God's relations to himself, 
and which belong to his nature independently of his connection with the 
universe. 

By Relative or Transitive Attributes, we mean attributes which respect the 
outward revelation of God's being, which are involved in God's relations to 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE ATTRIBUTES. 



119 



the creation, and which are exercised in consequence of the existence of the 
universe and its dependence upon him. 

Under the head of Absolute or Immanent Attributes, we make a threefold 
division into Spirituality, with the attributes therein involved, namely, Life 
and Personality; Infinity, with the attributes therein involved, namely, 
Self-existence, Immutability, and Unity ; and Perfection, with the attributes 
therein involved, namely, Truth, Love, and Holiness. 

Under the head of Eelative or Transitive Attributes, we make a threefold 
division, according to the order of their revelation, into Attributes having 
relation to Time and Space, as Eternity and Immensity ; Attributes having 
relation to Creation, as Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence ; 
and Attributes having relation to Moral Beings, as Veracity and Faithful- 
ness, or Transitive Truth ; Mercy and Goodness, or Transitive Love ; and 
Justice and Righteousness, or Transitive Holiness. 
' This classification may be better understood from the following schedule : 



1. Absolute or Immanent Attributes : 



A. Spirituality, involving 



\(a) Life, 

((b) Personality. 






B. Infinity, involving 



C. Perfection, involving 



(a) Self-existence, 
(6) Immutability, 
(c) Unity. 

(a) Truth, 

(b) Love, 

(c) Holiness. 



2. Relative or Transitive Attributes : 
A. Related to Time and Space 



(a) Eternity, 
t ( 6 ) Immensity. 






B. Related to Creation - 



C. Related to Moral Beings 



((a) Omnipresence, 
< ( b ) Omniscience, 
((c) Omnipotence. 

((a) Veracity and Faithfulness, 
or Transitive Truth. 

J ( b ) Mercy and Goodness, 
or Transitive Love. 
( c ) Justice ;i nd Righteousness, 
or Transitive Holiness. 



GO 
o 

B 

w 






It will bo observed, upon examination of the preceding schedule, that our classitiea- 
t Ion presents God first as Spirit, then as the infinite Spirit, and finally as t he perfect Spi rtt 
This accords with our definition of the term God ( see page 20 ). It also corresponds with 
the order in which the attributes commonly present themselves to the human mind. 
Our first thought of God is that of mere Spirit, mysterious and undefined, over against 
our own spirits. Our next thought is that of God's greatness ; the quantitative element 
suggests itself; his natural attributes rise before us; we recognize him as the Infinite 



120 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

One. Finally comes the qualitative element ; our moral natures recognize a moral God ; 
over against our error, selfishness, and impurity, we perceive his absolute perfection. 

It should also be observed that this moral perfection, as it is an immanent attribute^ 
involves relations of God to himself. Truth, love, and holiness, as they respectively 
imply an exercise in God of intellect, affection, and will, may be conceived of as God's 
self -knowing, God's self -loving, and God's self-willing. The significance of this will 
appear more fully in the discussion of the separate attributes. 

Notice the distinction between absolute and relative, between immanent and transi- 
tive attributes. Absolute = existing in no necessary relation to things outside of God. 
Relative = existing in such relation. Immanent *=" remaining within, limited to, God's 
own nature in their activity and effect, inherent and indwelling, internal and subjective 
— opposed to emanent or transitive." Transitive = having an object outside of God 
himself. We speak of transitive verbs, and we mean verbs that are followed by an 
object. God's transitive attributes are so called, because they respect and affect things 
and beings outside of God. 

On classification of attributes, see Luthardt, Compendium, 71; Rothe, Dogmatik, 71; 
Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 162 ; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 47, 52, 136. On the 
general subject, see Charnock, Attributes ; Bruch, Eigenschaftslehre. 

V. Absolute or Immanent Attributes. 

First division. — Spirituality, and attributes therein involved. 

In calling spirituality an attribute of God, we mean, not that we are justi- 
fied in applying to the divine nature the adjective "spiritual," but that the 
substantive "Spirit" describes that nature (John 4 : 24, marg. — "God is 
spirit"; Bom. 1 : 20 — " the invisible things of him " ; ITim. 1 : 17 — "incor- 
ruptible, invisible"; Col. 1 : 15 — "the invisible God"). This implies, 
negatively, that (a) God is not matter. Spirit is not a refined form of 
matter, but an immaterial substance, invisible, uncompounded, indestruct- 
ible. ( b ) God is not dependent upon matter. It cannot be shown that 
the human mind, in any other state than the present, is dependent for 
consciousness upon its connection with a physical organism. Much less is 
it true that God is dependent upon the material universe as his sensorium. 
God is not only spirit, but he is pure spirit. He is not only not matter, but 
he has no necessary connection with matter (Luke 24 : 39 — "A spirit hath 
not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having"). 

Those passages of Scripture which seem to ascribe to God the possession 
of bodily parts and organs, as eyes and hands, are to be regarded as anthro- 
pomorphic and symbolic. When God is spoken of as appearing to the 
patriarchs and walking with them, the passages are to be explained as 
referring to God's temporary manifestations of himself in human form — 
manifestations which prefigured the final tabernacling of the Son of God in 
human flesh. Side by side with these anthropomorphic expressions and 
manifestations, moreover, are specific declarations which repress any mate- 
rializing conceptions of God ; as, for example, that heaven is his throne and 
the earth his footstool ( Is. 66 : 1 ), and that the heaven of heavens cannot 
contain him (IK 8 : 27). 

The repudiation of images among the ancient Persians ( Herod. 1 : 131 ), as among the 
modern Japanese Shintos, indicates the remains of a primitive spiritual religion. The 
representation of Jehovah with body or form degrades him to the level of heathen gods. 
Pictures of the Almighty over the chancels of Romanist cathedrals confine the mind 
and degrade the conceptions of the worshiper. We may use imagination in prayer, 
picturing God as a benignant form holding out arms of mercy, but we should regard 
such pictures only as scaffolding for the building of our edifice of worship, while yet we 
recognize, with the Scripture, that the reality worshiped is immaterial and spiritual. 
The longing for a tangible, incarnate God meets its satisfaction in Jesus Christ. Yet 



ABSOLUTE OR IMMANENT ATTRIBUTES. 121 

even pictures of Christ soon lose their power. Luther said : " If I have a picture of 
Christ in my heart, why not one upon canvass?" We answer : Because the picture in 
the heart is capable of change and improvement, as we ourselves change and improve; 
the picture upon canvass is fixed, and holds us to old conceptions which we should out- 
grow. Swedenborg, in modern times, represents the view that God exists in the shape 
of a man — an anthropomorphism of which the making of idols is only a grosser and 
more barbarous form ; see H. B. Smith, System of Theology, 9, 10. This is also the doc- 
trine of Mormonism ; see Spencer, Catechism of the Church of Latter Day Saints. 

We come now to consider the positive import of the term Spirit. The 
spirituality of God involves the two attributes of Life and Personality. 

1. Life. 

The Scriptures represent God as the living God. 

Jer. 10 : 10— "He is the living God " ; 1 Thess. 1 : 9 — "turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God " ; 

John 5 : 26 — "hath life in himself" ; cf. 14 : 6 — "I am the life," and leb. 7 : 16— "the power of an 

endless life. " 

Life is a simple idea, and is incapable of real definition. We know it, 
however, in ourselves, and we can perceive the insufficiency or inconsistency 
of certain current definitions of it. We cannot regard life in God as 

( a ) Mere process, without a subject ; for we cannot conceive of a divine 
life without a God to live it. 

Versus Lewes, Problems of Life and Mind, 1:10— "Life and mind are processes; 
neither is a substance ; neither is a force ; * * the name given to the whole group of 
phenomena becomes the personification of the phenomena, and the product is supposed 
to have been the producer. 1 ' Here we have a product without any producer— a series 
of phenomena without any substance of which they are manifestations. 

Nor can we regard life as 

( b ) Mere correspondence with outward condition and environment ; for 
this would render impossible a life of God before the existence of the 
universe. 

Versus Herbert Spencer, Biology, 1 : 59-71 — " Life is the definite combination of 
heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with 
external coexistences and sequences." Here we have, at best, a definition of physical 
and finite life ; and even this is insufficient, because the definition recognizes no original 
source of activity within, but only a power of reaction in response to stimulus from 
without. We might as well say that the boiling tea-kettle is alive ( Mark Hopkins ). 

(c) God is rather the living God, as having in his own being a source of 
movement and activity, both for himself and for others. 

Life means energy, activity, movement. Aristotle : " Life is energy of mind." Man's 
nature is a concave glass, reflecting in miniature the nature of God. If spirit in man 
implies life, Spirit in God implies endless and inexhaustible life. The total life of the 
universe is only a faint image of that moving energy which we call the life of God. See 
A. H. Strong, on The Living God, in Philosophy and Religion, 180-187. 

2. Personality. 

The Scriptures represent God as a personal being. By personality we 
mean, the power of self-consciousness and of self-determination. By way 
of further explanation w r e remark : 

(a) Self-consciousness is more than consciousness. This last the brute 
may be supposed to possess, since the brute is not an automaton. Man is 
distinguished from the brute by his power to objectify self. Man is not 
only conscious of his own acts and states, but by abstraction and reflection 
he recognizes the self which is the subject of these acts and states. ( b ) Self- 
determination is more thau determination. The brute shows deterniiuation, 



122 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

but his determination is the result of influences from without ; there is no 
inner spontaneity. Man, by virtue of his free-will, determines his action 
from within. He determines self in view of motives, but his determination 
is not caused by motives ; he himself is the cause. 

God, as personal, is in the highest degree self-conscious and self-deter- 
mining. The rise in our own minds of the idea of God, as personal, depends 
largely upon our recognition of personality in ourselves. Those who deny 
spirit in man place a bar in the way of the recognition of this attribute of 
God. 

Ex. 3 : 14 —"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM : and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of 
Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." God is not the everlasting- " It is," or " I was," but the 
everlasting- "I am" (Morris, Philosophy and Christianity, 128). 1 Cor. 2 : 11— "the things of 
God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God" ; Eph. 1 : 9 — "good pleasure which he purposed" ; 11 — "the counsel of his 
will." Definitions of personality are the following: Boethius — " Persona est animse 
rationalis individua substantia " ( quoted in Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 415 ). F. W. Rob- 
ertson, Genesis 3— "Personality = self -consciousness, will, character." Porter, Human 
Intellect, 626 — " Distinct subsistence, either actually or latently self-conscious and self- 
determining." Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism : Person =" being-, conscious of self, 
subsisting in individuality and identity, and endowed with intuitive reason, rational 
sensibility, and free-will." See Harris, 98, 99, quotation from Mansel— " The freedom of 
the will is so far from being, as it is generally considered, a controvertible question in 
philosophy, that it is the fundamental postulate without which all action and all specula- 
tion, philosophy in all its branches and human consciousness itself, would be impossible." 
On consciousness and self-consciousness, see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 179-189. 

One of the most astounding announcements in all literature is that of Matthew 
Arnold, in his "Literature and Dogma," that the Hebrew Scriptures recognize in God 
only " the power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness "== the God of pantheism. 
The " I am " of Ex. 3 : 14 could hardly have been so misunderstood, if Matthew Arnold 
had not lost the sense of his own personality and responsibility. From free-will in man 
we rise to freedom in God — " That living Will that shall endure, When all that seems shall 
suffer shock." Observe that personality needs to be accompanied by life — the power 
of self-consciousness and self-determination needs to be accompanied by activity— in 
order to make up our total idea of God as Spirit. Only this personality of God gives 
proper meaning to his punishments or to his forgiveness. See Bib. Sac, April, 1884 : 
217-233 ; Eichhorn, die Personlichkeit Gottes ; also, this Compendium, page 57. 

Second Division. — Infinity, and attributes therein involved. 

By infinity we mean, not that the divine nature has no known limits or 
bounds, but that it has no limits or bounds. That which has simply no 
known limits is the indefinite. 

Psalm 145 : 3 — " his greatness is uasearchable " ; Job 11 : 7-9 — " high as heaven " . . . . " deeper than Sheol. ' ' 

In explanation of the term infinity, we may notice 

( a ) That the infinity of God is not a negative but a positive idea. It 
does not take its rise from an impotence of thought, but is an intuitive con- 
viction which constitutes the basis of all other knowledge. 

Versus Mansel, Proleg. Logica, chap. 1 — " Such negative notions . . . imply at once 
an attempt to think, and a failure in that attempt." Per contra, see Porter, Human 
Intellect, 651, 652 ; and this Compendium, page 29 sq. 

(6) That the infinity of God does not involve his identity with 'the all,' 
or the sum of existence, nor prevent the coexistence of derived and finite 
beings to which he bears relation. Infinity implies simply that God exists 
in no necessary relation to finite things or beings, and that whatever limita- 
tion of the divine nature results from their existence is, on the part of God, 
a self -limitation. 
Ps. 113 : 5, 6 — " That humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth." It is involved 



ABSOLUTE OR IMMANENT ATTRIBUTES. 123 

in God's infinity that there should be no barriers to his self -limitation in creation and 
redemption ( see page 6, E. ). Jacob Boehme said : " God is infinite, for God is all." But 
this is to make God all imperfection, as well as all perfection. Harris, Philos. Basis 
Theism: "The relation of the absolute to the finite is not the mathematical relation of 
a total to its parts, but it is a dynamical and rational relation." Shedd, Dogm. TheoL, 1 : 
189-191 : The infinite is not the total ; ' the all ' is a pseudo-infinite. 

(c) That the infinity of God is to be conceived of as intensive, rather 
than as extensive. We do not attribute to God infinite extension, but rather 
infinite energy of spiritual life. That which acts up to the measure of its 
power is simply natural and physical force. Man rises above nature by 
virtue of his reserves of power. But in God the reserve is infinite. There 
is a transcendent element m him, which no self-revelation exhausts, whether 
creation or redemption, whether law or promise. 

p s . 89 : 2— Mercy shall be built up forever" = ever growing manifestations, cycles of fulfill- 
ment ; first literal, then spiritual. MaL 2 : 15—" Did he not make one, although he had the residue of the 
Spirit? "= he might have created many wives for Adam, though he did actually create but 
one. Is. 52 : 10 — •' the Lord hath made bare his holy arm "= nature does not exhaust or entomb God ; 
nature is the mantle in which he commonly reveals himself ; but he is not fettered by 
the robe he wears — he can thrust it aside, and make bare his arm in providential inter- 
positions for earthly deliverance, and in mighty movements of history for the salvation 
of the sinner and for the setting up of his own kingdom. See also John 1 : 16 — "of lus fullness 
we all received, and grace for grace "=" Each blessing appropriated became the foundation of a 
greater blessing. To have realized and used one measure of grace was to have gained 
a larger measure in exchange for it (x»P t *' *"" x*P tT °0 " ; so "Westcott, in Bib. Com., in 
loco. Christ can ever say to the believer, as he said to Xathanael ( John 1 : 50 ) : " thou shalt see 
greater things than these." 

Because God is infinite, he can love each believer as much as if that single soul were 
the only one for whom he had to care. Both in providence and in redemption the whole 
heart of God is busy with plans for the interest and happiness of the single Christian. 
Thieatenings do not half reveal God, nor his promises half express the "eternal weight of 
glory" (2 Cor. 4 : 17). Dante, Paradiso, 19 : 40-63 — God "Could not upon the universe so 
write The impress of his power, but that his word Must still be left in distance infinite." 
To " limit the Holy One of Israel " ( Ps. 78 : 41 — marg.) is falsehood as well as sin. 

This attribute of infinity, or of transcendence, qualifies all the other attributes, and so 
is the foundation for the representations of majesty and glory as belonging to God ( see 
El 33 : 18 ; Ps. 19 : 1 ; Is. 6 : 3 ; Mat. 6 • 13 ; Acts 7:2; Rom. 1 : 23 ; 9 : 23 ; Heb. 1 : 3 ; 1 Pet 4 : 14 ; Rev. 21 : 23 ). 
Glory is not itself a divine attribute ; it is rather a result — an objective result — of the 
exercise of the divine attributes. This glory exists irrespective of the revelation and 
recognition of it in the creation (John 17 : 5). Only God can worthily perceive and rev- 
erence his own glory. He does all for his own glory. All religion is founded on the 
glory of God. All worship is the result of this immanent quality of the divine nature. 

God's infinity implies absolute completeness. We proceed therefore to consider the 
attributes therein involved. 

( H the attributes involved in Infinity, we mention : 

1. Self-existence. 

By self-existence we mean 

(a) That God is causa sui, having the ground of his existence in him- 
sell Every being must have the ground of its existence either in or out 
of itself. We have the ground of our existence outside of us. God is not 
thiu dependent He is a se; hence we speak of the aseity of God. 

God's self -existence is implied in the name "Jehovah" (Ex. 6 : 3) and in the declaration 
M T am that I am " ( Ex. 3 : 14 ), both of which signify that it is God's nature to be. Self- 
existence is certainly incomprehensible to us, yet a self-existent person is no greater 
mystery than a self-existent thing, such as Herbert Spencer supposes 1 1 1 « - universe t<> 
be; indeed it is not so great a mystery, for ii I derive matter fm m mind than 

to derive mind from matter. See Porter, Human Intellect, ML 



124 KATUBE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

But lest this should be misconstrued, we add 

( b ) That God exists by necessity of his own being. It is his nature to 
be. Hence the existence of God is not a contingent but a necessary exist- 
ence. It is grounded, not in his volitions, but in his nature. 

Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 126, 130, 170, seems to hold that God is primarily will, 
so that the essence of God is his act: "God's essence does not precede his freedom"; 
"if the essence of God were for him something given, something- already present, the 
question 'from whence it is given?' could not be evaded; God's essence must in this 
case have its origin in something apart from him, and thus the true conception of God 
would be entirely swept away." But this implies that truth, reason, love, holiness, 
equally with God's essence, ax-e all products of will. If God's essence, moreover, were 
his act, it would be in the power of God to annihilate himself. Act presupposes essence; 
else there is no God to act. The will by which God exists, and in virtue of which he is 
causa sui, is therefore not will in the sense of volition, but will in the sense of the whole 
movement of his active being. "With Muller's view Thomasius and Delitzsch are agreed. 
For refutation of it, see Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 63. 

2. Immutability. 

By this we mean that the nature, attributes, and will of God are exempt 
from all change. Reason teaches us that no change is possible in God, 
whether of increase or decrease, progress or deterioration, contraction or 
development. All change must be to better or to worse. But God is abso- 
lute perfection, and no change to better is possible. Change to worse 
would be equally inconsistent with perfection. No cause for such change 
exists, either outside of God or in God himself. 

Psalm 102 : 27 — "thou art the same" ; Mai. 3 : 6 — "I the Lord change not" ; James 1 : 17 — "with whom can be 
no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." Spenser, Faerie Queen, Cantos of Mutability, 8 : 2 
—"Then 'gin I think on that which nature sayde, Of that same time when no more 
change shall be, But steadfast rest of all things, firmly stayed Upon the pillours of 
eternity ; For all that moveth doth in change delight, But henceforth all shall rest 
eternally With him that is the God of Sabaoth hight ; Oh thou great Sabaoth God, 
grant me that Sabbath's sight ! " 

The passages of Scripture which seem at first sight to ascribe change to 
God are to be explained in one of two ways : 

(a) As anthropomorphic representations of the revelation of God's 
unchanging attributes in the changing circumstances and varying moral 
conditions of creatures. 

Gen. 6 : 6 — " it repented the Lord that he had made man " — is to be interpreted in the light of Num. 23 : 19 
— " God is not a man, that he should lie : neither the son of man, that he should repent." So cf. 1 Sam. 15 : 11 with 
15 : 29. God's unchanging holiness requires him to treat the wicked differently from the 
righteous. When the righteous become wicked, his treatment of them must change. 
The sun is not fickle or partial because it melts the wax but hardens the clay,— the 
change is not in the sun but in the objects it shines upon. The change in God's treat- 
ment of men is described anthropomorphically, as if it were a change in God himself,— 
other passages in close conjunction with the first being given to correct any possible 
misapprehension. Threats not fulfilled, as in Jonah 3 : 4, 10, are to be explained by their 
conditional nature. Hence God's immutability itself renders it certain that his love 
will adapt itself to every varying mood and condition of his children, so as to guide 
their steps, sympathize with their sorrows, answer their prayers. God responds to us 
more quickly than the mother's face to the changing moods of her babe. 

( b ) As describing executions, in time, of purposes eternally existing in 
the mind of God. Immutability must not be confounded with immobility. 
This would deny all those imperative volitions of God by which he enters 
into history. The Scriptures assure us that creation, miracles, incarnation, 



ABSOLUTE OK IMMXE^T ATTRIBUTES. 125 

regeneration, are immediate acts of God. Immutability is consistent with 
constant activity and perfect freedom. 

The abolition of the Mosaic dispensation indicates no change in God's plan ; it is rather 
the execution of his plan. Christ's coming and work were no sudden makeshift, to 
remedy unforeseen defects in the Old Testament scheme: Christ came rather in "the 
fullness cf the time " ( GaL 4 : 4), to fulfill the " counsel " of God ( Acts 2 : 23 ). Gen. 8:1—" God remembered 
Soah "= interposed by special act for Noah's deliverance, showed that he remembered 
Noah. While we change, God does not. There is no fickleness or inconstancy in him. 
Where we once found him, there we may find him still, as Jacob did at Bethel (Gen. 35 : 1, 
6, 9 ). Immutability is a consolation to the faithful, but a terror to G od's enemies ( Hal. 3 : 6 
— '• I the Lord change not ; therefore ye, sons of Jacob, are not consumed " ; Ps. 7 : 11 — " a God that hath indignation 
every day " ). It is consistent with constant activity in nature and in grace (John 5 : 17— "My 

Father worketh even until now, and I work " ; Job 23 : 13, 14 — "He is in one mind, and who can turn him he 

performeth the thing that is appointed for me , and many such things are with him " ). If God's immutability 
were immobility, we could not worship him, any more than the ancient Greeks were 
able to worship Fate. On this attribute, see Charnock, Attributes, 1 : 310-362 ; Dorner, 
Gesammelte Schriften, 188-377 ; translated in Bib. Sac, 1879 : 28-59, 209-223. 

3. Unity. 

By this we mean ( a ) that the divine nature is undivided and indivisible 
(unus) ; and (6) that there is but one infinite and perfect Spirit (unicus). 

Deut. 6:4—" Hear, Israel ; the Lord our God is one Lord " ; Is. 44 : 6 — " beside me there is no God " ; John 5 : 44 
—"the only God" ; 17 : 3— "the only true God" ; 1 Cor. 8 : 4— "no God but one" ; 1 Tim. 1 : 17— "the only God." 

Against polytheism, tritheism, or dualism, we may urge that the notion 
of two or more Gods is self-contradictory ; since each limits the other and 
destroys his godhood. In the nature of things, infinity and absolute per- 
fection are possible only to one. It is unphilosophical, moreover, to assume 
the existence of two or more Gods, when one will explain all the facts. The 
unity of God is, however, in no way inconsistent with the doctrine of the 
Trinity ; for, while this doctrine holds to the existence of hypostatical, or 
personal, distinctions in the divine nature, it also holds that this divine 
nature is numerically and eternally one. 

Polytheism is man's attempt to rid himself of the notion of responsibility to one moral 
Lawgiver and Judge by dividing up his manifestations, and attributing them to sepa- 
rate wills. So Force, in the tenninology of some modern theorizers, is only God with 
his moral attributes left out. " Henotheism " ( says Max Muller, Origin and Growth of 
Religion, 285), "conceives of each individual god as unlimited by the power of other 
gods. Each is felt, at the time, as supreme and absolute, notwithstanding the limitations 
which to our minds must arise from his power being conditioned by the power of all the 
gods." 

Even polytheism cannot rest in the doctrine of many gods, as an exclusive and all-com- 
prehending explanation of the universe. The Greeks believed in one supreme Fate that 
ruled both gods and men. Aristotle : " God, though he is one, has many names, because 
he is called according to states into which he is ever entering anew." The doctrine of 
God's unity should teach men to give up hope of any other God, to reveal himself to 
them or to save them. They are in the hands of the one and only God, and therefore 
there is but one law, and one salvation. On the origin of polytheism, see articles by 
Tholuck, in Bib. Repos., 2 : 84, 246, 441, and Max Muller, Science of Religion, 124. 

Third Division. — Perfection, and attributes therein involved. 

By perfection we mean, not mere quantitative completeness, but qualita- 
tive excellence. The attributes involved in perfection are moral attributes. 
Right action among men presupposes a perfect moral organization, a nor- 
mal state of intellect, affection, and will. So God's activity presupposes a 
principle of intelligence, of affection, of volition, in his inmost being, and 



126 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

the existence of a worthy object for each of these powers of his nature^ 
But in eternity past there is nothing existing outside or apart from God. 
He must find, and he does find, the sumcient object of intellect, affection, 
and will, in himself. There is a self -knowing, a self -loving, a self -willing, 
which constitute his absolute perfection. The consideration of the imma- 
nent attributes is, therefore, properly concluded with an account of that 
truth, love, and holiness, which render God entirely sumcient to himself. 

Mat. 5 : 47 — " Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." 

1. Truth. 

By truth we mean that attribute of the divine nature in virtue of which 
God's being and God's knowledge eternally conform to each other. 

( a ) The immanent truth of God is to be distinguished from that veracity 
and faithfulness which partially manifest it to creatures. These are transi- 
tive truth, and they presuppose the absolute and immanent attribute. 

Deut. 32 : 4 — "A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he " ; John 17 : 3 — " the only true God " 
(a\r)&ii>6v); 1 John 5:20— "we know him that is true" (tov aArjtfivov ). In both these passages 
iA^i™? describes God as the genuine, the real, as distinguished from oAtj^tj?, the vera- 
cious ( compare John 6 : 32 — " the true bread " ; Heb. 8:2 — "the true tabernacle " ). John 14 : 6 — " I am ... . 
the truth." As " I am ... . the life " signifies, not " I am the living one," but rather " I am he 
Avho is life and the source of life," so " I am .... the truth " signifies, not " I am the truthful 
one," but "I am he who is truth and the source of truth"— in other words, truth of 
being, not merely truth of expression. So 1 John 5 : 7 — " the Spirit is the truth." Cf. 1 Esdras 4 : 38 
— " The truth abideth and is forever strong, and it liveth and ruleth forever "= personal Truth ? See Godet 
on John 1 : 18 ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 181. 

(6) God is truth, not only in the sense that he is the being who truly 
knows, but also in the sense that he is the truth that is known. The passive 
precedes the active ; truth of being precedes truth of knowing. 

Plato : " Truth is his ( God's ) body, and light his shadow." Hollaz ( quoted in Thom- 
asius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 137) says that "truth is the conformity of the divine 
essence with the divine intellect." See Gerhard, loc. ii : 152; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 2 : 272, 
279; 3 : 193— "Distinguish in God the personal self -consciousness [spirituality, person- 
ality—see page 121, 122 ] from the unfolding of this in the divine knowledge, which can 
have no other object but God himself. So far, now, as self -knowing in God is absolutely 
identical with his being, is he the absolutely true. For truth is the knowledge which 
answers to the being, and the being which answers to the knowledge." 

(c) All truth among men, whether mathematical, logical, moral, or 
religious, is to be regarded as having its foundation in this immanent truth 
of the divine nature and as disclosing facts in the being of God 

There is a higher Mind than our mind. No apostle can say " I am the truth," though 
each of them can say " I speak the truth." Truth is not a scientific or moral, but a 
substantial, thing— "nicht Schulsache, sondern Lebenssache." Here is the dignity of 
education, that knowledge of truth is knowledge of God. The laws of mathematics are 
disclosures to us, not of the divine reason merely, for this would imply truth outside of 
and before God, but of the divine nature. J. W. A. Stewart : " Science is possible because 
God is scientific." 

(d) This attribute therefore constitutes the principle and guarantee of 
all revelation, while it shows the possibility of an eternal divine self-con- 
templation apart from and before all creation. It is to be understood only 
in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

To all this doctrine, however, a great school of philosophers have opposed themselves. 
Duns Scotus held that God's will made truth as well as right. Descartes said that God 
could have made it untrue that the radii of a circle are all equal. Lord Bacon said that 
Adam's sin consisted in seeking a good in itself, instead of being content with the merely 
empirical good. Whedon, On the Will, 316— "Infinite wisdom and infinite holiness con- 



ABSOLUTE OR IMMANENT ATTRIBUTES. 127 

sist in, and result from, God's volitions eternally." We reply, that to make truth and 
good matters of mere will, instead of regarding them as characteristics of God's being, 
is to deny that anything is true or good in itself. If God can make truth to be false- 
hood, and injustice to be justice, then God is indifferent to truth or falsehood, to good 
or evil, and he ceases thereby to be God. Truth is not arbitrary,— it is matter of being 
— the being of God. There are no regulative principles of knowledge, which are not 
transcendental also. God knows and wills truth, because he is truth. Robert Brown- 
ing, A Soul's Tragedy, 214—" Were 't not for God, I mean, what hope of truth — Speak- 
ing truth, hearing truth, would stay with Man ? " See Bib. Sac, Oct., 1877 : 735 ; Finney, 
Syst. Theology, 661 ; Janet, Final Causes, 416. 

2. Love. 

By love we mean that attribute of the divine nature in virtue of which 
God is eternally moved to self -communication. 

1 John 4 : 8 — " God is love " ; 3 : 16 — " hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us " ; John 17 : 24 
—"thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world " ; Rom. 15 : 30 — " the love of the Spirit." 

( a ) The immanent love of God is not to be confounded with mercy and 
goodness toward creatures. These are its manifestations, and are to be 
denominated transitive love. 

Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 138, 139—" God's regard for the happiness of 
his creatures flows from this self-communicating attribute of his nature. Love, in the 
true sense of the word, is living good-will, with impulses to impartation and union ; 
self-communication (bonum communicativum sui); devotion, merging of the ego in 
another, in order to penetrate, fill, bless this other with itself, and in this other, as in 
another self, to possess itself, without giving up itself or losing itself. Love is theref ore 
possible only between persons, and always presupposes personality. Only as Trinity has 
God love, absolute love ; because as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost he stands in perfect 
self-impartation, self-devotion, and communion with himself." Julius Miiller, Doct. 
Sin, 2 : 136— "God has in himself the eternal and wholly adequate object of his love, 
independently of his relation to the world." 

( b ) The immanent love of God therefore requires and finds a personal 
object in the image of his own infinite perfections. It is to be understood 
only in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

As there is a higher Mind than our mind, so there is a greater Heart than our heart. 
God is not simply the loving One — he is also the Love that is loved. There is an infinite 
life of sensibility and affection in God. God has feeling, and in an infinite degree. But 
feeling alone is not love. Love implies not merely receiving but giving, not merely 
emotion but impartation. So the love of God is shown in his eternal giving. James 1 : 5 
—"God, who giveth," or "the giving God" (toO SiSoi/tos ©eou) = giving is not an episode in his 
being — it is his nature to give. And not only to give, but to give himself. This he does 
eternally in the self-communications of the Trinity; this he does transitively and 
temporally in his giving of himself for us in Christ, and to us in the Holy Spirit. 

( c ) The immanent love of God constitutes a ground of the divine blessed- 
ness. Since there is an infinite and perfect object of love, as well as of 
knowledge and will, in God's own nature, the existence of the universe is 
not necessary to his serenity and joy. 

Blessedness is not itself a divine attribute ; it is rather a result of the exercise of the 
divine attributes. It is a subjective result of this exercise, as glory is an objective 
result. Perfect faculties, with perfect objects for their exercise, ensure God's blessed- 
ness. But love is especially its source. Acts 20 : 35— "It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
Happiness ( hup, happen) is grounded in circumstances; blessedness, in character. 

Is this blessedness of God consistent with sorrow for human misery and sin ? Is God 
passible, capable of suffering? Scripture seems to attribute to God emotions of grid 
und anger ut human sin (Gen. 6: 6— "it grieved him at his heart " ; Rom. 1 : 18— "wrath of God'' ; Eph. 4 : 30 
— "grieve not the Holy Spirit of God "); painful sucriflce in the gift of Christ ( Rom. 8 : 32 —" spared not 
his own son'' ; c/.Gen. 22 : 16— "hast not withheld thy son") und participation in the suffering of 



128 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

his people (Is. 63 : 9— "in all their affliction he was afflicted " ) ; Jesus Christ in his sorrow and sym- 
pathy, his tears and agony, seems to be the revealer of God's feelings toward the race, 
and we are urged to follow in his steps, that we may be perfect, as our Father in heaven 
is perfect. We cannot, indeed, conceive of love without self-sacrifice, nor of self-sacrifice 
without suffering. It would seem, then, that as immutability is consistent with impera- 
tive volitions in human history, so the blessedness of God may be consistent with 
emotions of sorrow. 

But does God feel in proportion to his greatness, as the mother suffers more than the 
sick child whom she tends ? Does God suffer infinitely in every suffering of his crea- 
tures ? We must remember that God is infinitely greater than his creation, and that he 
sees all human sin and woe as part of his great plan. We are entitled to attribute to 
him only such passibleness as is consistent with infinite perfection. In combining pas- 
sibleness with blessedness, then, we must allow blessedness to be the controlling ele- 
ment, for our fundamental idea of God is that of absolute perfection. Martensen, 
Dogmatics, 101— "This limitation is swallowed up in the inner life of perfection which 
God lives, in total independence of his creation, and in triumphant prospect of the ful- 
fillment of his great designs. We may therefore say with the old theosophic writers : 
' In the outer chambers is sadness, but in the inner ones is unmixed joy. ' " Per contra, 
see Shedd, Essays and Addresses, 277, 279, note ; Woods, in Lit. and Theol. Rev., 1834 : 
42-61. 

3. Holiness. 

Holiness is self -affirming purity. In virtue of this attribute of his nature, 
God eternally wills and maintains his own moral excellence. In this defi- 
nition are contained three elements : first, purity ; secondly, purity willing ; 
thirdly, purity willing itself. 

Ex. 15 : 11 — " glorious in holiness"; 19:10-16 — the people of Israel must purify themselves 
before they come into the presence of God; Is. 6 : 3— "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts" — 
notice the contrast with the unclean lips, that must be purged with a coal from the 
altar (verses 5-7) ; 2 Cor. 7 : 1 —"cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the 
fear of God " ) ; 1 Thess. 3 : 13 — " unblamable in holiness " ; 4:7 — "God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctifi- 
cation"; Heb. 12 : 29— "our God is a consuming fire" — to all iniquity. These passages show that 
holiness is the opposite to impurity, that it is itself purity. 

In further explanation we remark : 

A. Negatively, that holiness is not 

(a) Justice, or purity demanding purity from creatures. Justice, the 

relative or transitive attribute, is indeed the manifestation and expression of 

the immanent attribute of holiness, but it is not to be confounded with it. 

Quenstedt, Theol., 8 : 1 : 34, defines holiness as " summa omnisque labis expers in Deo 
puritas, puritatem debitam exigens a creaturis "— a definition of transitive holiness, or 
justice, rather than of the immanent attribute. 

( b ) A complex term designating the aggregate of the divine perfections. 
On the other hand, the notion of holiness is, both in Scripture and in 
Christian ex}Derience, perfectly simple, and perfectly distinct from that of 
other attributes. 

Dick, Theol., 1 : 275— Holiness = venerableness, i. e., "no particular attribute, but the 
general character of God as resulting from his moral attributes." Wardlaw calls holi- 
ness the union of all the attributes, as pure white light is the union of all the colored 
rays of the spectrum (Theology, 1 : 618-634). So Nitzsch, System of Christ. Doct., 166; 
H. W. Beecher: " Holiness = wholeness." 

(c) God's self-love, in the sense of supreme regard for his own interest 
and happiness. There is no utilitarian element in holiness. 

Buddeus, Theol. Dogmat., 2 : 1 : 36, defines holiness as God's self-love. But God 
loves and affirms self, not as self, but as the holiest. There is no self-seeking in God. 



ABSOLUTE OR IMMANENT ATTRIBUTES. 129 

Not the seeking of God's interests, but love for God as holy, is the principle and source 
of holiness in man. To call holiness God's self -lore is to say that God is holy because of 
what he can make by it, i. e., to deny that holiness has any independent existence. See 
Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 155. 

( d ) Identical with, or a manifestation of, love. Holiness, the self -affirm- 
ing attribute, can in no way be resolved into love, the self -communicating. 

Samuel Hopkins, Works, 2 : 9-66 : Holiness = love of being in general. Bushnell, 
Vicarious Sacrifice: " Righteousness, transferred into a word of the affections, is love; 
and love, translated back into a word of the conscience, is righteousness " ; " the eternal 
law of right is only another conception of the law of love" ; "the two principles, right 
and love, appear exactly to measure each other." Many New School theologians agree 
with Bushnell. So Park, Discourses, 155-180. 

But this principle that holiness is a manifestation of love, or a form of benevolence, 
leads to the conclusions that happiness is the onlj' good, and the only end ; that law is 
a mere expedient for the securing of happiness ; that penalty is simply deterrent or 
reformatory in its aim ; that no atonement needs to be offered to God for human sin ; 
that eternal retribution cannot be vindicated, since there is no hope of reform. This 
view ignores the testimony of conscience and of Scripture that sin is intrinsically ill- 
deserving, and must be punished on that account, not because punishment will work 
good to the universe,— indeed, it could not work good to the universe, unless it were 
just and right in itself. It ignores the fact that mercy is optional with God, while 
holiness is invariable ; that punishment is many times traced to God's holiness, but 
never to God's love ; that God is not simply love but light — moral light — and therefore 
is " a consuming fire " ( Heb. 12 : 29 ) to all iniquity. Love chastens ( leb. 12 : 6 ), but only holiness 
punishes ( Jer. 10 : 24 — " correct me, but with judgment ; not in thine anger " ; Ez. 28 : 22 — " I shall have executed 
judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her " ; 36 : 21, 22 — in judgment " I do not this for your sake, but for 
my holy name" ; 1 John 1 : 5— "God is light, and in him is no darkness"— moral darkness; Rev. 15 : 1, 4 — 
"the wrath of God . . . thou only art holy ... thy righteous acts- have been made manifest " ; 16 : 5 — "righteous art 

thou because thou didst thus judge" ; 19 : 2 — "true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the 

great harlot"). See Hovey, God with Us, 187-221; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 80-82; Tho- 
masius, Christi Person und Werk, 154, 155, 346-353 ; Lange, Pos. Dogmatik, 203. 

B. Positively, that holiness is 

(a) Purity of substance. — In God's moral nature, as necessarily acting, 
there are indeed the two elements of willing and being. But the passive 
logically precedes the active; being comes before willing; God is pure 
before he wills purity. 

Versus Lotze, Philos. of Religion, 139. As truth of being logically precedes truth of 
knowing, aud as a loving natui'e precedes loving emotions, so purity of substance pre- 
cedes purity of will. The opposite doctrine leads to such utterances as that of Whedon 
(On the Will, 316) : " God is holy, in that he freely chooses to make his own happiness in 
eternal right. Whether he could not make himself equally happy in wrong, is more 

than we can say Infinite wisdom and infinite holiness consist in, and result from, 

God's volitions eternally." Whedon therefore believes, not in God's unchangeahletiess, 
but in God's unchangingness. He cannot say whether motives may not at some time 
prove strongest for divine apostasy to evil. The essential holiness of God affords no 
basis for certainty. Here we have to rely on our faith, more than on the object of faith ; 
see H. B. Smith, Review of Whedon, in Faith and Philosophy, 355-399. As we said with 
regard to truth, so here we say with regard to holiness, that to make holiness a matter 
of mere will, instead of regarding it as a characteristic of God's being, is to deny that 
anything is holy in itself. If God can make impurity to be purity, then God in himself 
i- indifferent to purity or impurity, aud he ceases thereby to be God. Robert Browning, 
A Soul's Tragedy, 223— "1 trust in God— the Right shall be the Right And other than 
the Wrong, while He endures." 

(h) Energy of will. — This purity is not simply a passive and dead qual- 
ity ; it is the attribute of a personal being ; it is penetrated and pervaded 
by will. Holiness is the free moral movement of the Godhead. 

Afl then; is a higher Mind than our mind, and a greater Heart than our heart, so there 
i- B grander Will than our will. Holiness contains this element of will, although it is a 
9 



130 NATUKE, DECKEES, A^D WORKS OF GOD. 

will which expresses nature, instead of causing nature. It is not a still and moveless 
purity, like the whiteness of the new-fallen snow, or the stainless blue of the summer 
sky. It is the most tremendous of energies, in unsleeping- movement. It is "a glassy 
sea" (Rev. 15 : 2), but "a glassy sea mingled with fire." A. J. Gordon: "Holiness is not a dead- 
white purity, the perfection of the faultless marble statue. Life, as well as purity, 
enters into the idea of holiness. They who are ' without fault before the throne ' are 
they who 'follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth' — holy activity attending and 
expressing their holy state." Martensen, Christian Ethics, 62, 63— "God is the perfect 
unity of the ethically necessary and the ethically free"; "God cannot do otherwise 
than will his own essential nature." See Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 141 ; and 
on the Holiness of Christ, see Godet, Defence of the Christian Faith, 203-241. 

(c) Self-affirmation. — Holiness is God's self- willing. His own purity is 
the supreme object of his regard and maintenance. God is holy, in that his 
hrhnite moral excellence affirms and asserts itself as the highest possible 
motive and end. Like truth and love, this attribute can be understood 
only in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

Holiness is purity willing itself. We have an analogy in man's duty of self-preserva- 
tion, self-respect, self-assertion. Virtue is bound to maintain and defend itself, as in 
the case of Job. In his best moments, the Christian feels that purity is not simply the 
negation of sin, but the affirmation of an inward and divine principle of righteousness. 
Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 137 — " Holiness is the perfect agreement of the 
divine willing with the divine being ; for as the personal creature is holy when it wills 
and determines itself as God wills, so is God the holy one because he wills himself as 
what he is ( or, to be what he is ). In virtue of this attribute, God excludes from himself 
everything that contradicts his nature, and affirms himself in his absolutely good being 
— his being like himself." Tholuck on Romans, 5th ed., 151 — " The term holiness should 
be used to indicate a relation of God to himself. That is holy which, undisturbed from 
without, is wholly like itself." Dorner, System of Doctrine, 1 : 456— "It is the part of 
goodness to protect goodness." We shall see, when we consider the doctrine of the 
Trinity, that that doctrine has close relations to the doctrine of the immanent attri- 
butes. It is in the Son that God has a perfect object of will, as well as of knowledge 
and love. On the whole subject of Holiness, see Nordell, O. T. Student, 8 : 101-103 ; Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 1 : 302 ; Baudissin, Begriff der Heiligkeit im A. T.,— synopsis in Studien und 
Kritiken, 1880 : 169 ; Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, 224-234 ; A. H. Strong, Philos. 
and Religion, 188-200. 

VI. Eelatiyb ob Transitive Attributes. 

First Division. — Attributes having relation to Time and Space. 

1. Eternity. 

By this we mean that God's nature (a) is without beginning or end; 
(6) is free from all succession of time; and (c) contains in itself the 
cause of time. 

Deut. 32 : 40 — " For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever . . . . " ; Ps. 90 : 2 — " Before the moun- 
tains .... from everlasting .... thou art God" ; 102 : 27— "thy years shall have no end" ; Is. 41 : 4— "I the 
Lord, the first, and with the last"; 1 Cor. 2:7 — irpb twi> aiuvtav — "before the worlds" or "ages"=7rpb 
KaTaj3oAyjs Kocrfxov — "before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). 1 Tim. 1 : 17 — fiacri\eZ twv aitaviav — 
"King of the ages" ( so also Rev. 15 : 3 ). 1 Tim. 6 : 16— "who only hath immortality." Rev. 1 : 8 — "the Alpha 
and the Omega." Dorner: "We must not make Kronos (time) and Uranos (space) earlier 
divinities before God." They are among the " all things " that were " made by him " ( John 1:3). 
Yet time and space are not substances ; neither are they attributes ( qualities of sub- 
stance ) ; they are rather relations of finite existence. ( Porter, Human Intellect, 568, 
prefers to call time and space " correlates to beings and events." ) With finite existence 
they come into being ; they are not mere regulative conceptions of our minds ; they 
exist objectively, whether we perceive them or not. 

Eternity is infinity in its relation to time. It hnplies that God's nature is 
not subject to the law of time. God is not in time. It is more correct to say 
that time is in God. Although there is logical succession in God's thoughts, 
there is no chronological succession. 



RELATIVE OR TRANSITIVE ATTRIBUTES. 131 

Time is duration measured by successions. Duration -without succession would still 
be duration, though it would be immeasurable. Reid, Intellectual Powers, essay 3, chap. 
5—'* We may measure duration by the succession of thoughts in the mind, as we measure 
length by inches or feet, but the notion or idea of duration must be antecedent to the 
mensuration of it, as the notion of length is antecedent to its being measured." God is 
not under the law of time. Solly The Will, 254—" God looks through time as we look 
through space." Murphy, Scientific Bases, 90—" Eternity is not, as men believe, Before 
and after us, an endless line. No, 'tis a circle, infinitely great — All the circumference 
with creations thronged : God at the centre dwells, beholding all. And as we move in 
this eternal round, The finite portion which alone we see Behind us, is the past ; what 
lies before We call the future. But to him who dwells Far at the centre, equally remote 
From every point of the circumference, Both are alike, the future and the past." 
Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 344. 

Yet we are far from saying that time, now that it exists, has no objective 
reality to God. To him, past, present, and future are "one eternal now," 
not in the sense that there is no distinction between them, but only in the 
sense that he sees past and future as vividly as he sees the present. With 
creation time began, and since the successions of history are veritable suc- 
cessions, he who sees according to truth must recognize them. 

Finney, quoted in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1877 : 723—" Eternity to us means all past, present, 
and future duration. But to God it means only now. Duration and space, as they 
respect his existence, mean infinitely different things from what they do when they 
respect our existence. God's existence and his acts, as they respect finite existence, 
have relation to time and space. But as they respect his own existence, everything i< 
here and now. With respect to all finite existences, God can say : I was, I am, I shall be, 
I will do ; but with respect to his own existence, all that he can say is : I am, I do." 

Edwards the younger, Works, 1 : 386, 387— "Thex-e is no succession in the divine mind; 
therefore no new operations take place. All the divine acts are from eternity, nor is 
there any time with God. The effects of these divine acts do indeed all take place in 
time and in a succession. If it should be said that on this supposition the effects take 
place not till long after the acts by which they are produced, I answer that they do so 
in our view, but not in the view of God. With him there is no time ; no before or after 
with respect to time ; nor has time any existence in the divine mind, or in the nature of 
things independently of the minds and perceptions of creatures ; but it depends on the 
succession of those perceptions." We must qualify this statement of the younger 
Edwards by the following from Julius Miiller : "If God's working can have no relation 
to time, then all bonds of union between God and the world are snapped asunder." 

Tt is tin interesting question whether the human spirit is capable of timeless existence, 
and whether the conception of time is purely physical. In dreams we seem to lose 
light of succession ; an age is compressed into a minute. Does this throw light upon 
the nature of prophecy? Is the soul of the prophet rapt into God's timeless existence 
and vision ? It is doubtful whether Rev. 10 : 6— "there shall be time no longer" can be relied upon 
to prove the affirmative ; for the Rev. Vers. marg. and the American Revisers translate 
"there shall be delay no longer." Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 147— "All self -consciousness is a 
victory over time." So with memory; see Dorner, Glaubenslchrc, 1 : 171. On "the 
death-vision of one's whole existence," see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 351. On space and 
time as unlimited, see Porter, Hum. Intellect, 561-566. On the conception of eternity, 
Mansel, Lectures, Essays, and Reviews, 111-128, and Modern Spiritualism, 266-200; 
New Englander, April, 1875: art. on the Metaphysical Idea of Eternity. For practical 
lessons from the Eternity of God, see Park, Discourses, 137-164. 

2. Immensity. 

By this we mean that God's nature (a) is without extension ; (6) is sub- 
ject to no limitations of space ; and (<■) contains in itself the cause of space. 

1 tings 8 : 27— "behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." Space is a creation of God; 
Rom. 8 : 39— "nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature." 

Immensity is infinity in its relation to space. God's nature is not subject 
to the law of space. God is not in space It is more correct to say that 
spice is in God. Yet space lias an objective reality to God. With creation 



132 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

space began to be, and since God sees according to truth, he recognizes 
relations of space in his creation. 

Many of the remarks made in explanation of time apply equally to space. Space is 
not a substance nor an attribute, but a relation. It exists so soon as extended matter 
exists, and exists as its necessary condition, whether our minds perceive it or not. 
Reid, Intellectual Powers, essay 2, chap. 9—" Space is not so properly an object of sense, 
as a necessary concomitant of the objects of sight and touch." When we see or touch 
body, we get the idea of space in which the body exists, but the idea of space is not fur- 
nished by the sense ; it is an a priori cognition of the reason. Experience furnishes the 
occasion of its evolution, but the mind evolves the conception by its own native energy. 

Anselm, Proslogion, 19 — " Nothing contains thee, but thou containest all things." Yet 
it is not precisely accurate to say that space is in God, for this expression seems to 
intimate that God is a greater space which somehow includes the less. God is rather 
unspatial and is the Lord of space. The notion that space and the divine immensity are 
identical leads to a materialistic conception of God. Space is not an attribute of God, 
as Clarke maintained, and no argument for the divine existence can be constructed 
from this premise ( see page 48 ). On space, see Porter, Human Intellect, 662 ; Hazard, 
Letters on Causation in Willing, appendix ; Bib. Sac, Oct., 1877 : 723. For the view that 
space and time are relative, see Cocker, Theistic Conception of the World, 66-96 ; Calder- 
wood, Philosophy of the Infinite, 331-335 ; Lotze, Outlines of Metaphysics, 87. Per contra, 
see Gear, in Bap. Rev., July, 1880 : 434; Lowndes, Philos. of Primary Beliefs, 144-161. 

Second Division. — Attributes having relation to Creation. 

1. Omnipresence. 

By this we mean that God, in the totality of his essence, without diffusion 
or expansion, multiplication or division, penetrates and fills the universe in 
all its parts. 

Ps. 139 : 7 sq.—" Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? " Jer. 23 : 23, 24 — 
"Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off ? .... Do not I fill heaven and earth ? " Acts 17 : 27 — 
" he is not far from each one of us : for in him we live, and move, and have our being." 

In explanation of this attribute we may say : 

(a) God's omnipresence is not potential but essential. — We reject the 
Socinian representation that God's essence is in heaven, only his power on 
earth. When God is said to "dwell in the heavens," we are to understand 
the language either as a symbolic expression of his exaltation above earthly 
things, or as a declaration that his most special and glorious self -manifesta- 
tions are to the spirits of heaven. 

Ps 123 : 1 — " 0, thou thatsittest in the heavens " ; 113 : 5 — " that hath his seat on high " ; Is. 57 : 15 — "the high and 
lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." Mere potential omnipresence is Deistic as well as Socinian. 
Like birds in the air or fish in the sea, " at home, abroad, We are surrounded still with 
God." We do not need to go up to heaven to call him down, or into the abyss to call 
him up ( Rom. 10 : 6, 7 ). The best illustration is found in the presence of the soul in every 
part of the body. Mind seems not confined to the brain. Natural realism in philosophy, 
as distinguished from idealism, requires that the mind should be at the point of contact 
with the outer world, instead of having reports and ideas brought to it in the brain ; see 
Porter, Human Intellect, 149. All believers in a soul regard the soul as at least present 
in all parts of the brain, and this is a relative omnipresence no less difficult in principle 
than its presence in all parts of the body. An animal's brain may be frozen into a piece 
solid as ice, yet, after thawing, it will act as before ; although freezing of the whole 
body will cause death. If the immaterial principle were confined to the brain we should 
expect freezing of the brain to cause death. But if soul may be omnipresent in the 
body or even in the brain, the divine Spirit may be omnipresent in the universe. Bowne, 
Metaphysics, 136—" If finite things are modes of the infinite, each thing must be a mode 
of the entire infinite ; and the infinite must be present in its unity and completeness in 
every finite thing, just as the entire soul is present in all its acts." 

( b ) God's omnipresence is not the presence of a part but of the whole of 
God in every place. — This follows from the conception of God as incorporeal. 



RELATIVE OR TRANSITIVE ATTRIBUTES 133 

We reject the materialistic representation that God is composed of material 
elements which can be divided or sundered. There is no multiplication or 
diffusion of his substance to correspond with the parts of his dominions. 
The one essence of God is present at the same moment in all. 

1 Kings 8 : 27— "the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain ( circumscribe ) thee." God must 
be present in all his essence and all his attributes in every place. He is " totus in omni 
parte." Alger, Poetry of the Orient: "Though God extends beyond Creation's rim, 
Each smallest atom holds the whole of him." From this it follows that the whole 
Logos can be united to and be present in the man Christ Jesus, while at the same time 
he fills and governs the whole universe ; and that the whole Christ can be united to, and 
can be present in, the single believer, as fully as if that believer were the only one to 
receive of his fullness. 

(c) God's omnipresence is not necessary but free. — We reject the pan- 
theistic notion that God is bound to the universe as the universe is bound 
to God. God is immanent in the universe, not by compulsion, but by the 
free- act of his own will, and this immanence is qualified by his transcend- 
ence. 

God might at will cease to be omnipresent, for he could destroy the universe ; but 
while the universe exists, he is and must be in all its parts. God is the life and law of 
the universe,— this is the truth in pantheism. But he is also personal and free,— this 
pantheism denies. Christianity holds to a free, as well as to an essential, omnipresence — 
qualified and supplemented, however, by God's transcendence. The boasted truth in 
pantheism is an elementary principle of Christianity, and is only the stepping stone to a 
nobler truth— God's personal presence with his church. The Talmud contrasts the 
worship of an idol and the worship of Jehovah : " The idol seems so near, but is so far . 
Jehovah seems so far, but is so near ! " God's omnipresence assures us that he is present 
with us to hear, and present in every heart and in the ends of the earth to answer, 
prayer. See Rogers, Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 10; Bowne. Metaphysics, 136; 
Charnock, Attributes, 1 : 363-405. 

2. Omniscience. 

By this we mean God's perfect and eternal knowledge of all things which 
are objects of knowledge, whether they be actual or possible, past, present, 
or future. 

God knows his inanimate creation : Ps. 147 : 4 — " telleth the number of the stars ; he giveth them all 
their names." He has knowledge of brute creatures: Mat. 10 : 29 — sparrows — "not one of them 
shall fall on the ground without your Father." Of men and their works : Ps. 33 : 13-15 — " beholdeth all the 
sons of men .... considered all their works." Of hearts of men and their thoughts: Acts 15 : 8 — 
"God, which knoweth the heart" ; Heb. 4 : 13 — "no creature that is not manifest in his sight .... all things are 
naked and laid open before the eyes of him " ; Ps. 139 : 2 — " understandest my thought afar off." Of our wants : 
Mat. 6 : 8— "knoweth what things ye have need of." Of the least things : Mat. 10 : 30 — "the very hairs of 
your head are all numbered." Of the past : Mai. 3 : 16 — " book of remembrance." Of the future : Is. 46 : 9, 
10 — " declaring the end from the beginning." Of men's future free acts : Is. 44 : 28 — " that saith of Cyrus, 
He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure." Of men's future evil acts : Acts 2 : 23— "him, being 
delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." Of the ideally possible : 1 Sam. 23 : 12 — 
" Will the men of Keilah deliver up me and my men into the hands of Saul ? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee 
up " ( «c. if thou rcmainest ) ; Mat. 11 : 21 — " if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in 
thee, it would have repented." From eternity : Acts 15 : 18 — " the Lord, who maketh these things known from 
the beginning of the world." Incomprehensible: Ps. 139 : 6— "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me"; 
Rom. 11 : 33 — " 0, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God." Related to wisdom : 
Ps. 104 : 24 — " In wisdom hast thou made them all " ; Eph. 3 : 10 — " manifold wisdom of God." 

(a) The omniscience of God may be argued from his omnipresence, as 
well as from his truth or self-knowledge, in which the plan of creation has 
its eternal ground. 

It is to be remembered that omniscience, as the designation of a relative and transi- 
tive attribute, does not include God's sell-knowledge. The term is used in the techni- 
cal sense of God's knowledge of all things that pertain to the universe of his creation. 



134 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

( b ) Since it is free from all imperfection, God's knowledge is immediate, 
as distinguished from the knowledge that comes through sense or imagina- 
tion ; simultaneous, as not acquired by successive observations, or built 
up by processes of reasoning ; distinct, as free from all vagueness or con- 
fusion ; true, as perfectly corresponding to the reality of things ; eternal, 
as comprehended in one timeless act of the divine mind. 

An infinite mind must always act, and must always act in an absolutely perfect 
manner. There is in God no sense, symbol, memory, abstraction, growth, reflection, 
reasoning-,— his knowledge is all direct and without intermediaries. God was properly 
represented by the ancient Egyptians, not as having eye, but as being eye. His thoughts 
toward us are "more than can be numbered" (Ps. 40 : 5), not because there is succession in them, 
now a remembering and now a forgetting, but because there is never a moment of our 
existence in which we are out of his mind ; he is always thinking of us. See Charnock, 
Attributes, 1 : 406-497. Gen. 16 : 13—" Thou art a God that seeth." Mivart, Lessons from Nature, 
374 — "Every creature of every order of existence, while its existence is sustained, is so 
complacently contemplated by God, that the intense and concentrated attention of all 
men of science together upon it could but form an utterly inadequate symbol of such 
divine contemplation." So God's scrutiny of every deed of darkness is more searching 
than the gaze of a whole Coliseum of spectators, and his eye is more watchful over the 
good than would be the united care of all his hosts in heaven and earth. 

(c) Since God knows things as they are, he knows the necessary 
sequences of his creation as necessary, the free acts of his creatures as free, 
the ideally possible as ideally possible. 

God knows what would have taken place under circumstances not now present; 
knows what the universe would have been, had he chosen a different plan of creation; 
knows what our lives would have been, had we made different decisions in the past 

( Is. 48 : 18 — " Oh that thou hadst hearkened .... then had thy peace been as a river " ). 

(d) The fact that there is nothing in the present condition of things 
from which the future actions of free creatures necessarily follow by nat- 
ural law does not prevent God from foreseeing such actions, since his 
knowledge is not mediate, but immediate. He not only foreknows the 
motives which will occasion men's acts, but he directly foreknows the acts 
themselves. 

Aristotle maintained that there is no certain knowledge of contingent future events. 
Socinus, in like manner, while he admitted that G od knows all things that are know- 
able, abridged the objects of the divine knowledge by withdrawing from the number 
those objects whose future existence he considered as uncertain, such as the determina- 
tions of free agents. These, he held, cannot be certainly foreknown, because there is 
nothing in the present condition of things from which they will necessarily follow by 
natural law. The man who makes a clock can tell when it will strike. But free-will, 
not being subject to mechanical laws, cannot have its acts predicted or foreknown. 
God knows things only in their causes — future events only in their antecedents. John 
Milton seems also to deny God's foreknowledge of free acts : " So, without least impulse 
or shadow of fate, Or aught by me immutably foreseen, They trespass." 

With this Socinian doctrine some Arminians agree, as McCabe, in his Foreknowledge 
of God, and in his Divine Nescience of Future Contingencies a Necessity. McCabe, 
however, sacrifices the principle of free will, in defence of which he makes this surrender 
of God's f oreknowledge, by saying that in cases of fulfilled prophecy, like Peter's denial 
and Judas's betrayal, God brought special influences to bear to secure the result, — so 
that Peter's and Judas's wills acted irresponsibly under the law of cause and effect. 
He quotes Dr. Daniel Curry as declaring that "the denial of absolute divine fore- 
knowledge is the essential complement of the Methodist theology without which its 
philosophical incompleteness is defenceless against the logical consistency of Calvin- 
ism." So Dugald Stewart : " Shall we venture to affirm that it exceeds the power of God 
to permit such a train of contingent events to take place as his own foreknowledg-e 
shall not extend to ? " Martensen holds this view, and Rothe, Theologische Ethik, 1 : 



RELATIVE OR TRANSITIVE ATTRIBUTES. 135 

212-234, who declares that the free choices of men are continually increasing- the knowl- 
edge of God. So also Martineau, Study of Religion, 2 : 279. 

Against this doctrine of divine nescience we urge not only our fundamental convic- 
tion" of God's perfection, but the constant testimony of Scripture. In Is. 41 : 21, 22, God 
makes his foreknowledge the test of his Godhead in the controversy with idols. If God 
cannot foreknow free human acts, then " the Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world " 
( Rev. 13 : 8 ) was only a sacrifice to be offered in case Adam should fall, God not knowing 
whether he would or not, and in case Judas should betray Christ, God not knowing 
whether he would or not. Indeed, since the course of nature is changed by man's will 
when he burns towns and fells forests, God cannot on this theory predict even the 
course of nature. All prophecy is therefore a protest against this view. 

How God foreknows free human decisions we may not be able to say, but then the 
method of God's knowledge in many other respects is unknown to us. The following 
explanations have been proposed. God may foreknow free acts :— 

1. Mediately, by foreknowing the motives of these acts, and this either because these 
motives induce the acts, (1) necessarily, or (2) certainly. This last " certainly" is to be 
accepted, if either; since motives are never causes, but are only occasions, of action. 
The cause is the will, or the man himself. But it may be said that foreknowing acts 
through their motives is not foreknowing at all, but is reasoning or inference rather. 
Moreover, although inteUigent beings commonly act according to motives previously 
dominant, they also at critical epochs, as at the fall of Satan and of Adam, choose 
between motives, and in such cases knowledge of the motives which have hitherto 
actuated them gives no clue to their next decisions. Another statement is therefore 
proposed to meet these difficulties, namely, that God may foreknow free acts : — 

2. Immediately, by pure intuition, inexplicable to us. Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 
2 : 203, 225 — " If God can know a future event as certain only by a calculation of causes, 
it must be allowed that he cannot with certainty foreknow any free act of man ; for his 
foreknowledge would then be proof that the act in question was the necessary conse- 
quence of certain causes, and was not in itself free. If, on the contrary, the divine 
knowledge be regarded as intuitive, we see that it stands in the same immediate 
relation to the act itself as to its antecedents, and thus the difficulty is removed." Even 
upon this view there still remains the difficulty of perceiving how there can be in God's 
mind a subjective certitude with regard to acts in respect to which there is no assign- 
able objective ground of certainty. Yet, in spite of this difficulty, we feel bound both 
by Scripture and by our fundamental idea of God's perfection to maintain God's per- 
fect knowledge of the future free acts of his creatures. With President Pepper we say : 
'• Knowledge of contingency is not necessarily contingent knowledge." With Whedon : 
"It is not calculation, but pure knowledge." See Dorner, System of Doct., 1 : 332-337, 
2 : 58-62 ; Jahrbuch fur deutsche Theologie, 1858 : 601-605 ; Charnock, Attributes, 1 : 429- 
446 ; Solly, The Will, 240-254. For a valuable article on the whole subject, though advo- 
cating the view that God foreknows acts by foreknowing motives, see Bib. Sac, Oct., 
1883 : 655-694. See also Hill, Divinity, 517. 

( e ) Prescience is not itself causative. It is not to be confounded with 
the predetermining will of God. Free actions do not take place because 
they are foreseen, but they are foreseen because they are to take place. 

Seeing a thing in the future does not cause it to be, more than seeing a thing in the 
past causes it to be. As to future events, we may say with Whedon: "Knowledge 
takes them, not makes them." Foreknowledge may, and does, presuppose predeter- 
mination, but it is not itself predetermination. 

(/) Omniscience embraces the actual and the possible, but it does not 
embrace the self-contradictory and the impossible, because these are not 
objects of knowledge. 

God does not know what the result would be if two and two made five, nor does he 
know "whether a chimaera ruminating in a vacuum devoureth second intentions"; 
and that, simply for the reason that he cannot know self-contradiction and nonsense. 
These things are not objects of knowledge. 

(//) Omniscience, as qualified by holy will, is in Scripture denominated 



136 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

"wisdom." In virtue of his wisdom God chooses the highest ends and 
uses the fittest means to accomplish them. 

Wisdom is not simply " estimating all things at their proper value " ( Olmstead ) ; it nas 
in it also the element of counsel and purpose. It has been denned as " the talent of using 
one's talents." It implies two things : first, choice of the highest end ; secondly, choice 
of the best means to secure this end. 

3. Omnipotence. 

By this we mean the power of God to do all things which are objects of 
power, whether with or without the use of means. 

Gen. 17 : 1 — " I am God Almighty." He performs natural wonders : Gen. 1 : 1-3 — " Let there be light " ; 
Is. 44 : 24 — "stretcheth forth the heavens alone" ; leb. 1 : 3 — "upholding all things by the word of his power." 
Spiritual wonders : 2 Cor. 4 : 6— "God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts " ; 
Eph. 1 : 19 — " exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe " ; Eph. 3 : 20 — " able to do exceeding abund- 
antly." Power to create new things : Mat. 3 : 9— "able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham " ; 
Rom. 4 : 17— "quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were." After his own 
pleasure: Ps. 115 : 3 — "He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased"; Eph. 1 : 11— "worketh all things after the 
counsel of his will." Nothing impossible : Gen. 18 : 14 — " Is anything too hard for the Lord ? " Mat. 19 : 26 — 
" with God all things are 



( a ) Omnipotence does not imply power to do that which is not an object 
of power ; as, for example, that which is self- contradictory or contradictory 
to the nature of God. 

Self -contradictory things : facere factum infectum — the making of a past event to have 
not occurred ( hence the uselessness of praying : " May it be that much good was done " ) ; 
drawing a shorter than a straight line between two given points ; putting two separate 
mountains together without a valley between them. Things contradictory to the nature 
of God : for God to he, to sin, to die. To do such things would not imply power, but 
impotence. God has all the power that is consistent with infinite perfection — all power 
to do what is worthy of himself. So no greater thing can be said by man than this : " I 
dare to do all that may become a man ; Who dares do more is none." Even God cannot 
make wrong to be right, nor hatred of himself to be blessed. Some have held that the 
prevention of sin in a moral system is not an object of power, and therefore that God 
cannot prevent sin in a moral system. We hold the contrary ; see this Compendium : 
Objections to the Doctrine of Decrees, page 180. 

(6) Omnipotence does not imply the exercise of all his power on the 
part of God. He has power over his power ; in other words, his power is 
under the control of wise and holy will. God can do all he will, but he 
will not do all he can. Else his power is mere force acting necessarily, and 
God is the slave of his own omnipotence. 

Schleiermacher held that nature not only is grounded in the divine causality, but fully 
expresses that causality ; there is no causative power in God for anything that is not 
real and actual. This doctrine does not essentially differ from Spinoza's natura iiatu- 
rans and natura naturata. See Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 62-66. But omnipotence is 
not instinctive ; it is a power used according to God's pleasure. God is by no means 
encompassed by the laws of nature, or shut up to a necessary evolution of his own 
being, as pantheism supposes. As Rothe has shown, God has a will-power over his 
nature-power, and is not compelled to do all that he can do. He is able from the stones 
of the street to " raise up children unto Abraham ", but he has not done it. In God are 
unopened treasures, an inexhaustible fountain of new beginnings, new creations, new 
revelations. To suppose that in creation he has expended all the inner possibilities of 
his being is to deny his omnipotence. So Jcb 26 14 — "Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways: 
And how small a whisper do we hear of him ; But the thunder of his power who can understand ? " See Rogers, 
Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 10 ; Hodgson, Time and Space, 579, 580. 

( c ) Omnipotence in God does not exclude, but implies, the power of self- 
limitation. Since all such self-limitation is free, proceeding from neither 



KELATIYE OR TRANSITIVE ATTRIBUTES. 137 

external nor internal compulsion, it is the act and manifestation of God's 
power. Human freedom is not rendered impossible by the divine omnipo- 
tence, but exists by virtue of it. It is an act of omnipotence when God 
humbles himself to the taking of human flesh in the person of Jesus 
Christ. 

Thomasius : " If God is to be over all and in all, he cannot himself be all." Ps. 113 : 5, 6 — 
'• Who is like unto the Lord our God ... . That humbleth himself to behold The things that are in heaven and in the 
earth" ; PhiL 2 : 6, 8— "emptied himself .... humbled himself." See Charnock, Attributes, 2 : 5-107. 

Third Division. — Attributes having relation to Moral Beings. 

1. Veracity and Faithfulness, or Transitive Truth. 

By veracity and faithfulness we mean the transitive truth of God, in its 
twofold relation to his creatures in general and to his redeemed people in 
particular. 

John 3 : 33 — " hath set his seal to this, that God is true ' ' ; Rom. 3 : 4 — " let God be found true, but every man a liar ' ' ; 
Rom 1 : 25— "the truth of God" ; John 14 : 17— "the Spirit of truth" ; 1 John 5 : 6— "the Spirit is the truth " : 

1 Cor. 1 : 9 — " God is faithful " ; 1 Thess. 5 : 24 — " faithful is he that calleth you " ; 1 Pet. 4 : 19 — " a faithful Creator " ; 

2 Cor. 1 : 20 — "how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea" ; Num. 23 : 19 — "God is not a man that 
he should lie " ; Tit 1 : 2 — " God, who cannot lie, promised " ; Heb. 6 : 18 — "in which it is impossible for God to lie." 

(a) In virtue of his veracity, all his revelations to creatures consist with 
his essential being and with each other. 

In God's veracity we have the guarantee that our faculties in their normal exercise 
do not deceive us ; that the laws of thought are also laws of things ; that the external 
world, and second causes in it, have objective existence ; that the same causes will always 
produce the same effects ; that the threats of the moral nature will be executed upon 
the unrepentant transgressor ; that man's moral nature is made in the image of God's ; 
and that we may draw just conclusions from what conscience is in us to what holiness 
is in him. We may therefore expect that all past revelations, whether in nature or in bis 
word, will not only not be contradicted by our future knowledge, but will rather prove 
to have in them more of truth than we ever dreamed. Man's word may pass away, but 
God's word abides forever (Mat. 5 : 18 — "one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law " ; 
Is. 40 : 8 — " the word of our God shall stand forever " ). 

( b ) In virtue of his faithfulness, he fulfills all his promises to his people, 
whether expressed in words or implied in the constitution he has given 
them. 

In God's faithfulness we have the sure ground of confidence that he will perform 
what his love has led him to promise to those who obey the gospel. Since his promises 
are based, not upon what we are or have done, but upon what Christ is and has done, our 
defects and errors do not invalidate them, so long as we are truly penitent and believing : 

I John 1 .- 9— "faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins " = faithful to his promise, and righteous to 
Christ. God's faithfulness also ensures a supply for all the real wants of our being, both 
here and hereafter, since these wants are implicit promises of him who made us : Ps. 84 : 

II — " No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly " ; 91 : 4 — " His truth is a shield and a buckler " ; 
Mat. 6 : 33 —"all these things shall be added unto you " ; 1 Cor. 2 : 9 — " things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, 
and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him." 

2. Mercy and Goodness, or Transitive Love. 

By mercy and goodness we mean the transitive love of God in its twofold 
relation to the disobedient and to the obedient portions of his creatures. 

Titus 3:4—" his love toward man " ; Rom. 2 : 4 — " goodness of God " : Mat. 5 : 44, 45 — " love your enemies .... 
that ye may be sons of your Father" ; John 3 : 16— "God so loved the world" 2 Pet. 1 : 3— "granted unto us all 
things that pertain unto life and godliness" ; Rom. 8 32— "freely give us all things" ; 1 John 4 : 10— "Herein is 
love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 



138 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

(a) Mercy is that eternal principle of God's nature which leads him to 
seek the temporal good and eternal salvation of those who have opposed 
themselves to his will, even at the cost of infinite self-sacrifice. 

Martensen: "Viewed in relation to sin, eternal love is compassionate grace." God's 
continual impartation of natural life is a foreshadowing, in a lower sphere, of what he 
desires to do for his creatures in the higher sphere — the communication of spiritual and 
eternal life through Jesus Christ. When he bids us love our enemies, he only bids us 
follow his own example. 

(6) Goodness is the eternal principle of God's nature which leads him to 
communicate of his own life and blessedness to those who are like him in 
moral character. Goodness, therefore, is nearly identical with the love of 
complacency ; mercy, with the love of benevolence. 

Notice, however, that transitive love is but an outward manifestation of immanent 
love. The eternal and perfect object of God's love is in his own nature. Men become 
subordinate objects of that love only as they become connected and identified with its 
principal object, the image of God's perfections in Christ. Only in the Son do men 
become sons of God. To this is requisite an acceptance of Christ on the part of man. 
Thus it can be said that God imparts himself to men just so far as men are willing to 
receive him. And as God gives himself to men, in all his moral attributes, to answer for 
them and to renew them in character, there is truth in the statement of Nordell ( Exam- 
iner, Jan. 17, 1884) that "the maintenance of holiness is the function of divine justice; 
the diffusion of holiness is the function of divine love." We may grant this as substan- 
tially true, while yet we deny that love is a mere form or manifestation of holiness. 
Self -impartation is different from self-affirmation. The attribute which moves God to 
pour out is not identical with the attribute which moves him to maintain. The two 
ideas of holiness and of love are as distinct as the idea of integrity on the one hand and 
of generosity on the other. Park : " God loves Satan, in a certain sense, and we ought 
to." Shedd: "This same love of compassion God feels toward the non-elect; but the 
expression of that compassion is forbidden for reasons which are sufficient for God, but 
are entirely unknown to the creature." The goodness of God is the basis of reward, 
under God's government. Faithfulness leads God to keep his promises ; goodness leads 
him to make them. 

3. Justice and Righteousness, or Transitive Holiness. 

By justice and righteousness we mean the transitive holiness of God, in 
virtue of which his treatment of his creatures conforms to the purity of his 
nature, — righteousness demanding from all moral beings conformity to the 
moral perfection of God, and justice visiting non-conformity to that perfec- 
tion with penal loss or suffering. 

Gen. 18 : 25 — " shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " Deut. 32 : 4 — "All his ways are judgment ; A God of 
faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is he " ; Ps. 7 : 9-12 — " the righteous God trieth the hearts .... saveth 
the upright .... is a righteous judge, Yea, a God that hath indignation every day " ; 18 : 24— "the Lord recompensed 
me according to my righteousness .... With the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful .... with' the perverse 
thou wilt show thyself froward " ; Mat. 5 : 48 — " Ye therefore shall be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect " ; 
Rom. 2 : 6 — " will render to every man according to his works " ; 1 Pet. 1 : 16 — " Ye shall be holy ; for I am holy." 

( a ) Since justice and righteousness are simply transitive holiness — right- 
eousness designating this holiness chiefly in its mandatory, justice chiefly 
in its punitive, asrject, — they are not mere manifestations of benevolence, 
or of God's disposition to secure the highest happiness of his creatures, nor 
are they grounded in the nature of things as something apart from or above 
God. 

(Jremer, N. T. Lexicon: Si*c<uos="the perfect coincidence existing between God's 
nature, which is the standard for all, and his acts." Justice and righteousness are 
simply holiness exercised toward creatures. The same holiness which exists in God in 
eternity past manifests itself as justice and righteousness, so soon as intelligent crea- 
tures come into being. 



RELATIVE OE TRAXSITIVE ATTRIBUTES. 139 

( b ) Transitive holiness, as righteousness, imposes law in conscience and 
Scripture, and may be called legislative holiness. As justice, it executes 
the penalties of law, and may be called distributive or judicial holiness. In 
righteousness God reveals chiefly his love of holiness ; in justice, chiefly 
his hatred of sin. 

The self -affirming- purity of God demands a like purity in those who have been made 
in his image. As God wills and maintains his own moral excellence, so all creatures 
must will and maintain the moral excellence of God. There can be only one centre in 
the solar system,— the sun is its own centre and the centre for all the planets also. So 
God's purity is the object of his own will,— it must be the object of all the wills of all his 
creatures also. 

( e ) Neither justice nor righteousness, therefore, is a matter of arbitrary 
will. They are revelations of the inmost nature of God, the one in the 
form of moral requirement, the other in the form of judicial sanction. As 
God cannot but demand of his creatures that they be like him in moral 
character, so he cannot but enforce the law which he imposes upon them. 
Justice just as much binds God to punish as it binds the sinner to be 
punished. 

All arbitrariness is excluded here. God is what he is — infinite purity. He cannot 
change. If creatures are to attain the end of their being, they must be like God in 
moral purity. Justice is nothing but the recognition and enforcement of this natural 
necessity. Law is only the transcript of God's nature. Justice does not make law, — it 
only reveals law. Penalty is only the reaction of God's holiness against that which is 
its opposite. Since righteousness and justice are only legislative and retributive holi- 
ness, God can cease to demand purity and to punish sin only when he ceases to be holy, 
that is, only when he ceases to be God. "Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur." 

(d) Neither justice nor righteousness bestows rewards. This follows 
from the fact that obedience is due to God, instead of being optional or a 
gratuity. No creature can claim anything for his obedience. If God 
rewards, he rewards in virtue of his goodness and faithfulness, not in virtue 
of his justice or his righteousness. What the creature cannot claim, how- 
ever, Christ can claim, and the rewards which are goodness to the creature 
are righteousness to Christ. God rewards Christ's work for us and in us. 

Bruch, Eigenschaftslehre, 280-282, and John Austin, Province of Jurisprudence, 1 : 88- 
93, 220-223, both deny, and rightly deny, that justice bestows rewards. Justice simply 
punishes infractions of law. In Mat. 25 : 34 — "inherit the kingdom" — inheritance implies no 
merit ; 46 — the wicked are adjudged to eternal punishment ; the righteous, not to eternal 
reward, but to eternal life. Luke 17 : 7-10 — "when ye shall have done all the things that are commanded 
yon, say, We are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which it was our duty to do." Rdm. 6 : 23 — punishment 
is the "wages of sin" : but salvation is "the gift of God" ; 2 : 6 — God rewards, not o)i account of 
man's works, but "according to his works." Reward is thus seen to be in Scripture a matter 
of grace to the creature ; only to the Christ who works for us in atonement, and in us 
in regeneration and sanctification, is reward a matter of debt (see also John 6 : 27 and 
2 John 8 ). Martineau, Types, 2 : 86, 214, 249 — M Merit is toward man ; virtue, toward God." 

(e) Justice in God, as the revelation of his holiness, is devoid of all pas- 
sion or caprice. There is in Go(f no sellish anger. The penalties he 
inflicts upon transgression are not vindictive bat vindicative. They express 
the revulsion of God's nature from moral evil, the judicial indignation of 
purity against impurity, the self-assertion of infinite holiness against its 
antagonist and would-be destroyer. But because its decisions are calm, 
they are irreversible. 

Anger, within certain limits, is a duty of man. Ps. 97 : 10— "ye that love the Lord, hate evil" ; 
Eph. 4:26— "Be ye angry, and sin not." The calm Indignation of the judge, who pronounces 
sentence with tears, is the true Image of the holy anger of God against -in. Weber, 



140 NATUKE, DECKEES, AND WOKKS OF GOD. 

Zorn Gottes, 28, makes wrath only the jealousy of love. It is more truly the jealousy of 
holiness. Prof. W. A. Stevens, Com. on 1 Thess. 2 : 10— "Holily and righteously are terms that 
describe the same conduct in two aspects ; the former, as conformed to God's character 
in itself ; the latter, as conformed to his law ; both are positive." Lillie, Com. on 2 Thess. 
1:6 — " Judgment is ' a righteous thing with God.' Divine justice requires it for its own satisfac- 
tion." See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 175-178, 365-385; Trench, Syn. N. T., 1 : 180, 181. 

The moral indignation of a whole universe of holy beings against moral evil, added to 
the agonizing self-condemnations of awakened conscience in all the unholy, is only a 
faint and small reflection of the awful revulsion of God's infinite justice from the 
impurity and selfishness of his creatures, and of the intense, organic, necessary, and 
eternal reaction of his moral being in self -vindication and the punishment of sin ; see 
Jer. 44 : 4 — " Oh, do not that abominable thing thatlhate!" Num. 32 : 23 — " be sure your sin will find you out"; 
Heb. 10 : 30, 31 — " For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord 
shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." On justice as an attri- 
bute of a moral governor, see N. W. Taylor, Moral Government, 2 : 253-293 ; Owen, 
Dissertation on Divine Justice, in Works, 10 : 483-624. 

VII. Bank and Relations of the several Attributes. 

The attributes have relations to each other. Like intellect, affection, and 
•will in man, none of them are to be conceived of as exercised separately 
from the rest. Each of the attributes is qualified by all the others. God's 
love is immutable, wise, holy. Infinity belongs to God's knowledge, power, 
justice. Yet this is not to say that one attribute is of as high rank as another. 
The moral attributes of truth, love, holiness, are worthy of higher reverence 
from men, and they are more jealously guarded by God, than the natural 
attributes of omnipresence, omniscence, and omnipotence. And yet even 
among the moral attributes one stands as supreme. Of this and of its 
supremacy we now proceed to speak. 

1. Holiness the fundamental attribute in God. 

That holiness is the fundamental attribute in God, is evident : 

(a) From Scripture, — in which God's holiness is not only most constantly 
and powerfully pressed upon the attention of man, but is declared to be the 
chief subject of rejoicing and adoration in heaven. 

It is God's attribute of holiness that first and most prominently presents itself to the 
mind of the sinner, and conscience only follows the method of Scripture: 1 Pet. 1 : 16— 
"Ye shall be holy ; for I am holy" ; Heb. 12 : 14 — "the sanctification without which no man shall see the lord" ; cf. 
Luke 5 : 8 — " Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, Lord." Yet this constant insistence upon holi- 
ness cannot be due simply to man's present state of sin, for in heaven, where there is no 
sin, there is the same reiteration : Is. 6 • 3 — " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts " ; Rev. 4 : 8 — " Holy, 
holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty." 

(b) From our own moral constitution, — in which conscience asserts its 
supremacy over every other impulse and affection of our nature. As we 
may be kind, but must be righteous, so God, in whose image we are made, 
may be merciful, but must be holy. 

See Bishop Butler's Sermons upon Human Nature, Bohn's ed., 385-414, showing " the 
supremacy of conscience in the moral constitution of man." We must be just, before 
we are generous. So with God, justice must be done always ; mercy is optional with 
him. He was not under obligation to provide a redemption for sinners : 2 Pet. 2 : 4 — "God 
spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell." Salvation is a matter of grace, not of 
debt. Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 277-298—" The quality of justice is necessary exac- 
tion; but 'the quality of mercy is not (con) strained'" [c/. Denham: "His mirth is 
forced and strained"]. God can apply the salvation, after he has wrought it out, to 
whomsoever he will : Rom. 9 : 18— "he hath mercy on whom he will." The poet says : "A God all 
mercy is a God unjust." Emerson: "Your goodness must have some edge to it; else 



KANK AND RELATIONS OF THE ATTRIBUTES. 141 

it is none." Martineau, Study, 2 : 100 — " No one can be just without subordinating Pity 
to the sense of Right." We may learn of God's holiness a priori. Even the heathen 
could say "Fiat justitia, ruat ccelum", or "pereat mundus." But, for our knowledge 
of God's mercy, we are dependent upon special revelation. Mercy, like omnipotence, 
may exist in God without being exercised. Mercy is not grace but debt, if God owes the 
exercise of it either to the sinner or to himself ; versus G. B. Stevens, in N. Eng., 1888 : 
431-443. " But justice is an attribute which not only exists of necessity, but must be exer- 
cised of necessity ; because not to exercise it would be injustice " ; see Shedd, Dogm. 
Theol., 1 : 218, 219, 389. 390 ; 2 : 402, ana Sermons to Nat. Man, 366. If it be said that, by 
parity of reasoning, for God not to exercise mercy is to show himself unmerciful, — we 
reply that this is not true so long as nigher interests require that exercise to be with- 
held. I am not unmerciful when I refuse to give to the poor the money needed to pay 
an honest debt ; nor is the Governor unmerciful who refuses to pardon the condemned 
and unrepentant criminal. Mercy has its conditions, as we proceed to show, and it does 
not cease to be, when these conditions do not permit it to be exercised. Not so with 
justice : justice must always be exercised ; when it ceases to be exercised, it also ceases 
to be. 

(c) From the actual dealings of God, — in which holiness conditions and 
limits the exercise of other attributes. Thus, for example, in Christ's 
redeeming work, though love makes the atonement, it is violated holiness 
that requires it ; and in the eternal punishment of the wicked, the demand of 
holiness for self -vindication overbears the pleading of love for the sufferers. 

That which conditions all is highest of all. Holiness shows itself higher than love, in 
that it conditions love. Hence God's mercy does not consist in outraging his own law 
of holiness, but in enduring the penal affliction by which that law of holiness is satisfied. 
Conscience in man is but the reflex of holiness in God. Conscience demands either 
retribution or atonement. This demand Christ meets by his substituted suffering. His 
sacrifice assuages the thirst of conscience in man, as well as the demand of holiness in 
God: John 6 : 55 — "For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." See Shedd, Discourses 
and Essays, 280, 291, 292, from which much of the above is in substance taken. See also 
Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 137-155, 346-353; Patton, art. on Retribution 
and the Divine Goodness, in Princeton Rev., Jan., 1878 : 8-16 ; Owen, Dissertation on the 
Divine Justice, in Works, 10 : 483 624 ; Lang, Homer, 506. 

{d) From God's eternal purpose of salvation, — in which justice and 
mercy are reconciled only through the foreseen and predetermined sacrifice 
of Christ. The declaration that Christ is ' ' the Lamb .... slain from the 
foundation of the world" implies the existence of a principle in the divine 
nature which requires satisfaction, before God can enter upon the work of 
redemption. That principle can be none other than holiness. 

Since both mercy and justice are exercised toward sinners of the human race, the 
otherwise inevitable antagonism between them is removed only by the atoning death of 
the God-man. Their opposing claims do not impair the divine blessedness, because the 
reconciliation exists in the eternal counsels of God. This is intimated in Rev. 13 : 8— "the 
Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world." This same reconciliation is alluded to in 
Ps. 85 : 10 — " Mercy and truth are met together ; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other " ; and in Rom. 3 : 26 
— " that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." The atonement, then, if 
man was to be saved, was necessary, not primarily on man's account, but on God's 
account. Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 279 : The sacrifice of Christ was an " atonement 
ab intra, a self-oblation on the part of Deity himself, by which to satisfy those imma- 
nent and eternal imperatives of the divine nature which without it must find their 
satisfaction in the punishment of the transgressor, or else be outraged." Thus God's 
word of redemption, as well as his word of creation, is forever " settled in heaven " ( Ps. 119 : 89 ). 
Its execution on the cross was " according to the pattern " on high. The Mosaic sacrifice pre- 
figured the sacrifice of Christ ; but the sacrifice of Christ was but the temporal disclosure 
of an eternal fact in the nature of God. See Kreibig, Versohnung, 155, 156. 

1. The holiness of God the ground of moral obligation. 

A. Erroneous Views. The ground of moral obligation is not 

(a) In power, — whether of civil law (Hobbes, Gassendi), or of divine 



142 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

will (Occam, Descartes). We are not bound to obey either of these, except 
upon the ground that they are right. This theory assumes that nothing is 
good or right in itself, and that morality is mere prudence. 

Civil law : See Hobbes, Leviathan, part i, chap. 6 and 13 ; part ii, chap. 30. Gassendi, 
Opera, 6 : 130. Upon this view, might makes right ; the laws of Nero are always binding ; 
a man may break his promise when civil law permits ; there is no obligation to obey a 
father, a civil governor, or God himself, when once it is certain that the disobedience 
will be hidden, or when the offender is willing to incur the punishment. 

Divine will : See Occam, lib. 2, quaes. 19 ( quoted in Porter, Moral Science, 125 ) ; Des- 
cartes (referred to in Hickok, Moral Science, 27, 28). Upon this view, right and wrong 
are variable quantities. Duns Scotus held that God's will makes not only truth but 
right. God can make lying to be virtuous and purity to be wrong. If Satan were God, 
we should be bound to obey him. God is essentially indifferent to right and wrong, 
good and evil. We reply that behind the divine will is the divine nature, and that in 
the moral perfection of that nature lies the only ground of moral obligation. 

As between power or utility on the one hand, and right on the other hand, we must 
regard right as the more fundamental. We do not, however, as will be seen further on, 
place the ground of moral obligation even in right, considered as an abstract principle ; 
but place it rather in the moral excellence of him who is the personal Right and there- 
fore the source of right. 

(b) Nor in utility, — whether our own happiness or advantage present or 
eternal (Paley), for supreme regard for our own interest is not virtuous; 
or the greatest happiness or advantage of being in general (Edwards), for 
we judge conduct to be useful because it is right, not right because it is 
useful. This theory would compel us to believe that in eternity past God 
was holy only because of the good he got from it, — that is, there was no such 
thing as holiness in itself, and no such thing as moral character in God. 

Our own happiness: Paley, Mor. and Pol. Philos., book i, chap, vh— "Virtue is the 
doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting 
happiness." This unites ( a ) and ( b ). John Stuart Mill and Dr. N. W. Taylor held that 
our own happiness is the supreme end. These writers indeed regard the highest happi- 
ness as attained only by living for others (Mill's altruism), but they can assign no 
reason why one who knows no other happiness than the pleasures of sense should not 
adopt the maxim of Epicurus, who, according to Lucretius, taught that "ducit quemque 
voluptas" This theory renders virtue impossible ; for a virtue which is mere regard to 
our own interest is not virtue but prudence. " We have a sense of right and wrong 
independently of all considerations of happiness or its loss." 

Greatest good of being : Not only Edwards, but Priestley, Bentham, Dwight, Finney, 
Hopkins, Fairchild, hold this view. See Edwards, Works, 2 : 261-304— " Virtue is benevo- 
lence toward being in general " ; Dwight, Theology, 3 : 150-162—" Utili+y the Foundation 
of Virtue"; Hopkins, Law of Love, 7-28; Fairchild, Moral Philosophy; Finney, Syst. 
Theol., 42-135. This theory regards good as a mere state of the sensibility, instead of 
consisting in purity of being. It forgets that in eternity past " love for being in gen- 
eral " = simply God's self-love, or God's regard for his own happiness. This implies that 
God is holy only for a purpose • he is bound to be unholy, if greater good would result ; 
that is, holiness has no independent existence in his nature. We grant that a thing is 
often known to be right by the fact that it is useful ; but this is very different from say- 
ing that its usefulness makes it right. "Utility is only the setting of the diamond, 
which marks, but does not make, its value." " If utility be a criterion of rectitude, it is 
only because it is a revelation of the divine nature." See British Quarterly, July, 1877, 
on Matthew Arnold and Bishop Butler. Bp. Butler, Nature of Virtue, in Works, Bonn's 
ed., 334. Love and holiness are obligatory in themselves, and not because they promote 
the general good. Cicero well said that they who confounded the honestum with the 
utile deserved to be banished from society. See criticism on Porter's Moral Science, in 
Lutheran Quarterly, Apr., 1885 : 326-331 ; also F. L. Patton, on Metaphysics of Oughtness, 
in Presb. Rev., 1886 : 127-150. 

(c) Nor in the nature of things (Price), — whether by this we mean their 
fitness (Clarke), truth (Wollaston), order ( Jouffroy), relations (Wayland), 
worthiness (Hickok), sympathy (Adam Smith), or abstract right (Haven and 



RAXK AXD RELATIONS OF THE ATTRIBUTES. 143 

Alexander ) ; for this nature of things is not ultimate, but has its ground in 
the nature of God. We are bound to worship the highest ; if anything 
exists beyond and above God, we are bound to worship that, — that indeed is 
God. 

See Wayland, Moral Science, 33-48 ; Hickok, Moral Science, 27-34 ; Haven, Moral Phi- 
losophy, 27-50 ; Alexander, Moral Science, 159-198. In opposition to all the forms of this 
theory, we urge that nothing exists independently of or above God. "If the ground 
of morals exist independently of G-od, either it has ultimately no authority, or it usurps 
the throne of the Almighty. Any rational being who kept the law would be perfect 
without God, and the moral centre of all intelligences would be outside of God " ( Talbot ). 
God is not a Jupiter controlled by Fate. He is subject to no law but the law of his own 
nature. Noblesse oblige,— character rules,— purity is the highest. And therefore to holi- 
ness all creatures, voluntarily or involuntarily, are constrained to bow. Hopkins, Law 
of Love, 77— "Right and wrong have nothing to do with things, but only with actions ; 
nothing to do with any nature of things existing necessarily, but only with the nature 
of persons." Another has said : " The idea of right cannot be original, since right means 
conformity to some standard or rule." This standard or rule is not an abstraction, but 
an existing being — the infinitely perfect God. 

B. The Scriptural View. — According to the Scriptures, the ground of 
moral obligation is the holiness of God, or the moral perfection of the 
divine nature, conformity to which is the law of our moral being (Robinson, 
Chalmers, Calderwood, Gregory, Wuttke). We show this: 

(a) From the commands: "Ye shall be holy," where the ground of 
obligation assigned is simply and only: "for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1 : 16) ; 
and "Ye therefore shall be perfect," where the standard laid down is: "as 
your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mat. 5 : 48). Here we have an ultimate 
reason and ground for being and doing right, namely, that God is right, or, 
in other words, that holiness is his nature. 

( b ) From the nature of the love in which the whole law is summed up 
(Mat. 22 : 37— "thou shall love the Lord thy God" ; Rom. 13 : 10— "love 
therefore is the fulfillment of the law"). This love is not regard for 
abstract right or for the happiness of being, much less for one's own inter- 
est, but it is regard for God as the fountain and standard of moral excellence, 
or, in other words, love for God as holy. Hence this love is the principle 
and source of holiness in man. 

( c ) From the examine of Christ, whose life was essentially an exhibition 
of supreme regard for God, and of supreme devotion to his holy will. As 
Christ saw nothing good but what was in God (Mark 10 : 18 — "none is good 
save one, even God" ), and did only what he saw the Father do (John 5 : 19 ; 
see also 30 — "I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me"), 
so for us, to be like God is the sum of all duty, and God's infinite moral 
excellence is the supreme reason why we should be like him. 

For statements of the correct view of the ground of moral obligation, see E. G. Rob- 
inson, Principles and Practice of Morality, 138-180; Chalmers, Moral Philosophy, 413-420 ; 
Calderwood, Moral Philosophy ; Gregory, Christian Ethics, 113-123 ; Wuttke, Christian 
Ethics, 2 : 80-107 ; Talbot, Ethical Prolegomena, in Bap. Quar., July, 1877 : 257-274: "The 
ground of all moral law is the nature of God, or the ethical nature of God in relation to 
the like nature in man, or the imperativeness of the divine nature." Plato : " The divine 
will is the fountain of all efficiency ; the divine reason is the fountain of all law ; the 
divine nature is the fountain of all virtue." For further discussion of the subject, see 
ompendium, pages 273-282. Sec also Thorn well, Theology, 1 : 363-373; Ilinton, Ait of 
Thinking, 47-02; Goldwin Smith, in Contemporary Review, March, 1882, and Jan., 1884; 
H. B. Smith, System of Theology, 195-231, esp. 223 ; Martineau, Types, 1 : xvi ; 2 : 70-77, and 
Study, 1 : 28. Holiness is the goal of man's spiritual career ; see 1 Thess. 3 : 13—" To the end he 
may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father." 



CHAPTER II. 

DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 

In the nature of the one God there are three eternal distinctions which 
are represented to us under the figure of persons, and these three are equal. 
This tripersonality of the Godhead is exclusively a truth of revelation. It 
is clearly, though not formally, made known in the New Testament, and 
intimations of it may be found in the Old. 

The doctrine of the Trinity may be expressed in the six following 
statements : 1. In Scripture there are three who are recognized as God. 
2. These three are so described in Scripture that we are compelled to con- 
ceive of them as distinct persons. 3. This tripersonality of the divine nature 
is not merely economic and temporal, but is immanent and eternal. 4. This 
tripersonality is not tritheism ; for while there are three persons, there is 
but one essence. 5. The three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are 
equal. 6. Inscrutable yet not self-contradictory, this doctrine furnishes 
the key to all other doctrines. — These statements we proceed now to prove 
and to elucidate. 

Reason shows us the Unity of God ; only revelation shows us the Trinity of God, thus 
filling- out the indefinite outlines of this Unity and vivifying- it. The term ' Trinity ' is 
not found in Scripture, although the conception it expresses is Scriptural. The inven- 
tion of the term is ascribed to Tertullian. The Montanists first defined the personality 
of the Spirit, and first formulated the doctrine of the Trinity. The term ' Trinity ' is not 
a metaphysical one. It is only a designation of four facts: (1) the Father is God; 
( 2 ) the Son is God ; ( 3 ) the Spirit is God ; ( 4 ) there is but one God. 

Park : " The doctrine of the Trinity does not on the one hand assert that three per- 
sons are united in one person, or three beings in one being, or three Gods in one God 
( tritheism) ; nor on the other hand that God merely manifests himself in three different 
ways ( modal trinity, or trinity of manifestations ) ; but rather that there are three 
eternal distinctions in the substance of God." Smyth, preface to Edwards, Observations 
on the Trinity : " The church doctrine of the Trinity affirms that there are in the Godhead 
three distinct hypostases or subsistences — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — each 
possessing one and the same divine nature, though in a different manner. The essential 
points are (1) the unity of essence; (2) the reality of immanent or ontological distinc- 
tions.'" See Park on Edwards's View of the Trinity, in Bib. Sac, April, 1881 : 333. Prince- 
ton Essays, 1 : 28—" There is one God ; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are this one God ; 
there is such a distinction between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as to lay a sufficient 
ground for the reciprocal use of the personal pronouns." Joseph Cook: "(1) The 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God ; ( 2 ) each has a peculiarity incommuni- 
cable to the others; (3) neither is God without the others ; (4) each, with the others, is 
God." 

For treatment of the whole doctrine, see Dorner, System of Doctrine, 1 : 344-465 ; Twes- 
ten, Dogmatik, and translation in Bib. Sac, 3 : 502 ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 145-199 ; Thomas- 
ius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 57-135; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 203-229; Shedd, Dogm. 
Theol., 1 : 248-333, and History of Doctrine, 1 : 246-385 ; Farrar, Science and Theology, 138 ; 
Schaff, Nicene Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in Theol. Eclectic, 4 : 209. For the Uni- 
tarian view, see Norton, Statement of Reasons, and J. F. Clarke, Truths and Errors of 
Orthodoxy. 

144 



SCRIPTURE RECOGXIZES THREE AS GOD. 145 

I. In Sckiptuiie there abe Three who are recognized as God. 
1. Proofs from the New Testament. 

A. The Father is recognized as God, — and that in so great a number of 
passages (such as John 6 : 27 — "him the Father, even God, hath sealed," 
and 1 Pet. 1 : 2 — "foreknowledge of God the Father ") that we need not 
delay to adduce extended proof. 

B. Jesus Christ is recognized as God. 
( a ) He is expressly called God. 

In John 1:1 — Qebg rp 6 Aoyog — the absence of the article shows Qe 6g to be 
the predicate {cf. 4 : 24 — -rzvevua 6 Gtdc). This predicate precedes the verb 
by way of emphasis, to indicate progress in the thought = c the Logos was 
not only with God, but was God ' (see Meyer and Luthardt, Comm. in loco). 
" Only 6 loyoq can be the subject, for in the whole Introduction the question 
is, not who God is, but who the Logos is" (Godet ; see also Westcott, Bible 
Com., in loco). 

In Rom. 9 : 5, the clause 6 ov errl ttclvtov Qebg evloyrjrog cannot be translated 
1 blessed be the God over all, ' for bv is superfluous if the clause is a dox- 
ology ; ' ' evXoyjjrog precedes the name of God in a doxology, but follows it, as 
here, in a description" (Hovey). The clause can therefore justly be 
interpreted only as a description of the higher nature of the Christ who had 
just been said, to Kara capua, or according to his lower nature, to have had 
his origin from Israel (see Tholuck, Com. in loco). 

In Titus 2 : 13, h-Lcpdveiav -r}c CotjTjg rov /xeyaAov Qeov ml ouri/poc ypuv 'It/gov 
Xpiarov we regard (with Ellicott) as "a direct, definite, and even studied 
declaration of Christ's divinity "=" the .... appearing of the glory 
of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (so Eng. Revised Version). 
Avzia is a term applied specially to the Son and never to the Father, 
and pzyalov is uncalled for if used of the Father, but peculiarly appropriate 
if used of Christ. Upon the same principles we must interpret the similar 
text 2 Pet. 1 : 1 (see Huther, in Meyer's Com. : "The close juxtaposition 
indicates the author's certainty of the oneness of God and of Jesus Christ " ). 

In Heb. 1 : 8, trpbr 6k rov vibv • 6 -&p6voc gov, 6 Qebc, sig rov aluva is quoted as 
an address to Christ, and verse 10 which follows — "Thou, Lord, in the 
beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth" — by applying to Christ an 
Old Testament ascription to Jehovah, shows that 6 Qeoq. in verse 8, is used 
in the sense of absolute Godhead. 

In 1 John 5:20 — kafikv iv rC ahp)iv<; } kv rC vlC) avrov 'Itjoov XpiOTio. ovrdg 
triTLv 6 a?.7idivbq Qtor — " it would be a flat repetition, after the Father had been 
twice called 6 aArjd iv<><; , to say now again : ' this is 6 u/.qdivbg Qtor.'' Our being 
in God lias its basis in Christ his Son, and this also makes it more natural 
that ovtoc should be referred to viCj). But ought not 6 d/j/^ivog then to be 
without the article (as in John 1 : 1 — Qebg /> 6 '/<r.<> r ) ? No, for it is John's 
purpose in 1 John 5 : 20 to say, not what Christ is, but who he is. In 
declaring what oik; is, the predicate must have no article ; in declaring who 
one is, the predicate must have the article. St. John here says that this 
10 



146 MATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

Son, on whom our being in the true God rests, is this true God himself " 
(see Ebrard, Com. in loco). 

Other passages might be here adduced, as John 20 : 28— " My Lord and my God " ; Col. 2 : 9— "in him 
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" ; Phil. 2 : 6— "being in the form of God" ; but we prefer to 
consider these under other heads as indirectly proving- Christ's divinity. Still other 
passages once relied upon as direct statements of the doctrine must be given up for 
textual reasons. Such are Acts 20 : 28, where the correct reading is in all probability not 
6KK.ki)<jLa.v tov ©eov, but e/c/cArjcrtai' tou Kvpiov ( so ACDE Tregelles and Tischendorf ; B 
and X, however, have tov ©eou. The Rev. Vers, continues to read "church of God" ; Amer. 
Revisers, however, read "church of the Lord"— see Ezra Abbot's investigation in Bib. Sac, 
1876:313-352); and 1 Tim. 3:16, where 6? is unquestionably to be substituted for ©eos, 
though even here e^avepco^ intimates preexistence. 

In John 1 : 18, although Tischendorf ( 8th ed. ) has novoyevris vios, Westcott and Hort ( with 
K*BC*L Pesh. Syr. ) read juovoyevTjs ©eos, and the Rev. Vers, puts "the only begotten God" in the 
margin, though it retains "the only begotten Son" in the text. Harnack says the reading 
novoyevry; ©eos is established beyond contradiction ; see Westcott, Bib. Com. on John, 
pages 32, 33. If so, we have here a new and unmistakable assertion of the deity of 
Christ. Meyer says that the apostles actually call Christ God only in John 1 : 1 and 20 : 28, 
and that Paul never so recognizes him. But Meyer is able to maintain his position only 
by calling the doxologies to Christ, in 2 Tim. 4 : 18, leb. 13 : 21 and 2 Pet. 3 : 18, post-apostolic. 
See Thayer, N. T. Lexicon, on ©eos- 

It is sometimes objected that the ascription of the name God to Christ proves nothing 
as to his absolute deity, since angels and even human judges are called gods, as repre- 
senting God's authority and executing his will. But we reply that, while it is true that 
the name is sometimes so applied, it is always with adjuncts and in connections which 
leave no doubt of its figurative and secondary meaning. When, however, the name is 
applied to Christ, it is, on the contrary, with adjuncts and in connections which leave no 
doubt that it signifies absolute Godhead. See Ex. 4 : 16 — "thou shalt be to him as God" ; 7:1 — 
"See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh " ; 22 : 28 — "Thou shalt not revile God [marg. the judges], nor curse a ruler 
of thy people " ; Ps. 82 : 1 — " God standeth in the congregation of God [ among the mighty ] ; he judgeth among 
the gods" ; 6 — "I said, Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High " ; 7—" nevertheless ye shall die like men, 
and fall like one of the princes." Cf. John 10 : 34-36— "If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came " 
(who were God's commissioned and appointed representatives ), how much more proper 
for him who is one with the Father to call himself God. 

As in Ps. 82 : 7 those who had been called gods are represented as dying, so in Ps. 97 : 7 — 
" Worship him, all ye gods"— they are bidden to fall down before Jehovah. Ann. Par. Bible : 
" Although the deities of the heathen have no positive existence, they are often described 
in Scripture as if they had, and are represented as bowing down before the majesty of 
Jehovah." This verse is quoted in leb. 1 : 6— "let all the angels of God worship him" — i. e. Christ. 
Here Christ is identified with Jehovah. The quotation is made from the Septuagint, 
which has " angels " for " gods." " Its use here is in accordance with the spirit of the Hebrew 
word, which includes all that human error might regard as objects of worship." Those 
who are figuratively and rhetorically called "gods" are bidden to fall down in worship 
before him who is the true God, Jesus Christ. See Dick, Lectures on Theology, 1 : 314 ; 
Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 10. 

(6) Old Testament descriptions of God are applied to him. 

This application to Christ of titles and names exclusively appropriated to 
God is inexplicable, if Christ was not regarded as being himself God. The 
peculiar awe with which the term ' Jehovah ' was set apart by a nation of 
strenuous monotheists as the sacred and incommunicable name of the one 
self -existent and covenant-keeping God forbids the belief that the Script- 
ure writers could have used it as the designation of a subordinate and 

created being. 

Mat. 3:3— " Make ye ready the way of the Lord "—is a quotation from Is. 40: 3— "Prepare ye .... the way 
of Jehovah." John 12 : 41 — " These things said Isaiah, because he saw his glory ; and he spake of him " [ i. e. Christ ] 

refers to Is. 6 : 1 — " In the year that King TJzziah died I saw Jehovah sitting upon a throne.' ' So in Eph. 4 : 7, 8 

—"measure of the gift of Christ .... led captivity captive "— is an application to Christ of what is said 
of Jehovah in Ps. 68 : 18. In i Pet. 3 : 15, moreover, we read, with all the great uncials, several 
of the Fathers, and all the best versions : " sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord " ; here the apostle 
borrows his language from Is. 8 : 13, where we read : " The Lord of hosts, him shall ye sanctify." 



SCRIPTURE RECOGXIZES THREE AS GOD. 147 

When we remember that, with the Jews, God's covenant-title was so sacred that for the 
Kethib ( =** written " ) Jehovah there was always substituted the Keri (=** read "—imper- 
ative) Adonai, in order to avoid pronunciation of the great Name, it seems the more 
remarkable that the Greek equivalent of ' Jehovah ' should have been so constantly used 
of Christ. Cf. Rom. 10 : 9 — " confess .... Jesus as Lord " ; 1 Cor. 12 : 3 — " no man can say, Jesus is Lord, bat 
in the Holy Spirit" 

It is interesting to note that 1 Maccabees does not once use the word 0e6?, or Kv'pio?, or 
any other direct designation of God unless it be ovpat-6? (cf. "swear .... by the heaven — 
Mat, 5 : 34). So the book of Esther contains no mention of the name of God, though the 
apocryphal additions to Esther, which are found only in Greek, contain the name of 
God in the first verse, and mention it in all eight times. See Bissell, Apocrypha, in 
Lange's Commentary ; Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 93 ; Max Muller on Semitic Mono- 
theism, in Chips from a German "Workshop, 1 : 337. 

(<-•) He possesses the attributes of God. 

Among these are life, self-existence, immutability, truth, love, holiness, 
eternity, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence. All these attributes are 
ascribed to Christ in connections which show that the terms are used in no 
secondary sense, nor in any sense predicable of a creature. 

Life: John 1 : 4 — " In him was life " ; 14 : 6— "I am . . . . the life." Self -existence : John 5 : 26— "have 
life in himself" ; Eeb. 7 : 16 — "power of an endless life." Immutability : leb. 13 : 8 — " Jesus Christ is the same 
yesterday and to-day, yea and forever." Truth: John 14 : 6 — "I am .... the truth" • Rev. 3 : 7 — "he that is 
true." Love: 1 John 3 : 16— "Sereby know we love" (iV aydnriv = the personal Love, as the per- 
sonal Truth ) " becanse he laid down his life for us." Holiness : Luke 1 : 35 — " that which is to be born shall be 
called holy, the Son of God " ; John 6 : 69 — " thou art the Holy One of God " ; Heb. 7 : 26 — " holy, guileless, undefiled, 
separated from sinners." 

Eternity: John 1 : 1— "In the beginning was the Word." Godet says ev apx?? = not 'in eternity,' 
but 'in the beginning of the creation'; the eternity of the Word being an inference 
from the w — the TVord teas, when the world was created; cf. Gen. 1 : 1— "In the beginning God 
created." But Meyer says, if apxfj here rises above the historical conception of "in the begin- 
ning" in Genesis (which includes the beginning of time itself) to the absolute conception 
of anteriorit y to time ; the creation is something subsequent. He finds a parallel in 
Prov. 8 : 23 — ev apx?) npb toO tt)v yrjv Troiycrau. The interpretation 'in the beginning of the 
gospel ' is entirely unexegetical ; so Meyer. So John 17 : 5— "glory which I had with thee before the 
world was"; Eph. 1 : 4— "chose us in him before the foundation of the world." Dorner also says that 
iv apxH in John 1 : 1 is not 'the beginning of the world,' but designates the point back of 
which it is impossible to go, i. e. eternity ; the world is first spoken of in verse 3. John 8 : 58 
— " before Abraham was born, I am " ; cf. 1 : 15 ; CoL 1 : 17 — " he is before all things ' ' ; Heb. 1:11 — the heavens 
"shall perish ; but thou continnest " ; Rev. 21 : 6 — " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." 

Omnipresence : Mat. 28 : 20 — " I am with you alway " ; Eph. 1 : 23 — " the fullness of him that filleth all in alL" 
Omniscience : Mat. 9:4—" Jesus knowing their thoughts " ; John 2 : 24, 25 — " knew all men .... knew what 
was in man" ; 16 : 30— "knowest all things" ; 1 Cor. 4 : 5 — "until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the 
hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts" ; Col. 2 : 3 — "in whom are all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge hidden." Omnipotence : Mat. 28 : 18 —"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven 
and on earth " ; Rev. 1 : 8 — " the Lord God, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty." 

(d) The works of God are ascribed to him. 

"We do not here speak of miracles, which may be wrought by communi- 
cated power, but of such works as the creation of the world, the upholding 
of all things, the final raising of the dead, and the judging of all men. 
Power to perform these works cannot be delegated, for they are character- 
istic of omnipotence. 

Creation : John 1 : 3 —"AH things were made through him " ; 1 Cor. 8 : 6 — " one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom 
are all things " ; Col. 1 : 16 — " all things have been created through him, and unto him " ; Heb. 1 : 10 — " Thou, Lord, in 
the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands " ; 3 : 3, 4 — " he that 
built all things is God "= Christ, the builder of the house of Israel, is the God who made all 
things ; Rev. 3 : 14 — " the beginning of the creation of God " ( cf. Plato : " Mind is the apxn of motion " ). 
Upholding: Col. 1 : 17— "in him all things consist" (marg. "hold together" ) ; Heb. 1 : 3— "upholding all things 
by the word of his power." RaUing the dead and judging the world : John 5 : 27, 28— "authority to 



148 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

execute judgment" ; "all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth" ; Mat. 25 : 31, 32— "sit on 
the throne of his glorj : and before him shall be gathered all the nations." If our argument "were addressed 
wholly to believers, we might also urge Christ's work in the world as Revealer of God 
and Redeemer from sin, as a proof of his deity. On the works of Christ, see Liddon, Our 
Lord's Divinity, 153; per contra, see Examination of Liddon's Bampton Lectures, 72. 

(e) He receives honor and worship due only to God. 

The address of Thomas, in John 20 : 28, cannot be interpreted as a sud- 
den appeal to God in surprise and admiration, without charging the apostle 
with profanity. Nor can it be considered a mere exhibition of overwrought 
enthusiasm, since it was accepted by Christ. As addressed directly to 
Christ and as unrebuked by Christ, it can be regarded only as a just 
acknowledgment on the part of Thomas that Christ was his Lord and his God. 

John 20 : 28— "Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." Alford, Com. in loco: "The 
Socinian view that these words are merely an exclamation is refuted ( 1 ) by the fact 
that no such exclamations were in use among the Jews ; (2 ) by the dnev avrtZ ; (3) by 
the impossibility of referring the 6 »cvpi6s pov to another than Jesus: see verse 13 ; (4) by 
the N. T. usage of expressing the vocative by the nominative with an article ; (5 ) by the 
psychological absurdity of such a supposition : that one just convinced of the presence 
of him whom he dearly loved should, instead of addressing him, break out into an irrel- 
evant cry; (6) by the further absurdity of supposing that, if such were the case, the 
Apostle John, who of all the sacred writers most constantly keeps in mind the object for 
which he is writing, should have recorded anything so beside that object; (7) by the 
intimate conjunction of 7re7rtVTeu/cas." Cf. Mat. 5:34 — "Swear not .... by the heaven "—swearing 
by Jehovah is not mentioned, because no Jew did so swear. This exclamation of Thomas, 
the greatest doubter among the twelve, is the natural conclusion of John's gospel. The 
thesis "the Word was God " ( John 1:1) has now become part of the life and consciousness of the 
apostles. Chapter 21 is only an Epilogue, or Appendix, written later by John, to correct the 
error that he was not to die ; see Westcott, Bible Com., in loco. 

John 5 : 23 — " that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father ' ' ; Acts 7 : 59 — " Stephen, calling upon the 
lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (cf. Luke 23 : 46 — Jesus' words: "Father, into thy hands I 
commend my spirit " ) ; Rom. 10 : 9 — " confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord " ; 13 — " whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved " ( cf. Gen. 4 : 26 — " Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord " ) ; 1 Cor. 11 : 
24, 25 — "this do in remembrance of me"= worship of Christ; Heb. 1 : 6 — "let all the angels of God worship 
him " ; Phil. 2 : 10, 11 — " in the name of Jesus every knee should bow .... every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord" ; Rev. 5 : 12-14 — "worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power ...."; 2 Pet. 3 : 18 — 
" Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory " ; 2 Tim. 4 : 18 and leb. 13 : 21 — " to whom be the glory for ever 
and ever "—these ascriptions of eternal glory to Christ imply his deity. See also 1 Pet. 3 : 15 
— "sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord," and Eph. 5 : 21 — "subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of 
Christ." Here is enjoined an attitude of mind toward Christ which would be idolatrous if 
Christ were not God. See Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 266, 366. 

(/) His name is associated with that of God upon a footing of equality. 

"We do not here allude to 1 John 5 : 7 (the three heavenly witnesses), for 
the latter part of this verse is unquestionably spurious ; but to the formula 
of baptism, to the apostolic benedictions, and to those passages in which 
eternal life is said to be dependent equally upon Christ and upon God, or 
in which spiritual gifts are attributed to Christ equally with the Father. 

The formula of haptism : Mat. 28 : 19 — " baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost " ; cf. Acts 2 : 38 — " be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ " : Rom. 6 : 3 — "baptized 
into Christ Jesus." "In the common baptismal formula the Son and the Spirit are coordi- 
nated with the Father, and els ovo/xa has religious significance." It would be both absurd 
and profane to speak of baptizing into the name of the Father and of Moses. 

The apostolic benedictions : 1 Cor. 1 : 3 — " Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus 
Christ" ; 2 Cor. 13 : 14— "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy 
Ghost, be with you all." "In these benedictions grace is something divine, and Christ has 
power to impart it. But why do we find ' God,' instead of simply ' the Father,' as in the bap- 
tismal formula ? Because it is only the Father who does not become man or have a 
historical existence. Elsewhere he is specially called ' God the Father,' to distinguish him 
from God the Son aDd God the Holy Spirit ( Gal. 1 : 1, 3 ; Eph. 3 : 14 ; 6 : 23 )." 



SCRIPTURE RECOGXIZES THREE AS GOD. 149 

Other passages: John 14: 1 marg.— " Believe in God, and believe in me "— double imperative (so 
Westcott, Bible Com., in loco ) ; 17 : 3 —"this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, 
and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ" ; Mat. 11 : 27— "no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither 
doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" ; 1 Cor. 12 : 4-6 — "the 
same Spirit .... the same Lord [Christ] .... the same God" [the Father] bestow spiritual gifts, 
e.g. faith: Rom. 10 : 17— "belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ"; peace: Col. 3:15 — 
"let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." 2 Thess. 2 : 16 — "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our 
Father .... comfort your hearts "—two names with a verb in the singular intimate the oneness 
of the Father and the Son ( Lillie ). Eph. 5 : 5 —"kingdom of Christ and God " ; Rev. 20 : 6 — " priests of 
God and of Christ " ; 22 : 3 — " the throne of God and of the Lamb." See Trench, Syn. N. T., 1 : 196. 

(g) Equality with God is expressly claimed. 

Here we may refer to Jesus' testimony to himself, already treated of 
among the proofs of the supernatural character of the Scripture teaching 
(see page 91). Equality with God is not only claimed for himself by 
Jesus, but it is claimed for him by his apostles. 

John 5 : 18 — " called God his own Father, making himself equal with God " ; Phil. 2 : 6 — " who, being in the form of 
God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped" =counted not his equality with 
God a thing to be forcibly retained. Christ made and left upon his contemporaries the 
impression that he claimed to be God. The New Testament has left, upon the great 
mass of those who have read it, the impression that Jesus Christ claims to be God. If 
he is not God, he is a deceiver or is self -deceived, and, in either case, Christus, si non 
Deus, non bonus. See Nicoll, Life of Jesus Christ, 187. 

(/i) Further proofs of Christ's deity may be found in the amplication to 
him of the phrases : 'Son of God,' 'Image of God' ; in the declarations of 
his oneness with God ; in the attribution to him of the fullness of the God- 
head. 

Mat. 26 : 63, 64 — "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 
Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said " — it is for this testimony that Christ dies. Col. 1 : 15 — "the image 
of the invisible God" ; Heb. 1 : 3— "the effulgence of his [the Father's] glory, and the very image of his sub- 
stance" ; John 10 : 30 — " I and my Father are one " ; 14 : 9 — " he that hath seen me hath seen the Father " ; 17 : 11, 22 
— "that they may be one even as we are one " — eV, not els ; unum, not unus ; one substance, not one 
person. " Unum is antidote to the Arian, sumus to the Sabellian heresy." Col. 2 : 9— "in 
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily " ; cf.i: 19 — "for it was the good pleasure of the Father that in 
him should all the fullness dwell," or ( marg. ) " for the whole fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him." John 16 : 
15— "all things whatsoever the Father hath are mine" ; 17 : 10— "all things that are mine are thine, and thine are 
mine." 

( i ) These proofs of Christ's deity from the New Testament are corrobo- 
rated by Christian experience. 

Christian experience recognizes Christ as an absolutely perfect Savior, 
perfectly revealing the Godhead and worthy of unlimited worship and 
adoration ; that is, it i)ractically recognizes him as Deity. But Christian 
experience also recognizes that through Christ it has introduction and 
reconciliation to God as one distinct from Jesus Christ, as one who was 
alieuated from the soul by its sin, but who is now reconciled through Jesus' 
death. In other words, while recognizing Jesus as God, we are also com- 
pelled to recognize a distinction between the Father and the Son through 
whom we come to the Father. 

Although this experience cannot be regarded as an independent witness 
to Jesus' claims, since it only tests the truth already made known in the 
Bible, still the irresistible impulse of every person whom Christ has saved 
to lift his Bedeemer to the highest place, and bow before him in the lowliest 
worship, is strong evidence that only that interpretation of Scripture can be 
true which recognizes Christ's absolute Godhead. It is the church's con- 
sciousness of her Lord's divinity, indeed, and not mere speculation upon 



150 MATURE, DECREES, AOT WORKS OF GOD 

the relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that has compelled the 
formulation of the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity. 

In the letter of Pliny to Trajan, it is said of the early Christians " quod essent soliti 
carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere invicem." The prayers and hymns of the Church show 
what the church has believed Scripture to teach. Dwight Moody is said to have received 
his first conviction of the truth of the gospel from hearing the concluding words of a 
prayer, " For Christ's sake, Amen," when awakened from physical slumber in Dr. Kirk's 
church, Boston. These words, wherever uttered, imply man's dependence and Christ's 
deity. See New Englander, 1878 : 432. Dr. Shedd : " The construction of the doctrine of 
the Trinity started, not from the consideration of the three persons, but from belief in 
the deity of one of them "— Christ. 

In contemplating passages apparently inconsistent with those now cited, 
in that they impute to Christ weakness and ignorance, limitation and 
subjection, we are to remember, first, that our Lord was truly man, as well 
as truly God, and that this ignorance or weakness may be predicated of him 
as the God-man in whom deity and humanity were united ; secondly, that 
the divine nature itself was in some way limited and humbled during our 
Savior's earthly life, and that these passages may describe him as he was in 
his estate of humiliation, rather than in his original and present glory ; 
and, thirdly, that there is an order of office and operation which is consist- 
ent with essential oneness and equality, but which permits the Father to 
be spoken of as first and the Son as second. These statements will be 
further elucidated in the treatment of the present doctrine and in subse- 
quent examination of the doctrine of the Person of Christ. 

There were certain things of which Christ was ignorant : Mark 13 : 32—" of that day or that 
hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." He was subject to 
physical fatigue : John 4 ; 6 — " Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well." There 
was a limitation connected with Christ's taking of human flesh : Phil. 2 : 7— "emptied himself, 
taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" ; John 14 : 28 — "the Father is greater than I." 
There is a subjection, as respects order of office and operation, which is yet consistent 
with equality of essence and oneness with God : 1 Cor. 15 : 28 — "then shall the Son also himself be 
subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all." This must be interpreted 
consistently with John 17 : 5 — " glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee 
before the world was," and with Phil. 2 : 6, where this glory is described as being "the form of God' 
and "equality with God." Even in his humiliation, Christ was the Essential Truth, and igno- 
rance in him never involved error or false teaching. See pages 166, 377, 383. 

It is inconceivable that any mere creature should say, " God is greater than I am," or 
should be spoken of as ultimately and in a mysterious way becoming " subject to God." 
In his state of humiliation Christ was subject to the Spirit (Acts 1 : 2— "after that he had given 
commandment through the Holy Ghost" ; 10 : 38 — " God anointed him with the Holy Ghost .... for God was with 
him " ; Heb. 9 : 14 — " through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God " ), but in his state of 
exaltation Christ is Lord of the Spirit (<vpiov 7rvev>aTo? — 2 Cor. 3 : 18 — Meyer), giving the 
Spirit and working through the Spirit. Heb. 2 : 7, marg.— " Thou madest him for a little while lower 
than the angels." On the whole subject, see Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 262, 351 ; Thomasius, 
Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 61-64 ; Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 127, 207, 458 ; per contra, 
see Examination of Liddon, 252, 294. 

C. The Holy Spirit is recognized as God. 

(a) He is spoken of as God; (6) the attributes of God are ascribed to 
him, such as life, truth, love, holiness, eternity, omnipresence, omniscience, 
omnipotence; (c) he does the works of God, such as creation, regenera- 
tion, resurrection ; (d) he receives honor due only to God; (e) he is asso- 
ciated with God on a footing of equality, both in the formula of baptism 
and in the apostolic benedictions. 



sckiptuee kecog:n t izes three as god. 151 

(a) Spoken of as God. Acts 5 : 3, 4— "lie to the Holy Ghost .... not lied unto men, but unto God"; 
1 Cor. 3 : 16— "ye are a temple of God ... . the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" ; 6 : 19 — "your body is a temple of 
the Holy Ghost " ; 12 : 4-6 —" same Spirit .... same Lord .... same God, who worketh all things in all "—"The 
divine Trinity is here indicated in an ascending climax, in such a way that we pass from 
the Spirit who bestows the gifts to the Lord [ Christ] who is served by means of them, 
and finally to God, who as the absolute first cause and possessor of all Christian powers 
works the entire sum of all charismatic gifts in all who are gifted " ( Meyer in loco ). 

( b ) Attributes of God. Life : Rom. 8:2—" Spirit of life." Truth : John 16 : 13 — " Spirit of truth." 
Love: Rom. 15 : 30— "love of the Spirit." Holiness : Eph. 4 : 30— "the Holy Spirit of God." Eternity: 
Heb. 9: 14— "the eternal Spirit." Omnipresence : Ps. 139 : 7— "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" Omnis- 
cience: 1 Cor. 2 : 10 — "the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Omnipotence: 1 Cor. 
12 : 11— "all these [including gifts of healings and miracles] worketh the one and the same Spirit, 
dividing to each one severally even as he will." 

( c ) Works of God. Creation : Gen. 1 : 2, marg.— " spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters." 
Casting out of demons: Mat. 12 : 28, marg. — "if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons." Conviction 
of sin : John 16 • 8 — " convict the world in respect of sin." Regeneration : John 3 : 8 — "born of the Spirit " ; 
Tit 3 : 5 — " renewing of the Holy Ghost." Resurrection : Rom. 8 : 11 — " quicken also your mortal bodies through 
his Spirit " ; 1 Cor. 15 : 45 — " The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." 

( d ) Honor due to God. 1 Cor. 3 : 16 — " ye are a temple of God ... . the Spirit of God dwelleth in you " — 
he who inhabits the temple is the object of worship there. See also the next item. 

(e) Associated with God. Formula of baptism: Mat. 28 : 19 — "baptizing them into the name of 
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." If the baptismal formula is worship, then we have 
here worship paid to the Spirit. Apostolic benedictions : 2 Cor. 13 : 14— "The grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all" If the apostolic bene- 
dictions are prayers, then we have here a prayer to the Spirit. 1 Pet. 1 : 2— "foreknowledge of 
God the Father .... sanctification of the Spirit , . . . sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 

As spirit is nothing less than the inmost principle of life, and the spirit 
of man is man himself, so the Spirit of God must be God (see 1 Cor. 
2 : 11 — Meyer). Christian experience, moreover, expressed as it is in the 
prayers and hymns of the church, furnishes an argument for the deity of 
the Holy Spirit similar to that for the deity of Christ. When our eyes are 
opened to see Christ as a Savior, we are compelled to recognize the work in 
us of a divine Spirit who has taken of the things of Christ and has shown 
them to us ; and this divine Spirit we necessarily distinguish both from the 
Father and from the Son. Christian experience, however, is not an original 
and independent witness to the deity of the Holy Spirit : it simply shows 
what the church has held to be the natural and unforced interpretation of 
the Scriptures, and so confirms the Scripture argument already adduced. 

This proof of the deity of the Holy Spirit is not invalidated by the limit- 
ations of his work under the Old Testament dispensation. John 7 : 39 — 
"for the Holy Spirit was not yet" — means simply that the Holy Spirit 
could not fulfill his peculiar office as Kevealer of Christ until the atoning 
work of Christ should be accomplished. 

John 7 : 39 is to be interpreted in the light of other Scriptures which assert the agency of 
the Holy Spirit under the old dispensation (Ps. 51 : 11— "take not thy holy spirit from me") and 
which describe his peculiar office under the new dispensation (John 16 : 14, 15— "he shall take 
of mine, and shall declare it unto you " ). Limitation in the manner of the Spirit's work in the 
O. T. involved a limitation in the extent and power of it also. Pentecost was the flowing 
forth of a tide of spiritual influence which had hitherto been dammed up. Henceforth 
the Holy Spirit was the spirit of Jesus Christ, taking of the things of Christ and showing 
them, applying his finished work to human hearts, and rendering the hitherto localized 
Savior omnipresent with all his scattered followers to the end of time. 

For proofs of the deity of the Holy Spirit, see Walker, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit ; 
Bare, Mission of the Comforter; Parker, The Paraclete ; Cardinal Manning, Temporal 
Mission of the Holy Ghost ; Dick, Lectures on Theology, 1 : 341-350. Farther references 
are given in connection with the proof of the Holy Spirit's personality, pages 155-157. 



152 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

2. Intimations of the Old Testament. 

The passages which seem to show that even in the Old Testament there 
are three who are implicitly recognized as God may be classed under four 
heads : 

A. Passages which seem to teach plurality of some sort in the Godhead. 

(a) The plural noun D'H 1 ?^ is employed, and that with a plural verb — a 
use remarkable, when we consider that the singular Sk was also in existence ; 
(6) God uses plural pronouns in speaking of himself; (c) Jehovah dis- 
tinguishes himself from Jehovah ; ( d ) a Son is ascribed to Jehovah ; ( e ) the 
Spirit of God is distinguished from God ; (/) there are a threefold ascription 
and a threefold benediction. 

( a ) Gen. 20 : 13 — " God caused [ plural ] me to wander from my father's house " ; 35 : 7 — " built there an altar, 
and called the place El-Bethel : because there God was revealed [ plural ] unto him." ( b ) Gen. 1 : 26 — " Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness" ; 3: 22 — "Behold, the man is become as one of us"; 11 : 7 — "Goto, let us go 
down, and there confound their language " ; Is. 6 : 8 — " Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? " ( c ) Gen. 19 : 24 
— " Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven " ; Hos. 1:7 — 
"I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God." ( d ) Ps. 2 : 7 — " Thou art my 
son; this day have I begotten thee " ; Prov. 30 : 4 — "Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his 
name, and what is his son's name, if thou knowest ? " ( e ) Gen. 1 : 1, and 2, marg. — " God created .... the spirit of 
God was brooding" ; Ps. 33 : 6 — "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made ; And all the host of them by the 
breath [spirit] of his mouth" ; Is. 48 : 16 — "the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit"; 63 : 7, 10 — "loving kind- 
nesses of Jehovah .... grieved his holy spirit." (/) Is. 6 : 3 — the trisagion: "Holy, holy, holy"; Num. 6: 
24-26 — " The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee : The 
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." 

It has been suggested that as Baal was worshiped in different places and under dif- 
ferent names, as Baal-berith, Baal-hanan, Baal-peor, Baal-zebub, and his priests could 
call upon any one of these as possessing certain personified attributes of Baal, while 
yet the whole was called by the plural term ' Baalim, 1 and Elijah could say : " Call ye upon 
your Gods," so ' Elohim ' may be the collective designation of the God who was worshiped 
in different localities ; see Robertson Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 329. 
But this ignores the fact that Baal is always addressed in the singular, never in the 
plural, while the plural ' Elohim ' is the term commonly used in addresses to God. This 
seems to show that ' Baalim ' is a collective term, while ' Elohim ' is not. So when Ewald, 
Lehre von Gott, 2 : 333, distinguishes five names of God, corresponding to five great 
periods of the history of Israel, viz., the "Almighty" of the Patriarchs, the "Jehovah " 
of the Covenant, the " God of Hosts " of the Monarchy, the " Holy One " of the Deuter- 
onomist and the later prophetic age, and the " Our Lord " of Judaism, he ignores the 
fact that these designations are none of them confined to the times to which they are 
attributed, though they may have been predominantly used in those times. 

The fact that D'H 1 ?** is sometimes used in a narrower sense, as applicable 
to the Son (Ps. 45 : 6 ; cf. Heb. 1:8), need not prevent us from believing 
that the term was originally chosen as containing an allusion to a certain 
plurality in the divine nature. Nor is it sufficient to call this plural a simple 
'pluralis majcstaticus' ; since it is easier to derive this common figure from 
divine usage than to derive the divine usage from this common figure — 
especially when we consider the constant tendency of Israel to polytheism. 

Ps. 45 : 6 ; c/. Eeb. 1:8—" of the Son he said, Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever." Here it is God who 
calls Christ " God " or " Elohim." The royal style of speech was probably a custom of much 
later date than the time of Moses. Pharaoh does not use it. In Gen. 41 : 41-44, he says : " I 
have set thee over all the Land of Egypt .... I am Pharaoh." 

This ancient Hebrew application of the plural to God is of ten explained as a mere 
plural of dignity, = one who combines in himself many reasons for adoration ( DTi 7 X from 
fibtf to fear, to adore). Oehler, O. T. Theology, 1:128-130, calls it a "quantitative 
plural," signifying unlimited greatness. The Hebrews had many plural forms, where we 
should use the singular, as ' heavens ' instead of 4 heaven,' ' waters ' instead of ' water.' 



SCRIPTURE RECOGNIZES THREE AS GOD. 153 

We too speak of ' news,' ' wages,' and say ' you ' instead of l thou ' ; see F. W. Robertson, 
on Genesis, 12. But the ancient Christians saw in this plural an allusion to the Trinity, 
and we are inclined to follow them. So Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Theophilus, 
Epiphanius, Theodoret. See Conant, Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, 198; Green, Hebrew 
Grammar, 306 ; Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms, 38, 53 ; Alexander on Psalm 11 : 7 ; 29 : 1 ; 58 : 12. 

B. Passages relating to the Angel of Jehovah. 

(a) The angel of Jehovah identifies himself with Jehovah; (6) he is 
identified with Jehovah by others; (c) he accepts worship due only to 
God. Though the phrase 'angel of Jehovah' is sometimes used in the 
later Scriptures to denote a merely human messenger or created angel, it 
seems in the Old Testament, with hardly more than a single exception, to 
designate the pre-incarnate Logos, whose manifestations in angelic or 
human form foreshadowed his final coming in the flesh. 

(a) Gen. 22:11, 16— "the angel of Jehovah called unto him [Abraham, when about to sacrifice 
Isaac] .... by myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah" ; 31 : 11, 13 — "the angel of God said unto me [Jacob] 
.... I am the God of Beth-el." ( b ) Gen. 16 : 9, 13 — "angel of Jehovah said unto her ... . and she called the 
name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou art a God that seeth " ; 48 : 15, 16 — " the God which hath fed me ... . the 
angel which hath redeemed me." ( c ) Ex. 3 : 2, 4, 5 — " the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him .... God called unto 
him out of the midst of the bush .... put off thy shoes from off thy feet" ; Judges 13 : 20-22 — "angel of the Lord 
ascended .... Manoah and his wife .... fell on their faces .... Manoah said .... We shall surely die, because 
we have seen God." 

The "angel of the Lord" appears to be a human messenger in Haggai 1 : 13— "Haggai the Lord's 
messenger"; a created angel in Mat. 1 : 20 — "an angel of the Lord [called Gabriel] appeared unto" 
Joseph ; in Acts 8 : 26— "an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip" ; and in 12 : 7 — "an angel of the Lord stood 
by him " ( Peter ). But commonly, in the O. T., these appearances seem to be preliminary 
manifestations of the divine Logos, as in Gen. 18 : 2, 13 — "three men stood over against him [Abra- 
ham ] . . . . And the Lord said unto Abraham ' ' ; Dan. 3 : 25, 28 — " the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods. 
.... Blessed be the God ... . who hath sent his angel." The N. T. "angel of the Lord " does not permit, 
the O. T. " angel of the Lord " requires, worship ( Rev. 22 : 8, 9 — "See thou do it not" ; cf. Ex. 3 : 5— "put 
off thy shoes" ). As supporting this interpretation, see Hengstenberg, Christology, 1 : 107- 
123 ; J. Pye Smith, Scripture Testimony to the Messiah. As opposing it, see Hof mann, 
Schrif tbeweis, 1 : 329, 378 ; Kurtz, History of Old Covenant, 1 : 181. On the whole subject, 
see Bib. Sac, 1879 : 593-615. 

C. Descriptions of the divine Wisdom and Word. 

( a ) Wisdom is represented as distinct from God, and as eternally existing 
with God ; ( b ) the Word of God is distinguished from God, as executor of 
his will from everlasting. 

( a ) Prov. 8:1—" Doth not wisdom cry ? " Cf. Mat. 11 : 19 — " wisdom is justified by her works " ; Luke ? : 35 — 
" wisdom is justified of all her children" ; 11 : 49 — " Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send unto them 
prophets and apostles " ; Prov. 8 : 22, 30, 31 — " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of 
old ... . I was by him, as a master workman : And I was daily his delight .... And my delight was with the sons of 
men" ; cf. 3 : 19 — "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth," and Heb. 1 : 2— "his Son ... . through whom .... 
he made the worlds.' ' ( h ) Ps. 107 : 20 — " He sendeth his word, and healeth them " ; 119 : 89 — " For ever, Lord, Thy 
word is settled in heaven" ; 147 : 15-18 — "He sendeth out his commandment .... He sendeth out his word." 

In the Apocryphal book entitled Wisdom, 7 : 26, 28, wisdom is described as " the bright- 
ness of the eternal light," "the unspotted mirror of God's majesty," and "the image 
of his goodness "— reminding us of Heb. 1 : 3— "the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his 
substance." In Wisdom, 9 : 9, 10, wisdom is represented as being present with God when he 
made the world, and the author of the book prays that wisdom may be sent to him out 
of God's holy heavens and from the throne of his glory. 

It must be acknowledged that in none of these descriptions is the idea of 
personality clearly developed. Still less is it true that John the apostle 
derived his doctrine of the Logos from the interpretations of these descrip- 
tions in Philo Juda3us. John's doctrine (John 1 : 1-18) is radically differ- 
ent from the Alexandrian Logos-idea of Philo. This last is a Platonizing 



154 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

speculation upon the mediating principle between God and the world. 
Philo seems at times to verge towards a recognition of personality in the 
Logos, though his monotheistic scruples lead him at other times to take 
back what he has given, and to describe the Logos either as the thought of 
God or as its expression in the world. But John is the first to present 
to us a consistent view of this personality, to identify the Logos with the 
Messiah, and to distinguish the Word from the Spirit of God. 

Dorner, in his History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, 1 : 13-45, and in his 
System of Doctrine, 1 : 348, 349, gives the best account of Philo's doctrine of the Logos. 
He says that Philo calls the Logos apx*yye\os, apxt-epevs, Sevrepos #eds- Whether this is 
anything more than personification is doubtful, for Philo also calls the Logos the koo-juos 
i/ojjtos. Certainly, so far as he makes the Logos a distinct personality, he makes him 
also a subordinate being. It is charged that the doctrine of the Trinity owes its origin 
to the Platonic philosophy in its Alexandrian union with Jewish theology. But Pla- 
tonism had no Trinity. The truth is that by the doctrine of the Trinity Christianity 
secured itself against false heathen ideas of God's multiplicity and immanence, as well 
as against false Jewish ideas of God's unity and transcendence. It owes nothing to 
foreign sources. 

We need not assign to John's gospel a later origin, in order to account for its doctrine 
of the Logos, any more than Ave need to assign a later origin to the Synoptics in order 
to account for their doctrine of a suffering Messiah. Both doctrines were equally 
unknown to Philo. Philo's Logos does not and cannot become man. So says Dorner. 
Westcott, in Bible Commentary on John, Introd., xv-xviii, and on John 1 : 1— "The theo- 
logical use of the term [in John's gospel] appears to be derived directly from the 
Palestinian Memra, and not from the Alexandrian Logos." See also Reville, Doctrine 
of the Logos in John and Philo ; Godet on John, German transl., 13, 135 ; Cudworth, 
Intellectual System, 2 : 330-333 ; Pressense, Life of Jesus Christ, 83 ; Hagenbach, History 
of Doctrine, 1 : 114-117 ; Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 59-71 ; Conant on Proverbs, 53. 

D. Descriptions of the Messiah. 

( a ) He is one with Jehovah ; ( b ) yet he is in some sense distinct from 
Jehovah. 

( a ) Is. 9 : 6 — " unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given .... and his name shall be called Wonderful 
Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" ; Micah 5: 2— "thou Bethlehem .... which art little .... 
out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from 
everlasting." ( b ) Ps. 45 : 6, 7 — " Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever .... Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed 
thee" ; Mai. 3 : 1— "I send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, 
shall suddenly come to his temple ; and the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in." Henderson, in his 
Commentary on this passage, points out that the Messiah is here called "the Lord" or "the 
Sovereign "— a title nowhere given in this form ( with the article ) to any but Jehovah ; that 
he is predicted as coming to the temple as its proprietor ; and that he is identified with 
the angel of the covenant, elsewhere shown to be one with Jehovah himself. 

It is to be remembered, in considering this, as well as other classes of pas- 
sages previously cited, that no Jewish writer before Christ's coming had 
succeeded in constructing from them a doctrine of the Trinity. Only to 
those who bring to them the light of New Testament revelation do they 
show their real meaning. 

Our general conclusion with regard to the Old Testament intimations 
must therefore be that, while they do not by themselves furnish a sufficient 
basis for the doctrine of the Trinity, they contain the germ of it, and may 
be used in confirmation of it when its truth is substantially proved from 
the New Testament. 

That the Doctrine of the Trinity is not plainly taught in the Hebrew Scriptures is 
evident from the fact that Jews unite with Mohammedans in accusing trinitarians of 
polytheism. It should not surprise us that the Old Testament teaching on this subject 



SCRIPTURE DESCRIBES THE THREE AS PERSONS. 155 

is undeveloped and obscure. The first necessity was that the Unity of God should be 
insisted on. Until the danger of idolatry was past, a clear revelation of the Trinity 
might have been a hindrance to religious progress. The child now, like the race then, 
must learn the Unity of God before it can profitably be taught the Trinity,— else it will 
fall into tritheism ; see Gardiner, O. T. and N. T., 49. We should not therefore begin our 
proof of the Trinity with a reference to passages in the Old Testament. We should 
speak of these passages, indeed, as furnishing intimations of the doctrine rather than 
proof of it. Yet, after having found proof of the doctrine in the New Testament, we 
may expect to find traces of it in the Old which will corroborate our conclusions. As a 
matter of fact, we shall see that traces of the idea of a trinity are found not only in the 
Hebrew Scriptures but in some of the heathen religions as well. 

IT. These Three are so described in Scripture that we are com- 
pelled TO CONCEIVE OF THEM AS DISTINCT PERSONS. 

1. The Father and the Son are persons distinct from each other. 

(a) Christ distinguishes the Father from himself as 'another' ; (6) the 
Father and the Son are distinguished as the begetter and the begotten; 
(c) the Father and the Son are distinguished as the sender and the sent. 

( a ) John 5 : 32, 37 —"it is another that beareth witness of me ... . the Father which sent me, he hath borne wit- 
ness of me." ( b ) Ps. 2 : 7 — " Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee " ; John 1 : 14 — " the only begotten 
from the Father" ; 18 — "the only begotten Son" ; 3 : 16 — "gave his only begotten Son." (c) John 10 : 36 — "Say 
ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest ; because I said, I am the Son of God ? " 
•Gal 4 : 4 — " when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son." 

2. The Father and the Son are persons distinct from the Spirit. 

(a) Jesus distinguishes the Spirit from himself and from the Father; 
[b) the Spirit proceeds from the Father; (c) the Spirit is sent by the 
Father and by the Son. 

(a) John 14 : 16, 17 — "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you 
for ever, even the Spirit of truth " — or " Spirit of the truth, "= he whose work it is to reveal and apply 
the truth, and especially to make manifest him who is the truth. Jesus had been their 
Comforter : he now promises them another Comforter. If he himself was a person, 
then the Spirit is a person. ( b ) John 15 : 26 —"the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father." ( c ) 
John 14 : 26 — " the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name " ; 15 : 26 — " when the Com- 
forter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father" ; Gal. 4 : 6—" God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our 
hearts." The Greek church holds that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only ; the 
Latin church, that the Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son. The 
true formula is : The Spirit proceeds from the Father through or by ( not ' and ' ) the 
Son. See Hagenbach, History of Doctrine, 1 : 262, 263. 

3. The Holy Spirit is a person. 

A. Designations proper to personality are given him. 

(a) The masculine pronoun enelvog, though irvev/m is neuter; (b) the 
name TcapaKfyTog, which cannot be translated by * comfort', or be taken as 
the name of any abstract influence. The Comforter, Instructor, Patron, 
Guide, Advocate, whom this term brings before us, must be a person. This 
is evident from its application to Christ in 1 John 2 : 1 — "we have an 
Advocate — -apd^-ov — with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 

( a ) John 16 : 14 — " He ( e/cel^o? ) shall glorify me " ; in Eph. 1 : 14 also, some of the best authorities, 
including Tischendorf (8th ed. ), read 6s, the masculine pronoun: "who is an earnest of our 
inheritance." (b) Johnl6:7 — "if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." The word rrapaKK-qro^, 
as appears from 1 John 2 : 1, quoted above, is a term of broader meaning than merely 
"Comforter." The Holy Spirit is, indeed, as has been said, " the mother-principle in the 
Godhead, 1 ' and "as one whom his mother comforteth" so God by his Spirit comforts his children 
( Is. 66 : 13 ). But the Holy Spirit is also an Advocate of God's claims in the soul, and of 
the soul's interests in prayer ( Rom. 8 : 26 — " maketh intercession for us " ). He comforts not only 
by being our advocate, but by being our instructor, patron, and guide; and all these 



156 NATUKE, DECKEES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

ideas are found attaching - to the word napdK\r)To<; in good Greek usage. The word 
indeed is a verbal adjective, signifying ' called to one's aid,' hence a ' helper ' ; the idea 
of encouragement is included in it, as well as those of comfort and of advocacy. See 
Westcott, Bible Com., on John 14 : 16 ; Cremer, Lexicon of N. T. Greek, in voce. 

B. His name is mentioned in immediate connection with other persons, 
and in snch a way as to imply his own personality. 

(a) In connection with Christians; (b) in connection with Christ; (c) 
in connection with the Father and the Son. If the Father and the Son are 
persons, the Spirit must be a person also. 

( a ) Acts 15 : 28 — " it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." ( b ) John 16 : 14 — " he shall glorify me ; for he 
shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you " ; cf. 17 : 4 — "I glorified thee on the earth. " ( c ) Mat. 28 : 19 — 
"baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost " ; 2 Cor. 13 : 14 — " the grace of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the My Ghost, be with you all " ; Jude 21 — "praying in 
the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ " 1 Pet. 1 : 1, 2 — 
"elect .... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ " 

C. He performs acts proper to personality. 

That which searches, knows, speaks, testifies, reveals, convinces, com- 
mands, strives, moves, helps, guides, creates, recreates, sanctifies, inspires, 
makes intercession, orders the affairs of the church, performs miracles, 
raises the dead — cannot be a mere power, influence, efflux, or attribute of 
God, but must be a person. 

Gen. 1 : 2, marg. — "the Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters" ; 6:3 — "My spirit shalt not strive 
with man for ever" ; Luke 12 : 12— "the My Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say "; 'John 
3 : 8 — "born of the Spirit" ; 16 : 8 — "convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" ; 
Acts 2 : 4—" the Spirit gave them utterance " ; 8 : 29 — "the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near " ; 10 : 19, 20 — "the Spirit 
said unto him [Peter], Behold, three men seek thee .... go with them ... for I have sent them" ; 13 : 2 — 
"the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul" ; 16 : 6, 7 — "forbidden of the Holy Ghost .... Spirit of Jesus 
suffered them not" ; Rom. 8 : 11 — "quicken your mortal bodies through his Spirit" ; 26 — "the Spirit also helpeth our 
infirmity .... maketh intercession for us " ; 15 : 19 — "in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy 
Ghost " ; 1 Cor. 2 : 10, 11 — "the Spirit searcheth all things .... things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God " ; 
12 : 8-11 — distributes spiritual gifts " to each one severally even as he will " ; 2 Pet. 1 : 21 — "men spake from 
God, being moved by the Holy Ghost" ; 1 Pet. 1 : 2 —"sanctification of the Spirit." How can a person be 
given in various measures ? We answer, by being permitted to work in our behalf with 
various degrees of power. Dorner : " To be power does not belong to the impersonal." 

D. He is affected as a person by the acts of others. 

That which can be resisted, grieved, vexed, blasphemed, must be a per- 
son ; for only a person can perceive insult and be offended. The blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost cannot be merely blasphemy against a power or 
attribute of God, since in that case blasphemy against God would be a less 
crime than blasrjhemy against his rjo-wer. That against which the unpar- 
donable sin can be committed must be a person. 

Is. 6 : 10 — "they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit" ; Mat. 12 : 31 — "every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven ' ' ; Acts 5 : 3, 4, 9 — " lie to the Holy Ghost .... 
thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God ... . agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord" ; 7 : 51 — "ye do 
always resist the Holy Ghost ' ' ; Eph. 4 : 30 — " grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." Satan cannot be ' grieved.' 
Selfishness can be angered, but only love can be grieved. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit 
is like blaspheming one's own mother. The passages just quoted show the Spirit's pos- 
session of an emotional nature. Hence we read of "the love of the Spirit " (Rom. 15 : 30). The 
unutterable sighings of the Christian in intercessory prayer ( Rom. 8 : 26, 27) reveal the mind 
of the Spirit, and show the infinite depths of feeling which are awakened in God's heart 
by the sins and needs of men. These deep desires and emotions which are only partially 
communicated to us, and which only God can understand, are conclusive proof that the 
Holy Spirit is a person. 



THIS TRIPERSOXALITY IMMANENT AND ETERXAL. 157 

E. He manifests himself in visible form as distinct from the Father and 
the Son, yet in direct connection with personal acts performed by them. 

Mat. 3 : 16, 17— "Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water: andlo, the heavens were opened 
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him ; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, 
saving, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" ; Luke 3 : 21, 22 — "Jesus also having been baptized, and 
praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came 
out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Here are the prayer of Jesus, the 
approving voice of the Father, and the Holy Spirit descending- in visible form to anoint 
the Son of God for his work. " I ad Jordanem, et videbis Trinitatem." 

F. This ascription to the Spirit of a personal subsistence distinct from 
that of the Father and of the Son cannot be explained as personification ; for : 

(a) This would be to interpret sober prose by the canons of poetiy. 
Such sustained personification is contrary to the genius of even Hebrew 
poetry, in which Wisdom itself is most naturally interpreted as designating 
a personal existence. ( b ) Such an interpretation would render a multitude 
of passages either tautological, meaningless, or absurd, — as can be easily 
seen by substituting for the name Holy Ghost the terms which are wrongly 
held to be its equivalents ; such as the power, or influence, or efflux, or 
attribute of God. ( c ) It is contradicted, moreover, by all those passages 
in which the Holy Spirit is distinguished from his own gifts. 

( a ) The Bible is not primarily a book of poetry, although there is poetry in it. It is 
more properly a book of history and law. Even if the methods of allegory were used by 
the Psalmist and the Prophets, we should not expect them largely to characterize the 
Gogpels and Epistles ; 1 Cor. 13 : 4 — "Love suffereth long, and is kind" — is a rare instance in which 
Paul's style takes on the form of poetry. Yet it is the Gospels and Epistles which most 
constantly represent the Holy Spirit as a person. ( b ) Acts 10 : 38—" God anointed him [ Jesus ] 
with the Holy Ghost and with power "= anointed him with power and with power? Rom. 15 : 13 — 
" abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Ghost " = in the power of the power of God ? 19 — " in the power 
of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Ghost " = in the power of the power of God ? 1 Cor . 2 : 4 — 
" demonstration of the Spirit and of power ' ' = demonstration of power and of power ? ( c ) Luke 1:35 
— "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee" ; 4 : 14 — "Jesus 
returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" ; 1 Cor. 12 : 4, 8, 11 — after mention of the gifts of the 
Spirit, such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning of 
spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, all these are traced back to the Spirit who 
bestows them : "all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will." 
Here is not only giving, but giving discreetly, in the exercise of an independent will such 
as belongs only to a person. On the personality of the Holy Spirit, see John Owen, in 
Works, 3 : 47-64 ; Dick, Lectures on Theology, 1 : 341-350. 

LTI. This TRrPEBSONALiTY of the Divine Natuee is not merely 

ECONOMIC AND TEMPORAL, BUT IS IMMANENT AND ETERNAL. 

1. Scripture proof that these distinctions of personality are eternal. 

We prove this ( a ) from those passages which speak of the existence of 
the Word from eternity with the Father ; ( b ) from passages asserting or 
implying Christ's preexistence ; (c ) from passages implying intercourse 
between the Father and the Son before the foundation of the world; (d) 
from passages asserting the creation of the world by Christ; (<?) from pas- 
sages asserting or implying the eternity of the Holy Spirit. 

( a ) John 1:1,2 — " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God " ; cf. Gen. 
1 : 1 — " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth " ; Phil. 2 : 6 — " being in the form of God ... . on an 
equality with God." ( b ) John 8 : 58 — " before Abraham was born, I am " ; 1 : 18 — " the only begotten Son, which is in 
the bosom of the Father" ; Col. 1 : 15-17 — "firstborn of all creation" or "before every creature . . . he is before 
all things." la these passages "am" and "is" indicate an eternal fact; the present tense 
expresses permanent being. Rev 22 : 13, 14 — " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the 



158 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

beginning and the end." ( c ) John 17 : 5 — " Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had 
with thee before the world was" ; 24— "thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." ( d) John 1 : 3— "All 
things were made through him" ; 1 Cor. 8 : 6— "one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things" ; Col. 1 : 16 — 
"all things have been created through him, and unto him" ; leb. 1 : 2 — "through whom also he made the worlds" ; 
10 — "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands." 
( e ) Gen. 1:2—" the spirit of God was brooding "— existed therefore before creation ; Ps. 33 : 6 — " by the 
word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host of them by the breath [ spirit ] of his mouth " leb. 9 : 14 
—"through the eternal Spirit." 

2. Errors refuted by the foregoing passages. 

A. The Sabellian. 

Sabellius (of Ptolemais in Pentapolis, 250) held that Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost are mere developments or revelations to creatures, in time, 
of the otherwise concealed Godhead — developments which, since creatures 
will always exist, are not transitory, but which at the same time are not 
eternal a parte ante. God as united to the creation is Father ; God as 
united to Jesus Christ is Son ; God as united to the church is Holy Spirit. 
The Trinity of Sabellius is therefore an economic and not an immanent 
Trinity — a Trinity of forms or manifestations, but not a necessary and 
eternal Trinity in the divine nature. 

Some have interpreted Sabellius as denying that the Trinity is eternal a 
parte post, as well as a parte ante, and as holding that, when the purpose 
of these temporary manifestations is accomplished, the Triad is resolved into 
the Monad. This view easily merges in another, which makes the persons 
of the Trinity mere names for the ever-shifting phases of the divine activity. 

The best statement of the Sabellian doctrine, according to the interpretation first 
mentioned, is that of Schleiermacher, translated with comments by Moses Stuart, in 
Biblical Repository, 6 : 1-116. The one unchanging God is differently reflected from the 
world on account of the world's different receptivities. Praxeas of Rome (200), Noetus 
of Smyrna (230), and Beryl of Arabia (250) advocated substantiaDy the same views. 
They were called Monarchians ( ^6vri apxrj ), because they believed not in the Triad, but 
only in the Monad. They were called Patripassians, because they held that, as Christ is 
only God in human form, and this God suffers, therefore the Father suffers. Knight, 
Colloquia Peripatetica, xlii, suggests a connection between Sabellianism and Emana- 
tionism. See this Compendium, page 189. 

A view similar to that of Sabellius was held by Horace Bushnell, in his God in Christ, 
113-115, 130 sq., 172-175, and Christ in Theology, 119, 120— "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
being incidental to the revelation of God, may be and probably are from eternity to 
eternity, inasmuch as God may have revealed himself from eternity, and certainly will 
reveal himself so long as there are minds to know him. It may be, in fact, the nature 
of God to reveal himself, as truly as it is of the sun to shine or of living mind to think." 
He does not deny the immanent Trinity, but simply says we know nothing about it. 
Yet a Trinity of Persons in the divine essence itself he called plain tritheism. He prefers 
" instrumental Trinity " to " modal Trinity " as a designation of his doctrine. The dif- 
ference between Bushnell on the one hand, and Sabellius and Schleiermacher on the 
other, seems then to be the following : Sabellius and Schleiermacher nold that the One 
becomes three in the process of revelation, and the three are only media or modes of 
revelation. Father, Son, and Spirit are mere names applied to these modes of the divine 
action, there being no internal distinctions in the divine nature. This is modalism, or a 
modal Trinity. Bushnell stands by the Trinity of revelation alone, and protests against 
any constructive reasonings with regard to the immanent Trinity. 

It is evident that this theory, in whatever form it may be held, is far from 
satisfying the demands of Scripture. Scripture speaks of the second person 
of the Trinity as existing and acting before the birth of Jesus Christ, and of 
the Holy Spirit as existing and acting before the formation of the church. 
Both have a personal existence, eternal in the past as well as in the future — 
which this theory expressly denies. 



THE THREE PERSONS HAVE OXE ESSENCE. 159 

Stuart: Since God is revealed as Three, he must be essentially or immanently three, 
back of revelation ; else the revelation would not be true. Dorner : A Trinity of reve- 
lation is a misrepresentation, if there is not behind it a Trinity of nature. Twesten 
properly arrives at the threeness by considering, not so much what is involved in the 
revelation of God to us, as what is involved in the revelation of God to himself. The 
unssripturalnegs of the Sabellian doctrine is plain, if we remember that upon this view 
the Three cannot exist at once : when the Father says " Thou art my beloved Son " ( Luke 3 : 22), 
he is simply speaking to himself ; when Christ sends the Holy Spirit, he only sends him- 
self. Joha 1 : 1 —"In the beginning was the "Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God " — " sets 
aside the false notion that the AVord became personal first at the time of creation, or at 
the incarnation " ( TTestcott, Bib. Com. in loco ). See Bushnell's doctrine reviewed by 
Hodge, Essays and Reviews, 433-473. On the whole subject, see Dorner, Hist. Doct. Per- 
son of Christ, 2 : 152-169 ; Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 1 : 259 ; Baur, Lehre von der Dreieinig- 
keit, 1 : 256-305 ; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 83. 

B. The Arian. 

Arius (of Alexandria; condemned by Council of Nice, 325) held that 
the Father is the only divine being absolutely without beginning ; the Son 
and the Holy Spirit, through whom God creates and recreates, having been 
themselves created out of nothing before the world was ; and Christ being 
called God, because he is next in rank to God, and is endowed by God with 
divine power to create. 

The followers of Arius have differed as to the precise rank and claims of 
Christ. While Socinus held with Arius that worship of Christ was obliga- 
tory, the later Unitarians have perceived the impropriety of worslnping 
even the highest of created beings, and have constantly tended to a view of 
the Eedeemer whic*h regards him as a mere man, standing in a peculiarly 
intimate relation to God. 

It is evident that the theory of Arius does not satisfy the demands of 
Scripture. A created God, a God whose existence had a beginning and 
therefore may come to an end, a God made of a substance which once was 
not, and therefore a substance different from that of the Father, is not God, 
but a finite creature. But the Scriptures speak of Christ as being in the 
beginning God, with God, and equal with God. 

For statement of the Arian doctrine, see J. Freeman Clarke, Orthodoxy, Its Truths 
and Errors. Per contra, see Schaff, in Bib. Sac, 21 : 1, article on Athanasius and the 
Arian controversy. The so-called Athanasian Creed, which Athanasius never wrote, is 
more properly designated as the Symbolum Quicumque. It has also been called, though 
facetiously, 4 the Anathemasian Creed.' Yet no error in doctrine can be more perilous 
or worthy of condemnation than the error of Arius (1 Cor. 16 : 22— "if any man loveth not the 
Lord, let him be anathema" ; 1 John 2 : 23 — " whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father" 4:3 — 
"every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God ; and this is the spirit of the antichrist " ). 

On the doctrines of the early Socinians, see Princeton Essays, 1 : 195. Davidis was 
persecuted and died in prison for refusing to worship Christ, and Socinus was charged, 
though probably unjustly, with having caused his imprisonment. Dr. Samuel Clarke, 
when asked whether the Father who had created could not also destroy the Son, said 
that he had not considered that question. On the whole subject, see Gwatkin, Studies 
of Arianism ; Blunt, Dictionary of Heretical Sects, art. : Arius ; Guericke, History of 
Doctrine, 1 : 313, 319. See also a further account of Arianism in the chapter of this 
Compendium on the Person of Christ, pages 361, 362. 

IV. This TKiPERSONAiiiTY is not Tritheism; for, while there are 
three Persons, there is but one Essence. 

(a) The term 'person' only approximately represents the truth. Al- 
though this word, more nearly than any other single word, expresses the 



160 NATURE, DECREES, AND AVORKS OF GOD. 

conception which the Scriptures give us of the relation between the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is not itself used in this connection in 
Scripture, and we employ it in a qualified sense, not in the ordinary sense 
in which we apply the term 'person' to Peter, Paul, and John. 

The word * person ' is only the imperfect and inadequate expression' of a fact that 
transcends our experience and comprehension. Bunyan : " My dark and cloudy words, 
they do but hold The truth, as cabinets encase the gold." Three Gods, limiting each other, 
would deprive each other of Deity. While we show that the unity is articulated by the 
persons, it is equally important to remember that the persons are limited by the unity. 
With us personality implies entire separation from all others — distinct individuality. 
But in the one God there can be no such separation. The personal .distinctions in him 
must be such as are consistent with essential unity. This is the merit of the statement 
in the Symbolum Quicumque (or Athanasian Creed, wrongly so caDed) : "The Father is 
God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God ; and yet there are not three Gods but one 
God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost is Lord ; yet there 
are not three Lords but one Lord. For as we are compelled by Christian truth to 
acknowledge each person by himself to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the 
same truth to say that there are three Gods or three Lords." See Hagenbach, History 
of Doctrine, 1 : 270. We add that the personality of the Godhead as a whole is separate 
and distinct from all others, and in this respect is more fully analogous to man's person- 
ality than is the personality of the Father or of the Son. 

( b ) The necessary qualification is that, while three persons among men 
have only a specific unity of nature or essence — that is, have the same 
species of nature or essence, — the persons of the Godhead have a numeri- 
cal unity of nature or essence — that is, have the same nature or essence. 
The undivided essence of the Godhead belongs equally to each of the 
persons ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each possesses all the substance 
and all the attributes of Deity. The plurality of the Godhead is therefore 
not a plurality of essence, but a plurality of hypostatical, or personal, 
distinctions. God is not three and one, but three in one. The one indi- 
visible essence has three modes of subsistence. 

The Trinity is not simply a partnership, in which each member can sign the name of 
the firm ; for this is unity of counsel and operation only, not of essence. God's nature 
is not an abstract but an organic unity. God, as living, cannot be a mere Monad. Trin- 
ity is the organism of the Deity. The one divine Being exists in three modes. The life 
of the vine makes itself known in the life of the branches, and this union between vine 
and branches Christ uses to illustrate the union between the Father and himself. ( See 
John 15: 10 — " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's command- 
ments, and abide in his love " ; cf. verse 5 — " I am the vine, ye are the branches ; he that abideth in me, and I in him, 
the same beareth much fruit " ; 17 : 22, 23 — " that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in me." ) 
So, in the organism of the body, the arm has its own life, a different life from that of the 
head or the foot, yet has this only by partaking of the life of the whole. See Dorner, 
System of Doctrine, 1 : 450-453—" The one divine personality is so present in each of the 
distinctions, that these, which singly and by themselves would not be personal, yet do 
participate in the one divine personality, each in its own manner. This one divine per- 
sonality is the unity of the three modes of subsistence which participate in itself. 
Neither is personal without the others. In each, in its manner, is the whole Godhead." 

( c ) This oneness of essence explains the fact that, while Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit, as respects their personality, are distinct subsistences, there is 
an intercommunion of persons and an immanence of one divine person in 
another which permits the peculiar work of one to be ascribed, with a sin- 
gle limitation, to either of the others, and the manifestation of one to be 
recognized in the manifestation of another. The limitation is simply this, 
that although the Son is sent by the Father, and the Spirit by the Father 
and the Son, it cannot be said vice versa that the Father is sent either by 
the Son or by the Spirit. The Scripture representations of this intercom- 



THE THREE PERSONS ARE EQUAL. 161 

munion prevent us from conceiving of the distinctions called Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit as involving separation between them. 

Dorner adds that "in one is each of the others." This is true with the limitation 
mentioned in the text above. Whatever Christ does, God the Father can be said to do; 
for God acts only in and through Christ the Revealer. "Whatever the Holy Spirit does, 
Christ can be said to do ; for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit is the 
omnipresent Jesus, and Bengel's dictum is true : Ubi Spiritus, ihi Christus. Passages 
illustrating this intercommunion are the following: Gen. 1 : i— "God created" ; c/.Heb. 1:2 — 
"through whom [the Son] also he made the worlds" ; John 5 : 17, 19— "My Father worketh even until now, and I 
■work .... the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing ; for what things soever he doeth, 
these the Son also doeth in like manner " ; 14 : 9 — " he that hath seen me hath seen the Father " ; 11 — "Iaminthe Father 
and the Father in me " ; 18 — " I will not leave you desolate : I come unto you " ( by the Holy Spirit ) ; 15 : 26 — 
" when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth " ; 17 : 21 — "that they 
may all be one ; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 19 — " God was in Christ reconciling " ; Titus 
2 : 10—" God oar Saviour " ; leb. 12 : 23 — " God the Judge of all " ; cf. John 5 : 22— "neither doth the Father judge 
any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son " ; Acts 17 : 31 — "judge the world in righteousness by the man 
whom he hath ordained." 

It is this intercommunion, together with the order of personality and operation to 
be mentioned hereafter, which explains the occasional use of the term ' Father ' for the 
whole Godhead ; as in Eph. 4 : 6 — "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all [in Christ], 
and in you all" [by the Spirit]. This intercommunion also explains the designation of 
Christ as "the Spirit," and of the Spirit as "the Spirit of Christ," asinl Cor. 15 : 45 —"the last Adam became 
a life-giving Spirit" ; 2 Cor. 3 : 17 — "Kow the Lord is the Spirit" ; Gal. 4 : 6— "sent forth the Spirit of his Son" ; Phil. 
1 : 19—" supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ " ( see Alf ord and Lange on 2 Cor. 3 : 17, 18 ). So the Lamb, 
in Rev. 5 : 6, has "seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth "= 
the Holy Spirit, with his manifold powers, in the Spirit of the omnipotent and omnisci- 
ent and omnipresent Christ. Theologians have designated this intercommunion by the 
terms nepixupw*, circumuicessio, intercommunicatio, circulatio, inezistentia. The word 
ovaia was used to denote essence, substance, nature, being ; and the words irpoauirov and 
vwoo-rao-i?, for person, distinction, mode of subsistence. On the changing uses of the 
words npoa-ainou and vTrdarrao-is, see Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 321, note 2. On the meaning 
of the word ' person ' in connection with the Trinity, see John Howe, Calm Discourse 
of the Trinity ; Jonathan Edwards, Observations on the Trinity ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 
1 : 194, 267-275, 299, 300. 

V. The Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are equal. 

In explanation, notice that : 

1. These titles belong to the Persons. 

(a) The Father is not God as such ; for God is not only Father, but also 
Son and Holy Ghost. The term * Father' designates that hypostatical 
distinction in the divine nature in virtue of which God is related to the 
Son, and through the Son and the Spirit to the church and the world. As 
author of the believer's spiritual as well as natural life, God is doubly his 
Father ; but this relation which God sustains to creatures is not the ground 
of the title. God is Father primarily in virtue of the relation which he 
sustains to the eternal Son ; only as we are spiritually united to Jesus 
Christ do we become children of God. 

( 6 ) The Son is not God as such ; for God is not only Son, but also Father 
and Holy Spirit. ' The Son ' designates that distinction in virtue of which 
God is related to the Father, is sent by the Father to redeem the world, and 
with the Father sends the Holy Spirit. 

( c ) The Holy Spirit is not God as such ; for God is not only Holy Spirit, 
but also Father and Son. 'The Holy Spirit' designates that distinction in 
virtue of which God is related to the Father and the Son, and is sent by 
11 



162 MATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

them to accomplish the work of renewing the ungodly and of sanctifying 
the church. 

Neither of these names designates the Monad as such. Each designates rather that- 
personal distinction which forms the eternal basis and ground for a particular self- 
revelation. In the sense of being the Author and Provider of men's natural life, God 
is the Father of all. But even this natural sonship is mediated by Jesus Christ ; see 
1 Cor. 8 : 6—" one lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him." The phrase "our Father," 
however, can be used with the highest truth only by the regenerate, who have been 
newly born of God by being united to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. 
See Gal. 3 : 26 — " for ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Jesus Christ " ; 4:4-6 — " God sent forth his Son ... . 
that we might receive the adoption of sons .... sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father " ; 
Bph. 1 : 5 — "foreordained us unto adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ." God's love for Christ is the 
measure of his love for those who are one with Christ. Human nature in Christ is lifted 
up into the life and communion of the eternal Trinity. Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 306-310. 

2. Qualified sense of these titles. 

Like the word ' person ', the names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not 
to be confined within the precise limitations Of meaning which would be 
required if they were applied to men. 

( a ) The Scriptures enlarge our conceptions of Christ's Sonship by giving 
to him in his preexistent state the names of the Logos, the Image, and the 
Effulgence of God. — The term 'Logos' combines in itself the two ideas of 
thought and word, of reason and expression. While the Logos as divine 
thought or reason is one with God, the Logos as divine word or expression 
is distinguishable from God. Words are the means by which personal 
beings express or reveal themselves. Since Jesus Christ was "the Word" 
before there were any creatures to whom revelations could be made, it 
would seem to be only a necessary inference from this title that in Christ 
God must be from eternity expressed or revealed to himself ; in other words, 
that the Logos is the principle of truth, or self-consciousness, in God. — The 
term ' Image ' suggests the ideas of copy or counterpart. Man is the image 
of God only relatively and derivatively. Christ is the Image of God abso- 
lutely and archetypally. As the perfect representation of the Father's per- 
fections, the Son would seem to be the object and principle of love in the 
Godhead. — The term 'Effulgence,' finally, is an allusion to the sun and its 
radiance. As the effulgence of the sun manifests the sun's nature, which 
otherwise would be unrevealed, yet is inseparable from the sun and ever 
one with it, so Christ reveals God, but is eternally one with God. Here is a 
principle of movement, of will, which seems to connect itself with the 
holiness, or self-asserting purity, of the divine nature. 

Smyth, Introd. to Edwards' Observations on the Trinity : " The ontological relations of 
the persons of the Trinity are not a mere blank to human thought." John 1 : i— "In the 
beginning was the Word" means more than " in the beginning was the x, or the zero." Godet 
indeed says that Logos = ' reason ' only in philosophical writings, but never in the 
Scriptures. He calls this a Hegelian notion. But both Plato and Philo had made this 
signification a common one. On Aoyos as = reason + speech, see Lightf oot on Colossians, 
143, 144. Meyer interprets it as " personal subsistence, the self -revelation of the divine 
essence, before all time immanent in God." Neander, Planting and Training, 369: 
Logos =" the eternal Revealer of the divine essence." Bushnell : "Mirror of creative 
imagination " ; "form of God." 

Passages representing Christ as the Image of God are Col. 1 : 15 — " who is the image of the invis- 
ible God" ; 2 Cor. 4 : 4 — "Christ, who is the image of God" (eUdJv)] leb. 1 : 3 — "the very image of his substance " 
(xapa/crJjp tjjs twoo-rao-etas olvtov ) ; here x a P aKT VP means" 'impress,' ' counterpart.' Christ is 
the perfect image of God, as men are not. He therefore has consciousness and will. 



THE THREE PERSONS ARE EQUAL. 163 

He possesses all the attributes and powers of God. The word ' Image ' suggests the per- 
fect equality with God which the title ' Son ' might at first sight seem to deny. 

Christ is spoken of as the Effulgence of God in Heb. 1:3 — " who being the effulgence of his glory " 
( anavyaaixa tjjs 86^-qg ) ; cf.Z Cor. 4 : 6 — " shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God m the face of Jesus Christ." Notice that the radiance of the sun is as old as the sun itself, 
and without it the sun would not be sun. So Christ is coe'qual and coeternal with the 
Father. 

( b ) The names thus given to the second person of the Trinity, if they 
have any significance, bring him before our minds in the general aspect 
of Revealer, and suggest a relation of the doctrine of the Trinity to God's 
immanent attributes of truth, love, and holiness. The prepositions used to 
describe the internal relations of the second person to the first are not 
prepositions of rest, but prepositions of direction and movement. The 
Trinity, as the organism of Deity, secures a life-movement of the Godhead, 
a process in which God evermore objectifies himself and in the Son gives 
forth of his fullness. Christ represents the centrifugal action of the deity. 
But there must be centripetal action also. In the Holy Spirit the move- 
ment is completed, and the divine activity and thought returns into itself. 
True religion, in reuniting us to God, reproduces in us, in our limited 
measure, this eternal process of the divine mind. Christian experience 
witnesses that God in himself is unknown ; Christ is the organ of external 
revelation ; the Holy Spirit is the organ of internal revelation — only he can 
give us an inward apprehension or realization of the truth. It is " through 
the eternal Spirit" that Christ "offered himself without blemish unto God," 
and it is only through the Holy Spirit that the church has access to the 
Father, or fallen creatures can return to God. 

Meyer on John 1 : 1 — "the Word was with God": "7rp6? rbv Beov does not = napa to> 0ew, but 
expresses the existence of the Logos in God in respect of intercourse. The moral essence 
of this essential fellowship is love, which excludes any merely modalistic conception." 
Godet : " npb<; tov 0e6v intimates not only personality ( Gen. 1 : 26 — ' Let us make man ' ) but move- 
ment." Compare John 1: 18 — "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father "—where we 
find, not ev tw KoK-n-io, but eis rbv k6\ttov. As ?jv eis ttjv 7r6A.1v means ' went into the city and 
was there,' so the use of these prepositions indicates in the Godhead movement as well 
as rest. Dorner, System of Doctrine, 3 : 193, translates frpd? by ' hingewandt zuj or 
'turned toward.' The preposition would then imply that the Revealer, who existed 
in the beginning, was ever over against God, in the life-process of the Trinity, as the 
perfect objectification of himself. 

Dorner considers the internal relations of the Trinity ( System, 1 : 412 sq. ) in three 
aspects : 1. Physical. God is causa sui. But effect that equals cause must itself be cau- 
sative. Here would be duality, were it not for a third principle of unity. Trinitas duali- 
tatem ad unitatem reducit. 2. Logical. Self -consciousness sets self over against self. 
Yet the thinker must not regard self as one of many, and call himself 'he,' as children 
do ; for the thinker would then be, not se7/-conscious, but mente alienatus, 'beside him- 
self.' He therefore ' comes to himself ' in a third, as the brute cannot. 3. Ethical. God 
= self -willing right. But right based on arbitrary will is not right. Right based on 
passive nature is not right either. Right as being = Father. Right as willing = Son. 
Without the latter principle of freedom, we have a dead ethic, a dead God, an enthroned 
necessity. The unity of necessity and freedom is found by God, as by the Christian, in 
the Holy Spirit. So Dorner. See also Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 179-189 ( esp. 183, 184), and 
276,283. 

Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 173, speaks of the Son as the centrifugal, while the Holy Spirit 
is the centripetal movement of the Godhead. God apart from Christ is unrevealed ( John 
1 : 18 — " No man hath seen God at any time " ) ; Christ is the organ of external revelation ( 18 —"the only 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him " ) ; the Holy Spirit is the organ of 
internal revelation ( 1 Cor. 2 : 10 — " unto us God revealed them through the Spirit " ). That the Holy Spirit 
is the principle of all movement toward God appears from Heb. 9 : 14 — Christ, "through the 
eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish unto God" ; Eph. 2 : 18— "access in one Spirit unto the Father" ; Rom. 
8 : 26 — " the Spint also helpeth our infirmity .... the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us " ; John 4 : 24 — " God 



164 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

is a Spirit ; and they that worship him must worship in spirit " ; 16 : 8-11 — " convict the world in respect of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment." See Twesten, Dogmatik, on the Trinity; also Thomasius, 
Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 111. 

(c) In the light of what has been said, we may understand somewhat 
more fully the characteristic differences between the work of Christ and 
that of the Holy Spirit. We may sum them up in the four statements that, 
first, all outgoing seems to be the work of Christ, all return to God the 
work of the Spirit ; secondly, Christ is the organ of external revelation, the 
Holy Spirit the organ of internal revelation ; thirdly, Christ is our advocate 
in heaven, the Holy Spirit is our advocate in the soul ; fourthly, in the work 
of Christ we are passive, in the work of the Spirit we are active. Of the 
work of Christ we shall treat more fully hereafter, in speaking of his 
Offices as Prophet, Priest, and King. The work of the Holy Spirit will 
be treated when we come to speak of the Application of Redemption in 
Regeneration and Sanctification. Here it is sufficient to say that the Holy 
Spirit is represented in the Scriptures as the author of life — in creation, 
in the conception of Christ, in regeneration, in resurrection; and as the 
giver of light — in the inspiration of Scripture writers, in the conviction 
of sinners, in the illumination and sanctification of Christians. 

Gen. 1:2 — "the spirit of God was brooding " ; Luke 1 : 35 — to Mary : "the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee " ; 
John 3 : 8 — "born of the Spirit" ; Ez. 37 : 9, 14 — "Come from the four winds, breath .... I will put my spirit in 
you, and ye shall live " ; Rom. 8 : 11 — " quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit." 1 John 2 : 1 — "an Advo- 
cate ( Trapdic KrjTo v ) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ' ' ; John 14 : 16, 17 — " another Comforter ( napdic\r)Tov ), 
that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth" ; Rom. 8 : 26 — "the Spirit himself maketh intercession for 
us." 2 Pet. 1 : 21 — "men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost" ; John 16 : 8 — "convict the world in 
respect of sin " ; 13 — " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth " ; Rom. 8 : 14 — "as 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." 

McCosh : The works of the Spirit are Conviction, Conversion, Sanctification, Comfort. 
Donovan : The Spirit is the Spirit of conviction, enlightenment, quickening, in the sin- 
ner ; and of revelation, remembrance, witness, sanctification, consolation, to the saint. 
The Spirit enlightens the sinner, as the flash of lightning lights the traveler stumbling 
on the edge of a precipice at night ; enlightens the Christian, as the rising sun reveals a 
landscape which was all there before, but which was hidden from sight until the great 
luminary made it visible. Christ's advocacy before the throne is like that of legal 
counsel pleading in our stead ; the Holy Spirit's advocacy in the heart is like the moth- 
er's teaching her child to pray for himself. On the relations of the Holy Spirit to 
Christ, see Owen, in Works, 3 : 153-159. On the Holy Spirit's nature and work, see works 
by Faber, Smeaton, and Tophel ; also C. E. Smith, The Baptism in Fire ; J. P. Thomson, 
The Holy Comforter; Bushnell, Forgiveness and Law, last chapter; Bp. Andrewes, 
Works, 3 : 107-400 ; James S. Candlish, Work of the Holy Spirit ; A. H. Strong, Philosophy 
and Religion, 250-258. 

3. Generation and procession consistent with equality. 

That the Sonship of Christ is eternal, is intimated in Psalm 2 : 7. "This 
day have I begotten thee " is most naturally interpreted as the declaration 
of an eternal fact in the divine nature. Neither the incarnation, the 
baptism, the transfiguration, nor the resurrection mark the beginning of 
Christ's Sonship, or constitute him Son of God. These are but recognitions 
or manifestations of a preexisting Sonship, inseparable from his Godhood. 
He is "born before every creature" (while yet no created thing existed — 
see Meyer on Col. 1 : 15) and "by the resurrection of the dead" is not 
made to be, but only " declared to be," "according to the Spirit of holiness" 
( = according to his divine nature) "the' Son of God with power" (see 
PhUippi and Alford on Rom. 1 : 3, 4). This Sonship is unique — not pred- 



THE THREE PERSONS ARE EQUAL. 165 

ioable of, or shared with, any creature. The Scriptures intimate, not only 
an eternal generation of the Son, but an eternal procession of the Spirit. 

Psalm 2 : 7— "I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten 
thee" see Alexander, Com. in loco; also Com. on Acts 13 : 33— " 'To-day' refers to the date 
of the decree itself ; but this, as a divine act, was eternal,— and so must be the Sonship 
which it affirms." This begetting of which the Psalm speaks is not the resurrection, for 
while Paul in Acts 13 : 33, refers to this Psalm to establish the fact of Jesus' Sonship, he 
refers in Acts 13 : 34, 35, to another Psalm, the sixteenth, to establish the fact that this Son of 
God was to rise from the dead. Christ is shown to be Son of God by his incarnation 
( Heb. 1 : 5, 6 — " when he again bringeth in the firstborn into the world he saith, And let all the angels of God worship 
him " ), his baptism ( Mat. 3 : 17 — " this is my beloved Son " ), his transfiguration ( Mat. 17 : 5 — " This is my 
beloved Son " ), his resurrection ( Acts 13 : 34, 35 — " as concerning that he raised him up from the dead .... he 
saith also in another psalm, Thou wilt not give thy My One to see corruption" ). Col. 1 : 15 — "the firstborn of all 
creation "— 7rpwTOTo/co? Tratrr}? KTt'cretos =" begotten first before all creation" (Julius Miiller, 
Proof -texts, 14); or "first-born before every creature, i. e. begotten, and that antece- 
dently to everything that was created" (Ellicott, Com. in loco; so also Lightfoot). 
"Herein" (says Luthardt, Compend. Dogmatik, 81, on Col. 1 : 15) "is indicated an ante- 
mundane origin from God — a relation internal to the divine nature.' 

On Rom. 1 : 4 ( 6pio-0eVro? =" manifested to be the mighty Son of God " ) see Lange's Com., 
notes by Schaff on pages 56 and 61. If Westcott and Hort's reading 6 ftovoyev^ ©eds, "the 
only begotten God," in John 1 : 18, is correct, we have a new proof of Christ's eternal Sonship 
Meyer explains eavrov in Rom. 8. : 3 — " God, sending his own Son," as an allusion tothe metaphysical 
Sonship. That this Sonship is unique, is plain from John 1 : 14, 18— "the only begotten from the 
Father .... the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father " ; Rom. 8 : 32 — " his own Son " ; Gal. 4:4 — 
''sent forth his Son " ; cf. Pro v. 8 : 22, 31 — " when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was by him as a 
master workman " ; 30 r 4 — " Who hath established all the ends of the earth ? What is his name, and what is his son's 
name, if thou knowest? " The eternal procession of the Spirit seems to be implied in John 15 : 
26 — " the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father " — see Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco ; Heb. 9 : 14 — 
"the eternal Spirit." 

The Scripture terms ' generation ' and ' procession,' as applied to the Son 
and to the Holy Spirit, are but approximate expressions of the truth, 
and we are to correct by other declarations of Scripture any imperfect 
impressions which we might derive solely from them. We use these terms 
in a special sense, which we explicitly state and define as excluding all 
notion of inequality between the persons of the Trinity. The eternal gen- 
eration of the Son to which we hold is 

(a ) Not creation, but the Father's communication of himself to the Son. 
Since the names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not applicable to the 
divine essence, but are only apj^licable to its hypostatical distinctions, they 
imply no derivation of the essence of the Son from the essence of the 
Father. 

The error of the Nicene Fathers was that of explaining Sonship as derivation of 
essence. The Father cannot impart his essence to the Son and yet retain it. The 
Father is fons trinitatis, not fons deitatis. See Shedd, Hist. Doct., 1 : 308-311, and Dogm. 
Theol., 1 : 287-299 ; per contra, see Bib. Sac, 41 : 698-760. 

(b) Not a commencement of existence, but an eternal relation to the 
Father, — there never having been a time when the Son began to be, or when 
the Son did not exist as God with the Father. 

If there had been an eternal sun, it is evident that there must have been an eternal 
sunlight also. Yet an eternal sunlight must have evermore proceeded from the sun. 
When Cyril was asked whether the Son existed before generation, he answered : " The 
generation of the Son did not precede his existence, but he always existed, and that by 
generation." 

(e) Not an act of the Father's will, but an internal necessity of the 
divine nature, — so that the Son is no more dependent upon the Father than 



166 KATURE, DECREES, AISTD WORKS OF GOD. 

the Father is dependent upon the Son, and so that, if it be consistent with 
deity to be Father, it is equally consistent with deity to be Son. 

The sun is as dependent upon the sunlight as the sunlight is upon the sun ; for without 
sunlight the sun is no true sun. So God the Father is as dependent upon God the Son, 
as God the Son is dependent upon God the Father ; for without Son the Father would be 
no true Father. To say that aseity belongs only to the Father is logically Arianism and 
Subordinationism proper, for it implies a subordination of the essence of the Son to the 
Father. Essential subordination would be inconsistent with equality. See Thomasius, 
Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 115. 

( d ) Not a relation in any way analogous to physical derivation, but a life- 
movement of the divine nature, in virtue of which Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit, while equal in essence and dignity, stand to each other in an order 
of personality, office, and operation, and in virtue of which the Father 
works through the Son, and the Father and the Son through the Spirit. 

The subordination of the person of the Son to the person of the Father, or in other 
words an order of personality, office, and operation which permits the Father to be 
officially first, the Son second, and the Spirit third, is perfectly consistent with equality. 
Priority is not necessarily superiority. The possibility of an order, which yet involves 
no inequality, may be illustrated by the relation between man and woman. In office 
man is first and woman second, but woman's soul is worth as much as man's; see 
1 Cor. li : 3 — " the head of every man is Christ ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God." 
On John 14 : 28 — " the Father is greater than I "— see Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco. Edwards, Obser- 
vations on the Trinity, 33 — " In the Son the whole deity and glory of the Father is as it 
were repeated or duplicated. Everything in the Father is repeated or expressed again, 
and that fully, so that there is properly no inferiority." On the Eternal Sonship, see 
Weiss, Bib. Theol. N. T., 434, note ; Treffrey, Eternal Sonship of our Lord ; Princeton 
Essays, 1 : 30-56 ; Watson, Institutes, 1 : 530-577 ; Bib. Sac, 37 : 368. On the procession of 
the Spirit, see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 300-304, and History of Doctrine, 1 : 387 ; Dick, 
Lectures on Theology, 1 : 347-350. 

The same principles upon which we interpret the declaration of Christ's 
eternal Sonship apply to the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father 
through the Son, and show this to be not inconsistent with the Spirit's equal 
dignity and glory. 

We therefore only formulate truth which is concretely expressed in 
Scripture, and which is recognized by all ages of the church in hymns and 
prayers addressed to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, when we assert that in 
the nature of the one God there are three eternal distinctions, which are 
best described as persons, and each of which is the proper and equal object 
of Christian worship. 

We are also warranted in declaring that, in virtue of these personal 
distinctions or modes of subsistence, God exists in the relations, respect- 
ively, first, of Source, Origin, Authority, and in this relation is the Father; 
secondly, of Expression, Medium, Revelation, and in this relation is the 
Son; thirdly, of Apprehension, Accomplishment, Realization, and in this 
relation is the Holy Spirit. 

John Owen, Works, 3:64-93— "The office of the Holy Spirit is that of concluding, 
completing, perfecting. To the Father we assign opera naturce; to the Son, opera 
gratice procurator; to the Spirit, opera gratice applicatce" All God's revelations arc 
through the Son or the Spirit, and the latter includes the former. 

VI. Inscrutable, yet not self-contradictory, this Doctrine fur- 
nishes the Key to all other Doctrines. 

1. The mode of this triune existence is inscrutable. 

It is inscrutable because there are no analogies to it in our finite experi- 



INSCRUTABLE, YET NOT SELF-CONTRADICTORY. 167 

ence. For this reason all attempts are vain adequately to represent it: 
(a) From inanimate things — as the fountain, the stream, and the rivulet 
trickling from it (Athanasius) ; the cloud, the rain, and the rising mist 
(Boardman); color, shape, and size (F. W. .Robertson) ; the actinic, lumi- 
nif erous, and calorific principles in the ray of light ( Solar Hieroglyphics, 
34). 

Luther : " When logic objects to this doctrine that it does not square with her rules, 
Ave must say : ' Mulier taceat in ecclesia.' " Luther called the Trinity a flower, in which 
might be distinguished its form, its fragrance, and its medicinal efficacy ; see Dorner, 
Gesch. prot. Theol., 189. In Bap. Rev., July, 1880 : 434, Geer finds an illustration of the 
Trinity in infinite space with its three dimensions. For analogy of the cloud, rain, mist, 
see W. E. Boardman, Higher Christian Life. Solar Hieroglyphics, 34 ( reviewed in New 
Englander, Oct., 1874 : 789)— "The Godhead is a tripersonal unity, and the light is a trin- 
ity. Being immaterial and homogeneous, and thus essentially one in its nature, the light 
includes a plurality of constituents, or in other words is essentially three in its consti- 
tution, its constituent principles being- the actinic, the luminiferous, and the calorific ; 
and in glorious manifestation the light is one, and is the created, constituted, and 
ordained emblem of the tripersonal God " — of whom is it said that " God is light, and in him is 
no darkness at all " (1 John 1:5). The actinic rays a re in themselves invisible ; only as the lumi- 
niferous manifest them, are they seen; only as the calorific accompany them, are they 
felt. 

( b ) From the constitution or processes of-our own minds — as the psycho- 
logical unity of intellect, affection, and will (substantially held by Augus- 
tine) ; the logical unity of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis (Hegel) ; the 
metaphysical unity of subject, object, and subject-object (Melancthon, 
Olshausen, Shedd). 

Augustine : " Mens mem i nit sui, intelligit se, diligit se ; si hoc cernimus, Trinitatem 
cernimus." Calvin speaks of Augustine's view as " a speculation far from solid." But 
Augustine himself had said : " If asked to define the Trinity, we can only say that it is 
not this or that." John of Damascus : "All we know of the divine nature is that it is 
not to be known." By this, however, both Augustine and John of Damascus meant 
only that the precise mode of God's triune existence is unrevealed and inscrutable. 
Hegel calls God " the absolute Idea, the unity of Life and Cognition, the Universal that 
thinks itself and thinkingly realizes itself in an infinite Actuality, from which, as its 
Immediacy, it no less distinguishes itself again" ; see Schwegler, History of Philosophy, 
321, 331. Hegel's doctrine of God as the eternally begotten Son is translated in the Journ. 
of Spec. Philos., 15 : 395-404. The most satisfactory exposition of the analogy of sub- 
ject, object, and subject-object is to be found in Shedd, History of Doctrine, 1 : 365, 
note 2. See also Olshausen on John 1:1; H. N. Day, Doctrine of Trinity in Light of 
Recent Psychology, in Princeton Rev., Sept., 1882 : 156-179 ; Morris, Philosophy and 
Christianity, 122-163. 

No one of these furnishes any proper analogue of the Trinity, since in 
no one of them is there found the essential element of tripersonality. Such 
illustrations may sometimes be used to disarm objection, but they furnish 
no positive explanation of the mystery of the Trinity, and, unless carefully 
guarded, may lead to grievous error. 

2. The doctrine of the Trinity is not self -contradictory . 

This it would be, only if it declared God to be three in the same numerical 
sense in which he is said to be one. This we do not assert. We assert 
simply that the same God who is one with respect to his essence is three 
with respect to the internal distinctions of that essence, or with respect to 
the modes of his being. The possibility of this cannot be denied, except 
by assuming that the human mind is in all respects the measure of the 
divine. 



168 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

The fact that the ascending scale of life is marked by increasing differen- 
tiation of faculty and function should rather lead us to expect in the highest 
of all beings a nature more complex than our own. In man many faculties 
are united in one intelligent being, and the more intelligent man is, the 
more distinct from each other these faculties become; until intellect and 
affection, conscience and will assume a relative independence, and there 
arises even the possibility of conflict between them. There is nothing irra- 
tional or self-contradictory in the doctrine that in God the leading functions 
are yet more markedly differentiated, so that they become personal, while 
at the same time these personalities are united by the fact that they each 
and equally manifest the one indivisible essence. 

Unity is as essential to the Godhead as threeness. The same God who in one respect 
is three, in another respect is one. We do not say that one God is three Gods, nor that 
one person is three persons, nor that three Gods are one God, but only that there is one 
God with three distinctions in his being. We do not refer to the faculties of man as 
furnishing' any proper analogy to the persons of the Godhead ; we rather deny that 
man's nature furnishes any such analogy. Intellect, affection, and will in man are not 
distinct personalities. If they were personalized, they might furnish such an analogy. 
P. W. Robertson ( Sermons, 3 : 58 ), speaks of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as best 
conceived under the figure of personalized intellect, affection, and will. With this 
agrees the saying of Socrates, who called thought the soul's conversation with itself. 
See D. W. Simon, in Bib. Sac, Jan., 1887. . 

3. The doctrine of the Trinity has important relations to other doc- 
trines. 

A. It is essential to any proper theism. 

Neither God's independence nor God's blessedness can be maintained 
upon grounds of absolute unity. Anti-trinitarianism almost necessarily 
makes creation indispensable to God's perfection, tends to a belief in the 
eternity of matter, and ultimately leads, as in Mohammedanism, and in 
modern Judaism and Unitarianism, to Pantheism. "Love is an impossible 
exercise to a solitary being." Without Trinity we cannot hold to a living 
Unity in the Godhead. 

Brit, and For. Evang. Rev., Jan., 1883 : 35-68 — " The problem is to find a perfect objective, 
congruous and fitting, for a perfect intelligence, and the answer is : " a perfect intelli- 
gence." The author of this article quotes James Martineau, the Unitarian philosopher, 
as follows : " There is only one resource left for completing the needful objectivity for 
God, viz., to admit in some form the coeval existence of matter, as the condition or 
medium of the divine agency or manifestation. Failing the proof [of the absolute 
origination of matter ] we are left with the divine cause, and the material condition, 
of all nature, in eternal co-presence and relation, as supreme object and rudimentary 
object ; " see also Martineau, Study, 1 : 405. But God's blessedness, upon this principle, 
requires not merely an eternal universe but an infinite universe, for nothing less will 
afford fit object for an infinite mind. Yet a God who is necessarily bound to the uni- 
verse, or by whose side a universe, which is not himself, eternally exists, is not infinite, 
independent, or free. The only exit from this difficulty is in denying God's self- 
consciousness and self-determination, or in other words, exchanging our theism for 
pantheism. 

Unitarianism has repeatedly demonstrated its logical inconsistency by this facilis 
descensus Acerni. In New England the high Arianism of Channing degenerated into 
the half -fledged pantheism of Theodore Parker, and the full-fledged pantheism of Ralph 
Waldo Emerson. Modern Judaism is pantheistic in its philosophy, and such also was 
the later Arabic philosophy of Mohammedanism. Single personality is felt to be insuffi- 
cient to the mind's conception of Absolute Perfection. We shrink from the thought of 
an eternally lonely God. " We take refuge in the term ' Godhead.' The literati find 
relief in speaking of ' the gods.' " T westen ( translated in Bib. Sac, 3 : 502 ) — " There may 
be in polytheism an element of truth, though disfigured and misunderstood. John of 
Damascus boasted that the Christian Trinity stood midway between the abstract mono- 



INSCRUTABLE, YET NOT SELF-CONTRADICTORY. 169 

theism of the Jews and the idolatrous polytheism of the Greeks." There is a n^ptona 
in God. See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 251-256; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 
105, 156. For the pantheistic view, see Strauss, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 462-524. 

B. It is essential to any proper revelation. 

If there be no Trinity, Christ is not God, and cannot perfectly know or 
reveal God. Christianity is no longer the one, all-inclusive, and final reve- 
lation, but only one of many conflicting and competing systems, each of 
which has its portion of truth, but also its portion of error. So too with 
the Holy Spirit. "As God can be revealed only through God, so also can 
he be appropriated only through God. If the Holy Spirit be not God, 
then the love and self -communication of God to the human soul are not a 
reality. " In other words, without the doctrine of the Trinity we go back 
to mere natural religion and the far-off God of deism, — and this is ultimately 
exchanged for pantheism in the way already mentioned. 

Martensen, Dogmatics, 104; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 156. If Christ be 
not God, he cannot perfectly know himself, and his testimony to himself has no inde- 
pendent authority. In prayer the Christian has practical evidence of the Trinity, and 
can see the value of the doctrine ; for he comes to God the Father, pleading- the name of 
Christ, and taught how to pray aright by the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to identify 
the Father with either the Son or the Spirit. See Rom. 8 : 27—" he that searcheth the hearts [ i. e., 
God ] knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of 
God." See also Godet, on John 1 : 18, and Westcott, on John 14 : 9. 

C. It is essential to any proper redemption. 

If God be absolutely and simply one, there can be no mediation or atone- 
ment, since between God and the most exalted creature the gulf is infinite. 
Christ cannot bring us nearer to God than he is himself. Only one who is 
God can reconcile us to God. So, too, only one who is God can purify our 
souls. A God who is only unity, but in whom is no plurality, may be our 
Judge, but, so far as we can see, cannot be our Savior or our Sanctifier. 

" God is the way to himself." "Nothing human holds good before God, and nothing 
but God himself can satisfy God." The best method of arguing with Unitarians, there- 
fore, is to rouse the sense of sin ; for the soul that has any proper conviction of its sins 
feels that only an infinite Redeemer can ever save it. On the other hand, a slight estimate 
of sin is logically connected with a low view of the dignity of Christ. Twesten, trans- 
lated in Bib. Sac, 3 : 510— "It would seem to be not a mere accident that Pelagianism, 
when logically carried out, as for example among the Socinians, has also always led to 
Unitarianism." In the reverse order, too, it is manifest that rejection of the deity of 
Christ must tend to render more superficial men's views of the sin and guilt and punish- 
ment from which Christ came to save them, and with this to deaden religious feeling 
and to cut the sinews of all evangelistic and missionary effort ( John 12 : 44 ; Eeb. 10 : 26 ). See 
Arthur, on the Divinity of our Lord in relation to his work of Atonement, in Present 
Day Tracts, 6 : no. 35 ; Ellis, quoted by Watson, Theol. Inst., 23 ; Gunsaulus, Transfig. of 
Christ, 13. 

D. It is essential to any proper model for human life. 

If there be no Trinity immanent in the divine nature, then Fatherhood 
in God has had a beginning and it may have an end ; Sonship, moreover, 
is no longer a perfection, but an imperfection, ordained for a temporary 
purpose. But if fatherly giving and filial receiving are eternal in God, then 
the law of love requires of us conformity to God in both these respects as 
the highest dignity of our being. 

See Hutton, Essays, 1 : 232— "The Trinity tells us something of God's absolute and 
essential nature ; not simply what he is to us, but what he is in himself. If Christ is the 
eternal Son of the Father, God is indeed and in essence a Father ; the social nature, the 



170 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

spring- of love is of the very essence of the eternal Being ; the communication of life, 
the reciprocation of affection dates from beyond time, belongs to the very being of God. 
The Unitarian idea of a solitary God profoundly affects our conception of God, reduces 
it to mere power, identifies God with abstract cause and thought. Love is grounded in 
power, not power in love. The Father is merged in the omniscient and omnipotent 
genius of the universe." Hence 1 John 2 : 23 — " Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." 

Hutton, Essays, 1 : 339— " We need also the inspiration and help of a perfect filial will. 
We cannot conceive of the Father as sharing in that dependent attitude of spirit which 
is our chief spiritual want. It is a Father's perfection to originate — a Son's to receive. 
We need sympathy and aid in this receptive life; hence, the help of the true Son. 
Humility, self-sacrifice, submission, are heavenly, eternal, divine. Christ's filial life is 
the root of all filial life in us." See Gal. 2 : 20 — "I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me : and 
that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave him- 
self up for me." On the practical uses of the doctrine, see Sermon by Gans, in South Church 
Lectures, 300-310. On the doctrine in general, see Robie, in Bib. Sac, 27 : 262-289 ; Pease, 
Philosophy of Trinitarian Doctrine : N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 1 : 133 ; Schultz, 
Lehre von der Gottheit Christi. 

On heathen trinities, see Bib. Repos., 6 : 116 ; Christlieb, Mod. Doubt and Christian 
Belief, 266, 267—" Lao-tse says, 600 B. C, ' Tao, the intelligent principle of all being, is by 
nature one ; the first begat the second : both together begat the third ; these three made 
all things.' "—The Egyptian triad of Abydos was Osiris, Isis his wife, and Horus their 
Son. But these were no true persons ; for not only did the Son proceed from the Father, 
but the Father proceeded from the Son ; the Egyptian trinity was pantheistic in its 
meaning. See Renouf , Hibbert Lectures, 29 ; Rawlinson, Religions of the Ancient World, 
46, 47.— The Brahman Trimurti, or trinity, to the members of which are given the names 
Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, is represented in the three mystic letters of the syllable Om, or 
Aum, and by the image at Elephanta of three heads and one body ; see Hardwick, Christ 
and Other Masters, 1 : 276. The places of the three are interchangeable. Williams : "In 
the three persons the one God is shown ; Each first in place, each last, not one alone ; 
Of Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, each may be, First, second, third, among the blessed three." 
There are ten incarnations of Vishnu for men's salvation in various times of need ; 
and the one Spirit which temporarily invests itself with the qualities of matter is 
reduced to its original essence at the end of the aeon ( Kalpa ). This is only a grosser 
form of Sabellianism, or of a modal Trinity. According to Renouf it is not older than 
A. D. 1400.— Buddhism in later times had its triad. Buddha, or Intelligence, the first 
principle, associated with Dharma, or Law, the principle of matter, through the com- 
bining influence of Sangha, or Order, the mediating principle. See Kellogg, The Light 
of Asia and the Light of the World, 184, 355. It is probably from a Christian source.— 
The Greek trinity was composed of Zeus, Athena and Apollo. Apollo or Loxias ( Adyos) 
utters the decisions of Zeus. " These three surpass all the other gods in moral character 
and in providential care over the universe. They sustain such intimate and endearing 
relations to each other, that they may be said to 'agree in one' " ; see Tyler, Theol. of 
Greek Poets, 170, 171 ; Gladstone, Studies of Homer, vol. 2, sec. 2. Yet the Greek trinity, 
while it gives us three persons, does not give us oneness of essence. It is a system of 
tritheism. 

The gropings of the heathen religions after a trinity in God, together with their 
inability to construct a consistent scheme of it, are evidence of a rational want in 
human nature which only the Christian doctrine is able to supply. This power to satisfy 
the inmost needs of the believer is proof of its truth. We close our treatment with the 
words of Jeremy Taylor : " He who goes about to speak of the mystery of the Trinity, 
and does it by words and names of man's invention, talking of essence and existences, 
hypostases and personalities, priority in coequality, and unity in pluralities, may amuse 
himself and build a tabernacle in his head, and talk something — he knows not what ; but 
the renewed man, that feels the power of the Father, to whom the Son is become wis- 
dom, sanctiflcation, and redemption, in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is shed 
abroad — this man, though he understand nothing of what is unintelligible, yet he alone 
truly understands the Christian doctrine of the Trinity." 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE DECREES OF GOD. 

I. Definition of Deckees. 

By the decrees of God we mean that eternal plan by which God has 
rendered certain all the events of the universe, past, present, and future. 
Notice in explanation that : 

(a) The decrees are many only to our finite comprehension; in their 
own nature they are but one plan, which embraces not only the ends to be 
secured but also the means needful to secure them. 

In Rom. 8 : 28— "called according to his purpose "— the many decrees for the salvation of many- 
individuals are represented as forming but one purpose of God. Eph. 1 : 11 — " foreordained 
according to the purpose of him who -worketh all things after the counsel of his -will " — notice again the word 
"purpose," in the singular. Eph. 3 : 11 — "according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." This one purpose or plan of God includes both means and ends, prayer and its 
answer, labor and its fruit. Tyrolese proverb : " God has his plan for every man." 
Every man, as well as Jean Paul, is " der Einzige " — the unique. There is a single plan 
which embraces all things ; " we use the word ' decrees ' when we think of it partitively " 
( Pepper ). See Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 1st ed., 165 ; 2nd ed., 300 — " In fact, no event 
is isolated — to determine one involves determination of the whole concatenation of 
causes and effects which constitutes the universe." The word "plan" is preferable to 
the word "decrees," because "plan" excludes the ideas of arbitrariness and of com- 
pulsion. 

( b ) The decrees, as the eternal act of an infinitely perfect will, though 
they have logical relation to each other, have no chronological relation. 
They are not therefore the result of deliberation, in any sense that implies 
short-sightedness or hesitancy. 

Logically, in God's decree the sun precedes the sunlight, and the decree to bring into 
being a father precedes the decree that there shall be a son. God decrees man before 
he decrees man's act ; he decrees the creation of man before he decrees man's existence. 
But there is no chronological succession. "Counsel" in Eph. 1 : 11 — "the counsel of his will" — 
means, not deliberation, but wisdom. 

( c ) Since the will in which the decrees have their origin is a free will, 
the decrees are not a merely instinctive or necessary exercise of the divine 
intelligence or volition, such as x^antheism supposes. 

It belongs to the perfection of God that he have a plan, and the best possible plan. 
Here is no necessity, but only the certainty that infinite wisdom will act wisely. God's 
decrees are not God ; they are not identical with his essence ; they do not flow from 
his being in the same necessary way in which the eternal Son proceeds from the eternal 
Father. There is free will in God, which acts with infinite certainty, yet without neces- 
sity. To call even the decree of salvation necessary is to deny grace, and to make an 
unfree God. See Dick, Lectures on Theology, 1 : 355 ; lect. 34. 

(d) The decrees have reference to things outside of God. God does not 
decree to be holy, nor to exist as three persons in one essence. 

Decrees are the preparation for external events — the embracing of certain things 
and acts in a plan. They do not include those processes and operations within the God- 
head which have no reference to the universe. 

171 



172 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

( e ) The decrees primarily respect the acts of God himself, in Creation, 
Providence, and Grace ; secondarily, the acts of free creatures, which he 
foresees will result therefrom. 

While we deny the assertion of Whedon that " the divine plan embraces only divine 
actions," we grant that God's plan has reference primarily to his own actions, and that 
the sinful acts of men, in particular, are the objects, not of a decree that God will 
efficiently produce them, but of a decree that God will permit men, in the exercise of 
their own free will, to produce them. 

(/) The decree to act is not the act. The decrees are an internal exer- 
cise and manifestation of the divine attributes, and are not to be confounded 
with Creation, Providence, and Redemption, which are the execution of the 
decrees. 

The decrees are the first operation of the attributes, and the first manifestation of 
personality of which we have any knowledge within the Godhead. They presuppose 
those essential acts or movements within the divine nature which we call generation 
and procession. They involve by way of consequence that execution of the decrees 
which we call Creation, Providence, and Redemption, but they are not to be confounded 
with either of these. 

(g) The decrees are therefore not addressed to creatures; are not of the 
nature of statute-law ; and lay neither compulsion nor obligation upon the 
wills of men. 

So ordering the universe that men will pursue a given course of action is a very 
different thing from declaring, ordering, or commanding that they shall. " Our acts 
are in accordance with the decrees, but not necessarily so— we can do otherwise and 
often should " ( Park ). 

(h ) All human acts, whether evil or good, enter into the divine plan and 
so are objects of God's decrees, although God's actual agency with regard 
to the evil is only a permissive agency. 

No decree of God reads: "You shall sin." For (1) no decree is addressed to you; 
(2) no decree with respect to you says shall; (3) God cannot cause sin, or decree to 
cause it. He simply decrees to create, and himself to act, in such a way that you will, 
of your own free choice, commit sin. God determines upon his own acts, foreseeing 
what the results will be in the free acts of his creatures, and so he determines those 
results. This permissive decree is the only decree of God with respect to sin. Man of 
himself is capable of producing sin. Of himself he is not capable of producing holiness. 
In the production of holiness two powers must concur, God's will and man's will, and 
God's will must act first. The decree of good, therefore, is not simply a permissive 
decree, as in the case of evil. God's decree, in the former case, is a decree to bring to 
bear positive agencies for its production, such as circumstances, motives, influences of 
his Spirit. But, in the case of evil, God's decrees are simply his arrangement that man 
may do as he pleases, God all the while foreseeing the result. 

( i ) While God's total plan with regard to creatures is called predestina- 
tion, or foreordination, his purpose so to act that certain will believe and 
be saved is called election, and his purpose so to act that certain will refuse 
to believe and be lost is called reprobation. We discuss election and repro- 
bation, in a later chapter, as a part of the Application of Redemption. 

God's decrees may be divided into decrees with respect to nature, and decrees with 
respect to moral beings. These last we call foreordination, or predestination ; and of 
these decrees with respect to moral beings there are two kinds, the decree of election, 
and the decree of reprobation ; see pages 437-434. 

EC. Proof of the doctrine of Decrees. 
1. From Scripture. 

A. The Scriptures declare that all things. are included in the divine 
decrees. B. They declare that special things and events are decreed ; as, 



PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF DECREES. 173 

for example, ( a ) the stability of the physical universe ; ( b ) the outward 
circumstances of nations; (c) the saving work of Christ; (d) the length 
of human life; (e) the mode of our death; (/) the free acts of men, both 
good acts and evil acts. 

A. Is. 14 : 26 — " This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out 
upon all the nations ; for the Lord of hosts hath purposed and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back ? " 
46 : 10, 11 — " declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, 
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure .... yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass ; I have pur- 
posed, I will also do it." Dan. 4 : 35 — " doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants 
of the earth : and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ? " Eph. 1 : 11 — " the purpose of him who 
worketh all things after the counsel of his will." 

B. (a) Ps. 119 : 91 — " For ever, Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations : 
Thou hast established the earth and it abideth. They abide this day according to thine ordinances ; For all things are thy 
servants." (b ) Acts 17 : 26— "he made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having 
determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation " ; c/. Zech. 6:1 — " came four chariots out from 
between two mountains ; and the mountains were mountains of brass "= the fixed decrees from which pro- 
ceed God's providential dealings? (c) 1 Cor. 2:7 — "the wisdom which hath been hidden, which God 
foreordained before the worlds unto our glory" ; Eph. 3 : 10, 11 —"manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal 
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." ( d ) Job 14 : 5 — " Seeing his days are determined, the number 
of his months is with thee, And thou hast determined his bounds that he cannot pass." (e) John 21 : 19 — "this he 
spake, signifying by what manner of death he should glorify God." 

(/) Good acts: Is. 44 : 28— "that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure: even 
saying of Jerusalem, She shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid" ; Eph. 2 : 10 — "For we are 
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them." 
Evil acts : Gen. 50 : 20 — "As for you, ye meant evil against me ; but God meant it for good, to bnng it to pass, as it 
is this day, to save much people alive " ; 1 K. 12 : 15 — " "Wherefore the King hearkened not unto the people, for the cause 
was from the Lord " ; 24 — "for this thing is from me " ; Luke 22 : 22 — " For the Son of man indeed goeth, as it hath 
been determined : but woe unto that man through whom he is betrayed " ; Acts 2 : 23 — " him, being delivered up by the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay " ; 4 : 27, 28 — "of a 
truth in this city against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gen- 
tiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to 
pass " ; Rom. 9 : 17 — "For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show 
in thee my power " ; 1 Pet. 2 : 8 — " they stumble at the word, being disobedient : whereunto also they were appointed ' ' ; 
Rev. 17 : 17 —"For God did put in their hearts to do his mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto 
the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished." 



2. From, Reason. 

( a ) From the divine foreknowledge. 

From eternity God foresaw all the events of the universe as fixed and 
certain. This fixity and certainty could not have had its ground either in 
blind fate or in the variable wills of men, since neither of these had an 
existence. It could have had its ground in nothing outside of the divine 
mind, for in eternity nothing existed besides the divine mind. But for 
this fixity there must have been a cause ; if anything in the future was 
fixed, something must have fixed it. This fixity could have had its ground 
only in the plan and purpose of God. In fine, if God foresaw the future 
as certain, it must have been because there was something in himself which 
made it certain ; or, in other words, because he had decreed it. 

To meet the objection that God might have foreseen the events of the 
universe, not because he had decreed each one, but only because he had 
decreed to create the universe and institute its laws, we may put the 
argument in another form. In eternity there could have been no cause of 
the future existence of the universe, outside of God himself, since no being 
existed but God himself. In eternity God foresaw that the creation of the 



174 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

world and the institution of its laws would make certain its actual history 
even to the most insignificant details. But God decreed to create and to 
institute these laws. In so decreeing, he necessarily decreed all that was 
to come. In fine, God foresaw the future events of the universe as certain, 
because he had decreed to create ; but this determination to create involved 
also a determination of all the actual results of that creation ; or, in other 
words, God decreed those results. 

We grant that God decrees primarily and directly his own acts of crea- 
tion, providence, and grace ; but we claim that this involves also a secondary 
and indirect decreeing of the acts of free creatures which he foresees will 
result therefrom. There is therefore no such thing in God as scientia media, 
or knowledge of an event that is to be, though it does not enter into the 
divine plan ; for to say that God foresees an undecreed event, is to say that 
he views as future an event that is merely possible ; or, in other words, that 
he views an event not as it is. 

Knowledge of a plan fes ideal or possible may precede decree; but 
knowledge of a plan as actual or fixed must follow decree. Only the latter 
knowledge is properly /oreknowledge. God therefore foresees creation, 
causes, laws, events, consequences, because he has decreed creation, causes, 
laws, events, consequences ; that is, because he has embraced all these in 
his plan. The denial of decrees logically involves the denial of God's 
foreknowledge of free human actions ; and to this Socinians, and some 
Arminians, are actually led. 

An Arminian example of this denial is found in McCabe, Foreknowledge of God, and 
Divine Nescience of Future Contingencies a Necessity. Per contra, see notes on God's 
foreknowledge, in this Compendium, pages 134, 135. Pepper : " Divine volition stands 
logically between two divisions and kinds of divine knowledge." God knew free human 
actions as possible, before he decreed them ; he knew them as future, because he decreed 
them. Logically, though not chronologically, decree comes before foreknowledge. 
"When I say, "I know what I will do," it is evident that I have determined already, 
and that my knowledge does not precede determination, but follows it and is based 
upon it. It is therefore not correct to say that God foreknows his decrees. It is more 
true to say that he decrees his foreknowledge. He foreknows the future which he has 
decreed, and he foreknows it because he has decreed it. His decrees are eternal, and 
nothing that is eternal can be the object of foreknowledge. G. F. Wright, in Bib. 
Sac, 1877 : 723— "The knowledge of God comprehended the details and incidents of every 
possible plan. The choice of a plan made his knowledge determinate as foreknowledge." 

There are therefore two kinds of divine knowledge : (1) knowledge of what maybe— 
of the possible (scientia sirnplicisintelMgentiw); and (2) knowledge of what is, and is to 
be, because God has decreed it ( scientia visionis ). Between these two Molina, the Spanish 
Jesuit, wrongly conceived that there was (3) a middle knowledge of things which were 
to be, although God had not decreed them (scientia media). This would of course be a 
knowledge which God derived, not from himself, but from his creatures ! See Dick, 
Theology, 1 : 351. A. S. Carman: "It is difficult to see how God's knowledge can be 
caused from eternity by something that has no existence until a definite point of time." 
If it be said that what is to be will be "in the nature of things," we reply that there is 
no "nature of things" apart from God, and that the ground of the objective certainty, 
as well as of the subjective certitude corresponding to it, is to be found only in God 
himself. 

But God's decreeing to create, when he foresees that certain free acts of men will 
follow, is a decreeing of those free acts, in the only sense in which we use the word 
decreeing, viz., a rendering certain, or embracing in his plan. No Arminian who 
believes in God's foreknowledge of free human acts has good reason for denying God's 
decrees as thus explained. Surely God did not foreknow that Adam would exist and sin, 
whether God determined to create him or not. Omniscience, then, becomes /oreknowl- 



PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF DECREES. 175 

edge only on condition of God's decree. That God's foreknowledge of free acts is 
intuitive does not affect this conclusion. We grant that, while man can predict free 
action only so far as it is rational ( i. e., in the line of previously dominant motive), God 
can predict free action whether it is rational or not. But even God cannot predict 
what is not certain to be. God can have intuitive foreknowledge of free human acts 
only upon condition of his own decree to create ; and this decree to create, in foresight 
of all that will follow, is a decree of what follows. For Arminian view, see Watson, 
Institutes, 2 : 375-398, 423-448. Per contra, see Hill, Divinity, 512-532 ; Fiske, in Bib. 
Sac, April, 1862 ; Bennet Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 214-254 ; Edwards the younger, 
1 : 398-420 ; A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 98-101. 

( b ) From the divine wisdom. 

It is the part of wisdom to proceed in every undertaking according to a 
plan. The greater the undertaking, the more needful a plan. Wisdom, 
moreover, shows itself in a careful provision for all possible circumstances 
and emergencies that can arise in the execution of its plan. That many 
such circumstances and emergencies are uncontemplated and unprovided 
for in the plans of men, is due only to the limitations of human wisdom. It 
belongs to infinite wisdom, therefore, not only to have a plan, but to 
embrace all, even the minutest details, in the plan of the universe. 

Xo architect would attempt to build a Cologne cathedral without a plan ; he would 
rather, if possible, have a design for every stone. The great painter does not study out 
his picture as he goes along ; the plan is in his mind from the start ; preparations for 
the last effects have to be made from the beginning. So in God's work every detail is 
foreseen and provided for ; sin and Christ entered into the original plan of the universe. 
Raymond, Syst. Theol., 2 : 156, says this implies that God cannot govern the world, unless 
all things be reduced to the condition of machinery ; and that it cannot be true, for the 
reason that God's government is a government of persons and not of things. But we 
reply that the wise statesman governs persons and not things, yet just in proportion to 
his wisdom he conducts his administration according to a preconceived plan. God's 
power might, but God's wisdom would not, govern the universe without embracing all 
things, even the least human action, in his plan. 

( c ) From the divine immutability. 

What God does, he always purposed to do. Since with him there is no 
increase of knowledge or power, such as characterizes finite beings, it fol- 
lows that what under any given circumstances he permits or does, he must 
have eternally decreed to permit or do. To suppose that God has a multi- 
tude of plans, and that he changes his plan with the exigencies of the 
situation, is to make him infinitely dependent upon the varying wills of his 
creatures, and to deny to him one necessary element of perfection, namely, 
immutability. 

Napoleon is said to have had a number of plans before each battle, and to have betaken 
himself from one to another as fortune demanded. No so with God. Job 23 : 13 —"he is in 
one mind and who can turn him?" James 1 : 17 — "the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither 
shadow that is cast by turning." Contrast with this Scripture McCabe's statement in his Fore- 
knowledge of God, 62—" This new factor, the godlike liberty of the human will, is capa- 
ble of thwarting, and in uncounted instances does thwart, the divine will, and compel 
the great I Am to modify his actions, his purposes, and his plans, in the treatment of 
individuals and of communities." 

(d) From the divine benevolence. 

The events of the universe, if not determined by the divine decrees, must 
be determined either by chance or by the wills of creatures. It is contrary 
to any proper conception of the divine benevolence to suppose that God 
permits the course of nature and of history, and the ends to which both 
these are moving, to be determined for myriads of sentient beings by any 



176 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

other force or will than his own. Both reason and revelation, therefore, 
compel us to accept the doctrine of the Westminster Confession, that "God 
did from all eternity, by the most just and holy counsel of his own will, 
freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. " 

It would not be benevolent for God to put out of his own power that which was so 
essential to the happiness of the universe. Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 331-243— "The 
denial of decrees involves denial of the essential attributes of God, such as omnipo- 
tence, omniscience, benevolence ; exhibits him as a disappointed and unhappy being- ; 
implies denial of his universal providence ; leads to a denial of the greater part of our 
own duty of submission ; weakens the obligation to gratitude." We give thanks to God 
for blessings which come to us through the free acts of others ; but unless God has 
purposed these blessings, we owe our thanks to these others and not to God. See 
Emmons, Works, 4 : 273-401 ; Princeton Essays, 1 : 57-73 ; Martineau, Study, 2 : 108. 

III. Objections to the doctrine of Decrees. 

1. That they are inconsistent with the free agency of man. 

To this we reply that : 

A. The objection confounds the decrees with the execution of the 
decrees. The decrees are, like foreknowledge, an act internal to the divine 
nature, and are no more inconsistent with free agency than foreknowledge 
is. Even foreknowledge of events implies that those events are fixed. If 
this absolute fixity and foreknowledge is not inconsistent with free agency, 
much less can that which is more remote from man's action, namely, the 
hidden cause of this fixity and foreknowledge — God's decrees — be incon- 
sistent with free agency. If anything be inconsistent with man's free 
agency, it must be, not the decrees themselves, but the execution of the 
decrees in creation and providence. 

On this objection, see Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 244-249 ; Forbes, Predestination and 
Free Will, 3—" All things are predestinated by God, both good and evil, but not preneces- 
sitated, that is, causally preordained by him — unless we would make God the author of 
sin. Predestination is thus an indifferent word, in so far as the originating author of 
anything is concerned ; God being the originator of good, but the creature, of evil. 
Predestination therefore means that God included in his plan of the world every act of 
every creature, good or bad. Some acts he predestined causally, others permissively. 
The certainty of the fulfillment of all God's purposes ought to be distinguished from 
their necessity." This means simply that God's decree is not the cause of any act or 
event. God's decrees may be executed by the causal efficiency of his creatures, or they 
may be executed by his own efficiency. In either case it is, if anything, the execution, 
and not the decree, that is inconsistent with human freedom. 

B. The objection rests upon a false theory of free agency — namely, that 
free agency implies indeterminateness or uncertainty ; in other words, that 
free agency cannot coexist with certainty as to the results of its exercise. 
But it is necessity, not certainty, with which free agency is inconsistent. 
Free agency is the power of self-determination in view of motives, or man's 
power (a) to choose between motives, and (6) to direct his subsequent 
activity according to the motive thus chosen. Motives are never a cause, 
but only an occasion ; they influence, but never compel ; the man is the 
cause, and herein is his freedom. But it is also true that man is never in a 
state of indeterminateness; never acts without motive, or contrary to all 
motives ; there is always a reason why he acts, and herein is his rationality. 
Now, so far as man acts according to previously dominant motive — see (6) 
a b ove — we may by knowing his motive predict his action, and our certainty 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF DECREES. 177 

what that action will be in no way affects his freedom. We may even bring 
motives to bear upon others, the influence of which we foresee, yet those 
who act upon them may act in perfect freedom. But if man, influenced by 
man, may still be free, then man, influenced by divinely foreseen motives, 
may still be free, and the divine decrees, which simply render certain man's 
actions, may also be perfectly consistent with man's freedom. 

There is, however, a smaller class of human actions by which character is 
changed, rather than expressed, and in which the man acts according to a 
motive different from that which has previously been dominant — see (a) 
above. These actions also are foreknown by God, although they cannot be 
predicted by man. Man's freedom in them would be inconsistent with 
God's decrees, if the previous certainty of their occurrence were, not certainty, 
but necessity ; or, in other words, if God's decrees were in all cases decrees 
efficiently to produce the acts of his creatures. But this is not the case. 
God's decrees may be executed by man's free causation, as easily as by God's ; 
and God's decreeing this free causation, in decreeing to create a universe of 
which he foresees that this causation will be a part, in no way interferes 
with the freedom of such causation, but rather secures and establishes it. 
Both consciousness and conscience witness that God's decrees are not exe- 
cuted by laying compulsion upon the free wills of men. 

It may aid us, in estimating the force of this objection, to note the four 
senses in which the term ' freedom ' may be used. It may be used as equiv- 
alent to (1) physical freedom, or absence of outward constraint; (2) for- 
mal freedom, or a state of moral indeterminateness ; (3) moral freedom, 
or self-determinateness in view of motives ; (4) real freedom, or ability to 
conform to the divine standard. With the first of these we are not now 
concerned, since all agree that the decrees lay no outward constraint upon 
men. Freedom in the second sense has no existence, since all men have 
character. Free agency, or freedom in the third sense, has just been shown 
to be consistent with the decrees. Freedom in the fourth sense, or real 
freedom, is the special gift of God, and is not to be confounded with free 
agency. The objection mentioned above rests wholly upon the second of 
these definitions of free agency. This we have shown to be false, and with 
this the objection itself falls to the ground. 

A more full discussion of the doctrine of the Will is given under Anthropology, pages 
257-260. It is sufficient here to say that the Arminian objections to the decrees arise 
almost wholly from erroneously conceiving of freedom as the -will's power to decide, in 
any given case, against its own character and all the motives brought to bear upon it. 
As we shall hereafter see, this is practically to deny that man has character, or that the 
will by its right or wrong moral action gives to itself, as well as to the intellect and 
affections, a permanent bent or predisposition to good or evil. It is to extend the power 
of contrary choice, a power which belongs to the sphere of transient volition, over all 
those permanent states of intellect, affection, and will which we call the moral char- 
acter, and to say that we can change directly by a single volition that which, as a matter 
of fact, we can change only indirectly through processes and means. Yet even this 
exaggerated view of freedom would seem not to exclude God's decrees, or prevent a 
practical reconciliation of the Arminian and Calvinistic views, so long as the Arminian 
grants God's foreknowledge of free human acts, and the Calvinist grants that God's 
decree of these acts is not necessarily a decree that God will efficiently produce them. 
For a close approximation of the two views, see articles by Raymond and by A. A. 
Hodge, respectively, on the Arminian and the Calvinistic Doctrines of the Will, in 
McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, 10 : 989, 992. 

We therefore hold to the certainty of human action, and so part company with the 
12 



178 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

Arminian. We cannot, with Whedon ( On the Will ), Tappan ( On the Will ), and Hazard 
(Man a Creative First Cause), attribute to the will the freedom of indifference, or the 
power to act without motive. We hold with Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 183, that 
action without motive, or an act of pure will, is unknown in consciousness (see, how- 
ever, an inconsistent statement of Calderwood, on page 188 of the same work). Every 
future human act will not only be performed with a motive, but will certainly be one 
thing- rather than another ; and God knows what it will be. Whatever may be the 
method of God's foreknowledge, and whether it be derived from motives or be intu- 
itive, that foreknowledge presupposes God's decree to create, and so presupposes the 
making certain of the free acts that follow creation. 

But this certainty is not necessity. In reconciling God's decrees with human free- 
dom, we must not go to the other extreme, and reduce human freedom to mere 
determinism, or the power of the agent to act out his character in the circumstances 
which environ him. Human action is not simply the expression of previously dominant 
affections ; else neither Satan nor Adam could have fallen, nor could the Christian ever 
sin. We therefore part company with Jonathan Edwards and his Treatise on the 
Freedom of the Will, as well as with the younger Edwards (Works, 1 : 420), Alexander 
(Moral Science, 107), and Charles Hodge (Syst. Theology, 2 : 278), all of whom foUow 
Jonathan Edwards in identifying sensibility with the will, in regarding affections as the 
causes of volitions, and in speaking of the connection between motive and action as a 
necessary one. We hold, on the contrary, that sensibility and will are two distinct 
powers, that affections are occasions but never causes of volitions, and that, while 
motives may infallibly persuade, they never compel the will. The power to make the 
decision other than it is resides in the will, though it may never be exercised. With 
Charnock, the Puritan (Attributes, 1 : 448-450), we say that "man hath a power to do 
otherwise than that which God foreknows he will do." Since, then, God's decrees are 
not executed by laying compulsion upon human wills, they are not inconsistent with 
man's freedom. See Martineau, Study, 2 : 237, 249, 258, 261 ; also article by A. H. Strong, 
on Modified Calvinism, or Remainders of Freedom in Man, in Baptist Review, 1883 : 219- 
243; reprinted in the author's Philosophy and Religion, 114-128. 

2. That they take away all motive for human exertion. 

To this we reply that : 

(a) They cannot thus influence men, since they are not addressed to 
men, are not the rule of human action, and become known only after the 
event. This objection is therefore the mere excuse of indolence and dis- 
obedience. 

Men rarely make this excuse in any enterprise in which their hopes and their interests 
are enlisted. It is mainly in matters of religion that men use the divine decrees as an 
apology for their sloth and inaction. 

(6) The objection confounds the decrees of God with fate. But it is to 
be observed that fate is unintelligent, while the decrees are framed by a 
personal God in infinite wisdom ; fate is indistinguishable from material 
causation and leaves no room for human freedom, while the decrees exclude 
all notion of physical necessity ; fate embraces no moral ideas or ends, 
while the decrees make these controlling in the universe. 

North British Rev., April, 1870— "Determinism and predestination spring from prem- 
ises which he in quite separate regions of thought. The predestinarian is obliged by 
his theology to admit the existence of a free will in God, and, as a matter of fact, he 
does admit it in the devil. But the final consideration which puts a great gulf between 
the determinist and the predestinarian is this, that the latter asserts the reality of the 
vulgar notion of moral desert. Even if he were not obliged by his interpretation of 
Scripture to assert this, he would be obliged to assert it in order to help out his doctrine 
of eternal reprobation." 

(c) The objection ignores the logical relation between the decree of the 
end and the decree of the means to secure it. The decrees of God not only 
ensure the end to be attained, but they ensure free human action as logically 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF DECREES. 179 

prior thereto. All conflict between the decrees and human exertion must 
therefore be apparent and not real. Since consciousness and Scripture 
assure us that free agency exists, it must exist by divine decree; and 
though we may be ignorant of the method in which the decrees are 
executed, we have no right to doubt either the decrees or the freedom. 
They must be held to be consistent, until one of them is proved to be a 
delusion. 

The man who carries a vase of gold-fish does not prevent the fish from moving 
unrestrainedly within the vase. The double track of a railway enables a formidable 
approaching train to slip by without colliding with our own. Our globe takes us with 
it, as it rushes round the sun, yet we do our ordinary work without interruption. The 
two movements which at first sight seem inconsistent with each other are really parts 
of one whole. God's plan and man's effort are equally in harmony. 

(d) Since the decrees connect means and ends together, and ends are 
decreed only as the result of means, they encourage effort instead of dis- 
couraging it. Belief in God's plan that success shall reward toil, incites to 
courageous and persevering effort. Upon the very ground of God's decree, 
the Scripture urges us to the diligent use of means. 

God has decreed the harvest only as the result of man's labor in sowing and reaping ; 
G-od decrees wealth to the man who works and saves ; so answers are decreed to prayer, 
and salvation to faith. Compare Paul's declaration of God's purpose ( Acts 27 : 22, 24 — " there 
shall be no loss of life among you ... . God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee " ) with his warning 
to the centurion and sailors to use the means of safety (verse 31— "Except these abide in the ship, 
ye cannot be saved " ). See also Phil. 2 : 12, 13 — " work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is 
God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure" ; Eph. 2 : 10— "we are his workmanship, 
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them " ; Deut. 29 • 29 —"the 
secret things belong unto the Lord our God : but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, 
that we may do all the words of this law." See JBennet Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 253-254. 

3. That they make God the author of sin. 

To this we reply : 

(a) They make God, not the author of sin, but the author of free beings 
who are themselves the authors of sin. God does not decree efficiently to 
work evil desires or choices in men. He decrees sin only in the sense of 
decreeing to create and preserve those who will sin ; in other words, he 
decrees to create and preserve human wills which, in their own self-chosen 
courses, will be and do evil. In all this, man attributes sin to himself and 
not to God, and God hates, denounces, and punishes sin. 

Joseph's brethren were none the less wicked for the fact that God meant their conduct 
to result in good ( Gen. 50 : 20 ). Pope Leo X and his indulgences brought on the Refor- 
mation, but he was none the less guilty. Slaveholders would have been no more excus- 
able, even if they had been able to prove that the negro race was cursed in the curse of 
Canaan (Gen. 9 : 25— "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren"). Fitch, in 
Christian Spectator, 3 : 601— "There can be and is a purpose of God which is not an 
efficient purpose. It embraces the voluntary acts of moral beings, without creating 
those acts by divine efficiency." See Martineau, Study, 2 : 107, 136. 

( b ) The decree to permit sin is therefore not an efficient but a permis- 
sive decree, or a decree to permit, in distinction from a decree to produce 
by his own efficiency. No difficulty attaches to such a decree to permit sin, 
which does not attach to the actual permission of it. But God does actually 
permit sin, and it must be right for him to permit it. It must therefore be 
right for him to decree to permit it. If God's holiness and wisdom and 
power are not impugned by the actual existence of moral evil, they are not 
impugned by the original decree that it should exist. 



180 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OP GOD. 

Jonathan Edwards, Works, 2 : 160 — " The sun is not the cause of the darkness that fol- 
lows its setting, but only the occasion"; 254— "If toy the author of sin be meant the 
sinner, the agent, or the actor of sin, or the doer of a wicked thing— so it would be a 

reproach and blasphemy to suppose God to be the author of sin But if by author 

of sin is meant the permitter or not-hinderer of sin, and at the same time a disposer of 
the state of events in such a manner, for wise, holy, and most excellent ends and pur- 
poses, that sin, if it be permitted and not hindered, will most certainly follow, I do not 
deny that God is the author of sin ; it is no reproach to the Most High to be thus the 
author of sin." On the objection that the doctrine of decrees imputes to God two wills, 
and that he has foreordained what he has forbidden, see Bennet Tyler, Memoir and Lec- 
tures, 250-252— "A ruler may forbid treason ; but his command does not oblige him to do 
all in his power to prevent disobedience to it. It may promote the good of his kingdom 
to suffer the treason to be committed, and the traitor to be punished according to law. 
That in view of this resulting good he chooses not to prevent the treason, does not imply 
any contradiction or opposition of will in the monarch." 

( c ) The difficulty is therefore one which in substance clings to all theistic 
systems alike — the question why moral evil is permitted under the govern- 
ment of a God infinitely holy, wise, powerful, and good. This problem is, 
to our finite powers, incapable of full solution, and must remain to a great 
degree shrouded in mystery. With regard to it we can only say : 

Negatively, — that God does not permit moral evil because he is not unal- 
terably opposed to sin ; nor because moral evil was unforeseen and inde- 
pendent of his will ; nor because he could not have prevented it in a moral 
system. Both observation and experience, which testify to multiplied 
instances of deliverance from sin without violation of the laws of man's 
being, forbid us so to limit the power of God. 

Positively, — we seem constrained to say that God permits moral evil 
because moral evil, though in itself abhorrent to his nature, is yet the 
incident of a system adapted to his purpose of self- revelation ; and further, 
because it is his wise and sovereign will to institute and maintain this system 
of which moral evil is an incident, rather than to withhold his self-revelation 
or to reveal himself through another system in which moral evil should be 
continually prevented by the exercise of divine power. 

For advocacy of the view that God cannot prevent evil in a moral system, see Birks, 
Difficulties of Belief , 17 ; Young, The Mystery, or Evil not from God ; Bledsoe, Theodicy ; 
N. W. Taylor, Moral Government, 1 : 288-349 ; 2 : 327-366. According to Dr. Taylor's view, 
God has not a complete control over the moral universe ; moral agents can do wrong 
under every possible influence to prevent it ; God prefers, all things considered, that all 
his creatures should be holy and happy, and does all in his power to make them so ; the 
existence of sin is not on the whole for the best ; sin exists because God cannot prevent 
it in a moral system ; the blessedness of God is actually impaired by the disobedience of 
his creatures. For criticism of these views, see Tyler, Letters on the New Haven The- 
ology, 120, 219. Tyler argues that election and non-election imply power in God to 
prevent sin; that permitting is not mere submitting to something which he could not 
possibly prevent. We would add that as a matter of fact God has preserved holy angels, 
and that there are " just men " who have been " made perfect " ( leb. 12 • 23 ) without violating the 
laws of moral agency. We infer that God could have so preserved Adam. The history 
of the church leads us to believe that there is no sinner so stubborn that God cannot 
renew his heart,— even a Saul can be turned into a Paul. We hesitate therefore to ascribe 
limits to God's power. While Dr. Taylor held that God could not prevent sin in a moral 
system, that is, in any moral system, Dr. Park is understood to hold the greatly prefer- 
able view that God cannot prevent sin in the best moral system. Flint, Christ's Kingdom 
upon Earth, 59—" The alternative is, not evil or no evil, but evil or the miraculous pre- 
vention of evil." See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 406-422. 

But even granting that the present is the best moral system, and that in such a system 
evil cannot be prevented consistently with God's wisdom and goodness, the question 
still remains how the decree to initiate such a system can consist with God's funda- 
mental attribute of holiness. Of this insoluble mystery we must say as Dr. John Brown, 



CONCLUDING REMARKS ON DECREES. 181 

in Spare Hours, 273, says of Arthur H. Hallam's Theodicsea Xovissima : " As was to be 
expected, the tremendous subject remains where he found it. His glowing love and 
genius cast a gleam here and there across its gloom, but it is as brief as the Ughtning 
in the collied night— the jaws of darkness do devour it up — this secret belongs to God. 
Across its deep and dazzling darkness, and from out its abyss of thick cloud, ' all dark, 
dark, irrecoverably dark,' no steady ray has ever or will ever come; over its face its 
own darkness must brood, till he to whom alone the darkness and the light are both 
alike, to whom the night shineth as the day, says ' Let there be light ! ' " 

We must remember, however, that the decree of redemption is as old as the decree of 
the apostasy. The provision of salvation in Christ shows at how great a cost to God was 
permitted the fall of the race in Adam. He who ordained sin ordained also an atone- 
ment for sin and a way of escape from it. Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 388 — " The permission 
of sin has cost God more than it nas man. No sacrifice and suffering on account of sin 
has been undergone by any man, equal to that which has been endured by an incarnate 
God. This shows that God is not acting selfishly in permitting it." On the permission 
of moral evil, see Butler, Analogy, Bonn's ed., 177, 232— "The Government of God, and 
Christianity, as Schemes imperfectly comprehended " ; Hill, System of Divinity, 528-559 
Ulrici, art. : Theodicee, in Herzog's EncyclopSdie ; Cunningham, Historical Theology, 2 
416-489; Patton, on Retribution and the Divine Purpose, in Princeton Rev., 1878 : 16-23 
Bib. Sac, 20 : 471-488. 

IY. CONCLTJDING BeMAKKS. 

1. Practical uses of the doctrine of decrees. 

(a) It inspires humility by its representation of God's unsearchable 
counsels and absolute sovereignty. ( b ) It teaches confidence in him who 
has wisely ordered our birth, our death, and our surroundings, even to 
the minutest particulars, and has made all things work together for the 
triumph of his kingdom and the good of those who love him. (c) It 
shows the enemies of God that, as their sins have been foreseen and pro- 
vided for in God's plan, so they can never, while remaining in their sins, 
hope to escape their decreed and threatened penalty, (d) It urges the 
sinner to avail himself of the appointed means of grace, if he would be 
counted among the number of those for whom God has decreed salvation. 

This doctrine is one of those advanced teachings of Scripture which requires for its 
understanding a matured mind and a deep experience. The beginner in the Christian 
life may not see its value or even its truth, but with increasing years it will become a 
staff to lean upon. In times of affliction, obloquy and persecution, the church has 
found in the decrees of God, and in the prophecies in which those decrees are published, 
her strong consolation. It is only upon the basis of the decrees that we can believe that 
" all things work together for good " ( Rom. 8 : 28 ) or pray " thy will be done " ( Mat. 6 : 10 ). 

It is a striking evidence of the truth of the doctrine that even Arminians pray and 
sing like Calvinists. Charles Wesley, the Arminian, can write : " He wills that I should 
holy be— What can withstand his will? The counsel of his grace in me He surely will 
fulfill." On the Arminian theory, prayer that God will soften hard hearts is out of 
place,— the prayer should be offered to the sinner ; for it is his will, not God's, that is 
in the way of his salvation. And yet this doctrine of Decrees, which at first sight might 
seem to discourage effort, is the greatest, in fact is the only effectual, incentive to 
effort. For this reason Calvinists have been the most strenuous advocates of civil 
liberty. Those who submit themselves most unreservedly to the sovereignty of God 
are most delivered from the fear of man. Whitefield the Calvinist, and not Wesley 
the Arminian, originated the great religious movement in which the Methodist Church 
was born (see McFetridge, Calvinism in History, 153), and Spurgeon's ministry has been 
as fruitful in conversions as Finney's. See Froude, Essay on Calvinism; Andrew 
Fuller, Calvinism and Socinianism compared in their Practical Effects ; Atwater, Calvin- 
ism in Doctrine and Life, in Princeton Review, 1875 : 73. 

2. True method of 'preaching the doctrine. 

{a) We should most carefully avoid exaggeration or unnecessarily obnox- 
ious statement. ( b ) We should emphasize the fact that the decrees are not 
grounded in arbitrary will, but in infinite wisdom. ( c ) We should make it 



182 NATURE DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

plain that whatever God does or will do, he must from eternity have pur- 
posed to do. ( d ) We should illustrate the doctrine so far as possible by 
instances of completeness and far-sightedness in human plans of great 
enterprises, (c) We may then make extended application of the truth to 
the encouragement of the Christian and the admonition of the unbeliever. 

For illustrations of foresight, instance Louis Napoleon's planning the Suez Canal, and 
declaring his policy as Emperor, long before he ascended the throne of France. For 
instances of practical treatment of the theme in preaching, see Bushnell, Sermon on 
Every Man's Life a Plan of God, in Sermons for the New Life ; Nehemiah Adams, Even- 
ings with the Doctrines, 243; Spurgeon's Sermon on Ps. 44 : 3 — "Because thou hadst a favor unto 
them." Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra : " Grow old along with me 1 The best is yet 
to be, The last of life for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand Who saith 
A whole I planned ; Youth shows but half ; trust God ; See all, nor be afraid ! ' " 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE WORKS OF GOD ; OR THE EXECUTION OF THE DECREES. 



SECTION I. — CREATION. 

1. Definition of Creation. 

By creation we mean that free act of the triune God by which in the 
beginning for his own glory he made, without the use of preexisting mate- 
rials, the whole visible and invisible universe. 

Quenstedt divides the works of God into three classes : ( 1 ) works of power, as crea- 
tion, and preservation ; (2) works of compassion, as redemption, calling', regeneration; 
(3) works of just ice, as resurrection and final judgment. 

In explanation we notice : 

(a) Creation is not "production out of nothing," as if "nothing" were 
a substance out of which "something" could be formed. 

We do not regard the doctrine of Creation as bound to the use of the phrase " creation 
out of nothing," and as standing or falling with it. The phrase is a philosophical one, 
for which we have no Scriptural warrant, and it is objectionable as intimating tnat 
** nothing " can itself be an object of thought and a source of being. The germ of truth 
intended to be convej'ed in it can better be expressed in the phrase " without use of 
preexisting materials." 

( 6 ) Creation is not a fashioning of j)reexisting materials, nor an emana- 
tion from the substance of Deity, but is a making of that to exist which 
once did not exist, either in form or substance. 

There is nothing divine in creation but the origination of substance. Fashioning is 
competent to the creature also. Gassendi said to Descartes that God's creation, if he 
is the author of forms but not of substances, is only that of the tailor who clothes a man 
with his apparel. 

( c ) Creation is not an instinctive or necessary process of the divine nature, 
but is the free act of a rational will, put forth for a definite and sufficient end. 

Creation is different in kind from that eternal process of the divine nature in virtue of 
which we speak of generation and procession. The Son is begotten of the Father, and 
is of the same essence ; the world is created without preexisting material, is different 
from God, and is made by God. Begetting is a necessarj'- act ; creation is the act of 
God's free grace. Begetting is eternal, out of time ; creation is in time, or with time. 

(d) Creation is the act of the triune God, in the sense that all the persons 
of the Trinity, themselves uncreated, have a part in it — the Father as the 
originating, the Son as the mediating, the Spirit as the realizing cause. 

The work of the Holy Spirit seems to be that of completing, bringing to perfection. 
■On the definition of Creation, see Shedd, History of Doctrine, 1 : 11. 

183 



184 NATUKE, DECKEES; AND WORKS OF GOD. 

II. Proof of the Doctrine of Creation. 

Creation is a truth of which mere science or reason cannot fully assure 
us. Physical science can observe and record changes, but it knows nothing 
of origins. Eeason cannot absolutely disprove the eternity of matter. For 
proof of the doctrine of Creation, therefore, we rely wholly upon Scripture. 
Scripture supplements science, and renders its explanation of the universe 
complete. 

Drummond, in his Natural Law in the Spiritual World, claims that atoms, as " manu- 
factured articles," and the dissipation of energy, prove the creation of the visible from 
the invisible. See the same doctrine propounded in " The Unseen Universe." But Sir 
Charles Lyell tells us : " Geology is the autobiography of the earth,— but like all auto- 
biographies, it does not go back to the beginning." Hopkins, Yale Lectures on the 
Scriptural View of Man: "There is nothing a priori against the eternity of matter." 
Wardlaw, Syst. Theol., 2 : 65—" We cannot form any distinct conception of creation out 
of nothing. The very idea of it might never have occurred to the mind of man, had it 
not been traditionally handed down as a part of the original revelation to the parents of 
the race." 

Hartmann, the German philosopher, goes back to the original elements of the universe, 
and then says that science stands petrified before the question of their origin, as before 
a Medusa's head. But in the presence of problems, says Dorner, the duty of science is 
not petrifaction, but solution. This is peculiarly true, if science is, as Hartmann thinks, 
a complete explanation of the universe. Since science, by her own acknowledgment, 
furnishes no such explanation of the origin of things, the Scripture revelation with 
regard to creation meets a demand of human reason, by adding the one fact without 
which science must forever be devoid of the highest unity and rationality. For advo- 
cacy of the eternity of matter, see Martineau, Essays, 1 : 157-169. 

1. Direct Scripture statements. 

A. Genesis 1 : 1 — "In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth." To this it has been objected that the verb K}2 does not necessarily 
denote production without the use of preexisting materials ( see Gen. 1 : 27 
— "God created man in his own image" ; cf. 2 : 7 — "the Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground"; also Ps. 51 : 10 — "Create in me a clean 
heart"). 

"In the first two chapters of Genesis &03 is used ( 1) of the creation of the universe 
(1:1); (2) of the creation of the great sea monsters (1 : 21); (3) of the creation of man 
(1:27). Everywhere else we read of God's making, as from an already created sub- 
stance, the firmament (1:7), the sun, moon, and stars ( 1 : 16 ), the brute creation ( 1 : 25 ) ; 
or of his forming the beasts of the field out of the ground (2 : 19); or, lastly, of his 
building up into a woman the rib he had taken from man (2 : 22, margin) '"—quoted from 
Bible Com., 1 : 31. Guyot, Creation, 30— " Bara is thus reserved for marking the first 
introduction of each of the three great spheres of existence— the world of matter, the 
world of life, and the spiritual world represented by man." 

But we reply: 

(a) While we acknowledge that the verb N"n3 "does not necessarily or 
invariably denote production without the use of preexisting materials, we 
still maintain that it signifies the j)roduction of an effect for which no nat- 
ural antecedent existed before, and which can be only the result of divine 
agency." For this reason, in the Kal species it is used only of God, and is 
never accompanied by any accusative denoting material. 

No accusative denoting material follows bara, in the passages indicated, for the reason 
that all thought of material was absent. See Dillmann, Genesis, 18 ; Oehler, Theol. 
O. T., 1 : 177. The quotation in the text above is from Green, Hebrew Chrestomathy, 67- 



PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION. 185 

( b ) In the account of the creation, *03 is accurately distinguished from 
nfcyy, " to make " either with or without the use of already existing material 
(j*W> ,1 7 X?3, "created in making" or "made by creation," in 2 : 3 ; and 
frjtH of the firmament, in 1 : 7), and from 12T, "to form " out of such mate- 
rial. ( See tf-P'l, of man regarded as a spiritual being, in 1 : 27 ; but 12n, of 
man regarded as a physical being, in 2 : 7. ) 

See Conant, Genesis, 1 ; Bible Com., 1 : 37 — " ' created to make ' ( in Gen. 2:3) = created 
out of nothing-, in order that he might make out of it all the works recorded in the six 
days." 

( c ) The context shows that the meaning here is a making without the use 
of preexisting materials. Since the earth in its rude, unformed, chaotic 
condition is still called "the earth" in verse 2, the word &03 in verse 1 
cannot refer to any shaping or fashioning of the elements, but must signify 
the calling of them into being. 

( d ) The fact that 503 may have had an original signification of ' ' cutting, " 
" forming," and that it retains this meaning in the Piel conjugation, need not 
prejudice the conclusion thus reached, since terms expressive of the most 
spiritual processes are derived from sensuous roots. If JO 3 does not signify 
absolute creation, no word exists in the Hebrew language that can express 
this idea. 

( e ) But this idea of production without the use of preexisting materials 
unquestionably existed among the Hebrews. The later Scriptures show 
that it had become natural to the Hebrew mind. The possession of this 
idea can be best explained by supposing that it was derived from this early 
revelation. 

Bib. Com., 1 : 31 — "Perhaps no other ancient language, however refined and philo- 
sophical, could have so clearly distinguished the different acts of the Maker of all things 
[ as the Hebrew did with its four different words ], and that because all heathen philoso- 
phy esteemed matter to be eternal and uncreated." Prof. E. D. Burton : " Brahmanism, 
and the original religion of which Zoroastrianism was a reformation, were Eastern and 
Western divisions of a primitive Aryan, and probably monotheistic, religion. The Vedas, 
which represent the Brahmanism, leave it a question whence the world came, whether 
from God by emanation, or by the shaping of material eternally existent. Later 
Brahmanism is pantheistic, and Buddhism, the reformation of Brahmanism, is atheistic." 
See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 471, and Mosheim's references in Cudworth's Intellectual 
System, 3 : 140. 

We are inclined still to hold that the doctrine of absolute creation was known to no 
other ancient nation besides the Hebrews. Recent investigations, however, render this 
somewhat more doubtful than it once seemed to be. Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, 143, 143, 
finds creation among the early Babylonians. It is now claimed by others that Zoroas- 
trianism, the -Vedas, and the religion of the ancient Egyptians had the idea of absolute 
creation. On Creation in the Zoroastrian system, see our treatment of Dualism, page 
188. Vedic hymn in Rig Veda, 10 : 9, quoted by J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, 2 : 205 — 
"Originally this universe was soul only; nothing else whatsoever existed, active or 
inactive. He thought : ' I will create worlds ' ; thus he created these various worlds : 
earth, light, mortal being, and the waters." Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 216-223, speaks 
of a papyrus on the staircase of the British Museum, which reads : " The great God, the 
Lord of heaven and earth, who made all things which are .... the almighty God, self- 
existent, who made heaven and earth ; . . . . the heaven was yet uncreated, uncreated 
was the earth ; thou hast put together the earth ; . . . . who made all things, but was not 
made." 

But the Egyptian religion in its later development, as well as Brahmanism, was pan- 
theistic, and it is possible that all the expressions we have quoted are to be interpreted, 
not as indicating a belief in creation out of nothing, but as asserting emanation, or the 
taking on by deity of new forms and modes of existence. On creation in heathen sys- 
tems, see Pierret, Mythologie, and answer to it by Maspero ; Hymn to Amen-Rha, in 
" Records of the Past " ; G. C. MUller, Literature of Greece, 87, 88. 



186 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

B. Hebrews 11 : 3 — " By faith we understand that the worlds have been 
framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of 
things which do appear " ( Bible Union Version) = the world was not made 
out of sensible and preexisting material, but by the direct fiat of omnipo- 
tence (see Alford, and Liinemann, Meyer's Com. in loco). 

Compare 2 Maccabees 7 : 28 — <=£ ovk ovnav enoiyo-ev avTa 6 0e6?. This the Vulgate trans- 
lated by "quia ex nihilo fecit ilia Deus," and from the Vulgate the phrase "creation 
out of nothing " is derived. Hedge, Ways of the Spirit, points out that Wisdom 11 : 17 
has e£ <i/u.6p<f>ov uAtjs, interprets by this the e£ ovk. 6vr<av in 2 Maccabees, and denies that this 
last refers to creation out of nothing. But we must remember that the later Apocry- 
phal writings were composed under the influence of the Platonic philosophy ; that the 
passage in Wisdom may be a rationalistic interpretation of that in Maccabees ; and that 
even if it were independent, we are not to assume a harmony of view in the Apocrypha. 
2 Maccabees 7 : 28 must stand by itself as a testimony to Jewish belief in creation without 
use of preexisting material,— a belief which can be traced to no other source than the 
Old Testament Scriptures. Compare Ex, 34 : 10 — "I will do marvels such as have not been wrought 
[ marg. ' created ' ] in all the earth " ; Num. 16 : 30 — " if the Lord make a new thing," [ marg. " create a creation " ] ; 
Is. 4 : 5— "the Lord will create .... a cloud and smoke" ; 41 : 20— "the Holy One of Israel hath created it" ; 45 : 
7, 8 — "I form the light, and create darkness" ; 57 : 19 — "I create the fruit of the lips" ; 65 : 17 — "I create new 
heavens and a new earth" ; Jer. 31 : 22— "the Lord hath created a new thing" ; Rom. 4 . 17— "God who quickeneth 
the dead, and calleth the things that are not as though they were" ; 1 Cor. 1 28— "things that are not" [did God 
choose ] " that he might bring to naught the things that are." 

2. Indirect evidence from Scripture. 

(a) The past duration of the world is limited; (b) before the world 
began to be, each of the persons of the Godhead already existed ; ( c ) the 
origin of the universe is ascribed to God, and to each of the persons of the 
Godhead. These representations of Scripture are not only most consistent 
with the view that the universe was created by God without use of preex- 
isting material, but they are inexplicable upon any other hypothesis. 

(a) Mark 13 : 19— "from the beginning of the creation which God created until now" ; John 17 : 5 — "before the 
world was " ; Eph. 1 : 4 — " before the foundation of the world." ( b ) Ps. 90 : 2 — " Before the mountains were brought 
forth Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God" ; Prov. 
8 : 23 — "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Or ever the earth was" ; John 1 : 1— "In the beginning 
was the Word" ; Col. 1 : 17 — "he is before all things" ; Heb. 9 : 14 — "the eternal Spirit" (see Tholuck, Com. 
in loco), (c ) Eph. 3 : 9 — "God who created all things" ; Rom. 11 : 36 — "of him ... are all things" ; 1 Cor. 
8 : 6 — "one God, the Father, of whom are all things .... one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things" John 
1 : 3 — "all things were made through him" ; Col. 1 : 16 — "in him were all things created .... all things have been 
created through him, and unto him" ; Heb. 1 : 2 — "through whom also he made the worlds" ; Gen. 1 : 2 — "and the 
spirit of God moved [marg. 'was brooding' ] upon the face of the waters." See, on this indirect proof of 
creation, Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 232. Since other views, however, have been held to 
be more rational than that of creation out of nothing, we proceed to the examination of 

III. Theobies which oppose Creation. 

1. Dualism. 

Of dualism there are two forms : 

A. That which holds to two self-existent principles, God and matter. 
These are distinct from and coeternal with each other. Matter, however, 
is an unconscious, negative, and imperfect substance, which is subordinate 
to God, and is made the instrument of his will. This was the view of the 
Alexandrian Gnostics. It was essentially an attempt to combine with Chris- 
tianity the Platonic conception of the vXrj. In this way it thought to account 
for the existence of evil, and to escape the difficulty of imagining a produc- 
tion without use of preexisting material. A similar view has been held 



THEORIES WHICH OPPOSE CREATION. 187 

in modern times by John Stuart Mill, and apparently by Frederick W. 
Robertson. 

Basilides (flourished 135) and Valentinus (died 160) best represent the Alexandrian 
Gnostics. Lightfoot Com. on Colossians, 76-113, esp. 82, has traced a connection 
between the Gnostic doctrine, the earlier Colossian heresy, and the still earlier teaching 
of the Essenes of Palestine. All these were characterized by (1) the spirit of caste or 
intellectual exclusiveness ; (2) peculiar tenets as to creation and as to evil ; (3) practi- 
cal asceticism. Matter is evil and separates man from God ; hence intermediate beings 
between man and God as objects of worship ; hence also mortification of the body as 
a means of purifying man from sin. Paul's antidote for both errors was simply the 
person of Christ, the true and only Mediator and Sanctifler. See Guericke, Church 
History, 1 : 161. 

The author of "The Unseen Universe" (page 17) wrongly calls John Stuart Mill a 
Manicheean. But Mill disclaims belief in the personality of this principle that resists and 
limits God,— see his posthumous Essays on Religion, 176-195. F. W. Robertson, Lectures 
on Genesis, 4-16 : " Before the creation of the world all was chaos .... but with the 
creation, order began .... God did not cease from creation, for creation is going on 
every day. Nature is God at work. Only after surprising changes, as in spring-time, 
do we say figuratively, ' God rests.' " So also Frothingham, Christian Philosophy. 

"With regard to this view we remark : 

(a) The maxim ex nihilo nihil Jit, upon which it rests, is true only in 
so far as it asserts that no event takes place without a cause. It is false, if 
it mean that nothing can ever be made except out of material previously 
existing. The maxim is therefore applicable only to the realm of second 
causes, and does not bar the creative power of the great first Cause. The 
doctrine of creation does not dispense with a cause ; on the other hand, it 
assigns to the universe a sufficient cause in God. 

Lucretius : " Nihil posse creari Dejnihilo, neque quod genitum est ad nihil revocari." 
Persius : " Gigni De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse reverti." Martensen, Dogmatics, 
116 — " The nothing, out of which God creates the world, is the eternal possibilities of his 
will, which are the sources of all the actualities of the world." Lewes, Problems of 
Life and Mind, 2 : 292— "When therefore it is argued that the creation of something 
from nothing is unthinkable and is therefore peremptorily to be rejected, the argu- 
ment seems to me to be defective. The process is thinkable, but not imaginable, 
conceivable but not provable." See Cudworth, Intellectual System, 3 : 81 sq. 

(b) Although creation without the use of preexisting material is incon- 
ceivable, in the sense of being unpicturable to the imagination, yet the 
eternity of matter is equally inconceivable. For creation without pre- 
existing material, moreover, we find remote analogies in our own creation 
of ideas and volitions, a fact as inexplicable as God's bringing of new sub- 
stances into being. 

Mivart, Lessons from Nature, 371, 372— "We have to a certain extent an aid to the 
thought of absolute creation in our own free volition, which, as absolutely originating 
and determining, may be taken as the type to us of the creative act." We speak of ' the 
creative faculty ' of the artist or poet. We cannot give reality to the products of our 
imaginations, as God can to his. But if thought were only substance, the analogy 
would be complete. Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1:467— "Our thoughts and volitions are 
created ex nihilo, in the sense that one thought is not made out of another thought, nor 
one volition out of another volition." 

( c ) It is unphilosophical to postulate two eternal substances, when one 
self -existent Cause of all things will account for the facts. 

(d) It contradicts our fundamental notion of God as absolute sovereign 
to suppose the existence of any other substance to be independent of his 
Tvill. 

(e) This second substance with which God must of necessity work, since 



188 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

it is, according to the theory, inherently evil and the source of evil, not 
only limits God's power, but destroys his blessedness. 

(/) This theory does not answer its purpose of accounting for moral 
evil, unless it be also assumed that spirit is material, — in which case dual- 
ism gives place to materialism. 

Martensen, Dogmatics, 121—" God becomes a mere demiurge, if nature existed before 
spirit. That spirit only who in a perfect sense is able to commence his work of creation 
can have power to complete it." If God does not create, he must use what material he 
finds, and this working- with intractable material must be his perpetual sorrow. Such 
limitation in the power of the deity seemed to John Stuart Mill the best explanation 
of the existing- imperfections of the universe. 

The other form of dualism is : 

B. That which holds to the eternal existence of two antagonistic spirits, 
one evil and the other good. In this view, matter is not a negative and 
imperfect substance which nevertheless has self-existence, but is either the 
work or the instrument of a personal and positively malignant intelligence, 
who wages war against all good. This was the view of the Manichseans. 
Manichaeanism is a compound of Christianity and the Persian doctrine of 
two eternal and opposite intelligences. Zoroaster, however, held matter to 
be pure, and to be the creation of the good Being. Mani apparently 
regarded matter as captive to the evil spirit, if not absolutely his creation. 

The old story of Mani's travels in Greece is wholly a mistake. Guericke, Church 
History, 1 : 185-187, maintains that Manichaeanism contains no mixture of Platonic 
philosophy, has no connection with Judaism, and as a sect came into no direct relations 
with the Catholic church. Harnoch, Wegweiser, 33, calls Manichaeanism a compound 
of Gnosticism and Parseeism. Herzog, Encyclopadie, art. : Mani und die Manichaer, 
regards Manichaeanism as the fruit, acme, and completion of Gnosticism. Gnosticism 
was a heresy in the church ; Manichaeanism, like New Platonism, was an anti-church. 
J. P. Lange: "These opposing theories represent various pagan conceptions of the 
world, which, after the manner of palimpsests, show through Christianity." Isaac 
Taylor speaks of " the creator of the carnivora " ; and some modern Christians practi- 
cally regard Satan as a second and equal God. 

On the Religion of Zoroaster, see Haug, Essays on Parsees, 139-161, 303-309 ; also quota- 
tions on pp. 167, 169 ; Monier Williams, in 19th Century, Jan., 1881 : 155-177 : Ahura Mazda 
was the creator of the universe. Matter was created by him, and was neither identified 
with him nor an emanation from him. In the divine nature there were two opposite, 
but not opposing, principles or forces, called "twins"— the one constructive, the other 
destructive; the one beneficent, the other maleficent. Zoroaster called these "twins" 
also by the name of "spirits," and declared that "these two spirits created, the one the 
reality, the other the non-reality." Williams says that these two principles wei^e con- 
flicting only in name. The only antagonism was between the resulting good and evil 
brought about by the free agent, man. 

We may add that in later times this personification of principles in the deity seems to 
have become a definite belief in two opposing personal spirits, and that Mani, Manes, 
or Manichaeus adopted this feature of Parseeism, with the addition of certain Christian 
elements. Hagenbach, History of Doctrine, 1 : 470— "The doctrine of the Manichasans 
was that creation was the work of Satan." See also Gieseler, Church History, 1 : 303; 
Neander, Church History, 1 : 478-505 ; Blunt, Diet. Doct. and Hist. Theology, art. : Dual- 
ism ; and especially JBaur, Das manich&ische Religionssystem. 

Of this view we need only say that it is refuted ( a ) by all the arguments 
for the unity, omnipotence, sovereignty, and blessedness of God ; ( 6 ) by 
the Scripture representations of the prince of evil as the creature of God 
and as subject to God's control. 

Scripture passages showing that Satan is God's creature or subject are the following : 

Col. 1 ; 16— "for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, 
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers" ; c/. Eph. 6 : 12 — "our wrestling is not against flesh and 
blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual 



THEORIES WHICH OPPOSE CREATION. 189 

hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places " ; 2 Pet. 2:4—" God spared not the angels when they sinned, but cast them 
down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" ; Rev. 20 : 2— "laid hold on the 
dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan " 10 — " and the devil which deceived them was cast into the lake 
of fire and brimstone" 

2. Emanation. 

This theory holds that the universe is of the same substance with God, 
and is the product of successive evolutions from his being. This was the 
view of the Syrian Gnostics. Their system was an attempt to interpret 
Christianity in the forms of Oriental theosophy. A similar doctrine was 
taught, in the last century, by Swedenborg. 

"We object to it upon the following grounds: (a) It virtually denies the 
infinity and transcendence of God, — by applying to him a principle of evo- 
lution, growth, and progress which belongs only to the finite and imperfect. 
(6) It contradicts the divine holiness, — since man, who by the theory is 
of the substance of God, is nevertheless morally evil, (c) It leads logically 
to pantheism, — since the claim that human personality is illusory cannot 
be maintained without also surrendering belief in the personality of God. 

Saturniims of Antioch, Bardesanes of Edessa, Tatian of Assyria, Marcion of Sinope, 
all of the second century, were representatives of this view. Blunt, Diet, of Doct. and 
Hist. Theology, art. : Emanation : " The divine operation was symbolized by the image 
of the rays of light proceeding from the sun, which were most intense when nearest to 
the luminous substance of the body of which they formed a part, but which decreased 
in intensity as they receded from their source, until at last they disappeared altogether 
in darkness. So the spiritual effulgence of the Supreme Mind formed a world of spirit, 
the intensity of which varied inversely with its distance from its source, until at length 
it vanished in matter. Hence there is a chain of ever expanding ./Eons which are 
increasing attenuations of his substance and the sum of which constitutes his fullness, 
i. e. the complete revelation of his hidden being." Emanation, from e, and manare, to 
flow forth. Guericke, Church History, 1 : 160— "many flames from one light .... the 
direct contrary to the doctrine of creation from nothing." Neander, Church History, 
1 : 372-374. 

On the difference between Oriental emanation and eternal generation, see Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 1 : 470, and History Doctrine, 1 : 11-13, 318, note— "1. That which is eter- 
nally generated is infinite, not finite ; it is a divine and eternal person who is not the 
world or any portion of it. In the Oriental schemes, emanation is a mode of accounting 
for the origin of the finite. But eternal generation still leaves the finite to be origi- 
nated. The begetting of the Son is the generation of an infinite person who afterwards 
creates the finite universe de nihilo. 2. Eternal generation has for its result a subsist- 
ence or personal hypostasis totally distinct from the world ; but emanation in relation 
to the deity yields only an impersonal or at most a personified energy or effluence which 
is one of the powers or principles of nature — a mere anima mundi." The truths of 
which Emanation was the perversion and caricature were therefore the generation of 
the Son and the procession of the Spirit. 

Swedenborg held to emanation,— see Divine Love and Wisdom, 283, 303, 305— "Every 
one who thinks from clear reason sees that the universe is not created from nothing. 
.... All things were created out of a substance .... As God alone is substance in 
itself and therefore the real esse, it is evidence that the existence of things is from no 
other source .... Yet the created universe is not God, because God is not in time and 
space .... There is a creation of the universe, and of all things therein, by continual 
mediations from the First .... In the substances and matters of which the earths 
consist, there is nothing of the Divine in itself, but they are deprived of all that is 
divine in itself .... Still they have brought with them by continuation from the sub- 
stance of the spiritual sun that which was there from the Divine." 

Napoleon asked Goethe what matter was. "Esprit gele— frozen spirit" was the 
answer Schelling wished Goethe had given him. But neither is matter spirit, nor are 
matter and spirit together mere natural effluxes from God's substance. A divine insti- 
tution of them is requisite ( quoted substantially from Dorner, System of Doctrine, 2 : 
40). Still another theory which seeks to avoid this pantheistic conclusion is that of 



190 NATURE, DECREES AND WORKS OF GOD. 

3. Creation from eternity. 

This theory regards creation as an act of God in eternity past. It was 
propounded by Origen, and has been held in recent times by Martensen. 
The necessity of supposing such creation from eternity has been argued 
upon the grounds : 

( a ) That it is a necessary result of God's omnipotence. But we reply 
that omnipotence does not necessarily imply actual creation; it implies 
only power to create. Creation, moreover, is in the nature of the case a 
thing begun. Creation from eternity is a contradiction in terms, and that 
which is self -contradictory is not an object of power. 

( b ) That it is impossible to conceive of time as having had a beginning, 
and since the universe and time are coexistent, creation must have been 
from eternity. But we reply that the argument confounds time with dura- 
tion. Time is duration measured by successions, and in this sense time can 
be conceived of as having had a beginning. 

( c ) That the immutability of God requires creation from eternity. But 
we reply that God's immutability requires not an eternal creation but only 
an eternal plan of creation. The opposite principle would compel us to 
deny the possibility of miracles, incarnation, and regeneration. Like crea- 
tion, these too must be eternal. 

(d) That God's love renders necessary a creation from eternity. But we 
reply, on the one hand, that a finite creation cannot furnish satisfaction to 
the infinite love of God ; and on the other hand, that God has from eternity 
an object of love infinitely superior to any possible creation, in the person 
of his Son. 

Although this theory claims that creation is an act, in eternity past, of 
God's free will, yet its conceptions of God's omnipotence and love, as 
necessitating creation, are difficult to reconcile with the divine inde- 
pendence or personality. Since God's power and love are infinite, their 
demands cannot be satisfied without a creation infinite in extent as well as 
eternal in past duration — in other words, a creation equal to God. But a 
God thus dependent upon external creation is neither free nor sovereign. 
A God existing in necessary relations to the universe, if different in sub- 
stance from the universe, must be the God of dualism; if of the same 
substance with the universe, must be the God of pantheism. 

Origen held that God was from eternity the creator of the world of spirits. Marten- 
sen, in his Dogmatics, 114, shows favor to the maxims : " Without the world God is not 
God .... God created the world to satisfy a want in himself .... He cannot but con- 
stitute himself the Father of spirits." A modern German poet gives the following 
popular expression to this view : " Freundlos war der grosse Weltenmeister ; Fuhlte 
Mangel, darum schuf er Geister; Sel'ge Spiegel seiner Seligkeit. Fand das hochste 
Wesen schon kein Gleiches ; Aus dem Kelch des ganzen Geisterreiches, Schaumt ihm die 
Unendlichkeit." See Knight, Studies in Philos. and Lit., 94 (quotation from Byron's 
Cain, 1:1); Martineau, Study, 1 : 144; 2 : 250. 

We must distinguish creation in eternity past ( = God and the world coe'ternal, yet God 
the cause of the world, as he is the begetter of the Son) from continuous creation (which 
is an explanation of preservation, but not of creation at all ). It is this latter, not the 
former, to which Rothe holds ( see under the doctrine of Preservation, pages 205, 206 ). 
Birks, Difficulties of Belief, 81, 82 — " Creation is not from eternity, since past eternity 
cannot be actually traversed, any more than we can reach the bound of an eternity 
to come. There was no time before creation, because there was no succession." 



THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION. 191 

Is creation infinite ? No. says Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 459, because to a perfect crea- 
tion unity is as necessary as multiplicity. The universe is an organism, and there can 
be no organism without a definite number of finite parts. For a similar reason, Dorner 
denies that the universe can be eternal. So Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 220-225 
— "What has a goal or end must have a beginning; history, as teleological, implies 
creation." For the idealistic and monistic theory of creation, see Lotze, Philos. of 
Religion, 70-80. 

4. Spontaneous generation. 

This theory holds that creation is but the name for a natural process still 
going on, — matter itself having in it the power, under proper conditions, of 
taking on new functions, and of developing into organic forms. This view 
is held by Owen and Bastian. We object that 

( a ) It is a pure hypothesis, not only unverified, but contrary to all known 
facts. No credible instance of the production of living forms from inor- 
ganic material has yet been adduced. So far as science can at present teach 
us, the law of nature is i omne vivum e vivo,' or { ex ovo.' 

( 6 ) If such instances could be authenticated, they would prove nothing 
as against a proper doctrine of creation, — for there would still exist an 
impossibility of accounting for these vivific properties of matter, except 
upon the Scriptural view of an intelligent Contriver and Originator of mat- 
ter and its laws. In short, evolution implies previous involution, — if any- 
thing comes out of matter, it must first have been put in. 

( c ) This theory, therefore, if true, only supplements the doctrine of origi- 
nal, absolute, immediate creation, with another doctrine of mediate and 
derivative creation, or the development of the materials and forces origi- 
nated at the beginning. This development, however, cannot proceed to any 
valuable end without the guidance of the same intelligence which initiated 
it. The Scriptures, although they do not sanction the doctrine of sponta- 
neous generation, do recognize processes of development as supplementing 
the divine fiat which first called the elements into being. 

Owen, Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates, 3 : 814-818— on Monogeny or Thau- 
matogeny ; quoted in Argyll, Reign of Law, 281— "We discern no evidence of a pause 
or intromission in the creation or coming-to-be of new plants and animals." So Bastian, 
Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms, Beginnings of Life, and articles on Heteroge- 
neous Evolution of Living Things, in "Nature," 2 : 170, 193, 219, 410, 431. See Huxley's 
Address before the British Association, and Reply to Bastian, in "Nature," 2 : 400, 473; 
also Origin of Species, 69-79, 'and Physical Basis of Life, in Lay Sermons, 132. Answers 
to this last by Stirling, in Half -hours with Modern Scientists, and by Beale, Protoplasm, 
or Life, Matter, and Mind, 73-75. 

In favor of Redi's maxim, Omne vivum e vivo, see Huxley, in Encyc. Britannica, art. : 
Biology, 689—" At the present moment there is not a shadow of trustworthy direct evi- 
dence that abiogenesis does take place or has taken place within the period during which 
the existence of the earth is recorded " ; Flint, Physiology of Man, 1 : 263-265 — "As the 
only true philosophic view to take of the question, we shall assume in common with 
nearly all the modern writers on physiology that there is no such thing as spontaneous 
generation,— admiting that the exact mode of production of the infusoria lowest in the 
scale of life is not understood." On the Philosophy of Evolution, see A. H. Strong, 
Philosophy and Religion, 39-57. 

TV. The Mosaic Account of Creation. 

1. Its twofold nature, — as uniting the ideas of creation and of develop- 
ment. 

(a) Creation is asserted. — The Mosaic narrative avoids the error of mak- 
ing the universe eternal or the result of an eternal process. The cosmogony 



192 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

of Genesis, unlike the cosmogonies of the heathen, is prefaced by the 

originating act of God, and is supplemented by successive manifestations 

of creative power in the introduction of brute and of human life. 

All nature-worship, whether it take the form of ancient polytheism or modern 
materialism, looks upon the universe only as a birth or a growth. This view has a basis 
of truth, inasmuch as it regards natural forces as having a real existence. It is false in 
regarding these forces as needing no originator or upholder. Hesiod taught that in the 
beginning was formless matter. Genesis does not begin thus. God is not a demiurge, 
working on eternal matter. God antedates matter. He is the creator of matter at the 
first (Gen. 1 : 1 — bara) and he subsequently creates animal life (Gen. 1 : 21 — "and God created" — 
bara) and the life of man ( Gen. 1 : 27— "and God created man"— bara again). 

(6) Development is recognized. — The Mosaic account represents the 
present order of things as the result, not simply of original creation, but 
also of subsequent arrangement and development. A fashioning of inor- 
ganic materials is described, and also a use of these materials in providing 
the conditions of organized existence. Life is described as reproducing 
itself, after its first introduction, according to its own laws and by virtue of 
its own inner energy. 

Martensen wrongly asserts that "Judaism represented the world exclusively as crea- 
tura, not natura ; as kt«tis, not </>vo-is." This is not true. Creation is represented as the 
bringing forth, not of something dead, but of something living and capable of self- 
development. Creation lays the foundation for cosmogony. Not only is there a fash- 
ioning and arrangement of the material which the original creative act has brought into 
being ( see Gen. 1 : 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 16, 17 ; 2 : 6, 7, 8 — Spirit brooding ; dividing light from darkness, 
and waters from waters ; dry land appearing ; setting apart of sun, moon, and stars ; 
mist watering ; forming man's body; planting garden), but there is also an imparting 
and using of the reproductive powers of the things and beings created ( Gen. 1 : 12, 22, 24, 28— 
earth brought forth grass ; trees yielding fruit whose seed was in itself ; earth brought 
forth the living creatures; man commanded to be fruitful and multiply). 

The tendency at present among men of science is to regard the whole history of life 
upon the planet as the result of evolution, thus excluding creation, both at the begin- 
ning of the history and along its course. On the progress from the Orohippus, the 
lowest member of the equine series, an animal with four toes, to Anchitherium with 
three, then to Hipparion, and finally to our common horse, see Huxley in "Nature" for 
May 11, 1876 : 33, 34. He argues that, if a complicated animal like the horse has arisen by 
gradual modification of a lower and less specialized form, there is no reason to think 
that other animals have arisen in a different way. Clarence King, Address at Yale Col- 
lege, 1877, regards American geology as teaching the doctrine of sudden yet natural 
modification of species. " When catastrophic change burst in upon the ages of uni- 
formity and sounded in the ear of every living thing the words: 'Change or die!' 
plasticity became the sole principle of action." Nature proceeded then by leaps, and 
corresponding to the leaps of geology we find leaps of biology. 

We grant the probability that the great majority of what we call species were pro- 
duced in some such ways. If science should render it certain that all the present species 
of living creatures were derived by natural descent from a few original germs, and that 
these germs were themselves an evolution of inorganic forces and materials, we should 
not therefore regard the Mosaic account as proved untrue. We should only be required 
to revise our interpretation of the word bara in Gen. 1 : 21, 27, and to give it there the 
meaning of mediate creation, or creation by law. Such a meaning might almost seem 
to be favored by Gen. 1 : 11— "let the earth put forth grass" ; 20— "let the waters bring forth abundantly the 
moving creature that hath life" ; 2 : 7 — "the Lord God formed man of the dust" ; 9— "out of the ground made the 
Lord God to grow every tree." 

This derivation, however, of all living creatures by successive modifications from 
a few original germs, and much more the theory of spontaneous generation already 
alluded to, are yet so far from being demonstrated, that we see no sufficient reason for 
departing from the conclusions previously reached,— that the Mosaic narrative describes 
the introduction of brute and of human life, as well as the calling into being of the 
elements at the beginning, as acts of absolute origination. In the creation of the brute 
and of man, while the physical material was already at hand, as in the dust of which 



THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION. 193 

man's body was formed, the principle of life was apparently a new creation of God. 
See Herzog, Encyclopadie, art.: Schopfung, 20 : 718; Martensen, Dogmatics, 117; Shedd, 
Dogm. TheoL, 1 : 471-487. For further discussion of man's origin, see section on Man a 
Creation of God, in our treatment of Anthropology, pages 234-238. 

2. Its proper interpretation. 

We adopt neither (a) the allegorical, or mythical, (6) the hyperliteral, 
nor (c) the hyperscientific interpretations of the Mosaic narrative; but 
rather (d) the pictorial-summary interpretation, — which holds that the 
account is a rough sketch of the history of creation, true in all its essential 
features, but presented in a graphic form suited to the common mind and 
to earlier as well as to later ages. While conveying to primitive man as 
accurate an idea of God's work as man was able to comprehend, the revela- 
tion was yet given in pregnant language, so that it could expand to all the 
ascertained results of subsequent physical research. This general corre- 
spondence of the narrative with the teachings of science, and its power to 
adapt itself to every advance in human knowledge, differences it from 
every other cosmogony current among men. 

(a) The allegorical, or mythical, interpretation represents the Mosaic account as 
embodying, like the Indian and Greek cosmogonies, the poetic speculations of an early 
race as to the origin of the present system. We object to this interpretation upon the 
ground that the narrative of creation is inseparably connected with the succeeding 
history, and is therefore most naturally regarded as itself historical. This connection 
of the narrative of creation with the subsequent history, moreover, prevents us from 
believing it to be the description of a vision granted to Moses. It is more probably the 
record of an original revelation to the first man, handed down to Moses' time, and used 
by Moses as a proper introduction to his history. For comparison of the Biblical with 
heathen cosmogonies, see Blackie in Theol. Eclectic, 1 : 77-87 ; Guyot, Creation, 58-63 ; 
Pope, Theology, 1 : 401, 402; Bible Commentary, 1 : 36, 48 ; Mcllvaine, Wisdom of Holy 
Scripture, 1-54; J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, 2 : 193-221. For the theory of 'pro- 
phetic vision,' see Kurtz, Hist, of Old Covenant, Introd., i-xxxvii, civ-cxxx ; and Hugh 
Miller, Testimony of the Rocks, 179-210. 

(b) The hyperliteral interpretation would withdraw the narrative from all compar- 
ison with the conclusions of science, by putting the ages of geological history between 
the first and second verses of Gen. 1, and by making the remainder of the chapter an 
account of the fitting up of the earth, or of some limited portion of it, in six days of 
twenty-four hours each. Among the advocates of this view, now generally discarded, 
are Chalmers, Natural Theology, Works, 1 : 228-258, and John Pye Smith, Mosaic Account 
of Creation, and Scripture and Geology. To this view we object that there is no indica- 
tion, in the Mosaic narrative, of so vast an interval between the first and the second 
verses ; that there is no indication, in the geological history, of any such break between 
the ages of preparation and the present time (see Hugh Miller, Testimony of the Rocks, 
141-178): and that there are indications in the Mosaic record itself that the word "day" 
is not used in its literal sense ; while the other Scriptures unquestionably employ it to 
designate a period of indefinite duration (Gen. 1 : 5— "God called the light Day "—a day before 
there was a sun ; 8 — "there was evening and there was morning, a second day " ; 2:2 — God "rested on the 
seventh day " ; c/. Heb. 4 : 3-10 — where God's day of rest seems still to continue, and his people 
are exhorted to enter into it ; Gen. 2:4—" the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven " — " day " here 
covers all the seven days; c/. Is. 2 : 12— "a day of the Lord of hosts" ; Zech. 14 : 7— "it shall be one day 
which is known unto the Lord ; not day, and not night " ; 2 Pet. 3 : 8 — " one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, 
and a thousand years as one day " ). Guyot, Creation, 34, objects also to this interpretation, that 
the narrative purports to give a history of the making of the heaven as well as of the 
earth ( Gen. 2:4—" these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth " ), whereas this interpretation 
confines the history to the earth. On the meaning of the word "day," as a period of 
indefinite duration, see Dana, Manual of Geology, 744 ; LeConte, Religion and Science, 262. 

( c ) The hyperscientiflc interpretation would find in the narrative a minute and precise 
correspondence with the geological record. This is not to be expected, since it is for- 
eign to the purpose of revelation to teach science. Although a general concord between 

13 



194 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

the Mosaic and the geological histories may he pointed out, it is a needless embarrass- 
ment to compel ourselves to find in every detail of the former an accurate statement 
of some scientific fact. Far more probable we hold to be 

( d ) The pictorial-summary interpretation. Before explaining this in detail, we would 
premise that we do not hold this or any future scheme of reconciling Genesis and geol- 
ogy to be a finality. Such a settlement of all the questions involved, would presuppose 
not only a perfected science of the physical universe, but also a perfected science of her- 
meneutics. It is enough if we can offer tentative solutions which represent the present 
state of thought upon the subject. Remembering, then, that any such scheme of recon- 
ciliation may speedily be outgrown without prejudice to the truth of the Scripture 
narrative, we present the following as an approximate account of the coincidences 
between the Mosaic and the geological records. The scheme here given is a combina- 
tion of the conclusions of Dana and Guyot, and assumes the substantial truth of the 
nebular hypothesis. It is interesting to observe that Augustine, who knew nothing of 
modern science, should have reached, by simple study of the text, some of the same 
results. See his Confessions, 12:8— "First God created a chaotic matter, which was 
next to nothing. This chaotic matter was made from nothing, before all days. Then 
this chaotic, amorphous matter was subsequently arranged, in the succeeding six 
days" ; De Genes, ad Lit., 4 : 27— "The length of these days is not to be determined by 
the length of our week-days. There is a series in both cases, and that is all." We pro- 
ceed now to the scheme : 

1. The earth, if originally in the condition of a gaseous fluid, must have been void and 
formless as described in Genesis 1 : 2. Here the earth is not yet separated from the con- 
densing nebula, and its fluid condition is indicated by the term "waters."' 

2. The beginning of activity in matter would manifest itself by the production of 
light, since light is a resultant of molecular activity. This corresponds to the state- 
ment in verse 3. As the result of condensation, the nebula becomes luminous, and this 
process from darkness to light is described as follows : "there was evening and there was morning, 
one day." Here we have a day without a sun — a feature in the narrative quite consistent 
with two facts of science : first, that the nebula would naturally be self-luminous, and, 
secondly, that the earth proper, which reached its present form before the sun, would, 
when it was thrown off, be itself a self-luminous and molten mass. The day was there- 
fore continuous — day without a night. 

3. The development of the earth into an independent sphere and its separation from 
the fluid around it answers to the dividing of " the waters under the firmament from the waters above ", 
in verse 7. Here the word " waters " is used to designate the " primordial cosmic material " 
(Guyot, Creation, 35-37), or the molten mass of earth and sun united, from which the 
earth is thrown off. The term " waters " is the best which the Hebrew language affords to 
express this idea of a fluid mass. Ps. 148 seems to have this meaning, where it speaks of 
the " waters that be above the heavens " ( verse 4 ) — waters which are distinguished from the " deeps " 
below ( verse 7 ), and the " vapor " above ( verse 8 ). 

4. The production of the earth's physical features by the partial condensation of the 
vapors which enveloped the igneous sphere, and by the consequent outlining of the 
continents and oceans, is next described in verse 9 as the gathering of the waters into one 
place and the appearing of the dry land. 

5. The expression of the idea of fife in the lowest plants, since it was in type and effect 
the creation of the vegetable kingdom, is next described in verse 11 as a bringing into 
existence of the characteristic forms of that kingdom. This precedes all mention of 
animal life, since the vegetable kingdom is the natural basis of the animal. If it be said 
that our earliest fossils are animal, we reply that the earliest vegetable forms, the alga:, 
were easily dissolved, and might as easily disappear ; that graphite and bog-iron ore, 
appearing lower down than any animal remains, are the result of preceding vegetation ; 
that animal forms, whenever and wherever existing, must subsist upon and presuppose 
the vegetable. The Eozoon is of necessity preceded by the Eophyte. If it be said that 
fruit-trees could not have been created on the third day, we reply that since the creation 
of the vegetable kingdom was to be described at one stroke and no mention of it was to 
be made subsequently, this is the proper place to introduce it and to mention its main 
characteristic forms. See Bible Commentary, 1:36; LeConte, Elements of Geology, 
136, 285. 

6. The vapors which have hitherto shrouded the planet are now cleared away as pre- 
liminary to the introduction of life in its higher animal forms. The consequent appear- 
ance of solar light is described in verses 16 and 17 as a making of the sun, moon and stars, 
and a giving of them as luminaries to the earth. Compare Gen. 9 : 13 — " I do set my bow in the 



god's end in creation. 195 

cloud. As the rainbow had existed in nature before, but was now appointed to serve a 
peculiar purpose, so in the record of creation sun, moon, and stars, which existed 
before, were appointed as visible lights for the earth,— and that for the reason that the 
earth was no longer self-luminous, and the light of the sun struggling through the 
earth's encompassing clouds was not sufficient for the higher forms of life which were 
to come. 

7. The exhibition of the four grand types of the animal kingdom ( radiate, molluscan, 
articulate, vertebrate), which characterizes the next stage of geological progress, is 
represented in verses 20 and 21 as a creation of the lower animals — those that swarm in 
the waters, and the creeping and frying species of the land. Huxley, in his American 
Addresses, objects to this assigning of the origin of birds to the fifth day, and declares 
that terrestrial animals exist in lower strata than any form of bird,— birds appearing 
only in the Oolitic, or New Red Sandstone. But we reply that the fifth day is devoted 
to sea-productions, while land-productions belong to the sixth. Birds, according to the 
latest science, are sea-productions, not land-productions. They originated from Sauri- 
ans, and were, at the first, flying lizards. There being but one mention of sea-produc- 
tions, all these, birds included, are crowded into the fifth day. Thus Genesis anticipates 
the latest science. On the ancestry of birds, see Pop. Science Monthly, Mar., 1884 : 606 ; 
Baptist Magazine, 1877 : 505. 

8. The introduction of mammals— viviparous species, which are eminent above all 
other vertebrates for a quality prophetic of a high moral purpose, that of suckling their 
young— is indicated in verses 24 and 25 by the creation, on the sixth day, of cattle and 
beasts of prey. 

9. Man, the first being of moral and intellectual qualities, and the first in whom the 
unity of the great design has full expression, forms in both the Mosaic and the geologic 
record the last step of progress in creation ( see verses 26-31 ). With Prof. Dana, we may 
say that " in this succession we observe not merely an order of events like that deduced 
from science ; there is a system in the arrangement, and a far-reaching prophecy, to 
which philosophy could not have attained, however instructed." See Dana, Manual of 
Geology, 741-746, and in Bib. Sac, April, 1885 : 301-224. Richard Owen: "Man from the 
beginning of organisms was ideally present upon the earth " ; see Owen, Anatomy of 
Vertebrates, 3 : 796 ; Louis Agassiz : " Man is the purpose toward which the whole animal 
creation tends from the first appearance of the first palaeozoic fish." On the whole 
subject, see Guyot, Creation ; Review of Guyot, in N. Eng., July, 1884 : 591-594 ; Tayler 
Lewis, Six Days of Creation ; Thompson, Man in Genesis and in Geology ; Agassiz, in 
Atlantic Monthly, Jan., 1874 ; Dawson, Story of the Earth and Man, 32, and in Expositor, 
Apl., 1886; LeConte, Science and Religion, 264; Hill, in Bib. Sac, April, 1875; Peirce, 
Ideality in the Physical Sciences, 38-72 ; Boardman, The Creative Week ; Godet, Bib. 
Studies of O. T., 65-138; BeU, in "Nature," Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 1882; W. E. Gladstone, 
in Nineteenth Century, Nov., 1885 : 685-707, Jan., 1886 : 1, 176 ; reply by Huxley, in Nine- 
teenth Century, Dec, 1885, and Feb., 1886 ; Schmid, Theories of Darwin ; Bartlett, Sources 
of History in the Pentateuch, 1-35 ; Cotterill, Does Science Aid Faith in Regard to Crea- 
tion ? Cox, Miracles, 1-39— chapter i, on the Original Miracle— that of Creation ; Zock- 
ler, Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, and Urgeschichte, 1-77 ; Reusch, Bib. Schopfungs- 
geschichte. On difficulties of the nebular hypothesis, see Stallo, Modern Physics, 277-293. 

V. God's End in Creation. 

Infinite wisdom must, in creating, propose to itself the most comprehen- 
sive and the most valuable of ends, — the end most worthy of God, and the 
end most fruitful in good. Only in the light of the end proposed can we 
properly judge of God's work, or of God's character as revealed therein. 

It would seem that Scripture should give us an answer to the question : Why did 
God create ? The great Architect can best tell his own design. Ambrose : " To whom 
shall I give greater credit concerning God than to God himself?" 

In determining this end, we turn first to : 

1. The testimony of Scripture. 

This may be summed up in four statements. God finds his end ( a ) in 
himself; (6) in his own will and pleasure; (c) in his own glory ; (d) in 
the making known of his power, his wisdom, his holy name. All these state- 



196 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

ments may be combined in the following, namely, that God's supreme 
end in creation is nothing outside of himself, but is his own glory — in the 
revelation, in and through creatures, of the infinite perfection of his own 
being. 

(a) Rom. 11:36 — "unto him are all things"; Col. 1: 16 — "all things have been created .... unto him" 
( Christ); compare Is. 48 : 11 — "for mine own sake, for mine own sake, will I do it .... and my glory will I 
not give to another " ; and 1 Cor. 15 : 28 — " subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all." Proverbs 16 : 4 
=, not "The Lord hath made all things for himself" (A. V. ), but "The lord hath made every- 
thing for its own end " ( Rev. Vers. ). 

( lb ) Eph. 1 : 5, 6, 9 — " having foreordained us ... . according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the 
glory of his grace .... mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him " ; Rev. 4 : 11 — 
''thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created." 

(c) Is. 43 : 7— "whom I have created for my glory" ; 60 : 21 and 61 : 3 — the righteousness and bless- 
edness of the redeemed are secured, that "he might be glorified" ; Luke 2 : 14— the angels' song 
at the birth of Christ expressed the design of the work of salvation : " Glory to God in the 
highest," and only through, and for its sake, "on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased." 

(d) Ps. 143 : 11— "In thy righteousness bring my soul out of trouble" ; Ez. 36 : 21, 22— "I do not this for your 
sake .... but for mine holy name" ; 39 : 7 — "my holy name will I make known" ; Rom. 9 : 17 — to Pharaoh : 
" For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might shew in thee my power, and that my name might be published 
abroad in all the earth" ; 22, 23 — "riches of his glory" made known in vessels of wrath, and in ves- 
sels of mercy ; Eph. 3 : 9, 10 — " created all things ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers 
in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God." See Godet, 
on Ultimate Design of Man ; " God in man and man in God," in Princeton Rev., Nov., 
1880 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 436, 535, 565, 568. Per contra, see Miller, Fetich in Theology, 
19, 39-45, 88-98, 143-146. 

Since holiness is the fundamental attribute in God, to make himself, his 
own pleasure, his own glory, his own manifestation, to be his end in crea- 
tion, is to find his chief end in his own holiness, its maintenance, expres- 
sion, and communication. To make this his chief end, however, is not to 
exclude certain subordinate ends, such as the revelation of his wisdom, 
power, and love, and the consequent happiness of innumerable creatures to 
whom this revelation is made. 

2. The testimony of reason. 

That his own glory, in the sense just mentioned, is God's supreme end in 
creation, is evident from the following considerations : 

( a ) God's own glory is the only end actually and perfectly attained in 
the universe. Wisdom and omnipotence cannot choose an end which is 
destined to be forever unattained; for "what his soul desireth, even that 
he doeth" (Job 23 : 13). God's supreme end cannot be the happiness of 
creatures, since many are miserable here and will be miserable forever. 
God's supreme end cannot be the holiness of creatures, for many are 
unholy here and will be unholy forever. But while neither the holiness 
nor the happiness of creatures is actually and perfectly attained, God's glory 
is made known and will be made known in both the saved and the lost. 
This then must be God's supreme end in creation. 

This doctrine teaches us that none can frustrate God's plan. God will get glory out 
of every human life. Man may glorify God voluntarily by love and obedience, but if he 
will not do this he will be compelled to glorify God by his rejection and punishment. 
Better be the molten iron that runs freely into the mould prepared by the great 
Designer, than be the hard and cold iron that must be hammered into shape. 

(6) God's glory is the end intrinsically most valuable. The good of 
creatures is of insignificant importance compared with this. Wisdom die- 



god's end in creation. 197 

tates that the greater interest should have precedence of the less. Because 
God can choose no greater end, he must choose for his end himself. But 
this is to choose his holiness, and his glory in the manifestation of that 
holiness. 

Is. 40 : 15, 16 — "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance " 
— like the drop that falls unobserved from the bucket, like the fine dust of the scales 
which the tradesman takes no notice of in weighing-, so are all the combined millions of 
earth and heaven before God. He created, and he can in an instant destroy. The uni- 
verse is but a drop of dew upon the fringe of his garment. It is more important that 
God should be glorified than that the universe should be happy. As we read in Heb. 6 : 13 
—"since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself" — so here we may say: Because he could 
choose no greater end in creating, he chose himself. But to swear by himself is to swear 
by his holiness (Ps. 89 : 35). We infer that to find his end in himself is to find that end in 
his holiness. See Martineau on Malebranche, in Types, 177. 

( c ) His own glory is the only end which consists with God's independ- 
ence and sovereignty. Every being is dependent upon whomsoever or 
whatsoever he makes his ultimate end. If anything in the creature is the 
last end of God, God is dependent upon the creature. But since God is 
dependent only on himself, he must find in himself his end. 

To create is not to increase his blessedness, but only to reveal it. There is no need or 
deficiency which creation supplies. The creatures who derive all from him can add 
nothing to him. All our worship is only the rendering back to him of that which is his 
own. He notices us only for his own sake and not because our little rivulets of praise 
add anything to the ocean-like fullness of his joy. For his own sake, and not because of 
our misery or our prayers, he redeems and exalts us. To make our pleasure and welfare 
his ultimate end would be to abdicate his throne. He creates, therefore, only for his 
own sake and for the sake of his glory. To this reasoning the London Spectator replies : 
"The glory of God is the splendor of a manifestation, not the intrinsic splendor mani- 
fested. The splendor of a manifestation, however, consists in the effect of the manifes- 
tation on those to whom it is given. Precisely because the manifestation of God's 
goodness can be useful to us and cannot be useful to him, must its manifestation be 
intended for our sake and not for his sake. "We gain everything by it — he nothing, 
except so far as it is his own will that we should gain what he desires to bestow upon 
us." In this last clause we find the acknowledgment of weakness in the theory that 
God's supreme end is the good of his creatures. God does gain the fulfillment of his 
plan, the doing of his will, the manifestation of himself. The great painter loves his 
picture less than he loves his ideal. He paints in order to express himself. God loves 
each soul which he creates, but he loves yet more the expression of his own perfections 
in it. And this self-expression is his end. Robert Browning, Paracelsus, 54— "God is 
the perfect Poet, Who in creation acts his own conceptions." Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 
1 : 367, 358. 

(d) His own glory is an end which comprehends and secures, as a sub- 
ordinate end, every interest of the universe. The interests of the universe 
are bound up in the interests of God. There is no holiness or happiness 
for creatures except as God is absolute sovereign, and is recognized as 
such. It is therefore not selfishness, but benevolence, for God to make his 
own glory the supreme object of creation. Glory is not vain-glory, and in 
expressing his ideal, that is, in expressing himself, in his creation, he com- 
municates to his creatures the utmost possible good. 

This self-expression is not selfishness but benevolence. No true poet writes for money 
or for fame. God does not manifest himself for the sake of what he can make by it. 
Self-manifestation is an end in itself. But God's self -manifestation comprises all good 
to his creatures. We are bound to love ourselves and our own interests just in propor- 
tion to the value of those interests. The monarch of a realm or the general of an army 
must be careful of his life, because the sacrifice of it may involve the loss of thousands 
of lives of soldiers or subjects. So God is the heart of the great system. Only by being 
tributary to the heart can the members be supplied with streams of holiness and happi- 



198 KATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

Bess. And so for only one Being in the universe is it safe to live for himself. Man 
should not live for himself, because there is a higher end. But there is no higher end 
for God. " Only one being in the universe is excepted from the duty of subordination. 
Man must be subject to the 'higher powers' (Rom. 13 : 1). But there are no higher powers to 
God." See Park, Discourses, 181-309. 

(e) God's glory is the end which in a right moral system is proposed to 
creatures. This must therefore be the end which he in whose image they 
are made proposes to himself. He who constitutes the centre and end of 
all his creatures must find his centre and end in himself. This principle of 
moral philosophy, and the conclusion drawn from it, are both explicitly 
and implicitly taught in Scripture. 

The beginning of all religion is the choosing of God's end as our end — the giving up 
of our preference of happiness, and the entrance upon a life devoted to God. That 
happiness is not the ground of moral obligation, is plain from the fact that there is no 
happiness in seeking happiness. That the holiness of God is the ground of moral obli- 
gation, is plain from the fact that the search after holiness is not only successful in Itself, 
but brings happiness also in its train. Archbishop Leighton, "Works, 695—" It is a won- 
derful instance of wisdom and goodness that God has so connected his own glory with 
our happiness, that we cannot properly intend the one, but that the other must follow as 
a matter of course, and our own felicity is at last resolved into his eternal glory.'* That 
God will certainly secure the end for which he created, his own glory, and that his end 
is our end, is the true source of comfort in affliction, of strength in labor, of encourage- 
ment in prayer. See Psalm 25 : 11 — " For thy name's sake .... Pardon my iniquity, for it is great " ; 115 : 1 — 
" Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, But unto thy name give glory " ; Mat. 6 : 33 — " Seek ye first his kingdom, and his 
righteousness; and all these things shall he added unto you"; 1 Cor. 10 : 31— "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, 
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God " ; 1 Pet. 2 : 9 — "Ye are an elect race, .... that ye may shew forth the 
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" ; 4 : 11 — speaking, ministering, 
"that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. 
Amen." On the whole subject, see Edwards, Works, 2 : 193-257 ; Janet, Final Causes, 443- 
455 Princeton Theol. Essays, 2 : 15-32 ; Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 358-362. 

VI. Relation of the Doctbine of Creation to other Doctrines. 

1. To the holiness and benevolence of God. 

Oreation, as the work of God, manifests of necessity God's moral 
attributes. But the existence of physical and moral evil in the universe 
appears, at first sight, to impugn these attributes, and to contradict the 
Scripture declaration that the work of God's hand was "very good" (Gen. 
1 : 31 ). This difficulty may be in great part removed by considering that : 

( a ) At its first creation, the world was good in two senses : first, as free 
from moral evil, — sin being a later addition, the work, not of God, but of 
created spirits; secondly, as adapted to beneficent ends, — for example, the 
revelation of God's perfection, and the probation and happiness of intelli- 
gent and obedient creatures. 

(6) Physical pain and imperfection, so far as they existed before the 
introduction of moral evil, are to be regarded : first, as congruous parts of 
a system of which sin was foreseen to be an incident; and secondly, as 
constituting, in part, the means of future discipline and redemption for the 
fallen. 

The coprolites of Saurians contain the scales and bones of fish which they have 
devoured. Rom. 8 : 20-22 — " For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him 
who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of 
the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation [ the irrational creation ] groaneth and 
travaileth in pain together until now" ; 23 — our mortal body, as a part of nature, participates in 
the same groaning. 2 Cor. 4 : 17 — " our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more 
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." 



RELATIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION. 199 

This is not a perfect world. It was not perfect even when originally constituted. Its 
imperfection is due to sin. God made it with reference to the Fall,— the stage was 
arranged for the great drama of sin and redemption which was to be enacted thereon. 
We accept Bushnell's idea of " anticipative consequences," and would illustrate it by 
the building of a hospital-room while yet no member of the family is sick, and by the 
salvation of the patriarchs through a Christ yet to come. If the earliest vertebrates of 
geological history were types of man and preparations for his coming, then pain and 
death among those same vertebrates may equally have been a type of man's sin and its 
results of misery. If sin had not been an incident, foreseen and provided for, the world 
might have been a Paradise. As a matter of fact, it will become a Paradise only at the 
completion of the redemptive work of Christ. Kreibig, Versohnung, 369— "The death 
of Christ was accompanied by startling occurrences in the outward world, to show that 
the effects of his sacrifice reached even into nature." Perowne refers Ps. 96 : 10 — " The world 
also is stablished that it cannot be moved " — to the restoration of the inanimate creation ; cf. Heb. 
12 : 27 — " And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have 
been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain " ; Rev. 21 : 1, 5 — " a new heaven and a new earth .... 
Behold, I make all things new." 

Martineau, Types, 2 : 151 — " What meaning could Pity have in a world where suffering 
was not meant to be ? " Hicks, Critique of Design Arguments, 386 — " The very badness 
of the world convinces us that God is good." And Sir Henry Taylor's words : " Pain in 
man Bears the high mission of the flail and fan ; In brutes 't is surely piteous "—receive 
their answer : The brute is but an appendage to man, and like inanimate nature it suffers 
from man's fall— suffers not wholly in vain, for even pain in brutes serves to illustrate 
the malign influence of sin and to suggest motives for resisting it. Pascal : " Whatever 
virtue can be bought with pain is cheaply bought." The pain and imperfection of the 
world are God's frown upon sin and his warning against it. See Bushnell, chapter on 
Anticipative Consequences, in Nature and the Supernatural, 194-219. Also MeCosh, 
Divine Government, 26-35, 249-261; Farrar, Science and Theology, 82-105; Johnson, in 
Bap. Rev., 6 : 141-154, 

2. To the wisdom and free-will of God. 

No plan whatever of a finite creation can fully express the infinite perfec- 
tion of God. Since God, however, is immutable, he must always have had a 
plan of the universe ; since he is perfect, he must have had the best possible 
plan. As wise, God cannot choose a plan less good, instead of one more 
good. As rational, he cannot between plans equally good make a merely 
arbitrary choice. Here is no necessity, but only the certainty that infinite 
wisdom will act wisely. As no compulsion from without, so no necessity 
from within, moves God to create the actual universe. Creation is both 
wise and free. 

As God is both rational and wise, his having a plan of the universe must be better than 
his not having a plan would be. But the universe once was not ; yet without a uni- 
verse God was blessed and sufficient to himself. God's perfection therefore requires, 
not that he have a universe, but that he have a plan of the universe. Again, since God 
is both rational and wise, his actual creation cannot be the worst possible, nor one 
arbitrarily chosen from two or more equally good. It must be, all things considered, 
the best possible. We are optimists rather than pessimists. 

But we reject that form of optimism which regards evil as the indispensable condition 
of the good, and sin as the direct product of God's will. We hold that other form of 
optimism which regards sin as naturally destructive, but as made, in spite of itself, by 
an overruling providence, to contribute to the highest good. For the optimism which 
makes evil the necessary condition of finite being, see Leibnitz, Opera Philosophica, 
468, 624 ; Hedge, Ways of the Spirit, 241 ; and Pope's Essay on Man. For the better form 
of optimism, see Herzog, Encyclopadie, art. : Schopfung, 13 : 651-653 ; Chalmers, Works, 
2:286; Mark Hopkins, in Andover Rev., March, 1885:197-210; Luthardt, Lehre des 
freien Willens, 9, 10— "Calvin's Quia voluit is not the last answer. We could have no 
heart for such a God, for he would himself have no heart. Formal will alone has no 
heart. In God real freedom controls formal, as in fallen man, formal controls real." 

Janet, in his Final Causes, 429 sq. and 490-503, claims that optimism subjects God to 
fate. We have shown that this objection mistakes the certainty which is consistent 



200 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

with freedom for the necessity which is inconsistent with freedom. The opposite 
doctrine attributes an irrational arbitrariness to God. We are warranted in saying- that 
the universe at present existing - , considered as a partial realization of God's develop- 
ing plan, is the best possible for this particular point of time,— in short, that all is for 
the best,— see Rom. 8 : 28— "to them that love God all things work together for good " ; 1 Cor. 3 : 21— "all 
things are yours." 

For denial of optimism in any form, see Watson, Theol. Institutes, 1 : 419 ; Hovey, God 
with Us, 206-208; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 419, 432, 566, and 2 : 145 ; Lipsius, Dogmatik, 234- 
255; Flint, Theism, 227-256; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 397-409, and esp. 405— "A wisdom 
the resources of which have been so expended that it cannot equal its past achieve- 
ments is a finite capacity, and not the boundless depth of the infinite God." But we 
reply that a wisdom which does not do that which is best is not wisdom. The limit is 
not in God's abstract power, but in his other attributes of truth, love, and holiness. 
Hence God can say in Is. 5 : 4— "what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?" 

The perfect antithesis to an ethical and theistic optimism is found in the non-moral 
and atheistic pessimism of Schopenhauer ( Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung ) and Hart- 
mann ( Philosophic des Unbewussten ). " All life is summed up in effort, and effort is 
painful ; therefore life is pain. But we might retort : Life is active, and action is always 
accompanied with pleasure ; therefore life is pleasure." See Frances Power Cobbe, 
Peak of Darien, 95-134, for a graphic account of Schopenhauer's heartlessness, coward- 
ice, and arrogance. Pessimism is natural to a mind soured by disappointment and for- 
getful of God : Eccl. 2 : 11 — "all was vanity and a striving after wind." Homer : " There is nothing 
whatever more wretched than man." Seneca praises death as the best invention of 
nature. Byron : " Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, Count o'er thy days from 
anguish free, And know, whatever thou hast been, 'T is something better not to be." 
But it has been left to Schopenhauer and Hartmann to define will as unsatisfied yearn- 
ing, to regard life itself as a huge blunder, and to urge upon the human race, as the only 
measure of permanent relief, a united and universal act of suicide. 

On both the optimism of Leibnitz and the pessimism of Schopenhauer, see Bowen, 
Modern Philosophy; Tulloch, Modern Theories, 169-221; Thomson, on Modern Pes- 
simism, in Present Day Tracts, 6 : no. 34 ; Wright on Ecclesiastes, 141-216 ; Barlow, 
Ultimatum of Pesssimism : Culture tends to misery ; God is the most miserable of 
beings ; creation is a plaster for the sore. See also Mark Hopkins, in Princeton Review, 
Sept., 1882 : 197—" Disorder and misery are so mingled with order and beneficence, that 
both optimism and pessimism are possible." Yet it is evident that there must be more 
construction than destruction, or the world would not be existing. Buddhism, with its 
Nirvana-refuge, is essentially pessimistic. The remedy for pessimism is ( 1 ) the recog- 
nition of sin, as the free act of the creature, by which all sorrow and misery have been 
caused; and (2) the recognition of Christ as the personal God who is manifested, in 
self-sacrificing love, to deliver men from the manifold evils in which their sins have 
involved them. Rom. 8 : 32 — "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not 
also with him freely give us all things ? " We might add : the recognition of present probation and 
of future judgment. See Hill, Psychology, 283 ; and this Compendium, pages 179-181. 

3. To providence and redemption. 

Christianity is essentially a scheme of supernatural love and power. It 
conceives of God as above the world, as well as in it, — able to manifest 
himself, and actually manifesting himself, in ways unknown to mere nature. 

But this absolute sovereignty and transcendence, which are manifested 
in providence and in redemption, are inseparable from creatorship. If the 
world be eternal, like God, it must be an efflux from the substance of God 
and must be absolutely equal with God. Only a proper doctrine of creation 
can secure God's absolute distinctness from the world and his sovereignty 
over it. 

The logical alternative of creation is therefore a system of pantheism, in 
which God is an impersonal and necessary force. Hence the pantheistic 
dicta of Fichte : "The assumption of a creation is the fundamental error of 
all false metaphysics and false theology"; of Hegel: "God evolves the 
world out of himself, in order to take it back into himself again in the Spirit " ; 



RELATIONS OF THE DOOTKLNE OF CREATION. 201 

and of Strauss: "Trinity and creation, speculatively viewed, are one and 
the same, — only the one is viewed absolutely, the other empirically." 

Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 97 — " Dualism might be called a logical alterna- 
tive of creation, but for the fact that its notion of two gods is self -contradictory, and 
leads to the lowering of the idea of the Godhead, so that the impersonal god of pantheism 
takes its place." Dorner, System of Doctrine, 2 : 11 — " The world cannot be necessitated 

in order to satisfy either want or over-fullness in God The doctrine of absolute 

creation prevents the confounding of God with the world. The declaration that the 
Spirit brooded over the formless elements, and that life was developed under the con- 
tinuous operation of God's laws and presence, prevents the separation of God from the 
world. Thus pantheism and deism are both avoided." See Kant and Spinoza contrasted 
in Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 468, 469. The unusually full treatment of the doctrine of 
creation in this chapter is due to a conviction that the doctrine constitutes an antidote 
to most of the false philosophy of our time. 

We perceive from this point of view, moreover, the importance and value 
of the Sabbath, as commemorating God's act of creation, and thus God's 
personality, sovereignty, and transcendence. 

The Sabbath is of perpetual obligation as God's appointed memorial of his creating 
activity ( Gen. 2 : 3 —"And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it: becanse that in it he rested from all his 
work which God had created and made" ). Our rest is to be a miniature representation of God's 
rest. As God worked six divine days and rested one divine day, so are we in imitation 
of him to work six human days and to rest one human day. This requisition made at 
the creation applies to man as man, everywhere and always, and far antedates the 
decalogue. » 

The Sabbath is recognized in Assyrian accounts of the Creation ; see Trans. Soc. Bib. 
Arch., 5 : 427, 428 ; Schrader, Keilinschriften, ed. 1883 : 18-22. There are indications of an 
observance of the ordinance long before the Mosaic legislation. Gen. 4 : 3 — "And in process 
of time [ lit. ' at the end of days' ] it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto 
the Lord" ; Gen. 8 : 10, 12 — Noah twice waited seven days before sending forth the dove from 
the ark; Gen. 29 : 27, 28— "fulfil the week" ; cf. Judges 14 : 12— "the seven days of the feast" ; Ex. 16 : 5 — 
double portion of manna promised on the sixth day, that none be gathered on the Sab- 
bath ( cf. verses 20, 30 ). This division of days into weeks is best explained by the original 
institution of the Sabbath at man's creation. Moses in the fourth commandment there- 
fore speaks of it as already known and observed : Ex. 20 : 8 —'■''Remember the Sabbath day to keep 
it holy." 

The Mosaic prescriptions with regard to the method of keeping the Sabbath are abro- 
gated by Christ, but the Sabbath itself is a part of the moral law and is a necessity of 
human nature. That law binds us to set apart a seventh portion of our time for rest 
and worship — after every six days of work, one day of rest. The fourth commandment 
does not enjoin the simultaneous observance of a fixed portion of absolute time, nor 
can any such exact portion of absolute time be simultaneously observed by men in dif- 
ferent longitudes. A seventh-day Sabbatarian who circumnavigated the globe might 
gain a day and return to his starting point observing the same Sabbath with common 
Christendom. 

The change from the seventh day to the first seems to have been due to the resurrec- 
tion of Christ upon "the first day of the week" (Mat. 28 : 1), to his meeting with the disciples 
upon that day and upon the succeeding Sunday ( John 20 : 26 ), and to the pouring out of 
the Spirit upon the Pentecostal Sunday seven weeks after ( Acts 2:1 — see Bap. Quar. Rev.. 
1885: 229-232). Thus by Christ's own example and by apostolic sanction the first day 
became "the Lord's day" (Rev. 1 : 10), on which believers met regularly each week with their 
Lord ( Acts 20 : 7 — " the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread ' ' ) and brought 
together their benevolent contributions (1 Cor. 16 : 1, 2— "Now concerning the collection for the saints 
.... upon the first day of the week, let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be 
made when I come"). 

The Christian Sabbath, then, is the day of Christ's resurrection. The Jewish Sabbath 
commemorated only the original creation of the world ; the Christian Sabbath com- 
memorates also the new creation of the world in Christ, in which God's work in humanity 
first becomes complete. C. H. M. on Gen 2 : " If I celebrate the seventh day it marks me 
as an earthly man, inasmuch as that day is clearly the rest of earta — creation-rest ; if I 
intelligently celebrate the first day of the week, I am marked as a heavenly man, believ- 
ing in the new creation in Christ." (Gal. 4 : 10, 11— "Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and 



202 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain " ; Col. 2 : 16, 17 — " Let no man 
therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day : which are a 
shadow of the things to come ; but the body is Christ's." ) See Eight Studies on the Lord's Day ; Hessey, 
Bampton Lectures on the Sunday; Gilfillan, The Sabbath; Wood, Sabbath Essays; 
Bacon, Sabbath Observance ; Hadley, Essays Philological and Critical, 325-345 ; Hodge, 
Syst. Theol., 3 : 321-348 ; Lotz, Quaestiones de Historia Sabbati ; Maurice, Sermons on the 
Sabbath ; Prize Essays on the Sabbath ; Crafts, The Sabbath for Man ; A. E. Waffle, The 
Lord's Day. For the seventh-day view, see T. B. Brown, The Sabbath ; J. N. Andrews, 
History of the Sabbath. Per contra, see Prof. A. Rauschenbusch, Saturday or Sunday? 



SECTION II. — PRESERVATION. 

I. Definition of Preservation. 

Preservation is that continuous agency of God by which he maintains in 
existence the things he has created, together with the properties and powers 
with which he has endowed them. 

In explanation we remark : 

( a ) Preservation is not creation, for preservation presupposes creation. 
That which is preserved must already exist, and must have come into exist- 
ence by the creative act of God. 

(b) Preservation is not a mere negation of action, or a refraining to 
destroy, on the part of God. It is a positive agency by which, at every 
moment, he sustains the substances and forces of the universe. 

(c) Preservation is not the maintenance of merely latent powers and 
properties in matter and mind. It is the upholding of these properties and 
jjowers in their actual exercise as well. 

(d) Preservation recognizes the properties and powers of nature as hav- 
ing objective reality. Although matter and mind retain their existence and 
endowments only by the constant energy of God, second causes are not 
mere names for the great first Cause. 

( e ) Preservation, however, implies a natural concurrence of God in all 
operations of matter and mind. Though God's will is not the sole force, 
it is still true that, without his concurrence, no being or substance in the 
universe can continue to exist or act. 

Dorner, System of Doctrine, 2 : 40-42—" Creation and preservation cannot be the same 
thing, for then man would be only the product of natural forces supervised by God,— 
whereas, man is above nature and is inexplicable from nature. Nature is not the whole 
of the universe, but only the preliminary basis of it The rest of God is not cessa- 
tion of activity, but is a new exercise of power." Nor is God " the soul of the universe." 
This phrase is pantheistic, and implies that God is the only agent. 

IT. Proof of the Doctrine of Preservation. 
1. From Scripture. 

Iu a number of Scripture passages, preservation is expressly distinguished 
from creation. Though God rested from his work of creation and estab- 



PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF PRESERVATION. 203 

lished an order of natural forces, a special and continuous divine activity is 
declared to be put forth in the upholding of the universe and its powers. 

Nehemiah 9 : 6 — " Thou art the Lord, even thou, alone ; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their 
host, the earth and all things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and thou preservest them all" ; Job 
7 : 20 — " thou watcher [ marg. ' preserver ' ] of men ! " Ps. 36 : 6 — " thou preservest man and beast " ; 104 : 29, 30 
— " Thou takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, 
And thou renewest the face of the ground." See Perowne on Ps. 104 — " A psalm to the God who is in 
and with nature for good." Humboldt, Cosmos, 2 : 413 — " Psalm 104 presents an image 
of the whole Cosmos." Acts 17 : 28 —"in him we live, and move, and have our being " ; Col. 1 : 17 — "in him 
all things consist"; Heb. 1 : 2, 3 — "upholding all things by the word of his power." John 5 : 17 — "My Father 
worketh even until now, and I work " — refers most naturally to preservation, since creation is a 
work completed ; compare Gen. 2:2—" on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he 
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." 

2. From Reason. 

We may argue the preserving agency of God from the following consid- 
erations : 

(a) Matter and mind are not self -existent. Since they have not the 
cause of their being in themselves, their continuance as well as their origin 
must be due to a superior power. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre : " Were the world self -existent, it would be God, not world, 
and no religion would be possible .... The world has receptivity for new creations ; 
but these, once introduced, are subject, like the rest, to the law of preservation " — i. e. 
are dependent for their continued existence upon God. 

( b ) Force implies a will of which it is the direct or indirect expression. 
While we cannot identify the forces of the universe with the will of God, or 
regard God as the sole agent in the universe, what we know of force as 
exerted by our own wills leads us to believe that force and will are correla- 
tive terms : in other words, that force has a continuous existence only by 
virtue of the continuous sustaining agency of the divine will. 

For modem theories identifying force with divine will, see Herschel, Popular Lectures 
on Scientific Subjects, 460 ; Murphy, Scientific Bases, 13-15, 29-36, 42-52 ; Duke of Argyll, 
Reign of Law, 121-127; AYallace, Natural Selection, 363-371; Bowen, Metaphysics and 
Ethics, 146-162; Martineau, Essays, 1:63, 265, and Study, 1 : 244— "Second causes in 
nature bear the same relation to the First Cause as the automatic movement of the 
muscles in walking bears to the first decision of the will that initiated the walk." But 
we cannot thus identify force with will, because in many cases the effort of our will is 
fruitless for the reason that nervous and muscular force is lacking. We are thus com- 
pelled to distinguish between the two, even while we grant that all force is ultimately 
due to will, and that we learn of will only upon occasion of our using force. See Porter, 
Human Intellect, 582-588, on Maine de Biran's theory that causation pertains only to 
spirit : " This implies, first, that the conception of a material cause is self -contradictory. 
But the mind recognizes in itself spiritual energies that are not voluntary ; because we 
derive our notion of cause from will, it does not follow that the causal relation always 
involves will ; it would follow that the universe, so far as it is not intelligent, is impossi- 
ble. It implies, secondly, that there is but one agent in the universe, and that the 
phenomena of matter and mind are but manifestations of one single force— the 
Creator's." 

Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 596— "Because we get our own idea of force from mind, it does 
not follow that mind is the only force. That mind is a cause is no proof that electricity 
may not be a cause. If matter is force and nothing but force, then matter is nothing, 
and the external world is simply God. In spite of such argument, men will believe that 
the external world is a reality — that matter is, and that it is the cause of the effects we 
attribute to its agency." New Englander, Sept., 1883 : 582— "Man in early times used 
second causes, i. e. machines, very little to accomplish his purposes. His usual mode of 
action was by the direct use of his hands, or his voice, and he naturally ascribed to the 
gods the same method as his own. His own use of second causes has led man to higher 
conceptions of the divine action." Dorner : " If the world had no independence, it 



204 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

would not reflect God, nor would creation mean anything." But this independence is 
not absolute. 

( e ) God's sovereignty requires a belief in his special preserving agency ; 
since this sovereignty would not be absolute, if anything occurred or 
existed independent of his will. 

The doctrine of preservation holds a middle ground between two extremes. On the 
one hand, as we have seen, it holds that the substances of the universe have a real 
existence and a relative independence. On the other hand, it holds that these sub- 
stances retain their being and their powers only as they are upheld by God. As the 
human will has a certain independence, while yet we live and move and have our being 
in God, so the forces of nature are at the same time independent and dependent. If 
God can disjoin from himself a certain portion of force which we call man's will, while 
yet that will is dependent upon God for its continued existence, then God can also 
disjoin from himself a certain inferior portion of force which we call magnetism, while 
yet that magnetism is dependent upon him for its continued existence. The same prin- 
ciple which leads to the confounding of natural forces with divine will would logically 
require the confounding of human will with divine will. 

And yet there is no force which does not in its very nature testify to the will of God 
which originated it and which continually sustains it. Diman, Theistic Argument, 
367— "The dynamical theory of nature as a plastic organism, pervaded by a system of 
correlated forces uniting at last in one supreme force, is altogether more in harmony 
with the spirit and teaching of the Gospel than the mechanical conceptions which pre- 
vailed a century ago, which insisted on viewing nature as an intricate machine, 
fashioned by a great Artificer who stood wholly apart from it." On the persistency of 
force, super cuncta, subter cuncta, see Bib. Sac, Jan., 1881 : 1-24 ; Cocker, Theistic Con- 
ception of the World, 173-343, esp. 336. The doctrine of preservation therefore holds to a 
God both in nature and beyond nature. According as the one or the other of these 
elements is exclusively regarded, we have the error of Deism, or the error of Continu- 
ous Creation — theories which we now proceed to consider. 

HI. Theories which virtually dent the Doctrine of Preservation. 

1. Deism. 

This view represents the universe as a self -sustained mechanism, from 
which God withdrew as soon as he had created it, and which he left to a 
process of self-development. It was held in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries by the English Herbert, Collins, Tindal, and Bolingbroke. 

Lord Herbert of Cherbury was one of the first who formed deism into a system. His 
book De Veritate was published in 1624. He argues against the probability of God's 
revealing bis will to only a portion of the earth. This he calls " particular religion." 
Yet he sought, and according to his own account he received, a revelation from heaven 
to encourage the publication of his work in disproof of revelation. He " asked for a 
sign," and was answered by a "loud though gentle noise from the heavens." He had 
the vanity to think his book of such importance to the cause of truth as to extort 
a declaration of the divine will, when the interests of half mankind could not secure 
any revelation at all ; what God would not do for a nation, he would do for an individ- 
ual. See Leslie and Leland, Method with the Deists. Deism is the exaggeration of the 
truth of God's transcendence. See Christlieb, Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, 190- 
309. Melancthon illustrates by the shipbuilder : " Ut faber discedit a nava exstructa et 
relinquit earn nautis." God is the maker, not the keeper, of the watch. Carlyle : " An 
absentee God, sitting idle ever since the first Sabbath at the outside of the universe, and 
seeing it go." Blunt, Diet. Doct. and Hist. Theology, art. : Deism. 

We object to this view that : 

(a) It rests upon a false analogy. — Man is able to construct a self- 
moving watch only because he employs preexisting forces, such as gravity, 
elasticity, cohesion. But in a theory which likens the universe to a 
machine, these forces are the very things to be accounted for. 



THEOEIES WHICH DE^T PRESERVATION. 205 

This theory regards the universe as a " perpetual motion." Modern views of the dis- 
sipation of energy have served to discredit it. See Woods, Works, 2 : 40. 

(6) It is a system of anthropomorphism, while it professes to exclude 
anthropomorphism. — Because the upholding of all things would involve a 
multiplicity of minute cares if man were the agent, it conceives of the 
upholding of the universe as involving such burdens in the case of God. 
Thus it saves the dignity of God by virtually denying his omnipresence, 
omniscience, and omnipotence. 

The infinity of God turns into sources of delight all that would seem care to man. To 
God's inexhaustible fullness of life there are no burdens involved in the upholding of 
the universe he has created. Since God, moreover, is a perpetual observer, we may 
alter the poet's verse and say : " There 's not a flower that 's born to blush unseen And 
waste its sweetness on the desert air." See Chalmers, Astronomical Discourses, in 
Works, 7 : 68 ; Kurtz, The Bible and Astronomy, in Introd. to Hist, of Old Covenant, 
lxxxii-xcviii. 

(c) It cannot be maintained without denying all providential interfer- 
ence, in the history of creation and the subsequent history of the world. — 
But the introduction of life, the creation of man, incarnation, regeneration, 
the communion of intelligent creatures with a present God, and interposi- 
tions of Gcd in secular history, are matters of fact. 

Deism therefore continually tends to atheism. See Pearson, Infidelity, 97; Hanne, 
Idee der absoluten Personlichkeit, 76. 

2. Continuous Creation. 

This view regards the universe as from moment to moment the result of 
a new creation. It was held by the New England theologians Edwards, 
Hopkins, and Emmons, and more recently in Germany by Bothe. 

Edwards, Works, 2 : 486-490, quotes and defends Dr. Taylor's utterance : " God is the 
original of all being, and the only cause of all natural effects." Edwards himself says : 
" God's upholding created substance, or causing its existence in each successive moment, 
is altogether equivalent to an immediate production out of nothing at each moment." 
He argues that the past existence of a thing cannot be the cause of its present existence, 
because a thing cannot act at a time and place where it is not. " This is equivalent to 
saying that God cannot produce an effect which shall last for one moment beyond the 
direct exercise of his creative power. What man can do, God, it seems, cannot " ( A. S. 
Carman). • Hopkins, Works, 1 : 164-167 — Preservation "is really continued creation .... 
The law or course of nature is nothing but divine power and wisdom. All power is 
in God. This is the proper efficient cause of every event. All creatures which act or 
move, exist and move, or are moved, by and in him." Emmons, Works, 4 : 363-389, esp. 
381— "We cannot conceive that even omnipotence is able to form independent agents, 
because this would be to endow them with divinity. And since all men are dependent 
agents, all these motions, exercises, or actions must originate in a divine efficiency." 
God therefore creates all the volitions of the soul, and effects by his almighty power all 
changes in the material world. See Rothe, Dogmatik, 1 : 126-160, esp. 150, and Theol. 
Ethik, 1 : 186-190 ; also in Bib. Sac, Jan., 1875 : 144. See also Lotze, Philosophy of Religion, 
81-94. 

To this view we object, upon the following grounds : 

(a) It contradicts our intuitive beliefs in substance and causality, — by 
denying the existence and efficiency of second causes and declaring these 
to be merely occasions for the exercise of divine energy. It removes all 
basis for our knowledge of an external world, and involves all the difficulties 
of idealism. 

According to this view, the contact of fire with the finger, the stroke of the axe on 
the tree, are only the occasions — divine omnipotence is the cause — of the tree's falling 



206 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

and the finger's burning-. All causal connections between the different objects of the 
universe are at an end. No such things as physical forces exist. Nature becomes a 
mere phantom, and God is the only cause in the universe. 

( b ) It exaggerates God's power only by sacrificing his truth, love, and 
holiness; — for if the substances and powers of nature are not what they 
seem — namely, objective existences — God's veracity is impugned; if the 
human soul have no real freedom and life, God's love has made no self- 
communication to creatures ; if God's will is the only force in the universe, 
God's holiness can no longer be asserted, for the divine will must in that 
case be regarded as the author of human sin. 

Upon this view personal identity is inexplicable. Edwards bases identity upon the 
arbitrary decree of God. God can therefore, by so decreeing, make Adam's posterity 
one with their first father and responsible for his sin. Edwards's theory of continuous 
creation, indeed, was devised as an explanation of the problem of original sin. The 
divinely appointed union of acts and exercises with Adam was held sufficient, without 
union of substance, or natural generation from him, to explain our being born corrupt 
and guilty. This view would have been impossible, if Edwards had not been an idealist, 
making far too much of acts and exercises and far too little of substance. 

See Noah Porter's Discourse on "Bishop George Berkeley," 71, and quotations from 
Edwards, in Journ. Spec. Philos., Oct., 1883 : 401-420— "Nothing else has a proper being 

but spirits, and bodies are but the shadow of being Seeing the brain exists only 

mentally, I therefore acknowledge that I speak improperly when I say that the soul is in 
the brain only, as to its operations. For, to speak yet more strictly and abstractedly, 
't is nothing but the connection of the soul with these and those modes of its own ideas, 

or those mental acts of the Deity, seeing the brain exists only in idea That which 

truly is the substance of all bodies is the infinitely exact and precise and perfectly stable 
idea in God's mind, together with his stable will that the same shall be gradually com- 
municated to us and to other minds according to certain fixed and established methods 
and laws ; or, in somewhat different language, the infinitely exact and precise divine idea, 
together with an answerable, perfectly exact, precise, and stable will, with respect to 
correspondent communications to created minds and effects on those minds." It is easy 
to see how, from this view of Edwards, the " Exercise-system " of Hopkins and Emmons 
naturally developed itself. On Edwards's Idealism, see Frazer's Berkeley ( Blackwood's 
Philos. Classics ), 139, 140. On personal identity, see Bp. Butler, Works (Bohn's ed.), 327-334. 

(c) As deism tends to atheism, so the doctrine of continuous creation 
tends to rjantheism. — Arguing that, because we get our notion of force from 
the action of our own wills, therefore all force must be will, and divine will, 
it is compelled to merge the human will in this all-comprehending will of 
God. Mind and matter alike become phenomena of one force, which has 
the attributes of both ; and, with the distinct existence and personality of 
the human soul, we lose the distinct existence and personality of God, as 
well as the freedom and accountability of man. 

Such a scheme makes supernatural religion impossible, for the reason that nature is 
denied, and every thing — that is to say, nothing — becomes supernatural. Dorner well 
remarks that "Preservation is empowering of the creature and maintenance of its 
activity, not new bringing it into being." On the whole subject, see Julius Muller, 
Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 220-225; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 258-272; Baird, Elohim Revealed. 
50; Hodge, Syst, Theol., 1 : 577-581, 595; Dabney, Theology, 338, 339. 

IV. Remakks upon the Divine Concueeence. 

(a) The divine efficiency interpenetrates that of nature and that of man 
without destroying or absorbing them. The influx of God's sustaining 
energy is such that all things retain their natural properties and powers. 
God does not work all, but all in all. 

Preservation, then, is midway between the two errors of denying the first cause 
( deism or atheism ) and denying the second causes ( continuous creation or pantheism ). 



DEFINITION OP PROVIDENCE. 207 

1 Cor. 12 : 6 — "there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all " ; cf. Eph. 1 : 23^ — 
the church, "which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." God's action is no actio in 
distans, or action where he is not. It is rather action in and through second causes. 
Yet his action in second causes does not supersede these second causes. We cannot see 
the line between the two — the action of the first cause and the action of second 
causes ; yet both are real, and each is distinct from the other, though the method of 
God's concurrence is inscrutable. As the pen and the hand together produce the writ- 
ing, so God's working causes natural powers to work with him. The natural growth 
indicated by the words " wherein is the seed thereof" ( Gen. 1 : 11 ) has its counterpart in the spirit- 
ual growth described in the words " his seed abideth in him "( 1 John 3:9). Paul considers him- 
self a reproductive agency in the hands of God : he begets children in the gospel ( 1 Cor. 4 : 
15); yet the New Testament speaks of this begetting as the work of God (1 Pet. 1:3). 

( b ) Though God preserves mind and body in their working, we are ever 
to remember that God concurs with the evil acts of his creatures only as 
they are natural acts, and not as they are evil. 

In holy action God gives the natural powers, and by his word and Spirit influences the 
soul to use these powers aright. But in evil action God gives only the natural powers ; 
the evil direction of these powers is caused only by man. Jer. 44 : 4 — " Oh do not this abominable 
thing that I hate " ; Hab. 1 : 13 — " Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that canst not look on perverse- 
ness, wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up 
the man that is more righteous than he ? " James 1 : 13, 14 — " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of 
God ; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man : but each man is tempted, when he is drawn 
away by his own lust, and enticed." On the importance of the idea of preservation in Christian 
doctrine, see Calvin, Institutes, 1 : 183 ( chapter 16). 



SECTION III. — PROVIDENCE. 

L Definition of Pkovidence. 

Providence is that continuous agency of God by which he makes all the 
events of the physical and moral universe fulfill the original design with 
which he created it. 

In explanation notice : 

( a ) Providence is not to be taken merely in its etymological sense of 
foreseeing. It is /o?'seeing also, or a positive agency in connection with 
all the events of history. 

( b ) Providence is to be distinguished from preservation. While preser- 
vation is a maintenance of the existence and powers of created things, 
providence is an actual care and control of them. 

( c ) Since the original plan of God is all-comprehending, the providence 
which executes the plan is all-comprehending also, embracing within its 
scope things small and great, and exercising care over individuals as well 
as over classes. 

(d) In respect to the good acts of men, providence embraces all those 
natural influences of birth and surroundings which prepare men for the 
operation of God's word and Spirit, and which constitute motives to obe- 
dience. 



208 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

(e) In respect to the evil acts of men, providence is never the efficient 
cause of sin, but is by turns preventive, permissive, directive, and deter- 
minative. 

The Germans have the word Filrsehung, forseeing, looking out for, as well as the 
word Vorsehung, foreseeing, seeing beforehand. Our word ' providence ' embraces the 
meanings of both these words. On the general subject of providence, see Philippi, 
Glaubenslehre, 2:273-284; Calvin, Institutes, 1:182-219; Dick, Theology, 1:416-446; 
Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 581-616 ; Bib. Sac, 12 : 1T9 ; 21 : 584 ; 26 : 315 ; 30 : 593 ; N. W. Taylor, 
Moral Government, 2 : 294-326. 

II. Proof of the Doctrine of Providence. 

1. /Scriptural proof. 

The Scripture witnesses to 

A. A general providential government and control (a) over the uni- 
verse at large ; ( b ) over the physical world ; ( c ) over the brute creation ; 
(d) over the affairs of nations; (e) over man's birth and lot in life; 
(/) over the outward successes and failures of men's lives; {g) over 
things seemingly accidental or insignificant; (A) in the protection of the 
righteous ; ( i ) in the supply of the wants of God's people ; (j ) in the 
arrangement of answers to prayer ; ( k ) in the exposure and punishment 
of the wicked. 

( a ) Ps. 103 : 19 — " his kingdom ruleth over all " ; Dan. 4 : 35 — " doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth " ; Eph. 1 : 11 — " worketh all things after the counsel of his will." 

(b) Job 37 : 5, 10— "God thundereth .... By the breath of God ice is given" ; Ps. 104 : 14— "causeth the grass 
to grow for the cattle" ; 135 : 6, 7 — "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that hath he done, In heaven and in earth, in the 
seas and in all deeps .... vapors .... lightnings .... wind" ; Mat. 5 : 45— "maketh his sun to rise ... . 
sendeth rain." 

(c) Ps. 104:21, 28 — " young lions roar .... seek their meat from God .... That thou givest them they gather"; 
Mat. 6 : 26 — "birds of the heaven .... your heavenly Father feedeth them" ; 10 : 29 — "two sparrows .... not 
one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father." 

( d ) Job 12 : 23 — " He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them ; He spreadeth the nations abroad and bringeth 
them in " ; Ps. 22 : 28 — " the kingdom is the Lord's : And he is the ruler over the nations " ; 66 : 7 — " He ruleth by his 
might for ever ; His eyes observe the nations " ; Acts 17 : 26 — " made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the 
face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation " ( instance Pales- 
tine, Greece, England ). 

( e ) 1 Sam. 16 : 1 — " Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite : for I have provided 
me a king among his sons" ; Ps. 139 : 16 — " Thine eyes did see mine unperfect substance, And in thy book were all 
my members written" ; Is. 45 : 5 — "I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me" ; Jer. 1 : 5 — "Before I formed 
thee in the belly I knew thee .... sanctified thee .... appointed thee" ; Gal. 1 : 15 — "God, who separated me, 
even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among 
the Gentiles." 

(/) Ps. 75 : 6, 7 — "neither from the east, nor from the west, Nor yet from the south cometh lifting up, But God is 
the judge : He putteth down one, and lifteth up another " ; Luke 1 : 52 — " He hath put down princes from their thrones, 
And hath exalted them of low degree." 

(g) Prov. 16 : 33— "The lot is cast into the lap; But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord" ; Mat. 10 : 30 — 
"the very hairs of your head are all numbered." 

(7l) Ps. 4 : 8— "In peace will I both lay me down and sleep; For thou, Lord, alone makest me dwell in safety" ; 
5 : 12 — "thou wilt compass him with favor as with a shield" ; 63 : 8— "Thy right hand upholdeth me" ; 121 : 3 — 
" He that keepeth thee will not slumber " ; Rom. 8 : 28 — " to them that love God all things work together for good." 

(i) Gen. 22 : 8, 14 — "God will provide himself the lamb .... Jehovah-jireh " (marg. that is, 'The Lord will 
see,' or ' provide ' ) ; Deut. 8 : 3 — " man doth not live by bread only, but by every thing that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of the Lord doth man live " ; Phil. 4 : 19 — "my God shall fulfil every need of yours." 

(J) Ps. 68 : 10 — " Thou, God, didst prepare of thy goodness for the poor " ; Is. 64 : 4 — "neither hath the eye seen 
a God beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth for him " ; Mat. 6 : 8 —"your Father knoweth what things ye 
have need of, before ye ask him " ; 32, 33 — "all these things shall be added unto you." 

( 7c ) Ps. 7 : 12, 13 — " If a man turn not, he will whet his sword ; He hath bent his bow and made it ready ; He hath 
also prepared for him the instruments of death ; He maketh his arrows fiery shafts " ; 11 : 6 — " Upon the wicked he shall 
rain snares ; Fire and brimstone, and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup." 



PROOF OF THE DOCTRIXE OF PROVIDENCE. 209 

B. A government and control extending to the free actions of men — 
( a ) to men's free acts in general ; ( b ) to the sinf nl acts of men also. 

( a ) Ex. 12 : 36 — " the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they 
asked. And they spoiled the Egyptians " ; 1 Sam. 24 : 18 — " the Lord had delivered me up into thy hand " ( Saul to 
David ) ; Ps. 33 : 14, 15 — " he looketh forth Upon all the inhabitants of the earth ; He that fashioneth the hearts of them 
all" (t. e. equally, one as well as another) ; Prov. 16 : 1 — "The preparations of the heart belong to man: 
But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord " ; 19 : 21 — " There are many devices in a man's heart ; But the counsel 
of the Lord, that shall stand " ; 20 : 24— "A man's goings are of the Lord ; How then can man understand his way?" 
21 : 1 — " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the watercourses : He turneth it whithersoever he will " ( i. e. 
as easily as the rivulets of the eastern fields are turned by the slightest motion of the 
hand or the foot of the husbandman ) ; Jer. 10 : 23 — "0 Lord, I know' that the way of man is not in 
himself: it is not m man that walketh to direct his steps " ; Phil. 2 : 13 —"it is God which worketh in you both to will 
and to work, for his good pleasure " ; Eph. 2 : 10 — " we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, 
which God afore prepared that we should walk in them " ; James 4 : 13-15 — " If the Lord will, we shall both live, and 
do this or that." 

( b ) 2 Sam. 16 • 10 — " because the Lord hath said unto him [ Shimei ] : Curse David " ; 24 : 1 — " the anger of the 
Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah " ; Rom 11 : 32 
— " God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all " ; 2 Thess. 2 : 11 — " God sendeth them a 
working of error, that they should believe a lie : that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had. 
pleasure in unrighteousness." 

God's providence "with respect to men's evil acts is described in Scripture 
as of fonr sorts : 

(a) Preventive, — God by his providence prevents sin which would 
otherwise be committed. That he thus prevents sin is to be regarded as 
matter, not of obligation, but of grace. 

Gen. 20 : 6 — Of Abimelech: "I also withheld thee from sinning against me"; 31 : 24 — "And God came to 
Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said unto him, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either 
good or bad " ; Psalm 19 : 13 — " Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins ; Let them not have dominion over 
me" ; Hosea 2 : 6 — "Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will make a fenco against her that she shall 
not find her paths" — here the "thorns" and the "fence" may represent the restraints and suffer- 
ings by which God mercifully checks the fatal pursuit of sin ( see Annotated Par. Bible 
in loco ). Parents, government, church, traditions, customs, laws, age, disease, death, 
are all of them preventive influences. Man sometimes finds himself on the brink of 
a precipice of sin, and strong temptation hurries him on to make the fatal leap. Sud- 
denly every nerve relaxes, all desire for the evil thing is gone, and he recoils from the 
fearful brink over which he was just now going to plunge. God has interfered by the 
voice of conscience and the Spirit. This too is a part of his preventive providence. 

(b) Permissive, — God permits men to cherish and to manifest the evil 
dispositions of their hearts. God's permissive providence is simply the 
negative act of withholding impediments from the path of the sinner, 
instead of preventing his sin by the exercise of divine power. It iniplies no 
ignorance, x^assivity, or indulgence, but consists with hatred of the sin and 
determination to punish it. 

2 Chron. 32 : 31 — " God left him [ Hezekiah ], to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart " ; c/. Dent. 
8 : 2— "that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart." Ps. 81 : 12, 13 — "So I let them 
go after the stubbornness of their heart, That they might walk in their own counsels. Oh that my people would hearken 
unto me ! " Hosea 4:17 — " Ephraim is joined to idols ; let him alone ' ' ; Acts 14:16—" who in the generations gone 
by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways" ; Rom. 1 : 24, 28— "God gave them up in the lusts of their 
hearts unto uncleanness .... God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting " ; 3 i 
25 — " to show his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God." To 
this head of permissive providence is possibly to be referred 1 Sam. 18 : 10 —"an evil spirit from 
God came mightily upon Saul." As the Hebrew writers saw in second causes the operation of 
the great first Cause, and said: "The God of glory thundereth" ( Ps. 29 : 3;, so, because even the 
acts of the wicked entered into God's plan, the Hebrew writers sometimes represented 
God as doing what he merely permitted finite spirits to do. In 2 Sam. 24 : 1, God moves 
David to number Israel, but in 1 Chron. 21 : 1 the same thing is referred to Satan. God's 
providence in these cases, however, may be directive as well as permissive. 
14 



210 KATUEE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

(c) Directive, — God directs the evil acts of men to ends unforeseen and 
unintended by the agents. When evil is in the heart and will certainly 
come out, God orders its flow in one direction rather than in another, so 
that its course can be best controlled and least harm may result. This is 
sometimes called overruling providence. 

Gen. 50 : 20 — " As for you, ye meant evil against me ; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, 
to save much people alive " ; Ps. 76 : 10 — "the wratb of man shall praise thee : The residue of wrath shalt thou gird 
upon thee"= put on as-an ornament — clothe thyself with it for thine own glory ; Is. 10 : 5 — 
'Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in whose hand is mine indignation" ; John 13 : 27 — "That thou 
doest, do quickly "= do in a particular way what is actually being done ( Westcott, Bib. Com., 
in loco); Acts 4 : 27, 28 — "Against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained 
to come to pass." 

To this head of directive providence should probably be referred the passages with 
regard to Pharaoh in Ex. 4 : 21 — "I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go" ; 7 : 13 — "and 
Pharaoh's heart was hardened " ; 8 : 15 — " he hardened his heart " — i. e. Pharaoh hardened his own heart. 
Here the controlling agency of God did not interfere with the liberty of Pharaoh or 
oblige him to sin ; but in judgment for his previous cruelty and impiety God withdrew 
the external restraints which had hitherto kept his sin within bounds, and placed him 
in circumstances which would have influenced to right action a well-disposed mind, but 
which God foresaw would lead a disposition like Pharaoh's to the peculiar course of 
wickedness which he actually pursued. 

God hardened Pharaoh's heart then, first, by judicially forsaking him, and, secondly, 
by so directing his surroundings that his sin manifested itself in one way rather than in 
another. . Sin is like the lava of the volcano, which will certainly come out, but which 
God directs in its course down the mountain-side so that it will do least harm. The 
gravitation downward is due to man's evil will ; the direction to this side or to that is 
due to God's providence. See Rom. 9 : 17 — " For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in 
thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. So then he hath mercy on whom he will, 
and whom he will he hardeneth." See also pages 220' and 434. 

(eO Determinative, — God determines the bounds reached by the evil 
passions of his creatures, and the measure of their effects. Since moral 
evil is a germ capable of indefinite expansion, God's determining the 
measure of its growth does not alter its character or involve God's com- 
plicity with the perverse wills which cherish it. 

Job i : 12 — " And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power ; only upon himself put not forth 
thy hand " ; 2:6 — " Behold he is in thy hand ; only spare his life " ; Ps. 124 : 2 — "If it had not been the Lord who 
was on our side, When men rose up against us : Then had they swallowed us up alive " ; 1 Cor. 10 : 13 — " will not suffer 
you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be 
able to endure it " ; 2 Thess. 2:7 — "For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work : only there is one that restrain- 
ed now, until he be taken out of the way" ; Rev. 20 : 2 ? 3 — "And he laid hold of the dragon, and the old serpent, 
which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." 

Pepper, Outlines of Syst. Theol., 76 : The union of God's will and man's will is " such 
that, while in one view all can be ascribed to God, in another all can be ascribed to the 
creature. But how God and the creature are united in operation is doubtless known 
and knowable only to God. A very dim analogy is furnished in the union of the soul 
and body in men. The hand retains its own physical laws, yet is obedient to the human 
will. This theory recognizes the veracity of consciousness in its witness to personal 
freedom, and yet the completeness of God's control of both the bad and the good. Free 
beings are ruled, but are ruled as free and in their freedom. The freedom is not sacri- 
ficed to the control. The two coexist, each in its integrity. Any doctrine which does 
not allow this is false to Scripture and destructive of religion." 

2. Rational proof. 

A. Arguments a priori from the divine attributes, (a) From the 
immutability of God. This makes it certain that he will execute his eter- 
nal plan of the universe and its history. But the execution of this plan 
involves not only creation and preservation, but also providence. ( b ) From 
the benevolence of God. This renders it certain that he will care for the 



THEORIES OPPOSING THE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE. 211 

intelligent universe he has created. What it was worth his while to create, 
it is worth his while to care for. But this care is providence. ( c ) From 
the justice of God. As the source of moral law, God must assure the vin- 
dication of law by administering justice in the universe and punishing the 
rebellious. But this administration of justice is providence. 

For heathen ideas of providence, see Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 11 : 30, where Balbus 
speaks of the existence of the gods as that, "quo concesso, confltendum est eorum 
consilio mundum administrari." Epictetus, sec. 41 — " The principal and most important 
duty in religion is to possess your mind with just and becoming notions of the gods — to 
believe that there are such supreme beings, and that they govern and dispose all the 
affairs of the world with a just and good providence." Marcus Antoninus : " If there 
are no gods, or if they have no regard to human affairs, why should I desire to live in a 
world without gods and without a providence ? But gods undoubtedly there are, and 
they regard human affairs." See also Bib. Sac, 16 : 374. As we shall see, however, many 
of the heathen writers believed in a general, rather than in a particular, providence. 

On the argument for providence derived from God's benevolence, see Appleton, 
Works, 1 : 146 — " Is indolence more consistent with God's majesty than action would be ? 
The happiriess of creatures is a good. Does it honor God to say that he is indifferent to 
that which he knows to be good and valuable ? Even if the world had come into exist- 
ence without his agency, it would become God's moral character to pay some attention 
to creatures so numerous and so susceptible to pleasure and pain, especially when he 
might have so great and favorable an influence on their moral condition." John 5 : 17 — 
" My Father worketh even nntil now, and I work "— is as applicable to providence as to preservation. 

B. Arguments a posteriori from the facts of nature and of history. 
( a ) The outward lot of individuals and nations is not wholly in their own 
hands, but is in many acknowledged respects subject to the disposal of a 
higher power, (b) The observed moral order of the world, although 
imperfect, cannot be accounted for without recognition of a divine provi- 
dence. Vice is discouraged and virtue rewarded, in ways which are 
beyond the power of mere nature. There must be a governing mind and 
will, and this mind and will must be the mind and will of God. 

The birthplace of individuals and of nations, the natural powers with which they are 
endowed, the opportunities and immunities they enjoy, are beyond their own control. 
A man's destiny for time and for eternity may practically be decided for him by his 
birth in a Christian home, rather than in a tenement-house at the Five Points, or in a 
kraal of the Hottentots. Progress largely depends upon "variety of environment" 
( H. Spencer ). But this variety of environment is in great part independent of our own 
efforts. 

" There 's a Divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we will. " Shakespeare 
here expounds human consciousness. " Man proposes and God disposes " has become a 
proverb. Experience teaches that success and failure are not wholly due to us. Men 
often labor and lose ; they consult and nothing ensues ; they " embattle and are broken." 
Providence is not always on the side of the heaviest battalions. Not arms but ideas 
have decided the fate of the world — as Xerxes found at Thermopylas, and Napoleon at 
Waterloo. See Sermon on Providence in Political Revolutions, in Farrar's Science and 
Theology, 228. On the moral order of the world, notwithstanding its imperfections, see 
Butler, Analogy, Bohn's ed., 98; King, in Bap. Rev., 1884 : 202-222. 

HD. Theokies opposing the Doctkine of Pkovldence. 

1. Fatalism. 

Fatalism maintains the certainty, but denies the freedom, of human self- 
determination, — thus substituting fate for providence. 

To this view we object that (a) it contradicts consciousness, which tes- 
tifies that we are free ; ( b ) it exalts the divine power at the expense of 



212 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD, 

God's truth, wisdom, holiness, love; (c) it destroys all evidence of the 
personality and freedom of God ; ( d ) it practically makes necessity the 
only God, and leaves the imperatives of our moral nature without present 
validity or future vindication. 

The Mohammedans have frequently been called fatalists, and the practical effect of 
the teachings of the Koran upon the masses is to make them so. The ordinary Moham- 
medan will have no physician or medicine, because everything happens as God has 
before appointed. Smith, however, in his Mohammed and Mohammedanism, denies that 
fatalism is essential to the system. Islam =" submission," and the participle Moslem = 
" submitted," i. e. to God. 

Calvinists can assert freedom, since man's will finds its highest freedom only in sub- 
mission to God. Islam also cultivates submission, but it is the submission not of love 
but of fear. The essential difference between Mohammedanism and Christianity is 
found in the revelation which the latter gives of the love of God in Christ — a revelation 
which secures from free moral agents the submission of love ; see page 89. On fatalism, 
see McCosh, Intuitions, 266 ; Kant, Metaphysic of Ethics, 53-74, 93-108 ; Mill, Autobiog- 
raphy, 168-170, and System of Logic, 521-526 ; Hamilton, Metaphysics, 692 ; Stewart, Active 
and Moral Powers of Man, ed. Walker, 268-324. 

% Casualism. 

Casualism transfers the freedom of mind to nature, as fatalism transfers 
the fixity of nature to mind. It thus exchanges providence for chance. 

Upon this view we remark : 

{a) If chance be only another name for human ignorance, a name for 
the fact that there are trivial occurrences in life which have no meaning or 
relation to us, — we may acknowledge this, and still hold that providence 
arranges every so-called chance, for purposes beyond our knowledge. 
Chance, in this sense, is providential coincidence which we cannot under- 
stand, and do not need to trouble ourselves about. 

Not all chances are of equal importance. The casual meeting of a stranger in the 
street need not bring God's providence before me, although I know that God arranges 
it. Yet I can conceive of that meeting as leading to religious conversation and to the 
stranger's conversion. When we are prepared for them, we shall see many opportuni- 
ties which are now as unmeaning to us as the gold in the river-beds was to the early 
Indians of California. I should be an ingrate, if I escaped a lightning-stroke, and did not 
thank God ; yet Dr. Arnold's saying that every school-boy should put on his hat for 
God's glory, and with a high moral purpose, seems morbid. There is a certain room for 
the play of arbitrariness. We must not afflict ourselves or the church of God by 
requiring a Pharisaic punctiliousness in minutias. Life is too short to debate the ques- 
tion which shoe we shall put on first. " Love God and do what you will," said Augus- 
tine ; that is, Love God, and act out that love in a simple and natural way. Be free in 
your service, yet be always on the watch for indications of God's will. 

( b ) If chance be taken in the sense of utter absence of all causal con- 
nections in the phenomena of matter and mind, — we oppose to this notion 
the fact that the causal judgment is formed in accordance with a funda- 
mental and necessary law of human thought, and that no science or knowl- 
edge is possible without the assumption of its validity. 

Janet : " Chance is not a cause, but a coincidence of causes." 

(c) If chance be used in the sense of undesigning cause, — it is evidently 
insufficient to explain the regular and uniform sequences of nature, or the 
moral progress of the human race. These things argue a superintending 
and designing mind — in other words, a providence. Since reason demands 



THEORIES OPPOSING THE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE. 213 

not only a cause, but a sufficient cause, for the order of the physical and 
moral world, casualism must be ruled out. 

Our intuition of design compels us to see mind and purpose in individual and national 
history, as truly as in the physical universe. The same argument which proves the 
existence of God also proves the existence of a Providence. See Farrar, Life of Christ, 
1 : 155, note. 

3. Theory of a merely general providence. 

Many who acknowledge God's control over the movements of planets 
and the destinies of nations deny any divine arrangement of particular 
events. Most of the arguments against deism are equally valid against the 
theory of a merely general providence. This view is indeed only a form of 
deism, which holds that God has not wholly withdrawn him self from the 
universe, but that his activity within it is limited to the maintenance of 
general laws. 

This appears to have been the view of most of the heathen philosophers. Cicero : 
"Magna dii curant; parva negligunt." "Even in kingdoms among men," he says, 
"kings do not trouble themselves with insignificant affairs." So Jerome, the church 
Father, thought it absurd that God should know just how many gnats and cockroaches 
there were in the world. See Blunt, Diet. Doct, and Hist. Theol., art. : Deism ; Baden 
Powell, Order of Nature ; Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2 : 7, 66. 

In addition to the arguments above alluded to, we may urge against this 
theory that : 

(a) General control over the course of nature and of history is impossi- 
ble without control over the smallest particulars which affect the course of 
nature and of history. Incidents so slight as well-nigh to escape observa- 
tion at the time of their occurrence are frequently found to determine the 
whole future of a human life, and through that life the fortunes of a whole 
empire and of a whole age. 

" Nothing great has great beginnings." " Take care of the pence, and the pounds will 
take care of themselves." "Care for the chain is care for the links of the chain." 
Instances in point are the sleeplessness of King Ahasuerus ( Esther 6:1), and the seeming 
chance that led to the reading of the record of Mordecai's service and to the salvation 
of the Jews in Persia ; the spider's web spun across the entrance to the cave in which 
Mohammed had taken refuge, and which so deceived his pursuers that they passed on in 
a bootless chase, leaving to the world the religion and the empire of the Moslems ; the 
preaching of Peter the Hermit, which occasioned the first crusade ; the chance shot of 
an archer, which pierced the right eye of Harold, the last of the purely English kings, 
gained the battle of Hastings for William the Conqueror, and secured the throne of 
England for the Normans ; the flight of pigeons to the south-west, which changed the 
course of Columbus, hitherto directed towards Virginia, to the West Indies, and so 
prevented the dominion of Spain over North America: the storm that dispersed the 
Spanish Armada and saved England from the Papacy, and the storm that dispersed the 
French fleet gathered for the conquest of New England — the latter on a day of fast- 
ing and prayer appointed by the Puritans to avert the calamity; the settling of New 
England by the Puritans, rather than by French Jesuits ; the order of Council restrain- 
ing Cromwell and his friends from sailing to America ; Major Andre's lack of self-pos- 
session in presence of his captors, which led him to ask an improper question instead of 
showing his passport, and which saved the American cause; the unusuaDy early com- 
mencement of cold weather, which frustrated the plans of Napoleon and destroyed his 
army in Russia ; the fatal shot at Fort Sumter, which precipitated the war of secession 
and resulted in the abolition of American slavery. Nature is linked to history ; the 
breeze warps the course of the bullet; the worm perforates the plank of the ship. 
God must care for the least, or he cannot care for the greatest. See Appleton, 
Works, 1: 149 sy. 



214 NATUKE, DECREES, AND WOKKS OF GOD. 

( b ) The love of God which prompts a general care for the universe must 
also prompt a particular care for the smallest events which affect the happi- 
ness of his creatures. It belongs to love to regard nothing as trifling or 
beneath its notice which has to do with the interests of the object of its 
affection. Infinite love may therefore be expected to provide for all, even 
the minutest things in the creation. Without belief in this particular care, 
men cannot long believe in God's general care. Faith in a particular provi- 
dence is indispensable to the very existence of practical religion ; for men 
will not worship or recognize a God who has no direct relation to them. 

Man's care for his own body involves care for the least important members of it. A 
lover's devotion is known by his interest in the minutest concerns of his beloved. So 
all our affairs are matters of interest to God. Pope's Essay on Man : "All nature is but 
art unknown to thee ; All chance, direction which thou canst not see ; All discord, har- 
mony not understood; All partial evil, universal good." If harvests may be labored 
for and lost without any agency of God ; if rain or sun may act like fate, sweeping away 
the results of years, and God have no hand in it all ; if wind and storm may wreck 
the ship and drown our dearest friends, and God not care for us or for our loss, then all 
possibility of general trust in God would disappear also. 

( c ) In times of personal danger, and in remarkable conjunctures of pub- 
lic affairs, men instinctively attribute to God a control of the events which 
take place around them. The prayers which such startling emergencies 
force from men's lips are proof that God is present and active in human 
affairs. This testimony of our mental constitution must be regarded as 
virtually the testimony of him who framed this constitution. 

No advance of science can rid us of this conviction, since it comes from a deeper 
source than mere reasoning, The intuition of design is awakened by the connection of 
events in our daily life, as much as by the useful adaptations which we see in nature. 
Ps. 107: 23-28 — " They that go down to the sea in ships .... mount up to the heaven .... go down again to the depths 
.... And are at their wit's end ... . Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble." A narrow escape from 
death shows us a present God and Deliverer. Instance the general feeling throughout 
the land, expressed by the press as well as by the pulpit, at the breaking out of our 
rebellion and at the President's subsequent Proclamation of Emancipation. 

(d) Christian experience confirms the declarations of Scripture that par- 
ticular events are brought about by God with special reference to the good 
or ill of the individual. Such events occur at times in such direct connec- 
tion with the Christian's prayers that no doubt remains with regard to the 
providential arrangement of them. The possibility of such divine agency 
in natural events cannot be questioned by one who, like the Christian, has 
had experience of the greater wonders of regeneration and daily intercourse 
with God, and who believes in the reality of creation, incarnation, and 
mir£ 



Providence prepares the way for men's conversion, sometimes by their own partial 
reformation, sometimes by the sudden death of others near them. Instance Luther 
and Judson. The Christian learns that the same Providence that led him before his 
conversion is busy after his conversion in directing his steps and in supplying his 
wants. Daniel Defoe: "I have been fed more by miracle than Elijah when the angels 
were his purveyors." In Psalm 32, David celebrates not only God's pardoning mercy but 
his subsequent providential leading : " I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee " ( verse 8 ). It may 
be objected that we often mistake the meaning of events. We answer that, as in 
nature, so in providence, we are compelled to believe, not that we know the design, but 
that there is a design. Instance Shelley's drowning, and Jacob Knapp's prayer that 
his opponent might be stricken dumb. 



RELATIONS OF THE DOCTRIXE OF PROVIDENCE. 215 

IV. Kelations of the Doctrine of Pkovtdence. 
1. To miracles and works of grace. 

Particular providence is the agency of God in what seem to us the minor 
affairs of nature and of human life. Special providence is only an instance 
of God's particular providence which has special relation to us or makes 
peculiar impression upon us. It is special, not as respects the means 
which God makes use of, but as respects the effect produced upon us. In 
both particular and special providence, God apparently makes use of ordi- 
nary laws of nature to accomplish his purposes. In special providences we 
have only more impressive manifestations of the control which God always 
exercises over nature's laws. 

But while providence, both general and special, works in the realm of 
nature and through the natural laws of matter and of mind, miracles and 
works of grace like regeneration are supernatural acts, not to be explained 
from antecedent natural causes. While God can use natural forces for the 
accomplishment of his will, he is not, as man is, confined to these, but by 
his simple volition he can accomplish results far beyond the power of mere 
nature. Miracles and special providences are therefore not to be con- 
founded with each other, since the latter belong to nature, the former to 
the realm above nature. Certain of the wonders of Scripture, however, 
such as the destruction of Sennacherib's army and the dividing of the Red 
Sea, may possibly belong to the class of special providences, rather than to 
the class of miracles. 

The tailing' of snow from a roof is an example of ordinary ( or particular ) providence. 
But if a man is killed by it, it becomes a special providence to him and to others who 
are thereby taught the insecurity of life. So the providing of coal for fuel in the 
geologic ages may be regarded by different persons in the light either of a general or 
of a special providence. Trench gives the name of "providential miracles" to those 
Scripture wonders which may be explained as wrought through the agency of natural 
laws (see Trench, Miracles, 19). Mozley also (Miracles, 117-120) calls these wonders mir- 
acles, because of the predictive word of God which accompanied them. He says that 
the difference in effect between miracles and special providences is that the latter give 
some warrant, while the former give full warrant, for believing that they are wrought 
by God. For the naturalistic view, see Tyndall on Miracles and Special Providences, in 
Fragments of Science, 45, 418. Per contra, see Farrar, on Divine Providence and Gen- 
eral Laws, in Science and Theology, 54-80 ; Row, Bampton Lect. on Christian Evidences, 
109-115 ; Godet, Defence of Christian Faith, chap. 2. 

2. To prayer and its answer. 

What has been said with regard to God's connection with nature suggests 
the question, how God can answer prayer consistently with the fixity of 
natural law. 

Tyndall (see reference above), while repelling the charge of denying that God can 
answer prayer at all, yet does deny that he can answer it without a miracle. He 
says expressly " that without a disturbance of natural law quite as serious as the stop- 
page of an eclipse, or the rolling of the St. Lawrence up the falls of Niagara, no act of 
humiliation, individual or national, could call one shower from heaven or deflect 
toward us a single beam of the sun." In reply we would remark : 

A. Negatively, that the true solution is not to be reached : 

(a) By making the sole effect of prayer to be its reflex influence upon 



216 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

the petitioner. — Prayer presupposes a God who hears and answers. It 
will not be offered, unless it is believed to accomplish objective as well as 
subjective results. 

According to the first view mentioned above, prayer is a mere spiritual gymnastics — 
an effort to lift ourselves from the ground by tugging- at our own boot-straps. David 
Hume said well, after hearing a sermon by Dr. Leechman : " "We can make use of no 
expression or even thought in prayers and entreaties which does not imply that these 
prayers have an influence." See Tyndall on Prayer and Natural Law, in Fragments of 
Science, 35. 

( b ) Nor by holding that God answers prayer simply by spiritual means, 
such as the action of the Holy Spirit upon the spirit of man. — The realm 
of spirit is no less subject to law than the realm of matter. Scripture and 
experience, moreover, alike testify that in answer to prayer events take 
place in the outward world which would not have taken place if prayer 
had not gone before. 

According to this second theory, God feeds the starving widow by moving some of 
her rich neighbors to help her. But the pouring rain that followed Elijah's prayer ( 1 L 
18 : 42-45 ) cannot be thus explained as a subjective spiritual phenomenon. Diman, The- 
istic Argument, 268—" Our charts map out not only the solid shore but the windings of 
the ocean currents, and we look into the morning papers to ascertain the gathering of 
storms on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains." But law rules in the realm of spirit as 
well as in the realm of nature. See Baden Powell, in Essays and Reviews, 106-162; 
Knight, Studies in Philosophy and Literature, 340-404. 

( c ) Nor by maintaining that God suspends or breaks in upon the order 
of nature, in answering every prayer that is offered. — This view does not 
take account of natural laws as having objective existence, and as revealing 
the order of God's being. Omnipotence might thus suspend natural law, 
but wisdom, so far as we can see, would not. 

This third theory might well be held by those who see in nature no force but the all- 
working will of God. But there are properties and powers of matter, and the human 
will has a relative independence in the universe. 

( d ) Nor by considering prayer as a physical force, linked in each case to 
its answer, as physical cause is linked to physical effect. — Prayer is not a 
force acting directly upon nature ; else there would be no discretion as to 
its answer. It can accomplish results in nature, only as it influences God. 

We educate our children in two ways : first, by training them to do for themselves 
what thev can do ; and, secondly, by encouraging them to seek our help in matters 
beyond their power. So God educates us, first, by impersonal law, and, secondly, by 
personal dependence. He teaches us both to work and to ask. Notice the "perfect 
unwisdom of modern scientists who place themselves under the training of impersonal 
law, to the exclusion of that higher and better training which is under personality " 
(Hopkins, Sermon on Prayer-gauge, 16). 

It seems more in accordance with both Scripture and reason to say that : 
B. God may answer prayer, even when that answer involves changes in 
the sequences of nature, — 

( a ) By new combinations of natural forces, in regions withdrawn from 
our observation, so that effects are produced which these same forces left to 
themselves would never have accomplished. As man combines the laws of 
chemical attraction and of combustion, to fire the gunpowder and split the 
rock asunder, so God may combine the laws of nature to bring about 
answers to prayer. In all this there may be no suspension or violation of 
law, but a use of law unknown to us. 



[RELATIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE. 217 

Since prayer is nothing more nor less than appeal to a personal and present 
God, whose granting or withholding of the requested blessing is believed 
to be determined by the prayer itself, we must conclude that prayer moves 
God, or, in other words, induces the putting forth on his part of an imper- 
ative volition. 

The view that in answering- prayer God combines natural forces is elaborated by 
Chalmers, Works, 2 : 314, and 7 : 234. See Diman, Theistic Argument, 111— "When laws 
are conceived of, not as single, but as combined, instead of being immutable in their 
operation, they are the agencies of ceaseless change. Phenomena are governed, not by 
invariable forces, but by endlessly varying combinations of invariable forces." Diman 
seems to have followed Argyll, Reign of Law, 100. 

Janet, Final Causes, 219— "I kindle a fire in my grate. I only intervene to produce 
and combine together the different agents whose natural action behooves to produce the 
effect I have need of ; but the first step once taken, all the phenomena constituting 
combustion engender each other, conformably to their laws, without a new intervention 
of the agent ; so that an observer who should study the series of these phenomena, with- 
out perceiving the first hand that had prepared all, could not seize that hand in any 
especial act, and yet there is a preconceived plan and combination." 

Hopkins, Sermon on Prayer-gauge: Man, by sprinkling plaster on his field, may 
cause the corn to grow more luxuriantly ; by kindling great fires and by firing cannon, 
he may cause rain ; and God can surely, in answer to prayer, do as much as man can. 
Lewes says that the fundamental character of all theological philosophy is conceiving 
of phenomena as subject to supernatural volition, and consequently as eminently and 
irregularly variable. This notion, he says, is refuted, first, by exact and rational pre- 
vision of phenomena, and, secondly, by the possibility of our modifying these phenom- 
ena so as to promote our own advantage. But we ask in reply : If we can modify them, 
cannot God ? But, lest this should seem to imply mutability in God or inconsistency in 
nature, we remark, in addition, that : 

( b ) God may have so prearranged the laws of the material universe and 
the events of history that, while the answer to prayer is an expression of his 
will, it is granted through the working of natural agencies, and in perfect 
accordance with the general principle that results, both temporal and spirit- 
ual, are to be attained by intelligent creatures through the use of the appro- 
priate and appointed means. 

Since God is immanent in nature, an answer to prayer, coming about 
through the intervention of natural law, may be as real a revelation of God's 
personal care as if the laws of nature were suspended, and God interposed 
by an exercise of his creative power. Prayer and its answer, though having 
God's immediate volition as their connecting bond, may yet be provided for 
in the original plan of the universe. 

The universe does not exist for itself, but for moral ends and moral beings, to reveal 
God and to furnish facilities of intercourse between God and intelligent creatures. 
Bishop Berkeley: "The universe is God's ceaseless conversation with his creatures." 
Tne universe certainly subserves moral ends — the discouragement of vice and the 
reward of virtue ; why not spiritual ends also ? When we remember that there is no 
true prayer which God does not inspire ; that every true prayer is part of the plan of 
the universe, linked in with all the rest and provided for at the beginning ; that God is 
in nature and in mind, supervising all their movements and making all fulfill his will 
and reveal hrs personal care ; that God can adjust the forces of nature to each other far 
more skillfully than can man when man produces effects which nature of herself could 
never accomplish ; that God is not confined to nature or her forces, but can work by his 
creative and omnipotent will where other means are not sufficient,— we need have no 
fetir, either that natural law will bar God's answers to prayer, or that these answers 
will cause a shock or jar in the system of the universe. 

See Calderwood, Science and Religion, 299-309 ; McCosh, Divine Government, 215 ; Lid- 
don, Elements of Religion, 178-203; Hamilton, Autology, 690-694. See also Jellett, 
Donnellan Lectures on the Efficacy of Prayer ; Butterworth, Story of Notable Prayers ; 



218 NATUBE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

Patton, Prayer and its Answers ; Monrad, World of Prayer ; Prime, Power of Prayer ; 
Phelps, The Still Hour ; Haven, and Bickersteth, on Prayer ; Prayer for Colleges ; Cox, 
in Expositor, 1877 : chap. 3. 

C. If asked whether this relation between prayer and its providential 
answer can be scientifically tested, we reply that it may be tested just as a 
father's love may be tested by a dutiful son. 

(a) There is a general proof of it in the past experience of the Christian 
and in the past history of the church. 

Ps. 116 : 1-8—" I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications." Luther prays for the 
dying Melancthon, and he recovers. George Muller trusts to prayer, and builds his 
great orphan-houses. For a multitude of instances, see Prime, Answers to Prayer. 

(b) In condescension to human blindness, God may sometimes submit 
to a formal test of his faithfulness and power, — as in the case of Elijah and 
the priests of Baal. 

Is. 7 : 10-13— Ahaz is rebuked for not asking a sign,— in him it indicated unbelief. 1 K. 
18 : 36-38 — Elijah said, " Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel .... Then the fire of the Lord 
fell, and consumed the burnt offering." Romaine speaks of " a year famous for believing. " 

(c) "When proof sufficient to convince the candid inquirer has been 
already given, it may not consist with the divine majesty to abide a test 
imposed by mere curiosity or scepticism, — as in the case of the Jews who 
sought a sign from heaven. 

Mat. 12 : 39— "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given it but the 
sign of Jonah the prophet." Tyndall's prayer-gauge would ensure a conflict of prayers. 

(d) Since God's will is the link between prayer and its answer, there can 
be no such thing as a physical demonstration of its efficacy in any proposed 
case. Physical tests have no application to things into which free will enters 
as a constitutive element. But there are moral tests, and moral tests are as 
scientific as physical tests can be. 

Diman, Theistic Argument, 276, alludes to Gold win Smith's denial that any scientific 
method can be applied to history because it would make man a necessary link in a chain 
of cause and effect and so would deny his free will. But Diman says this is no more 
impossible than the development of the individual according to a fixed law of growth, 
while yet free will is sedulously respected. Froude says history is not a science, because 
no science could foretell Mohammedanism or Buddhism ; and Goldwin Smith says that 
" prediction is the crown of all science." But, as Diman remarks : " geometry, geology, 
physiology, are sciences, yet they do not predict." Buckle brought history into con- 
tempt by asserting that it could be analyzed and referred solely to intellectual laws and 
forces. To all this we reply that there may be scientific tests which are not physical, or 
even intellectual, but only moral. Such a test God urges his .people to use, in Mai. 3 : 10 — 
"Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse .... and prove me now herewith .... if I will not open you the 
windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." All such 
prayer is a reflection of Christ's words — some fragment of his teaching transformed 
into a supplication ( John 15 : 7 ; see Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco ) ; all such prayer is more- 
over the work of the Spirit of God ( Rom. 8 : 26, 27 ). It is therefore sure of an answer. 

But the test of prayer proposed by Tyndall is not applicable to the thing to be tested 
by it. Hopkins, Prayer and the Prayer-gauge, 22 sq— " We cannot measure wheat by 
the yard, or the weight of a discourse with a pair of scales .... God's wisdom might 
see that it was not best for the petitioners, nor for the objects of their petition, to grant 
their request. Christians therefore could not, without special divine authorization, rest 
their faith upon the results of such a test .... Why may we not ask for great changes 
in nature ? For the same reason that a well-informed child does not ask for the moon 
as a plaything .... There are two limitations upon prayer. First, except by special 
direction of God, we cannot ask for a miracle, for the same reason that a child could 
not ask his father to burn the house down. Nature is the house we live in. Secondly, 
we cannot ask for anything under the laws of nature which would contravene the 
object of those laws. Whatever we can do for ourselves under these laws, God expects 



[RELATIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE. 219 

us to do. If the child is cold, let him go near the fire,— not beg- his father to carry him." 
See Upham, Interior Life, 356 ; Thornton, Old Fashioned Ethics, 286-297. Per contra, see 
Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, 277-294. 

3. To Christian activity. 

Here the truth lies between the two extremes of quietism and naturalism. 

( a ) In opposition to the false abnegation of human reason and will which 
quietism demands, we hold that God guides us, not by continual miracle, 
but by his natural providence and the energizing of our faculties by his 
Spirit, so that we rationally and freely do our own work, and work out our 
own salvation. 

Upham, Interior Life, 356, defines quietism as " cessation of wandering- thoughts and 
discursive imaginations, rest from irregular desires and affections, and perfect submis- 
sion of the will." Its advocates, however, have often spoken of it as a giving up of our 
will and reason, and a swallowing up of these in the wisdom and will of God. This 
phraseology is misleading, and savors of a pantheistic merging of man in God. Dorner : 
"Quietism makes God a monarch without living subjects." Certain English quietists, 
like the Mohammedans, will not employ physicians in sickness. They quote 2 Chron. 16 : 
12 — Asa "sought not to the Lord, hut to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers." They forget that 
the " physicians " alluded to in Chronicles were probably heathen necromancers. Cromwell 
to his Ironsides : " Trust God, and keep your powder dry ! " 

We must not confound rational piety with false enthusiasm. See Isaac Taylor, 
Natural History of Enthusiasm. " Not quiescence, but acquiescence, is demanded of 
us." As God feeds "the birds of the heaven" (Mat. 6 : 26), not by dropping food from heaven 
into their mouths, but by stimulating them to seek food for themselves, so God provides 
for his rational creatures by giving them a sanctified common sense and by leading them 
to use it. In a true sense Christianity gives us more will than ever. The Holy Spirit 
emancipates the will, sets it upon proper objects, and fills it with new energy. We are 
therefore not to surrender ourselves passively to whatever professes to be a divine sug- 
gestion : 1 John 4 : 1 — " Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they be of God." The test is the 
revealed word of God: Is. 8 : 20— "To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this 
word, surely there is no morning for them." See remarks on false Mysticism, page 17. 

( b ) In opposition to naturalism, we hold that God is continually near 
the human spirit by his providential working, and that this providential 
working is so adjusted to the Christian's nature and necessities as to fur- 
nish instruction with regard to duty, discipline of religious character, and 
needed help and comfort in trial. 

In interpreting God's providences, as in interpreting Scripture, we are 
dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The work of the Spirit is, indeed, in great 
part an application of Scripture truth to present circumstances. While we 
never allow ourselves to act blindly and irrationally, but accustom ourselves 
to weigh evidence with regard to duty, we are to expect, as the gift of the 
Spirit, an understanding of circumstances — a fine sense of God's providen- 
tial purposes with regard to us, which shall make our true course plain to 
ourselves, although we may not always be able to explain it to others. 

The Christian may have a continual divine guidance. Unlike the unfaithful and unbe- 
lieving, of whom it is said, in Ps. 106 : 13, "they waited not for his counsel," the true believer has 
wisdom given him from above. Ps. 32 : 8— "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou 
shalt go " ; Prov. 3:6—" In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thypaths" ; Phil. 1 : 9— "And thisl 
pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment " ( cuo-t^crei == spiritual 
discernment) ; James 1 : 5— "if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth (tov SiSovtos 
®eov ) to all liberally and upbraideth not " ; John 15 : 15 — " No longer do I call you servants ; for the servant knoweth 
not what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends " ; Col. 1 : 9 —"that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his 
will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing." 

God's Spirit makes Providence as well as the Bible personal to us. From every page 
of nature, as well as of the Bible, the living God speaks to us. Tholuck : " The more we 



220 NATUEE, DECEEES, AND WOEKS OF GOD. 

recognize in every daily occurrence God's secret inspiration, guiding and controlling 
us, the more will all which to others wears a common and every-day aspect prove to us 
a sign and a wondrous work." Hutton, Essays: "Animals that are blind slaves of 
impulse, driven about by forces from within, have so to say fewer valves in their 
moral constitution for the entrance of divine guidance. But minds alive to every word 
of God give constant opportunity for his interference with suggestions that may alter 
the course of their lives. The higher the mind, the more it glides into the region of 
providential control. God turns the good by the slightest breath of thought." So the 
Christian hymn, "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah!" likens God's leading of the 
believer to that of Israel by the pillar of fire and cloud ; and Paul in his dungeon calls 
himself "the prisoner of Christ Jesus " ( Eph. 3:1). Affliction is the discipline of God's providence. 
Greek proverb: "He who does not get thrashed, does not get educated." On God's 
Leadings, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Eeligion, 560-562. 

4 To the evil acts of free agents. 

( a ) Here we must distinguish, between the natural agency and the moral 
agency of God, or between acts of permissive providence and acts of effi- 
cient causation. We are ever to remember that God neither works evil, nor 
causes his creatures to work evil. All sin is chargeable to the self-will and 
perversity of the creature ; to declare God the author of it is the greatest 
of blasphemies. 

Bp. Wordsworth : "God foresees evil deeds, but never forces them." " God does not 
cause sin, any more than the rider of a limping horse causes the limping." 

• (b) But while man makes up his evil decision independently of God, 
God does, by his natural agency, order the method in which this inward evil 
shall express itself, by limiting it in time, place, and measure, or by guiding 
it to the end which his wisdom and love, and not man's intent, has set. In 
all this, however, God only allows sin to develop itself after its own nature, 
so that it may be known, abhorred, and if possible overcome and forsaken. 

Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 272-284— "Judas's treachery works the reconciliation of 

the world, and Israel's apostasy the salvation of the Gentiles God smooths the 

path of the sinner, and gives him chance for the outbreak of the evil, like a wise physician 
who draws to the surface of the body the disease that has been raging within, in order 
that it may be cured, if possible, by mild means, or, if not, may be removed by the 
knife." 

(c) In cases of persistent iniquity, God's providence still compels the 
sinner to accomplish the design with which he and all things have been 
created, namely, the manifestation of God's holiness. Even though he 
struggle against God's plan, yet he must by his very resistance serve it. 
His sin is made its own detector, judge, and tormentor. His character and 
doom are made a warning to others. Eefusing to glorify God in his salva- 
tion, he is made to glorify God in his destruction. 

Is. 10 : 5, 7— "Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation! .... lowbeit, 
he meaneth not so." Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago: "He [Treluddra] is one of those 
base natures whom fact only lashes into greater fury, — a Pharaoh, whose heart the Lord 
himself can only harden "— here we would add the qualification : ' consistently with the 
limits which he has set to the operations of his grace.' Pharaoh's ordering the destruc- 
tion of the Israelitish children ( Ex. 1 : 16 ) was made the means of putting Moses under 
royal protection, of training him for his future work, and finally of rescuing the whole 
nation whose sons Pharaoh sought to destroy. So God brings good out of evil ; see 
Tyler, Theology of Greek Poets, 28-35. Emerson: "My will fulfilled shall be, For in 
daylight as in dark My thunderbolt has eyes to see His way Home to the mark." See 
also Edwards, Works, 4 : 300-312. 



SCRIPTUKE STATEMENTS AND INTIMATIONS. 221 

SECTION IV. — GOOD AND EVIL ANGELS. 

As ministers of divine providence there is a class of finite beings, greater 
in intelligence and power than man in his present state, some of whom pos- 
itively serve God's purpose by holiness and voluntary execution of his will, 
some negatively, by giving examples to the universe of defeated and pun- 
ished rebellion, and by illustrating God's distinguishing grace in man's 
salvation. 

The scholastic subtleties which encumbered this doctrine in the Middle 
Ages, and the exaggerated representations of the power of evil spirits which 
then prevailed, have led, by a natural reaction, to an undue depreciation of 
it in more recent times. 

For scholastic discussions, see Thomas Aquinas, Summa (ed. Migne), 1 : 833-993. The 
scholastics debated the questions, how many angels could stand at once on the point of 
a needle ( relation of angels to space ) ; whether an angel could be in two places at the 
same time ; how great was the interval between the creation of angels and their fall ; 
whether the sin of the first angel caused the sin of the rest ; whether as many retained 
their integrity as fell ; whether our atmosphere is the place of punishment for fallen 
angels ; whether guardian-angels have charge of children from baptism, from birth, or 
while the infant is yet in the womb of its mother. 

Dante makes the creation of angels simultaneous with that of the universe at large. 
" The fall of the rebel angels he considers to have taken place within twenty seconds of 
their creation, and to have originated in the pride which made Lucifer unwilling to 
await the time prefixed by his Maker for enlightening him with perfect knowledge "— 
see Rossetti, Shadow of Dante, 14, 15. 

But there is certainly a possibility that the ascending scale of created 
intelligences does not reach its topmost point in man. As the distance 
between man and the lowest forms of life is filled in with numberless gra- 
dations of being, so it is possible that between man and God there exist 
creatures of higher than human intelligence. This possibility is turned to 
certainty by the express declarations of Scripture. The doctrine is inter- 
woven with the later as well as with the earlier books of revelation. 

Quenstedt ( Theol., 1 : 629 ) regards the existence of angels as antecedently probable, 
because there are no gaps in creation ; nature does not proceed per saltum. As we have 
(1) beings purely corporeal, as stones ; (2) beings partly corporeal and partly spiritual, 
as men: so we should expect in creation (3) beings wholly spiritual, as angels. Godet, 
in his Biblical Studies of the O. T., 1-29, suggests another series of gradations. As we 
have (1) vegetables = species without individuality; (2) animals = individuality in 
bondage to species; and (3) men = species overpowered by individuality: so we may 
expect ( 4 ) angels = individuality without species. 

The doctrine of angels affords a barrier against the false conception of this world as 
including the whole spiritual universe. Earth is only part of a larger organism. As 
Christianity has united Jew and Gentile, so hereafter will it blend our own and other 
orders of creation : Col. 2 : 10 — " who is the head of all principality and power "= Christ is the head of 
angels as well as of men ; Eph. 1 : 10— "to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the 
things upon the earth." On the general subject of angels, see also Whately, Good and Evil 
Angels ; Twesten, transl. in Bib. Sac, 1 : 768, and 2 : 108 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 287- 
337, and 3 : 251-354 ; Birks, Difficulties of Belief , 78 sq. ; Scott, Existence of Evil Spirits ; 
Herzog, EncyclopSdie, arts. : Engel, Teufel. 

I. Scripture Statements and Intimations. 
1. As to the nature and attributes of angels, 
(a) They are created beings. 

Ps. 148 : 2-5— "Praise ye him, all his angels .... For he commanded, and they were created" ; Col. 1 : 16— "for 



222 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

in him were all things created .... whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers" ; cf. 1 Pat. 3 : 22 — 
" angels and authorities and powers." 

( b ) They are incorporeal beings. 

In leb. 1 : 14, where a single word is used to designate angels, they are described as 
" spirits" — " are they not all ministering spirits ? " Men, with their twofold nature/material as well 
as immaterial, could not well be designated as " spirits." That this being characteristically 
"spirits" forbids us to regard angels as having a bodily organism, seems implied in Eph. 
6 . 12 — " for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against .... the spiritual hosts [ or ' things ' ] of wick- 
edness in the heavenly places." In Gen. 6 : 2, "sons of God"=, not angels, but descendants of Seth 
and worshipers of the true God ( see Murphy, Com., in loco ). In Ps. 78 : 25 ( A. V. ), " angels' 
food "= manna coming from heaven where angels dwell; better, however, read with 
Rev. Vers. : "bread of the mighty"— probably meaning angels, though the word "mighty" is 
nowhere else applied to them; possibly =" bread of princes or nobles," i. e. the finest, 
most delicate bread. Mat. 22 : 30 — " neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven " — 
and Luke 20 : 36 — "neither can they die any more: for they are eajial unto the angels" — imply only that 
angels are without distinctions of sex. Saints are to be like angels, not as being incor- 
poreal, but as not having the same sexual relations which they have here. Angels, 
therefore, since they have no bodies, know nothing of growth, age, or death. 

(c) They are personal — that is, intelligent and voluntary — agents. . 

2 Sam. 14 : 20 — " wise according to the wisdom of an angel of God " ; Luke 4 : 34 — " I know thee who thou art, the 
Eoly One of God" ; 2 Tim. 2 : 26 — "snare of the devil .... taken captive by him unto his will" (Am. Revis- 
ers) ; Rev. 22 : 9— "See thou do it not "= exercise of will. 

(d) They are possessed of superhuman intelligence and power, yet an 
intelligence and power that has its fixed limits. 

Mat. 24 : 36 — "of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven "= their knowledge, 
though superhuman, is yet finite. 1 Pet. 1 : 12—" which things angels desire to look into " ; Ps. 103 : 20 — 
"angels .... mighty in strength " ; 2Thess.l:7 — " the angels of his power " ; 2 Pet. 2: 11 — " angels, though greater 
[than men] in might and power" ; Rev. 20 : 2, 10— "laid hold of the dragon .... and bound him .... cast 
into the lake of fire." Compare Ps. 72 : 18 — "God .... who only doeth wondrous things "= only God can 
perform miracles. 

( e ) They are an order of intelligences distinct from man and older than 
man. 

Angels are distinct from man. 1 Cor. 6 : 3— "we shall judge angels" ; leb. 1 : 14— "Are they not all 
ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" They are not 
glorified human spirits ; see Heb. 2 : 16 — "for verily not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth help to the 
seed of Abraham" (Am. Revisers); also 12 : 22, 23, where "the innumerable hosts of angels" are dis- 
tinguished from "the church of the first born" and "the spirits of just men made perfect." In Rev. 22 : 9 — 
"lama fellow-servant with thee " — " fellow-servant " intimates likeness to men, not in nature, but in 
service and subordination to God, the proper object of worship. 

Angels are an order of intelligences older than man. The Fathers made the creation 
of angels simultaneous with the original calling into being of the elements, perhaps 
basing their opinion on the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus 18 : 1— "he that liveth eternally 
created all things together." In Job 38 : 8, the Hebrew parallelism makes "morning stars "= 
"sons of God," so that angels are spoken of as present at certain stages of God's creative 
work. The mention of " the serpent " in Gen. 3 : 1 implies the fall of Satan before the fall of 
man. We may infer that the creation of angels took place before the creation of man— 
the lower before the higher. In Gen. 2 : 1, "all the hosts of them," which God had created, may 
be intended to include angels. 

The constant representation of angels as personal beings in Scripture^ 
cannot be explained as a personification of abstract good and evil, in accom- 
modation to Jewish superstitions, without wresting many narrative passages- 
from their obvious sense ; implying on the part of Christ either dissimula- 
tion or ignorance as to an important point of doctrine ; and surrendering 
belief in the inspiration of the Old Testament from which these Jewish 
views of angelic beings were derived. 



SCRIPTUKE STATEMENTS AND INTIMATIONS. 223 

Eph. 3 : 10 — " to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known 
through the church the manifold wisdom of God'' — excludes the hypothesis that angels are simply 
abstract conceptions of good or evil. We speak of "moon-struck" people (lunatics) 
only when we know that nobody supposes us to believe in the power of the moon to 
cause madness. But Christ's contemporaries did suppose him to believe in angelic 
spirits, good and evil. If this belief was an error, it was by no means a harmless one, 
and the benevolence as well as the veracity of Christ would have led him to correct it. 
So too, if Paul had known that there were no such beings as angels, he could not hon- 
estly have contented himself with forbidding the Colossians to worship them ( Col. 2 : 18 ), 
but would have denied their existence, as he denied the existence of heathen gods 
( 1 Cor. 8 : 4 ). 

We cannot deny the personality of Satan except upon principles which would com- 
pel us to deny the existence of good angels, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the 
personality of God the Father. Says Nigel Penruddock in Lord Beaconsfield's " Endym- 
ion": "Give me a single argument against his [Satan's] personality, which is not 
applicable to the personality of the Deity." One of the most ingenious devices of 
Satan is that of persuading men that he has no existence. 

The same remark applies to the view which regards Satan as but a col- 
lective term for all evil beings, human or superhuman. The Scripture 
representations of the progressive rage of the great adversary, from his first 
assault on human virtue in Genesis to his final overthrow in Revelation, 
join with the testimony of Christ just mentioned, to forbid any other con- 
clusion than this, that there is a personal being of great power, who carries 
on organized opposition to the divine government. 

For the view that Satan is merely a collective term for all evil beings, see Bushnell, 
Nature and the Supernatural, 134-137. Per contra, see Smith's Bible Dictionary, arts. : 
Angels, Demons, Demoniacs, Satan ; Trench, Studies in the Gospels, 1&-26. For a com- 
parison of Satan in the Book of Job, with Milton's Satan in "Paradise Lost," and 
Goethe's Mephistopheles in "Faust," see Masson, The Three Devils. We may add to 
this list Dante's Satan (or Dis) in the "Divine Comedy," Byron's Lucifer in "Cain," 
and Mrs. Browning's Lucifer in her " Drama of Exile " ; see Gregory, Christian Ethics. 
219. 

2. As to their number and organization. 

{a) They are of great multitude. 

Dent 33 : 2 — " The Lord .... came from the ten thousands of holy ones " ; Ps. 68 : 17 — " The chariots of God are 
twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands" ; Dan. 7 : 10 — "thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before him " ; Rev. 5 : 11 — " I heard the voice of many angels .... and the num- 
ber of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." Anselm thought that the 
number of lost angels was filled up by the number of elect men. 

(6) They constitute a company, as distinguished from a race. 

Mat. 22 : 30— "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven" ; Luke 20 : 36 — 
"neither can they die any more : for they are equal unto the angels ; and are sons of &od." We are called " sons 
of men," but angels are never called "sons of angels," but only "sons of God." They are not 
developed from one original stock, and no such common nature binds them together as 
binds together the race of man. They have no common character and history. Each 
was created separately, and each apostate angel fell by himself. Humanity fell all at 
once in its first father. Cut down a tree, and you cut down its branches. But angels 
were so many separate trees. Some lapsed into sin, but some remained holy. See 
Godet, Bib. Studies O. T., 1-29. This may be one reason why salvation was provided for 
fallen man, but not for fallen angels. Christ could join himself to humanity by taking 
the common nature of us all. There was no common nature of angels which he could 
take. 

( c ) They are of various ranks and endowments. 

Col. 1 : 16 — "thrones or dominions or principalities or powers" ; 1 Thess. 4 : 16 — "the voice of the archangel" ; 
Jude 9 — " Michael the archangel." Michael ( = who is like God ? ) is the only one expressly called 
an archangel in Scripture, although Gabriel ( = God's hero ) has been called an arch- 
angel by Milton. In Scripture, Michael seems, the messenger of law and judgment ; 
Gabriel, the messenger of mercy and promise. The fact that Scripture has but one 



224 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

archangel is proof that its doctrine of angels was not, as has sometimes been charged, 
derived from Babylonian and Persian sources; for there we find seven archangels 
instead of one. There, moreover, we find the evil spirit enthroned as a God, while in 
Scripture he is represented as a trembling slave. 

(d) They have an organization. 

1 Sam. 1 : 11— "Jehovah of hosts" ; 1 L 22 : 19— "the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven stand- 
ing by him on his right hand and on his left"; Mat. 26 : 53— "twelve legions of angels"— suggests the 
organization of the Roman army; 25 : 41 — "the devil and his angels" ; Eph. 2 : 2— "the prince of the 
powers of the air" (Am. Revisers) ; Rev. 2 : 13 — "Satan's throne" (not "seat"); 16 : 10 — "throne of the 
beast" — "a hellish parody of the heavenly kingdom" (Trench). The phrase "host of 
heaven," in Deut. 4 : 19 ; 17 : 3 ; Acts 7 : 42, probably = the stars ; but in Gen. 32 : 2, " God's host " == 
angels, for when Jacob saw the angels he said "This is God's host." In general the phrases 
"God of hosts", "Lord of hosts" seem to mean "God of angels", "Lord of angels": compare 
2 Chron. 18 : 16 ; Luke 2 : 13 ; Rev. 19 : 14 — "the armies which are in heaven." Yet in Neh. 9 6 and Ps. 33 : 6 
the word "host" seems to include both angels and stars. 

With regard to the 'cherubim' of Genesis, Exodus, and Ezekiel, — with 
which the 'seraphim' of Isaiah and the 'living creatures' of the book of 
Revelation are to be identified, — the most probable interpretation is that 
which regards them, not as actual beings of higher rank than man, but as 
symbolic appearances, intended to represent redeemed humanity, endowed 
with all the creature perfections lost by the Fall, and made to be the 
dwelling place of God. 

Some have held that the cherubim are symbols of the divine attributes, or of God's 
government over nature; see Smith's Bib. Diet., art. : Cherub; Alford, Com. on Rev. 4 : 
6-8, and Hulsean Lectures, 1841 : vol. 1, lect. 2 ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 278. But whatever 
of truth belongs to this view may be included in the doctrine stated above. The 
cherubim are indeed symbols of nature pervaded by the divine energy and subordinated 
to the divine purposes, but they are symbols of nature only because they are symbols 
of man in his twofold capacity of image of God and priest of nature. Man, as having a 
body, is a part of nature ; as having a soul, he emerges from nature and gives to nature 
a voice. Through man, nature, otherwise blind and dead, is able to appreciate and to 
express the Creator's glory. 

The doctrine of the cherubim embraces the following points : 1. The cherubim are 
not personal beings, but are ai'tificial, temporary, symbolic figures. 2. While they are 
not themselves personal existences, they are symbols of personal existence— symbols 
not of divine or angelic perfections but of human nature ( Ez. 1 : 5 — "they had the likeness of a 
man " ; Rev. 5:9 — A. V. — "thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood" — so read N, B, and Tregelles ; 
the Eng. Rev. Vers., however, follows A and Tischendorf, and omits the word "us"). 
3. They are emblems of human nature, not in its present stage of development, but 
possessed of all its original perfections ; for this reason the most perfect animal forms 
— the kinglike courage of the lion, the patient service of the ox, the soaring insight of 
the eagle— are combined with that of man (Ez. 1 and 10; Rev. 4:6-8). 4. These cherubic 
forms represent, not merely material or earthly perfections, but human nature spirit- 
ualized and sanctified. They are "living creatures" and their life is a holy life of obedi- 
ence to the divine will ( Ez. 1 : 12 — " whither the spirit was to go, they went " ). 5. They symbolize a 
human nature exalted to be the dwelling-place of God. Hence the inner curtains of 
the tabernacle were inwoven with cherubic figures, and God's glory was manifested on 
the mercy-seat between the cherubim ( Ex. 37 : 6-9 ). While the flaming sword at the gates 
of Eden was the symbol of justice, the cherubim were symbols of mercy — keeping the 
" way of the tree of life " for man, until by sacrifice and renewal Paradise should be regained 
(Gen. 3 : 24 ). 

In corroboration of this general view, note that angels and cherubim never go 
together; and that in the closing visions of the book of Revelation these symbolic 
forms are seen no longer. When redeemed humanity has entered heaven, the figures 
which typified that humanity, having served their purpose, finally disappear. For 
fuller elaboration, see A. H. Strong, The Nature and Purpose of the Cherubim, in Phi- 
losophy and Religion, 391-399 ; Fairbairn, Typology, 1 : 185-208 ; Elliott, Horae Apocalyp- 
iacae, 1 : 87; Bib. Sac, 1876 : 32-51; Bib. Com., 1 ; 49-52— " The winged lions, eagles, and 



SCKIPTUKE STATEMENTS AND INTIMATIONS. 225 

bulls, that guard the entrances of the palaces of Nineveh, are worshipers rather than 
divinities.'" On animal characteristics in man, see Hopkins, Scriptural Idea of Man, 105. 

3. As to their moral character, 
(a) They were all created holy. 

Gen. 1 : 31 — " God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." 

( b ) They had a probation. 

This we infer froml Tim. 5 : 21— "the elect angels" ; cf. 1 Pet. 1 : 1, 2— "elect .... unto obedience." If 
certain angels, like certain men, are "elect .... unto obedience," it would seem to follow that 
there was a period of probation, during which their obedience, or disobedience deter- 
mined their future destiny. 

( c ) Some preserved their integrity. 

Ps. 89 : 7— "the council of the holy ones"— a designation of angels; Mark 8 : 38— "the holy angels." 

(d) Some fell from their estate of innocence. 

John 8 : 44 — "He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him " ; 
2 Pet. 2:4 — " angels when they sinned " ; Jude 6 — " angels which kept not their own principality, but left their proper 
habitation." 

( e ) The good are confirmed in good. 

Mat. 6 : 10 — " Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth " ; 18 : 10 — " in heaven their angels do always behold the 
face of my Father which is in heaven " 2 Cor. 11 : 14 — " an angel of light " 

(/) The evil are confirmed in evil. 

Mat. 13 : 19— "the evil one" ; 1 John 5 : 18, 19— "the evil one toucheth him not ... . the whole world liethinthe 
evil one " ; cf. John 8 : 44 — " Ye are of your father the devil .... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: 
for he is a liar, and the father thereof" ; Mat. 6 : 13 — " deliver us from the evil one." 

From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a 
period of probation ; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall ; that there is 
possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that 
the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of 
intelligence than our own ; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us ; 
in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the Cross. See 1 Pet, 1 : 12— "which 
things angels desire to look into " ; Eph. 3 : 10 — " that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places 
might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God " ; Col. 1 : 20 — " through him to reconcile all 
things unto himself .... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens ' ' ; Eph. 1 : 10 — " to sum up all things 
in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth "=" the unification of the whole uni- 
verse in Christ as the divine centre .... The great system is a harp all whose strings 
are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. 
The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that 
one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and 
mercy "— freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330. 

4. As to their employments. 

A. The employments of good angels. 

( a ) They stand in the presence of God and worship him. 

Ps. 29 : 1, 2—" Give to Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty, Give to Jehovah glory and strength. Give to Jehovah the 
glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy vestments "— Perowne : "Heaven being thought of as 
one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments." Ps. 
89 : 7 — " a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones," i. e. angels — Perowne : "Angels are called 
an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which, like the church below, wor- 
ships and praises God." Mat. 18 : 10 —"in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which 
is in heaven." 

( b ) They rejoice in God's works. 

Job 38 : 7 — " all the sons of God shouted for joy " ; Luke 15 : 10 — " there is joy in the presence of the angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth" ; cf. 2 Tim. 2 : 25 -"if peradventure God may give them repentance." 

15 



226 NATURE, DECREES, AND WOEKS OF GOD. 

(c) They execute God's will, — by working in nature ; 

Ps. 103 : 20 — "ye angels of his ... . that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word" 104 : 4 marg.. 
— " Who maketh his angels winds ; His ministers a flaming fire," i. e. lightning's. See Alford on Heb. 1:7 — 
"The order of the Hebrew words here [in Ps. 104 : 4] is not the same as in the former 
verses ( see especially v. 3 ), where we have : ' Who maketh the clouds his chariot.' For this trans- 
position, those who insist that the passage means l he maketh winds his messengers ' can 
give no reason." 

(d) by guiding the affairs of nations ; 

Dan. 10 : 12, 13, 21 — "I am come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... . 
Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... . Michael your prince " ; 11 : 1 — "And as for me, in the first year 
of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him" ; 12 : 1 — "at that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
prince which standeth for the children of thy people." 

( e ) by watching over the interests of particular churches ; 

i Cor. 11 : 10 — " for this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority [ i. e. a veil ] on her head, because 
of the angels " — who watch over the church and have care for its order. Col. 2 : 18 — "let no man 
rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility aud worshipping of the angels"— a false worship which 
would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints. 1 Tim. 
5 : 21 — " I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things " — the 
public duties of the Christian minister. 

Alford regards " the angels of the seven churches " ( Rev. 1 : 20 ) as superhuman beings appointed 
to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds : ( 1 ) that the word 
is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense ; and ( 2 ) that nothing 
in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the- 
complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, how- 
ever, to regard "the angels of the seven churches" as meaning simply the pastors of the seven 
churches. The word " angel " means simply " messenger," and may be used of human as 
well as of superhuman beings — see Hag. 1 : 13 — " Haggai, the Lord's messenger "—literally, "the 
angel of Jehovah." The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous 
with the mystical character of the Book of Revelation ( see Bib. Sac, 13 : 339 ). 

(/) by assisting and protecting individual believers ; 

1 K. 19 : 5 — "an angel touched him [ Elijah ], and said unto him, Arise and eat" ; Ps. 91 : 11— "He shall give his 
angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot 
against a stone" ; Dan. 6 : 22— "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt 
me " ; Mat. 4 : 11 — " angels came and ministered unto him " — Jesus was the type of all believers ; 18 : 10 — 
" Despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my 
Father " ; compare verse 6 — " one of these little ones which believe on me " ; see Meyer, Com. in loco, who 
regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian-angels. Luke 16 : 22— "the 
beggar died, and ... . was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom " ; Heb. 1 : 14 — "Are they not all minis- 
tering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation ? " Compare Acts 12 : 15 — 
"And they said, It is his angel "— of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com. in loco: the 
utterance "expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither 
affirmed nor denied." 

(g) by punishing God's enemies. 

2 K. 19 : 35 — "it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyr- 
ians an hundred fourscore and five thousand" ; Acts 12 : 23— "And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him. 
because he gave not God the glory ; and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." 

A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of 
good angels leads us to the following conclusions : 

First, — that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents 
of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his 
special providence in the affairs of his church. He 'maketh his angels 
winds ' and ' a flaming fire, ' not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection 
with special displays of his power for moral ends ( Deut. 33 : 2 ; Acts 7 : 53 ; 
Gal. 3 : 19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and 



SCRIPTUEE STATEMENTS AND INTIMATIONS. 227 

exceptional — not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or com- 
manded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming 
between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to 
attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures 
generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic 
appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfold- 
ing of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation 
(Job 38 : 7) ; at the giving of the law (Gal. 3 : 19) ; at the birth of Christ 
(Luke 2 : 13) ; at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane 
(Mat. 4 : 11, Luke 22 : 43) ; at the resurrection (Mat. 28 : 2) ; at the ascen- 
sion (Acts 1 : 10) ; at the final judgment (Mat. 25 : 31). 

The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1 : 6-37 
645. Milton tells us that "Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both 
when we wake and when we sleep." Whether this be true or not, it is a question of 
interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present 
seen by men. Paul's admonition against the " worshipping of the angels" ( Col. 2 : 18 ) seems to 
suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, 
when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of 
idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels ; 
see Rev. 22 : 8, 9— "I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. And he saitb. 
unto me, See thou do it not." 

Secondly, — that their j3ower, as being in its nature dependent and derived, 
is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. 
They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search 
the heart. Unlike the Holy Sj)irit, who can influence the human mind 
directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which 
men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is 
probable that good angels may attract men to holiness. 

As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of 
angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interpo- 
sition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the 
text. Job 38 : 7 — " When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy " ; Deut. 33 : 2 — 
" The Lord came from Sinai .... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones : At his right hand was a fiery law unto 
them'' ; Gal. 3 : 19— "it [the law] was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" ; Heb. 2:2 — 
" the word spoken through angels " ; Acts 7 : 53 — " who received the law as it was ordained by angels " ; Luke 2 : 13 
— "suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host" ; Mat. 4 : 11 — "Then the devil leaveth him; 
and behold, angels came and ministered unto him"; Luke 22 : 43 — "And there appeared unto him an angel from 
heaven, strengthening him" ; Mat. 28 : 2— "an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away 
the stone, and sat upon it" ; Acts 1 : 10 — "And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two 
men stood by them in white apparel " ; Mat. 25 : 31 — " when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels, 
with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory." 

B. The employments of evil angels. 

( a ) They oppose God and strive to defeat his will. This is indicated in 
the names applied to their chief. The word " Satan " means "adversary '" 
— primarily to God, secondarily to men ; the term " devil " signifies " slan- 
derer " — of God to men, and of men to God. It is indicated also in the 
description of the " man of sin " as "he that opposeth and exalteth himself 
against all that is called God." 

Job 1 : 6 — Satan appears among "the sons of God " ; Zech. 3 : 1 —"Joshua the high priest .... and Satan 
standing at his right hand to be his adversary " ; Mat. 13 : 39 — " the enemy that sowed them is the devil " ; 1 Pet. 5:8 — 
"your adversary the devil." Satan slanders God to men, in Gen. 3 : 1, 4— "Yea, hath God said? .... Ye 
shall not surely die'' ; men to God, in Job 1 : 9, 11 — " Doth Job fear God for nought ? .... put forth thy hand now, 
and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce thee to thy face " : 2 : 4, 5 — " Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath 



228 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to 
thy face " ; Rev. 12 : 10 — " the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuseth them before our God night and day.' ' 
Notice how, over against the evil spirit who thus accuses God to man and man to God, 
stands the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who pleads God's cause with man and man's cause 
with God : John 16 : 8 — " he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment" ; Rom. 8 : 26 — "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but 
the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Hence Balaam can say, 
Num. 23 : 21, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel" ; and the Lord 
can say to Satan as he resists Joshua : " The Lord rebuke thee, Satan ; yea, the Lord that hath chosen 
Jerusalem rebuke thee" (Zech. 3:2). "Thus he puts himself between his people and every 
tongue that would accuse them " ( C. H. M. ). For the description of the " man of sin," see 
2 Thess. 2:4—" he that opposeth " ; c/. verse 9 — " whose coming is according to the working of Satan." 

(6) They hinder man's temporal and eternal welfare, — sometimes by 
exercising a certain control over natural phenomena, but more commonly 
by subjecting man's soul to temptation. Possession of man's being, either 
physical or spiritual, by demons, is also recognized in Scripture. 

Control of natural phenomena is ascribed to evil spirits in Job 1 : 12, 16, 19 and 2 : 7— "all 
that he hath is in thy power "—and Satan uses lightning, whirlwind, disease, for his purposes ; 
Luke 13 : 11, 16 — "a woman which had a spirit of infirmity .... whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years" ; 
Acts 10 : 38 — "healing all that were oppressed of the devil" ; 2 Cor. 12 : 7 — "a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of 
Satan to buffet me " ; 1 Thess. 2 : 18 — "we would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and again ; and Satan hindered 
us" ; leb. 2 : 14 — "him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Temptation is ascribed to evil 
spirits in Gen. 3 : 1 sq.— "Now the serpent was more subtle" ; cf. Rev. 20 : 2 — "the old serpent, which is the Devil 
and Satan " ; Mat. 4:3 — "the tempter came " ; John 13 : 27 — " after the sop, then entered Satan into him " ; Acts 5 : 3 
— " why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ? " Eph. 2:2—" the spirit that now worketh in the sons of 
disobedience " ; 1 Thess. 3 : 5 — " lest by any means the tempter had tempted you " ; 1 Pet. 5:8 — " your adversary the 
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 

Satan's temptations are represented as both negative and positive, — he 
takes away the seed sown, and he sows tares. He controls many subordi- 
nate evil spirits; there is only one devil, but there are many angels or 
demons, and through their agency Satan may accomplish his purposes. 

Satan's negative agency is shown in Mark 4 : 15 — " when they have heard, straightway cometh Satan, 
and taketh away the word which hath been sown in them " ; his positive agency in Mat. 13 : 38, 39 — "the tares 
are the sons of the evil one ; and the enemy that sowed them is the devil." One devil, but many angels : see 
Mat. 25 : 41 — "the devil and his angels" ; Mark 5 : 9— "My name is Legion, for we are many" ; Eph. 2 : 2 — "the 
prince of the powers of the air "( so Am. Revisers ) ; 6 : 12 —" principalities .... powers .... world-rulers of 
this darkness .... spiritual hosts of wickedness." The mode of Satan's access to the human mind we 
do not know. It may be that by moving upon our physical organism he may produce 
subtle signs of thought and so reach the understanding and desires. He certainly has 
the power to present in captivating forms the objects of appetite and selfish desire, as 
he did to Christ in the wilderness (Mat. 4 : 3, 6, 9 ), and to appeal to our love for independ- 
ence by saying to us, as he did to our first parents — " ye shall be as God " ( Gen. 3:5). 

Possession is distinguished from bodily or mental disease, though such 
disease often accompanies possession or results from it. — The demons 
speak in their own persons, with supernatural knowledge, and they are 
directly addressed by Christ. Jesus recognizes Satanic agency in these 
cases of possession, and he rejoices in the casting out of demons, as a sign 
of Satan's downfall. These facts render it impossible to interpret the narra- 
tives of demoniac possession as popular descriptions of abnormal physical 
or mental conditions. 

Possession may apparently be either physical, as in the case of the Gerasene demoniacs 
(Mark 5 : 2-4), or spiritual, as in the case of the "maid having a spirit of divination" (Acts 16 : 16), 
where the body does not seem to have been affected. It is distinguished from bodily 
disease : see Mat. 17 : 15, 18 — " epileptic . . . the demon went out from him : and the boy was cured ' ' ; Mark 9 : 25 
- "Thou dumb and deaf spirit" ; 3 : 11, 12 —"the unclean spirits . . . cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And 



SCRIPTURE STATEMENTS AXD INTIMATIONS. 229 

he charged them much that they should not make him known " ; Luke 8 : 30 — " And Jesus asked him, What is thy 
name ? And he said, Legion ; for many demons were entered unto him. And they entreated him that he would not 
command them to depart into the abyss" ; 10 • 17, 18— "And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the 
demons are subject unto us in thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." 

These descriptions of personal intercourse between Christ and the demons cannot be 
interpreted as metaphorical. " In the temptation of Christ and in the possession of the 
swine, imagination could have no place. Christ was above its delusions; the brutes 
were below them." Farrar (Life of Christ, 1 : 337-311, and 2: excursus vii), while he 
admits the existence and agency of good angels, very inconsistently gives a metaphor- 
ical interpretation to the Scriptural accounts of evil angels. We find corroborative 
evidence of the Scripture doctrine in the domination which one wicked man frequently 
exercises over others ; in the opinion of some modern physicians in charge of the insane, 
that certain phenomena in their patients' experience are best explained by supposing 
an actual subjection of the will to a foreign power ; and, finally, in the influence of the 
Holy Spirit upon the human heart. See Trench, Miracles, 125-136 ; Smith's Bible Diction- 
ary, 1 : 586— "Possession is distinguished from mere temptation by the complete or 
incomplete loss of the sufferer's reason or power of will ; his actions, words, and almost 
his thoughts, are mastered by the evil spirit, till his personality seems to be destroyed, 
or at least so overborne as to produce the consciousness of a twofold will within him 
like that in a dream. In the ordinary assaults and temptations of Satan, the will itself 
yields consciously, and by yielding gradually assumes, without losing its apparent free- 
dom of action, the characteristics of the Satanic nature. It is solicited, urged, and per- 
suaded against the strivings of grace, but it is not overborne." 

(c) Yet, in spite of themselves, they execute God's plans of punishing 
the ungodly, of chastening the good, and of illustrating the nature and 
fate of moral evil. 

Punishing the ungodly : Ps. 78 : 49 — "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, "Wrath, and indignation, 
and trouble, A band of angels of evil" ; 1 K. 22 : 23 — "the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy 
prophets ; and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." 

Chastening the good: see Job, chapters 1 and 2; i Cor. 5 : 5— "deliver such a one unto Satan for the 
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" ; ef. 1 Tim. 1 : 20 — "lymenaeus 
and Alexander ; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." This delivering to 
Satan for the destruction of the flesh seems to have involved four things : ( 1 ) excom- 
munication from the church ; ( 2 ) authoritative infliction of bodily disease or death ; 
(3) loss of all protection from good angels, who minister only to saints; (1) subjection 
to the bufferings and tormentings of the great accuser. 

Evil spirits illustrate the nature and fate of moral evil: see Mat 8 : 29— "art thou come 
hither to torment us before the time ? " 25 : 41 — " eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels " ; 2 Thess. 
2:8—" then shall be revealed the lawless one " ; James 2 : 19 — " the demons also believe, and shudder " ; Rev. 12 : 9, 
12 — "the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world .... the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, 
knowing that he hath but a short time "' ; 20 : 10 — " cast into the lake of fire . ... tormented day and night, for ever 
and ever." 

It is an interesting question whether Scripture recognizes any special connection of 
evil spirits with the systems of idolatry, witchcraft, and spiritualism which burden the 
world. 1 Cor. 10 : 20 — " the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God " ; 2 Thess. 
2: 9— "the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" — would seem to favor an 
affirmative answer. But 1 Cor. 8 : 4,—" concerning therefore the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know 
that no idol is anything in the world"— seems to favor a negative answer. This last may, how- 
ever, mean that " the beings whom the idols are designed to represent have no exist- 
ence, although it is afterwards shown (10:20) that there are other beings connected 
with false worship " ( Ann. Par. Bible, in loco ). M Heathenism is the reign of the devil " 
( Meyer), and while the heathen think themselves to be sacrificing to Jupiter or Venus, 
they are really " sacrificing to demons," and are thus furthering the plans of a malignant spirit 
who uses these forms of false religion as a means of enslaving their souls. In like man- 
ner, the network of influences which support the papacy, spiritualism, modern unbe- 
lief, is difficult of explanation, unless we believe in a superhuman intelligence which 
organizes these forces against God. In these, as well as in heathen religions, there are 
facts inexplicable upon merely natural principles of disease and delusion. 

A survey of the Scripture testimony with regard to the employments of 
evil spirits leads to the following general conclusions : 



230 NATURE, DECREES, AND WORKS OF GOD. 

First, — the power of evil spirits over men is not independent of the 
human will. This power cannot be exercised without at least the original 
consent of the human will, and may be resisted and shaken off through 
prayer and faith in God. 

Luke 22 : 31, 40 — " Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat .... Pray that ye enter not into 
temptation " ; Eph. 6 : 11 — "Put on the -whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the 
devil " ; 16 — " the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one " ; James 4 : 
7— "resist the devil, and he will flee from you" ; 1 Pet. 5 : 9 — "whom withstand steadfast in your faith." The 
coals are already in the human heart, in the shape of corrupt inclinations ; Satan only 
blows them into flame. 

Secondly, — their power is limited, both in time and in extent, by the per- 
missive will of God. Evil spirits are neither omnipotent, omniscient, nor 
omnipresent. We are to attribute disease and natural calamity to their 
agency, only when this is matter of special revelation. Opposed to God as 
evil spirits are, God compels them to serve his purposes. Their power for 
harm lasts but for a season, and ultimate judgment and punishment will 
vindicate God's permission of their evil agency. 

1 Cor. 10 : 13 — " God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the 
temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it " ; Jude 6 — " angels which kept not their own 
principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the 
great day." 

Luther saw Satan nearer to man than his coat, or his shirt, or even his skin. In all 
misfortune he saw the devil's work. Was there a conflagration in the town ? By looking 
closely you might see a demon blowing upon the flame. Pestilence and storm he attrib- 
uted to Satan. All this was a relic of the mediaeval exaggerations of Satan's power. It 
was then supposed that men might make covenants with the evil one, in which super- 
natural power was purchased at the price of final perdition ( see Goethe's Faust ). 

Scripture furnishes no warrant for such representations. There seems to have been 
permitted a special activity of Satan in temptation and possession during our Savior's 
ministry, in order that Christ's power might be demonstrated. By his death Jesus 
brought " to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil " ( Heb. 2 : 14 ) and " having despoiled the 
principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," i. e. in the Cross 
( Col. 2 : 15 — Am. Revisers ). 1 John 3:8 — "To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the 
works of the devil." Evil spirits now exiift and act only upon sufferance. McLeod, Tempta- 
tion of our Lord, 24— "Satan's power is limited, (1) by the fact that he is a creature; 
(2) by the fact of God's providence ; (3) by the fact of his own wickedness." 

H. Objections to the Doctkine of Angels. 

1. To the doctrine of angels in general. It is objected : 

(a) That it is opposed to the modern scientific view of the world, as a 
system of definite forces and laws. — We reply that, whatever truth there 
may be in this modern view, it does not exclude the play of divine or 
human free agency. It does not therefore exclude the possibility of angelic 
agency. # 

(6) That it is opposed to the modern doctrine of infinite space above 
and beneath us — a space peopled with worlds. With the surrender of the 
old conception of the firmament, as a boundary separating this world from 
the regions beyond, it is claimed that we must give up all belief in a heaven 
of the angels. — We reply that the notions of an infinite universe, of heaven 
as a definite place, and of spirits as confined to fixed locality, are without 
certain warrant either in reason or in Scripture. We know nothing of the 
modes of existence of pure spirits. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS. 231 

What we know of the universe is certainly finite. Angels are apparently incorporeal 
beings, and as such are free from all laws of matter and space. Heaven and hell are 
essentially conditions, corresponding to character — conditions in which the body and 
the surroundings of the soul express and reflect its inward state. The main thing to be 
insisted on is therefore the state; place is merely incidental. The fact that Christ 
ascended to heaven with a human body, and that the saints are to possess glorified 
bodies, would seem to imply that heaven is a place. Christ's declaration with regard 
to him who is "able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Mat. 10 : 28) affords some reason for 
believing that hell is also a place. 

Where heaven and hell are, is not revealed to us. But it is not necessary to suppose 
that they are in some remote part of the universe ; for aught we know, they may be 
right about us, so that if our eyes were opened, like those of the prophet's servant 
(2 Kings 6 : 17), we ourselves should behold them. Upon ground of Eph. 2 : 2— "prince of the 
powers of the air" — and 3 : 10— "the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places " — some have 
assigned the atmosphere of the earth as the abode of angelic spirits, both good and evil. 
But the expressions "air" and "heavenly places" may be merely metaphorical designations 
of their spiritual method of existence. 

We prefer therefore to leave the question of place undecided, and to accept the exist- 
ence and working of angels both good and evil as a matter of faith, without professing 
to understand their relations to space. For the rationalistic view, see Strauss, Glau- 
bcnslehre, 1 : 670-675. Per contra, see Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 1 : 308-317 ; 
Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 127-136. 

2. To the doctrine of evil angels in particular. It is objected that : 
(a) The idea of the fall of angels is self -contradictory, since a fall deter- 
mined by pride presupposes pride — that is, a fall before the fall. — We 
reply that the objection confounds the occasion of sin with the sin itself. 
The outward motive to disobedience is not disobedience. The fall took 
place only when that outward motive was chosen by free will. When the 
motive of independence was selfishly adopted, only then did the innocent 
desire for knowledge and power become pride and sin. How T an evil voli- 
tion could originate in spirits created pure is an insoluble problem. Our 
faith in God's holiness, however, compels us to attribute the origin of this 
evil volition, not to the Creator, but to the creature. 

There can be no sinful propensity before there is sin. The reason of the first sin can 
not be sin itself. This would be to make sin a necessary development ; to deny the 
holiness of God the Creator ; to leave the ground of theism for pantheism. 

(6) It is irrational to suppose that Satan should have been able to 
change his whole nature by a single act, so that he thenceforth willed only 
evil. — But we reply that the circumstances of that decision are unknown 
to us ; while the power of single acts permanently to change character is 
matter of observation among men. 

Instance the effect, upon character and life, of a single act of falsehood or embezzle- 
ment. 

(c) It is impossible that so wise a being should enter upon a hopeless 
rebellion. — We answer that no amount of mere knowledge ensures right 
moral action. If men gratify present passion, in spite of their knowledge 
that the sin involves present misery and future perdition, it is not impossi- 
ble that Satan may have done the same. 

Understanding is the servant of will, and is darkened by will. Many clever men fail 
to see what belongs to their peace. It is the very madness of sin, that it persists in 
iniquity, even when it sees and fears the approaching judgment of God. 

(d) It is inconsistent with the benevolence of God to create and uphold 
spirits, who he knows will be and do evil. — We reply that this is no more 



232 NATUEE, DECKEES, AND WOKKS OF GOD. 

inconsistent with God's benevolence than the creation and preservation of 
men, whose action God overrules for the furtherance of his purposes, and 
whose iniquity he finally brings to light and punishes. 

Seduction of the pure by the impure, piracy, slavery, and war, have all been permit- 
ted among men. It is no more inconsistent with God's benevolence to permit them 
among angelic spirits. 

(e) The notion of organization among evil spirits is self-contradictory, 
since the nature of evil is to sunder and divide. — We reply that such 
organization of evil spirits is no more impossible than the organization of 
wicked men, for the purpose of furthering their selfish ends. Common 
hatred to God may constitute a principle of union among them, as among 
men. 

"Wicked men succeed in their plans only by adhering in some way to the good. Even 
a robber-horde must have laws, and there is a sort of " honor among thieves." Else the 
world would be a Pandemonium, and society would be what Hobbes called it : " bellum 
omnium contra omnes." 

(/) The doctrine is morally pernicious, as transferring the blame of 
human sin to the being or beings who tempt men thereto. — We reply that 
neither conscience nor Scripture allow temptation to be an excuse for sin, 
or regard Satan as having power to compel the human will. The objection, 
moreover, contradicts our observation, — for only where the personal exist- 
ence of Satan is recognized, do we find sin recognized in its true nature. 

The diabolic character of sin makes it more guilty and abhorred. The immorality 
lies, not in the maintenance, but in the denial, of the doctrine. Giving up the doctrine 
of Satan is connected with laxity in the administration of criminal justice. Penalty 
comes to be regarded as only deterrent or reformatory. 

(g) The doctrine degrades man, by representing him as the tool and 
slave of Satan. — We reply that it does indeed show his actual state to be 
degraded, but only with the result of exalting our idea of his original 
dignity, and of his possible glory in Christ. The fact that man's sin was 
suggested from without, and not from within, may be the one mitigating 
circumstance which renders possible his redemption. 

It rather puts a stigma upon human nature to say that it is not fallen— that its pres- 
ent condition is its original and normal state. Nor is it worth while to attribute to man 
a dignity he does not possess, if thereby we deprive him of the dignity that may be his. 
Satan's sin was, in its essence, sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there can be no 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23 : 34), since it was choosing evil with 
the mala gaudia mentis, or the clearest intuition that it was evil. If there be no devil, 
then man himself is devil. It has been said of Voltaire, that without believing in a 
devil, he saw him everywhere- even where he was not. Christian, in Bunyan's Pil- 
grim's Progress, takes comfort when he finds that the blasphemous suggestions which 
came to him in the dark valley were suggestions from the fiend that pursued him. If 
all temptation is from within, our case would seem hopeless. But if "an enemy hath dona 
this " ( Mat. 13 • 28 ), then there is hope. And so we may accept the maxim : Nullus diabolus, 
nullus Bedemptor. See Trench, Studies in the Gospels, 17 ; Birks, Difficulties of Belief, 
78-100 ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 291-293. Many of the objections and answers mentioned 
above have been taken from Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 251-284, where a fuller state- 
ment of them may be found. 

III. Practical uses of the Doctrine of Angels. 

A. Uses of the doctrine of good angels. 

(a) It gives us a new sense of the greatness of the divine resources, and 
of God's grace in our creation, to think of the multitude of unfallen intel- 
ligences who executed the divine purposes before man appeared. 



PEACTICAL USES OF THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS. 233 

( b ) It strengthens our faith in God's providential care, to know tha spnits 
of so high rank are deputed to minister to creatures who are environed with 
temptations and are conscious of sin. 

( c ) It teaches us humility, that beings of so much greater knowledge and 
power than ours should gladly perform these unnoticed services, in behalf 
of those whose only claim upon them is that they are children of the same 
common Father. 

( d ) It helps us in the struggle against sin, to learn that these messengers 
of God are near, to mark our wrong doing if we fall, and to sustain us if we 
resist temptation. 

( e ) It enlarges our conceptions of the dignity of our own being, and of 
the boundless possibilities of our future existence, to remember these forms 
of typical innocence and love, that praise and serve God unceasingly in 
heaven. 

Instance the appearance of angels in Jacob's life at Bethel (Gen. 28 : 12 — Jacob's conver- 
sion ? ) and at Mahanaim ( Gen. 32 1,2— two camps, of angels, on the right hand and on the 
left ; cf. Ps. 34 : 7 — "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them " ) ; so 
too the Angel at Penuel that struggled with Jacob at his entering- the promised land 
(Gen. 32 : 24; cf. Hos. 12 : 3, 4 — "in his manhood he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and 
prevailed " ), and " the angel which hath redeemed me from all evil " ( Gen. 48 : 16 ) to whom Jacob refers on 
his dying bed. "And is there care in heaven? and is there love In heavenly spirits to 
these creatures base That may compassion of their evils move ? There is ; else much 
more wretched were the case Of men than beasts. But O, th' exceeding grace Of 
highest God that loves his creatures so, And all his works with mercy doth embrace, 
That blessed angels he sends to and fro To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked 
foe:" 

B. Uses of the doctrine of evil angels. 

(a) It illustrates the real nature of sin, and the depth of the ruin to 
which it may bring the soul, to reflect upon the present moral condition 
and eternal wretchedness to which these spirits, so highly endowed, have 
brought themselves by their rebellion against God. 

( b ) It inspires a salutary fear and hatred of the first subtle approaches 
of evil from within or from without, to remember that these may be the 
covert advances of a personal and malignant being, who seeks to overcome 
our virtue and to involve us in his own apostasy and destruction. 

( c ) It shuts us up to Christ, as the only Being who is able to deliver us 
or others from the enemy of all good. 

(d) It teaches us that our salvation is wholly of grace, since for such 
multitudes of rebellious spirits no atonement and no renewal were provided 
— simple justice having its way, with no mercy to interpose or save. 

Philippi, in his Glaubenslehre, 3 : 151-284, suggests the following relations of the doc- 
trine of Satan to the doctrine of sin: 1. Since Satan is a fallen angel, who once was 
pure, evil is not self-existent or necessary. Sin does not belong to the substance which 
God created, but is a later addition. 2. Since Satan is a purely spiritual creature, sin 
cannot have its origin in mere sensuousness, or in the mere possession of a physical 
nature. 3. Since Satan is not a weak and poorly endowed creature, sin is not a necessary 
result of weakness and limitation. 4. Since Satan is confirmed in evil, sin is not neces- 
sarily a transient or remediable act of will. 5. Since in Satan sin does not come to an 
end, sin is not a step of creaturely development, or a stage of progress to something 
higher and better. On the uses of the doctrine, see also Van Oosterzee, Christian 
Dogmatics, 1 : 316 ; Robert Hall, Works, 3 : 35-51 ; Brooks, Satan and his Devices. 



PAET V. 

ANTHEOPOLOGY, OE THE DOCTEINE OF MAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRELIMINARY. 

I. Man a Creation of God and a Child of God. 

The fact of man's creation is declared in Gen. 1 : 27 — "And God created 
man in his own image, in the image of God created he him "; 2 : 7 — "And 
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." A consider- 
ation of these passages, in the light of modern science, as well as of other 
Scriptures, enables us to draw the following conclusions : 

( a ) The Scriptures, on the one hand, negative the idea that man is the 
mere product of unreasoning natural forces. They refer his existence to a 
cause outside of nature, namely, to the creative act of God. 

( b ) But, on the other hand, the Scriptures do not disclose the method 
of man's creation. Whether man's physical system is or is not derived, 
by natural descent, from the lower animals, the record of creation does not 
inform us. As the command ' ' Let the earth bring forth the living creature " 
(Gen. 1 : 24) does not exclude the idea of mediate creation, through natural 
generation, so the forming of man " of the dust of the ground " (Gen. 2:7) 
does not in itself determine whether the creation of man's body was mediate 
or immediate. 

(c) Psychology, however, comes in to help our interpretation of Scripture. 
The radical differences between man's soul and the principle of intelligence 
in the lower animals, especially man's possession of self-consciousness, 
general ideas, the moral sense, and the power of self-determination, show 
that that which chiefly constitutes him man could not have been derived, by 
any natural process of development, from the inferior creatures. We are 
compelled, then, to believe that God's "breathing into man's nostrils the 
breath of life " (Gen. 2:7) was an act of immediate creation, like the first 
introduction of life upon the planet. 

"The baby new to earth and sky Never thinks that 'This is I.' " Fichte called that 
the birthday of his child, when the child awoke to self -consciousness and said "I." No 
brute ever yet said, or thought, " I." "With this, then, we may begin a series of simple 

334 



MAN A CREATION OF GOD AND A CHILD OF GOD. 235 

<listinctions between man and the brute, so far as the immaterial principle in each is 
concerned. These are mainly compiled from writers hereafter mentioned. 

1. The brute is conscious, but man is self-conscious. The brute does not objectify 
self. " If the pig could once say, ' I am a pig-,' it would thereby cease to be a pig-." 

2. The brute has only percepts ; man has also concepts. The brute knows white 
things, but not whiteness. Man alone has the power of abstraction and of thought. 

3. Hence the brute has no language. " Language is the expression of general notions 
by symbols " ( Harris ). Words are the symbols of concepts. Where there are no con- 
cepts there can be no words. The parrot utters cries ; but " no parrot ever yet spoke a 
t r ue word. ' ' Since language is a sign, it presupposes the existence of an intellect capable 
of understanding the sign,— in short, language is the effect of mind, not the cause of 
mind. See Mivart, in Brit. Quar., Oct., 1881 : 154-172. 

4. The brute forms no judgments— e. g. that this is like that, accompanied with belief. 
Hence there is no sense of the ridiculous, anfa no laughter. 

5. The brute has no reasoning— no sense that this follows from that, accompanied by 
a feeling that the sequence is necessary. Association of ideas is the typical process of 
the brute mind, though not that of the mind of man. See Mind, 5 : 402-409, 575-581. 

6. The brute has no general ideas or intuitions, as of space, time, substance, cause, 
right. Hence there is no generalizing, and no proper experience or progress. No 
hunter's dog' ever learned to put wood on a fire, to keep itself from freezing. 

7. The brute has no conscience and no religious nature. No dog ever brought back 
to the butcher the meat it had stolen. "The aspen trembles without fear, and dogs 
skulk without guilt." 

8. The brute has determination, but not self-determination. There is no conscious 
forming of a purpose, and no self -movement toward a predetermined end. The donkey 
is determined, but not self-determined. Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 537-554—" Man, 
though implicated in nature through his bodily organization, is in his personality super- 
natural; the brute is wholly submerged in nature .... Man is like a ship in the sea— 
in it, yet above it — guiding his course, by observing the heavens, even against wind and 
current. A brute has no such power ; it is in nature like a balloon, wholly immersed in 
an, and driven about by its currents, with no power of steering." 

By what Mivart calls a process of "inverse anthropomorphism," we clothe the brute 
with the attributes of freedom ; but it does not really possess them. The brute lives only 
in the present — lives a sort of dream -life, in which the will acts only as it is acted upon. 
It has no power to choose between motives ; it simply obeys motive. The necessitarian 
philosophy, therefore, is a correct and excellent philosophy for the brute. But man's 
power of initiative — in short, man's free will — renders it impossible to explain his higher 
nature as a mere natural development from the inferior creatures. Even Huxley has 
said that, taking mind into the account, there is between man and the highest beasts an 
"enormous gulf," a "divergence immeasurable" and "practically infinite." 

Gen. 2 : 7— "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 
and man became a living soul"— appears, says Hovey (State of the Impen. Dead, 14), "to distin- 
guish the vital informing principle of human nature from its material part, pronounc- 
ing the former to be more directly from God, and more akin to him, than the latter." So 
in Zech. 12 : 1 — " Jehovah, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeih the foundation of the earth, and formeth 
the spirit of man within him "—the soul is recognized as distinct in nature from the body, and 
of a dignity and value far beyond those of any material organism. 

A fuller statement of most of the differences between man and the brute may be found 
in Martineau, Types, 2 : 65, 140, and Study, 1 : 180; 2 : 9, 13, 184, 350; Hopkins, Outline 
Study of Man, 8 : 23; Chadbourne, Instinct, 187-211; Porter, Hum. Intellect, 384, 386, 397; 
Bascom, Science of Mind, 295-305; Mansel, Metaphysics, 49, 50; Princeton Rev., Jan., 
1881 : 104-128; Henslow, in Nature, May 1, 1879 : 21, 22; Ferrier, Remains, 2 : 39; Argyll, 
Unity of Nature, 117-119 ; Bib. Sac, 29 : 275-282 ; Max Miiller, Lectures on Philos. of Lan- 
guage, no. 1, 2, 3 ; F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Genesis, 21 ; LeConte, in Princeton 
Rev., May, 1884 : 236-261. Per contra, see Lindsay, Mind in Lower Animals; Romanes, 
Mental Evolution in Animals ; Fiske, The Destiny of Man. 

( d ) Comparative physiology, moreover, has, up to the present time, done 
nothing to forbid the extension of this doctrine to man's body. No single 
instance has yet been adduced of the transformation of one animal species 
into another, either by natural or by artificial selection ; much less has it 
been demonstrated that the body of the brute has ever been developed 



236 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

into that of man. Until this shall be done, the view that man's physical 
system is descended by natural generation from some ancestral simian form 
can be regarded only as an unproved hypothesis. Since the soul, then, is 
an immediate creation of God, and the forming of man's body is mentioned 
by the Scripture writer in direct connection with this creation of the spirit, 
we prefer to believe that man's body is an immediate creation also. 

For the theory of natural selection, see Darwin, Origin of Species, 398-424, and Descent 
of Man, 2 ; 368-387 ; Huxley, Critiques and Addresses, 241-269, Man's Place in Nature, 71-138, 
Lay Sermons, 323, and art. : Biology, in Encyc. Britannica, 9th ed. ; Romanes, Scientific 
Evidences of Organic Evolution. 

The theory holds that, in the struggle for existence, the varieties best adapted to their 
surroundings succeed in maintaining and reproducing themselves, while the rest die 
out. Thus, by gradual change and improvement of lower into higher forms of lif e, man 
has been evolved. We grant that Darwin has disclosed one of the important features 
of God's method. We deny that natural selection furnishes a sufficient explanation of 
the history of life, and that for the following reasons : 

1. It gives no account of the origin of substance, nor of the origin of variations. 
Darwinism simply says that " round stones will roll down hill further than flat ones " 
( Gray, Natural Science and Religion ). It accounts for the selection, not for the creation, 
of forms. "Natural selection originates nothing. It is a destructive, not a creative, 
principle. If we must idealize it as a positive force, we must think of it, not as the pre- 
server of the fittest, but as the destroyer, that follows ever in the wake of creation and 
devours the failures ; the scavenger of creation, that takes out of the way forms which 
are not fit to live and reproduce themselves" (Johnson, on Theistic Evolution, in 
Andover Review, April, 1884 : 363-381). 

2. Some of the most important forms appear suddenly in the geological record, with- 
out connecting links to unite them with the past. The first fishes are the Ganoid, large 
in size and advanced in type. There are no intermediate gradations between the ape 
and man. Huxley, in Man's Place in Nature, 94, tells us that the lowest gorilla has a 
skull-capacity of 24 cubic inches, whereas the highest gorilla has 34J^. Over against this, 
the lowest man has a skull capacity of 62 ; though men with less than 65 are invariably 
idiotic ( Wallace ) ; the highest man has 114. Huxley argues that the difference between 
man and the gorilla is smaller than that between the gorilla and some apes ; if the 
gorilla and the apes constitute one family and have a common origin, may not man and 
the gorilla have a common ancestry also ? We reply that the space between the lowest 
ape and the highest gorilla is filled in with numberless intermediate gradations. The 
space between the lowest man and the highest man is also filled in with many types 
which shade off one into the other. But the space between the highest gorilla and the 
lowest man is absolutely vacant ; there are no intermediate types ; no connecting finks 
between the ape and man have yet been found. In an address to the students of Edin- 
burgh University, on Darwinism, Professor Virchow recently expressed his belief that 
no relics of any predecessor of man had yet been discovered. He said : " In my judg- 
ment, no skull hitherto discovered can be regarded as that of a predecessor of man. In 
the course of the last fifteen years we have had opportunities of examining skulls of all 
the various races of mankind —even of the most savage tribes ; and among them all no 
group has been observed differing in its essential characters from the general human 
type." In addition to this testimony, it deserves to be noticed that man does not degen- 
erate, as we travel back in time. " The Enghis skull, the contemporary of the mammoth 
and the cave-bear, is as large as the average of to-day, and might have belonged to a 
philosopher." The monkey nearest to man in physical form is no more intelligent than 
the elephant or the bee. Sir John Lubbock, indeed, considers that though anthropoid 
apes rank next to man in bodily structure, ants hold that place in the scale of intelli- 
gence. 

3. There are certain facts which mere heredity cannot explain, such for example as 
the origin of the working-bee from the queen and the drone, neither of which produces 
honey. The working-bee, moreover, does not transmit the honey-making instinct to its 
posterity ; for it is sterile and childless. If man had descended from the conscienceless 
brute, we should expect him, when degraded, to revert to his primitive type. On the 
contrary, he does not revert to the brute, but dies out instead. 

4. The theory can give no explanation of beauty in the lowest forms of life, such as 
molluscs and diatoms. Darwin grants that this beauty must be of use to its possessor. 



MAN A CREATION OF GOD AND A CHILD OF GOD. 237 

in order to be consistent with its origination through natural selection But no such 
use has yet been shown ; for the creatures which possess the beauty often live in the 
dark, or have no eyes to see. So, too, the large brain of the savage is beyond his needs, 
and is inconsistent with the principle of natural selection which teaches that no organ 
can permanently attain a size unrequired by its needs and its environment. See Wal- 
lace, Natural Selection, 338-360. 

5. No species is yet known to have been produced either by artificial or by natural 
selection. Huxley, Lay Sermons, 333— "It is not absolutely proven that a group of 
animals having all the characters exhibited by species in nature has ever been origi- 
nated by selection, whether artificial or natural " ; Man's Place in Nature, 107 — " Our 
acceptance of the Darwinian hypothesis must be provisional, so long as one link in the 
chain of evidence is wanting ; and so long as all the animals and plants certainly pro- 
duced by selective breeding from a common stock are fertile with one another, that 
link will be wanting." Huxley has more recently declared that the missing proof has 
been found in the descent of the modern horse with one toe, from Hipparion with two 
toes, Anchitherium with three, and Orohippus with four. Even if this were demon- 
strated, we should still maintain that the only proper analogue was to be found in that 
artificial selection by which man produces new varieties, and that natural selection can 
bring about no useful results and show no progress, unless it be the method and revela- 
tion of a wise and designing mind. In other words, selection implies intelligence and 
will, and therefore cannot be exclusively natural. 

While we grant, then, the partial truth of Darwinism, and find it supported by the 
facts of embryonic development, of rudimentary organs, of structure and constitution, 
of reversion to former types, we refuse to regard it as a complete explanation of the 
progress of life. As Darwin himself has acknowledged : " The cause of each slight vari- 
ation and of each monstrosity lies much more in the nature or constitution of the 
organism than in the nature of the surrounding conditions " — ( quoted by Mivart, 
Lessons from Nature, 280-301 ). We must supplement natural selection, therefore, with 
the doctrine of an originating and superintending God. 

Mivart, Man and Apes, 192— "If it is inconceivable and impossible for man's body to 
be developed or to exist without his informing soul, we conclude that as no natural 
process accounts for the different kind of soul— one capable of articulately expressing 
general conceptions,— so no merely natural process can account for the origin of the 
body informed by it — a body to which such an intellectual faculty was so essentially 
and intimately related." Thus Mivart, who once considered that evolution could 
account for man's body, now holds with Wallace that it can account neither for man's 
body nor for his soul, and calls natural selection " a puerile hypothesis " ( Lessons from 
Nature, 300). 

Wallace, Natural Selection, 338— "The average cranial capacity of the lowest savage 
is probably not less than five-sixths of that of the highest civilized races, while the brain 
of the anthropoid apes scarcely amounts to one-third of that of man, in both cases 
taking the average ; or the proportions may be represented by the following figures : 
anthropoid apes, 10 ; savages, 26 ; civilized man, 32." IMd., 360—" The inference I would 
draw from this class of phenomena is, that a superior intelligence has guided the devel- 
opment of man in a definite direction and for a special purpose, just as man guides the 
development of many animal and vegetable forms. .... The controlling action of a 
higher intelligence is a necessary part of the laws of nature, just as the action of all 
surrounding organisms is one of the agencies in organic development,— else the laws 
which govern the material universe are insufficient for the production of man." Sir 
Wm. Thompson: "That man could be evolved out of inferior animals is the wildest 
dream of materialism, a pure assumption which offends me alike by its folly and by its 
arrogance." Hartmann, in his Anthropoid Apes, 302-306, while not despairing of " the 
possibility of discovering the true link between the world of man and mammals," 
declares that " that purely hypothetical being, the common ancestor of man and apes, 
is still to be found," and that "man cannot have descended from any of the fossil 
species which have hitherto come to our notice, nor yet from any of the species of apes 
now extant." See Dana, Amer. Journ. Science and Arts, 1876 : 251, and Geology, 603, 
604 ; Lotze, Mikrokosmos, vol. I, bk. 3, chap. 1. 

Darwinism is a reversion to the savage view of animals as brethren, and to the 
heathen idea of sphynx-man growing out of the brute. However the principle of 
development may apply to the rise of one species from another in the ordinary course 
of geological history, we must regard this evolution, so far as it exists, as only the 
method of the divine intelligence, and must moreover consider it as preceded by an 
original creative act introducing vegetable and animal life, and as supplemented by 



238 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

other creative acts at the introduction of man and at the incarnation of Christ. See 
Mivart, Genesis of Species, 202-222, 259-307, Man and Apes, 88, 149-192, Lessons from 
Nature, 128-242, 280-301, The Cat, and Encyclop. Britannica, art. : Apes ; Quatref ages, 
Natural History of Man, 64-87 ; Bp. Temple, Bampton Lect., 1884 : 161-189 ; Dawson, Story 
of the Earth and Man, 321-329 ; Duke of Argyll, Primeval Man, 38-75 ; Asa Gray, Natural 
Science and Religion ; Schmid, Theories of Darwin, 115-140 ; Carpenter, Mental Physi- 
ology, 59 ; Mcnvaine, Wisdom of Holy Scripture, 55-86 ; Bible Commentary, 1 : 43 ; 
Martensen, Dogmatics, 136 ; LeConte, in Princeton Rev., Nov., 1878 : 776-803 ; Zockler, Ur- 
geschichte, 81-105 ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 499-515. Also, see this Compendium, page 192. 

(/) The truth that man is the offspring of God, implies the correlative 
truth of a common divine Fatherhood. God is Father of all men, in that 
he originates and sustains them as personal beings like in nature to him- 
self. Even toward sinners God holds this natural relation of Father. It 
is his fatherly love, indeed, which provides the atonement. Thus the 
demands of holiness are met and the prodigal is restored to the privileges 
of sonship which have been forfeited by transgression. This natural 
Fatherhood, therefore, does not exclude, but prepares the way for, God's 
special Fatherhood toward those who have been regenerated by his Spirit 
and who have believed on his Son. 

Texts ref erring to God's natural and common Patherhood are: Mai. 2 : 10— "Have we not 
all one Father [ Abraham ] : hath not one God created us ? " Luke 3 : 38 — " Adam, the son of God " ; 15 : 11-32 — 
the parable of the prodigal son, in which the father is father even before the prodigal 
returns; John 3 : 16— "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" ; leb. 12: 9— "the Father of 
spirits." 

Texts referring to the special Fatherhood of grace are: John 1 : 12, 13— "as many as received 
him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were born, not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " ; Rom. 8 : 14 — " for as many as are led by the 
Spirit of God, these are sons of God" ; 15— "ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" ; 2 
Cor. 6 : 17 — " Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, and I will 
receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty " ; Eph. 1 : 
5, 6 — "having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself" ; 3 : 14— "the Father, from 
whom every family [ marg. 'fatherhood ' ] in heaven and on earth is named " ( = every race among angels 
or men — so Meyer, Romans, 158, 159 ) ; Gal. 3 : 26 —"for ye are all sons of God, through faith in Christ 
Jesus" ; 4 : 6— "And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" ; 
1 John 3:1, 2 — "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children 
of God : and such we are ... . Beloved, now are we children of God." 

On the common Fatherhood of God, see Crawford, Fatherhood of God, 9-26, 138-159. 
For denial that God is Father to any but the regenerate, see Candlish, Fatherhood of 
God ; Wright, Fatherhood of God. 

II. Unity of the Human Race. 

(a) The Scriptures teach that the whole human race is descended from 
a single pair. 

Gen. 1 : 27, 28 — "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female 
created he them. And God blessed them : and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, 
and subdue it" ; 2 : 7 — "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life ; and man became a living soul " ; 22 — " And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made 
he a woman, and brought her unto the man " ; 3 : 20 — " And the man called his wife's name Eve ; because she was the 
mother of all living " ; 9 : 19 — " These three were the sons of Noah : and of these was the whole earth overspread." 

( 6 ) This truth lies at the foundation of Paul's doctrine of the organic 
unity of mankind in the hrst transgression, and of the provision of salva- 
tion for the race in Christ. 

Rom. 5 : 12— "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin ; and so death passed 
unto all men, for that all sinned " ; 19 — " For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even 
so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous" ; 1 Cor. 15 : 21, 22 — "For since by man came 
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made 
alive " ; Heb. 2 : 16 — " For verily not of angels doth he take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham." 



TXITT OF THE HDIAX RACE. 239 

(c) This descent of humanity from a single j^air also constitutes the 
ground of man's obligation of natural brotherhood to every member of 
the race. 

Acts 17 : 26— "He made of oae every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth " — here the Rev. 
Vers, omits the word "blood" ('-made of one blood"— Auth. Vers. ). The word to be supplied 
is possibly "father," hut more probably "body " ; cf. leb. 2 : 11— "for both he that sanctifieth and 
they that are sanctified are all of one [ father, or body ] : for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise." 

Winchell, in his Preadamites, has recently revived the theory broached in 1655 by 
Peyrerius, that there were men before Adam : '"Adam is descended from a black race — 
not the black races from Adam." Adam is simply " the remotest ancestor to whom the 

Jews could trace their lineage The derivation of Adam from an older human stock 

is essentially the creation of Adam." Winchell does not deny the unity of the race, nor 
the retroactive effect of the atonement upon those who lived before Adam ; he simply 
denies that Adam was the first man. 297 : He " regards the Adamic stock as derived 
from an older and humbler human type," originally as low in the scale as the present 
Australian savages. 

Although this theory furnishes a plausible explanation of certain Biblical facts, such as 
the marriage of Cain ( Gen. 4 : 17), Cain's fear that men would slay him. ( Gen. 4 : 14), and the 
distinction between "the sons of God" and "daughters of men" (Gen. 6: 1,2), it treats the Mosaic 
narrative as legendary rather than historical. Shem, Ham, and Japheth, it is intimated, 
may have lived hundreds of years apart from one another ( 409 ). Upon this view, Eve 
could not be "the mother of all living " (Gen. 3 : 20), nor could the transgression of Adam be the 
cause and beginning of condemnation to the whole race (Rom. 5 : 12, 19). As to Cain's fear 
of other families who might take vengeance upon him, we must remember that we do 
not know how many children were born to Adam between Cain and Abel, nor what the 
age of Cain and Abel was, nor whether Cain feared only those that were then living. 
As to Cain's marriage, we must remember that even if Cain married into another family, 
his wife, upon any hypothesis of the unity of the race, must have been descended from 
some other original Cain that married his sister. 

See Keil and Delitzsch, Com. on Pentateuch, 1 : 116— "The marriag-e of brothers and 
sisters was inevitable in the case of children of the first man, in case the human race 
was actually to descend from a single pair, and may therefore be justified, in the face 
of the Mosaic prohibition of such marriages, on the ground that the sons and daughters 
of Adam represented not merely the family but the genus, and that it was not till after 
the rise of several families that the bonds of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct 
from one another and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of 
which is sin. ' ' Prof. "SV. H. Green : " Gen. 20 : 12 shows that Sarah was Abra ham's half-sister ; 
.... the regulations subsequently ordained in the Mosaic law were not then in force." 
See also Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 275. For criticism of the doctrine that there were men 
before Adam, see Methodist Quar. Rev., April, 1881 : 205-231 ; Presb. Rev., 1881 : 440-444. 

The Scripture statements are corroborated by considerations drawn from 
history and science. Three arguments may be briefly mentioned : 

1. The argument from history. 

So far as the history of nations and tribes in both hemispheres can be 
traced, the evidence points to a common origin and ancestry in central Asia. 

The European nations are acknowledged to have come, in successive waves of migra- 
tion, from Asia. Modern ethnologists generally agree that the Indian races of America 
are derived from Mongoloid sources in Eastern Asia, either through Polynesia or by 
way of the Aleutian Islands. Bunsen, Philos. of Universal History, 2 : 112 — The Asiatic 
origin of all the North American Indians " is as fully proved as the unity of family 
among themselves." Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1 : 48— "The semi-civilized nations of 
Java and Sumatra are found in possession of a civilization which at first glance shows 
itself to have been borrowed from Hindu and Moslem sources." 

See also Sir Henry Rawlinson, quoted in Burgess, Antiquity and Unity of the Race. 
156, 157 ; Smyth, Unity of Human Races, 223-236 ; Pickering, Races of Man, Introd., syn- 
opsis, and page 316; Guyot, Earth and Man, 298-334; Quatrefages, Natural History of 
Man, and Unite de l'Espece Humaine; Godron, Unite de l'Espece Humaine, 2 : 412 sq. 
Per contra, however, see Prof. A. H. Sayee: "The evidence is now all tending to show 
that the districts in the neighborhood of the Baltic were those from which the Aryan 
languages first radiated, and where the race or races who spoke them originally dwelt. 



240 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

The Aryan invaders of Northwestern India could only have been a late and distant 
offshoot of the primitive stock, speedily absorbed into the earlier population of the 
country as they advanced southward ; and to speak of l our Indian brethren ' is as absurd 
and false as to claim relationship with the negroes of the United States because they 
now use an Aryan language." Scribner, Where Did Life Begin? has lately adduced 
arguments to prove that life on the earth originated at the North Pole, and Prof. Asa 
Gray favors this view ; so also Warren, Paradise Found. 

2. The argument from language. 

Comparative philology points to a common origin of all the more impor- 
tant languages, and furnishes no evidence that the less important are not 
also so derived. 

On Sanskrit as a connecting link between the Indo-Germanic languages, see Max 
Muller, Science of Language, 1 : 146-165, 326-343, who claims that all languages pass 
through the three stages : monosyllabic, agglutinative, inflectional ; and that nothing 
necessitates the admission of different independent beginnings for either the material 
or the formal elements of the Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan branches of speech. The 
changes of language are often rapid. Latin becomes the Romance languages, and 
Saxon and Norman are united into English, in three centuries. The Chinese may have 
departed from their primitive abodes while their language was yet monosyllabic. 

Zockler, however, in Jahrbuch fiir deutsche Theologie, 8 : 68 sq., denies the progress 
from lower methods of speech to higher, and declares the most highly developed inflec- 
tional languages to be the oldest and most widespread. Inferior languages are a degen- 
eration from a higher state of culture. In the development of the Indo-Germanic 
languages ( such as the French and the English ), we have instances of change from more 
full and luxuriant expression to that which is monosyllabic or agglutinative. The 
theory of Max Muller is also opposed by Pott, Die Verschiedenheiten der menschlichen 
Rassen, 202, 242. Pott calls attention to the fact that the Australian languages show 
unmistakable similarity to the languages of Eastern and Southern Asia, although the 
physical characteristics of these tribes are far different from the Asiatic. 

On the old Egyptian language as a connecting link between the Indo-European and 
the Semitic tongues, see Bunsen, Egypt's Place, 1 : preface, 10 ; also see Farrar, Origin 
of Language, 213. Like the old Egyptian, the Berber and the Touareg are Semitic in 
parts of their vocabulary, while yet they are Aryan in grammar. So the Thibetan and 
Burmese stand between the Indo-European languages, on the one hand, and the mono- 
syllabic languages, as of China, on the other. A French philologist claims now to have 
interpreted the Yh-King, the oldest and most unintelligible monumental writing of the 
Chinese, by regarding it as a corruption of the old Assyrian or Accadian cuneiform 
characters, and as resembling the syllabaries, vocabularies, and bilingual tablets in the 
ruined libraries of Assyria and Babylon ; see Terrien de Lacouperie, The Oldest Book of 
the Chinese and its Authors, and The Languages of China before the Chinese, 11, note ; 
he holds to "the non-indigenousness of the Chinese civilization and its derivation from 
the old Chaldaso-Babylonian focus of culture by the medium of Susiana." See also 
Sayce, in Contemp. Rev., Jan., 1884 : 934-936. 

On relations between Aryan and Semitic languages, see Renouf , Hibbert Lectures, 55- 
61 ; Murray, Origin and Growth of the Psalms, 7 ; Bib. Sac. 1870 : 162 ; 1876 : 352-380; 1879 : 
674-706. See also Pezzi, Aryan Philology, 125; Sayce, Principles of Comp. Philology, 
132-174 ; Whitney, art. on Comp. Philology in Encyc. Britannica, also Life and Growth of 
Language, 269, and Study of Language, 307, 308— "Language affords certain indications 
of doubtful value, which, taken along with certain other ethnological considerations, 
also of questionable pertinency, furnish ground for suspecting an ultimate relationship. 
.... That more thorough comprehension of the history of Semitic speech will enable 
us to determine this ultimate relationship, may perhaps be looked for with hope, though 
it is not to be expected with confidence." See also Smyth, Unity of Human Races, 199- 
222; Smith's Bib. Diet., art. : Confusion of Tongues. 

3. The argument from psychology. 

The existence, among all families of mankind, of common mental and 
moral characteristics, as evinced in common maxims, tendencies and capaci- 
ties, in the prevalence of similar traditions, and in the universal applica- 
bility of one philosophy and religion, is most easily explained upon the 
theory of a common origin. 



UNITY OF THE HUMAN" RACE. 241 

Among the widely prevalent traditions may be mentioned the tradition of the fash- 
ioning- of the world and man, of a primeval garden, of an original innocence and happi- 
ness, of a tree of knowledge, of a serpent, of a temptation and fall, of a division of 
time into weeks, of a flood, of sacrifice. It is possible, if not probable, that certain 
myths, common to many nations, may have been handed down from a time when the 
families of the race had not yet separated. See Zockler, in Jahrbuch fur deutsche 
Theologie, 8 : 71-90; Max Miiller, Science of Language, 2 : 1 1 1 - 1 55 ; Prichard, Nat. Hist, of 
Man, 2 : 657-714; Smyth, Unity of Human Races, 236-240; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 77-91 ; 
Gladstone, Juventus Mundi. 

4. The argument from physiology. 

A. It is the common judgment of comparative physiologists that man 
constitutes but a single species. The differences which exist between the 
various families of mankind are to be regarded as varieties of this species. 
In proof of these statements we urge : ( a ) The numberless intermediate 
gradations which connect the so-called races with each other, (b) The 
essential identity of all races in cranial, osteological, and dental character- 
istics. ( c ) The fertility of unions between individuals of the most diverse 
types, and the continuous fertility of the offspring of such unions. 

Huxley, Critiques and Addresses, 163—" It may be safely affirmed that, even if the dif- 
ferences between men are specific, they are so small that the assumption of more than 
one primitive stock for all is altogether superfluous. We may admit that Negroes and 
Australians are distinct species, yet be the strictest monogenists, and even believe in 
Adam and Eve as the primeval parents of mankind, i. c, on Darwin's hypothesis"; 
Origin of Species, 113 — "I am one of those who believe that at present there is no 
evidence whatever for saying that mankind sprang originally from more than a single 
pair ; I must say that I cannot see any good ground whatever, or any tenable evidence, 
for believing that there is more than one species of man." Owen, quoted by Burgess, 
Ant. and Unity of Race, 185 — "Man forms but one species, and differences are but 
indications of varieties. These variations merge into each other by easy gradations." 
Alex, von Humboldt : " The different races of men are forms of one sole species,— they 
are not different species of a genus." 

Quatrefages, in Revue d. deux Mondes, Dec, 1860 : 814— "If one places himself exclu- 
sively upon the plane of the natural sciences, it is impossible not to conclude in favor 
of the monogenist doctrine." Wagner, quoted in Bib. Sac, 19 : 607 — " Species = the 
collective total of individuals which are capable of producing one with another an 
uninterruptedly fertile progeny." Pickering, Races of Man, 316— "There is no middle 
ground between the admission of eleven distinct species in the human family and their 
reduction to one. The latter opinion implies a central point of origin." 

There is an impossibility of deciding how many races there are, if we once allow 
that there are more than one. While Pickering would say eleven, Agassiz says eight, 
Morton twenty-two, and Burke sixty-five. Modern science all tends to the derivation 
of each family from a single germ. Other common characteristics of all races of men, 
in addition to those mentioned in the text, are the duration of pregnancy, the normal 
temperature of the body, the mean frequency of the pulse, the liability to the same 
diseases. Meehan, State Botanist of Pennsylvania, maintains that hybrid vegetable 
products are no more sterile than ordinary plants (Independent, Aug. 21, 1884). 

B. Unity of species is presumptive evidence of unity of origin. One- 
ness of origin furnishes the simplest explanation of specific uniformity, if 
indeed the very conception of species does not imply the repetition and 
reproduction of a primordial type-idea impressed at its creation upon an 
individual empowered to transmit this tyj^e-idea to its successors. 

Dana, quoted in Burgess. Antiq. and Unity of Race, 185, 186— "In the ascending scale 
«>t animals, the number of species in any genus diminishes as we rise, and should by 
analogy be smallest at the head of the series. Among mammals, the higher genera have 
few species, and the highest group next to man, the orang-outang, has only eight, and 
these constitute but two genera. Analogy requires that man should have pree'minence 
16 



242 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

and should constitute only one." 194— "A species corresponds to a specific amount or 

condition of concentrated force defined in the act or law of creation The species 

in any particular case began its existence when the first germ-cell or individual was 
created. When individuals multiply from generation to generation, it is but a repetition 

of the primordial type-idea The specific is based on a numerical unity, the 

species being nothing else than an enlargement of the individual." For full statement 
of Dana's view, see Bib. Sac, Oct., 1857 : 862-866. On the idea of species, see also Shedd. 
Dogm. Theol., 2 : 63-74. 

( a ) To this view is opposed the theory, propounded by Agassiz, of differ- 
ent centres of creation, and of different types of humanity corresponding 
to the varying fauna and flora of each. But this theory makes the plural 
origin of man an excejDtion in creation. Science points rather to a single 
origin of each species, whether vegetable or animal. If man be, as this 
theory grants, a single species, he should be, by the same rule, restricted to 
one continent in his origin. This theory, moreover, applies an unproved 
hypothesis with regard to the distribution of organized beings in general 
to the very being whose wiiole nature and history show conclusively that he 
is an exception to such a general rule, if one exists. Since man can adapt 
himself to all climes and conditions, the theory of separate centres of creation 
is, in his case, gratuitous and unnecessary. 

Agassiz's view was first published in an essay on the Provinces of the Animal World, 
in Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, a book gotten up in the interest of slavery. 
Agassiz held to eight distinct centres of creation, and to eight corresponding types of 
humanity — the Arctic, the Mongolian, the European, the American, the Negro, the 
Hottentot, the Malay, the Australian. Agassiz regarded Adam as the ancestor only of 
the white race, yet like Peyrerius and Winchell he held that man in all his various races 
constitutes but one species. 

The whole tendency of recent science, however, has been adverse to the doctrine of 
separate centres of creation, even in the case of animal and vegetable life. In temperate 
North America there are two hundred and seven species of quadrupeds, of which only 
eight, and these polar animals, are found in the north of Europe or Asia. If North 
America be an instance of a separate centre of creation for its peculiar species, why 
should God create the same species of man in eight different localities? This would 
make man an exception in creation. There is, moreover, no need of creating man in 
many separated localities ; for, unlike the polar bears and the Norwegian firs, which 
cannot live at the equator, man can adapt himself to the most varied climates and con- 
ditions. For replies to Agassiz, see Bib. Sac, 19 : 607-632 ; Princeton Rev., 1862 : 435-464. 

( b ) It is objected, moreover, that the diversities of size, color, and physical 
conformation, among the various families of mankind, are inconsistent with 
the theory of a common origin. But we reply that these diversities are of a 
superficial character, aod can be accounted for by corresponding diversities 
of condition and environment. Changes which have been observed and 
recorded within historic times show that the differences alluded to may be 
the result of slowly accumulated divergences from one and the same original 
and ancestral type. The difficulty in the case, moreover, is greatly relieved 
when we remember (1) that the period during which these divergences 
have arisen is by no means limited to six thousand years (see note on the 
antiquity of the race, pages 106, 107) ; and (2) that, since species in general 
exhibit their greatest power of divergence into varieties immediately after 
their first introduction, all the varieties of the human species may have 
presented themselves in man's earliest history. 

Instances of physiological change as the result of new conditions : The Irish driven 
by the English two centuries ago from Armagh and the south of Down, have become 
prognathous like the Avistralians. The inhabitants of New England have descended 






ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HUMAN NATURE. 243 

from the English, yet they have already a physical type of their own. The Indians 
of North America, or at least certain tribes of them, have permanently altered the 
shape of the skull by bandaging the head in infancy. The Sikhs of India, since the 
establishment of Babel Nana's religion (1500 A. D.) and their consequent advance in 
civilization, have changed to a longer head and more regular features, so that they are 
now distinguished greatly from their neighbors, the Afghans, Thibetans, Hindus. The 
Ostiak savages have become the Magyar nobilits^ of Hungary- The Turks in Europe are. 
in cranial shape, greatly in advance of the Turks in Asia from whom they descended. 
The Jews are confessedly of one ancestry ; yet we have among them the light -haired 
Jews of Poland, the dark Jews of Spain, and the Ethiopian Jews of the Nile Valley. 
The Portuguese who settled in the East Indies in the 16th century are now as dark in 
complexion as the Hindus themselves. Africans become lighter in complexion as they 
go up from the alluvial river-banks to higher land, or from the coast ; and on the con- 
trary the coast tribes which drive out the negroes of the interior and take their territory 
end by becoming negroes themselves. See, for many of the above facts, Burgess, Anti- 
quity and Unity of the Race, 195-203. 

The law of originally greater plasticity, mentioned in the text, was first hinted by 
Hall, the palaeontologist of New York. It is accepted and defined by Dawson, Story of 
the Earth and Man, 360— " A new law is coming into view : that species when first intro- 
duced have an innate power of expansion, which enables them rapidly to extend 
themselves to the Limit of their geographical range, and also to reach the limit of their 
divergence into races. This limit once reached, these races run on in parallel lines until 
they one by one run out and disappear. According to this law, the most aberrant races 
of men might be developed in a few centuries, after which divergence would cease, and 
the several lines of variation would remain permanent, at least so long as the conditions 
under which they originated remained." See the similar view of Von Baer in Schmid. 
Theories of Darwin, 55, note. Joseph Cook: Variability is a lessening quantity; the 
tendency to change is greatest at the first, but, like the rate of motion of a stone thrown 
upward, it lessens every moment after. Ruskin, Seven Lamps, 125 — " The life of a nation 
is usually, like the flow of a lava-stream, first bright and fierce, then languid and 
covered, at last advancing only by the tumbling over and over of its frozen blocks.'' 
Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 54— "The further back we go into antiquity, the more 
closely does the Egyptian type approach the European." Rawlinson says that negroes 
are not represented in the Egyptian monuments before 1500 B. C. The influence of 
climate is very great, especially in the savage state. See Zockler, in Jahrbuch fur deut- 
sche Theologie, 8 : 51-71 ; Priehard, Researches, 5 : 547-552, and Nat. Hist, of Man, 2 : 644- 
656; Duke of Argyll, Primeval Man, 96-108; Smyth, Unity of Human Races, 255-283; 
Morris, Conflict of Science and Religion, 325-385 ; Rawlinson, in Journ. Christ. Philoso- 
phy, April, 1883 : 359; Zockler, Urgeschichte, 109-132. 

III. Essential Elements of Human Nature. 

I. The Dichotomous Theory. 

Man has a twofold nature, — on the one hand material, on the other hand 
immaterial. He consists of body, and of spirit, or soul. That there are 
two, and only two, elements in man's being, is a fact to which consciousness 
testifies. This testimony is confirmed by Scripture, in which the prevailing 
representation of man's constitution is that of dichotomy. 

Dichotomous, from Si'xa, 'in two,' and Ti\j.vm, 'to cut,'= composed of two parts. Man 
is as conscious that his immaterial part is a unity, as that his body is a unity. He knows 
two, and only two, parts of his being — body and soul. So man is the true Janus ( Ifar- 
tensen), Mr. Facing-both-ways (Bunyan). That the Scriptures favor dichotomy will 
appear by considering : 

(a) The record of man's creation (Gen. 2 : 7), in which, as a result of 
the inbreathing of the divine Spirit, the body becomes possessed and vital- 
ized by a single principle — the living soul. 

Gen. 2 : 7 — "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life; and man became a living soul"— here it is not said that man was first a living soul, and 
that then God breathed into him a spirit; but that God inbreathed spirit, and man 
became a living soul = God's life took possession of clay, and as a result, man had a 
soul. Cf. Job 27 : 3— "For my life is yet whole in me, And the spirit of God is in my nostrils" ; 32 : 8— "there is 



244 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding" ; 33 : 4— "The spirit of God hath made 
me, And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life." 

( b ) Passages in which the human soul, or spirit, is distinguished, both 
from the divine Spirit from whom it proceeded, and from the body which 
it inhabits. 

Num. 16 : 22 — " God, the God of the spirits of all flesh " ; Zech. 12 : 1 — " the Lord, which .... formeth the spirit of 
man within him" ; 1 Cor. 2 : 11— "the spirit of the man which is in him .... the Spirit of God" ; Heb. 12 : 9 — 
"the Father of spirits." The passages just mentioned distinguish the spirit of man from the 
Spirit of God. The following distinguish the soul, or spirit, of man from the body which 
it inhabits : Gen. 35 : 18— "it came to pass, as her soul was in departing (for she died)" ; 1 K. 17 : 21— "0 Lord 
my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again" ; Eccl. 12 : 7 — "the dust return to the earth as it was, 
and the spirit return unto God who gave it" ; James 2 : 26 — "the body apart from the spirit is dead." The first 
class of passages refutes pantheism ; the second refutes materialism. 

( c ) The interchangeable use of the terms ' soul ' and * spirit. ' 

Gen. 41 : 8— "his spirit was troubled" ; cf. Ps. 42 : 6— "my soul is cast down within me." John 12 : 27— "Now 
is my soul troubled" ; cf. 13 : 21 — "he was troubled in the spirit." Mat. 20 : 28— "to give his life (\pvxw) a 
ransom for many"; cf. 27 : 50 — " yielded up his spirit (^eO^a)." Heb. 12 : 23 — " spirits of just men made 
perfect " ; cf. Rev. 6 : 9 — " I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God." In 
these passages "spirit" and "soul" seem to be used interchangeably. 

(d) the mention of body and soul (or spirit) as together constituting 
the whole man. 

Mat. 10 : 28 — " able to destroy both soul and body in hell " ; 1 Cor. 5 : 3 — " absent in body but present in spirit " ; 
3 John 2 — "I pray that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." These texts imply 
that body and soul ( or spirit ) together constitute the whole man. 

For advocacy of the dichotomous theory, see Goodwin, in Journ. Society Bib. Exegesis, 
1881 : 73-86; Godet, Bib. Studies of the O. T., 32; Oehler, Theology of the O. T.,1 : 219; 
Hahn, Bib. Theol. N. T., 390 sq.; Schmid, Bib. Theology N". T., 503; Weiss, Bib. Theology 
N. T., 214 ; Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 112, 113 ; Hof mann, Schrif tbeweis, 1 : 
294-298 ; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 1 : 549 ; 3 : 249 ; Harless, Com. on Eph., 4 : 23, and Christian 
Ethics, 22 ; Thomasius, Christ! Person und Werk, 1 : 164-168 ; Hodge, in Princeton Review, 
1865 : 116, and Systematic Theol., 2 : 47-51 ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 261-263. 

2. The Trichotomous Theory. 

Side by side with this common representation of human nature as con- 
sisting of two parts, are found j3assages which at first sight appear to favor 
trichotomy. It must be acknowledged that nvev/ua (spirit) and fvxv (soul), 
although often used interchangeably, and always designating the same indi- 
visible substance, are sometimes employed as contrasted terms. 

In this more accurate use, ipv^n denotes man's immaterial part in its infe- 
rior powers and activities ; — as ipvxv, man is a conscious individual, and in 
common with the brute creation, has an animal life, together with appetite, 
imagination, memory, understanding. ILvev/ua, on the other hand, denotes 
man's immaterial part in its higher capacities and faculties ; — as -Kvevfia, man 
is a being related to God, and possessing powers of reason, conscience, and 
free will, which difference him from the brute creation and constitute him 
responsible and immortal. 

In the following texts, spirit and soul are distinguished from each other : 1 Thess. 5 : 23 — 
"And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly ; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without 
blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" ; Heb. 4 : 12 — "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick 
to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." Compare 1 Cor. 2 : 14 — " Now the natural [ Gr. ' psychical ' ] 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God"; 15 : 44 — "It is sown a natural [Gr. 'psychical'] body; it is 
raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural [ Gr. ' psychical ' ] body, there is also a spiritual body " ; Eph. 4 : 23 — 
' ' that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind ' ' ; Jude 19 — " sensual [ Gr. ' psychical ' ], having not the Spirit.' ' 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HUMAN XATURE. 245 

For the proper interpretation of these texts, see note on the next page. Among: those 
who cite them as proofs of the trichotomous theory ( trichotomous, from rpi'xa, k in three 
parts,' and renvoi, 'to cut,'= composed of three parts, i. e. spirit, soul, and body ) may be 
mentioned Olshausen, Opuscula, 134, and Com. on 1 Thess., 5 : 23 ; Beck, Biblische 
Seelenlehre, 31 ; Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, 117, 118 ; Goschel, in Herzog, Realency- 
clopadie, art. : Seele ; also, art. by Auberlen : Geist des Menschen ; Cremer, N. T. Lex- 
icon, on nvevfia and \\iv\r\ ; Usteri, Paulin. Lehrbegriff, 384 sq. ; Neander, Planting and 
Training. 394 ; Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 365, 366 ; Boardman, in Bap. Quar- 
terly, 1 : 177, 325, 428 ; Heard, Tripartite Nature of Man, 62-114 : Ellieott, Destiny of the 
Creature, 106-125. 

The element of truth in trichotomy is simply this, that man has a triplicity 
of endowment, in virtue of which the single soul has relations to matter, to 
self, and to God. The trichotomous theory, however, as it is ordinarily 
denned, endangers the unity and immateriality of our higher nature, by 
holding that man consists of three substances, or three component parts — 
body, soul, and spirit — and that soul and spirit are as distinct from each 
other as are soul and body. 

The advocates of this view differ among themselves as to the nature of the \Jjv\v and its 
relation to the other elements of our being ; some ( as Delitzsch ) holding that the ^xv is 
an efflux of the irvedfjia, distinct in substance, but not in essence, even as the divine Word 
is distinct from God, while yet he is God; others (as Goschel) regarding the tyvxy, not as 
a distinct substance, but as a resultant of the union of the Tri/ev/uo. and the o-o>|u.a. still 
others ( as Cremer ) hold the ^v\v to be the subject of the personal life whose principle is 

the TTvevna. 

We regard the trichotomous theory as untenable, not only for the reasons 
already urged in j^roof of the dichotomous theory, but from the following- 
additional considerations : 

(a) Uvtv/xa, as well as fvxv, is used of the brute creation. 

Eccl. 3 : 21 — " Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth [ marg. ' that goeth ' ] upward, and the spirit of the 
beast, whether it goeth [ marg. ' that goeth ' ] downward to the earth ? " Rev. 16 : 3 — "And the second poured out his 
bowl into the sea ; and it became blood, as of a dead man ; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the 
sea "= the fish. 

( b ) 'fvxv is ascribed to Jehovah. 

Amos 6 : 8— "The Lord God hath sworn by himself" (lit. 'by his soul,' LXX. eavrov): Is. 42 : 1— "my chosen, 
in whom my soul delighteth " : Jer. 9:9 — " Shall I not visit them for these things ? saith the Lord : shall not my soul 
be avenged?" Heb. 10 : 38 — "my righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure 
in him." 

( c ) The disembodied dead are called ipvxai 

Rev. 6 : 9 — " I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God " ; cf. 20 : 4 — 
'• souls of them that had been beheaded." 

( d ) The highest exercises of religion are attributed to the fvxv- 

Mark 12 : 30 —"thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... . with all thy soul" ; Luke 1 : 46— "My soul doth magnify 
the Lord " ; Heb. 6 : 18, 19 — " the hope set before us : which we have as an anchor of the soul " : James 1 : 21 — " the 
implanted word, which is able to save your souls." 

( e ) To lose this ibvxv is to lose all. 

Mark 8 : 36, 37 — " For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life [ or ' soul,' if/vx*) ] ? 
For what should a man give in eichange for his life [ or ' soul,' \pvxv ]?" 

(/) The passages chiefly relied upon as supporting trichotomy may be 
better explained upon the view already indicated, that soul and spirit are 
not two distinct substances or parts, but that they designate the immaterial 
principle from different points of view. 



246 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

1 Thess. 5 : 23— "may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire "= not a scientific enumeration 
of the constituent parts of human nature, but a comprehensive sketch of that nature in 
its chief relations ; compare Mark 12 : 30 — " thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" — where none would think of finding- 
proof of a fourfold division of human nature. On 1 Thess. 5 : 23, see Riggenbach ( in 
Lange's Com.), and Commentary of Prof. W. A. Stevens. Heb. 4 : 12 — "piercing even to the 
dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow "= not the dividing of soul from spirit, or of 
joints from marrow, but rather the piercing of the soul and of the spirit, even to their 
very joints and marrow ; i. e. to the very depths of the spiritual nature. On leb. 4 : 12, see 
Ebrard ( in Olshausen's Com. ), and Lunemann ( in Meyer's Com. ) ; also Tholuck, Com. in 
loco. Jude 19 — "sensual, having not the Spirit" ( i//vxik<h, nveiifxa. fxr) exovres) — even though -nvev^a = 
the human spirit, need not inean that there is no spirit existing, but only that the spirit 
is torpid and inoperative — as we say of a weak man : ' he has no mind,' or of an unprin- 
cipled man : ' he has no conscience ' ; see Nitzsch, Christian Doctrine, 202. But nvev^a 
here probably = the divine nt'ev^a. The Rev. Vers, therefore capitalizes the word 
"Spirit." See Goodwin, Journ. Soc. Bib. Exegesis, 1881 : 85— "The distinction between 
$vxv and irvevixa is a functional, and not a substantial, distinction." 

We conclude that the immaterial part of man, viewed as an individual 
and conscious life, capable of possessing and animating a physical organism, 
is called i'vxv ; viewed as a rational and moral agent, susceptible of divine 
influence and indwelling, this same immaterial part is called Trvev/na. The 
Tvevfxa, then, is man's nature looking Godward, and capable of receiving 
and manifesting the livevixa aytov ; the ipvyy is man's nature looking earth- 
ward, and touching the world of sense. The ^veviia is man's higher part, 
as related to spiritual realities or as capable of such relation ; the i\yvxv is 
man's higher part, as related to the body, or as capable of such relation. 
Man's being is therefore not trichotomous but dichotomous, and his imma- 
terial part, while possessing duality of powers, has unity of substance. 

Man's nature is not a three-storied house, but a two-storied house, with windows in 
the upper story looking in two directions — to ward earth and toward heaven. The 
lower story is the physical part of us — the body. But man's "upper story" has two 
aspects ; there is an outlook toward things below, and a skylight through which to see 
the stars. " Soul," says Hovey, "is spirit as modified by union with the body." Is man 
then the same in kind with the brute, but different in degree V No, man is different in 
kind, though possessed of certain powers which the brute has. The frog is not a mag- 
nified sensitive-plant, though his nerves automatically respond to irritation. The 
animal is different in kind from the vegetable, though he has some of the same powers 
which the vegetable has. God's powers include man's; but man is not of the same 
substance with God, nor could man be enlarged or developed into God. So man's 
powers include those of the brute, but the brute is not of the same substance with 
man, nor could he be enlarged or developed into man. 

Porter, Human Intellect, 39— "The spirit of man, in addition to its higher endow- 
ments, may also possess the lower powers which vitalize dead matter into a human 
body." It does not follow that the soul of the animal or plant is capable of man's higher 
functions or developments, or that the subjection of man's spirit to body, in the present 
life, disproves his immortality. Porter continues : " That the soul begins to exist as a 
vital force, does not require that it should always exist as such a force or in connection 
with a material body. Should it require another such body, it may have the power to 
create it for itself, as it has formed the one it first inhabited ; or it may have already 
formed it, and may hold it ready for occupation and use as soon as it sloughs off the one 
which connects it with the earth." 

Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 547 — " Brutes may have organic life and sensitivity, 
and yet remain submerged in nature. It is not life and sensitivity that lift man above 
nature, but it is the distinctive characteristic of personality." Parkhurst, The Pattern 
in the Mount, 17-30, on Prov. 20 : 27— "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord"— not necessarily 
lighted, but capable of being lighted, and intended to be lighted, by the touch of the 
divine flame. Cf. Mat. 6 : 22, 23— "The lamp of the body .... If therefore the light that is in thee be dark- 
ness, how great is the darkness." 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HUMAN" NATURE. 247 

This view of the soul and spirit as different aspects of the same spiritual 
principle furnishes a refutation of four important errors : 

( a ) That of the Gnostics, who held that the irvEvfia is part of the divine 
essence, and therefore incapable of sin. 

( b ) That of the Apollinarians, who taught that Christ's humanity em- 
braced only oojua and -tyvxv, while his divine nature furnished the Trvev/xa. 

(c) That of the Semi-pelagians, who excepted the human nvevfia from 
the dominion of original sin. 

(d) That of the Annihilationists, who hold that man at his creation had 
a divine element breathed into him, which he lost by sin, and which he 
recovers ooly in regeneration ; so that only when he has this irvevfia restored 
by virtue of his union with Christ does man become immortal, death being 
to the sinner a complete extinction of being. 

Trichotomy allies itself readily with materialism. Many trichotomists hold that man 
can exist without a nvevixa, but that the o-wjua and the ^pvxv by themselves are mere 
matter, and are incapable of eternal existence. Trichotomy, however, when it speaks 
of the nvevfia as the divine principle in man, seems to savor of emanation or of panthe- 
ism. A modern English poet describes the glad and winsome child as " A silver stream, 
Breaking- with laughter from the lake divine, Whence all things flow." Another poet, 
Robert Browning, in his Death in the Desert, 107, describes body, soul, and spirit, as 
" What does, what knows, What is — three souls, one man." On account of its connec- 
tion with other doctrines, therefore, dichotomy is a not unimportant part of the 
Christian scheme. 

The Eastern church generally held to trichotomy, and is best represented by John of 
Damascus ( ii : 12) who speaks of the soul as the sensuous life-principle which takes up 
the spirit — the spirit being an efflux from God. The Western church, on the other 
hand, generally held to dichotomy, and is best represented by Anselm : " Constat homo 
ex duabus naturis, ex natura animas et ex natura carnis." 

Luther has been quoted upon both sides of the controversy : by Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., 
460-462, as trichotomous, and as making the Mosaic tabernacle with its three divisions an 
image of the tripartite man. "The first division," he says, "was called the holy of 
holies, since God dwelt there, and there was no light therein. The next was denomi- 
nated the holy place, for within it stood a candlestick with seven branches and lamps. 
The third was called the atrium or court ; this was under the broad heaven, and was 
open to the light of the sun. A regenerate man is depicted in this figure. His spirit is 
the holy of holies, God's dwelling-place, in the darkness of faith, without a light, for he 
believes what he neither sees, nor feels, nor comprehends. The psyche of that man is 
the holy place, whose seven lights represent the various powers of understanding, the 
perception and knowledge of material and visible things. His body is the atrium or 
court, which is open to everybody, so that all can see how he acts and lives." 

Thomasius, however, in his Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 164-168, quotes from Luther 
the following statement, which is clearly dichotomous: "The first part, the spirit, is 
the highest, deepest, noblest part of man. By it he is fitted to comprehend eternal 
things, and it is, in short, the house in which dwell faith and the word of God. The 
other, the soul, is this same spirit, according to nature, but yet in another sort of activ- 
ity, namely, in this, that it animates the body and works through it ; and it is its method 
not to grasp things incomprehensible, but only what reason can search out, know, and 
measure." Thomasius himself says: "Trichotomy, I hold with Meyer, is not Script- 
urally sustained." 

Neander, sometimes spoken of as a trichotomist, says that irvev^a is soul in its elevated 
and normal relation to God and divine things ; ^vxv is that same soul in its relation to 
the sensuous and perhaps sinful things of this world. Godet, Bib. Studies of O. T., 32 — 
" Spirit = the breath of God, considered as independent of the body ; soul = that same 
breath in so far as it gives life to the body. Hence, notwithstanding the essential 
duality of man's nature, the soul is often in Scripture distinguished from the spirit. It 
is the soul to which the feeling of personal identity attaches." 

The doctrine we have advocated, moreover, in contrast with the heathen view, puts 
honor upon man's body, as proceeding from the hand of God and as therefore originally 
pure (Gen. 1 : 31— "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" ); as intended 



248 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

to be the dwelling place of the divine Spirit (1 Cor. 6 : 19 —"know ye not that your body is a temple 
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God?" ); and as containing the germ of the 
heavenly body ( 1 Cor. 15 : 44 — "it is sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body " ; Rom. 8 : 11— "shall 
quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you " — here many ancient authorities 
read "because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you" — Sta to ivomovv avrov npeii/xa). Birks, in his Diffi- 
culties of Belief, suggests that man, unlike angels, may have been provided with a 
fleshly body, ( 1 ) to objectify sin, and ( 2 ) to enable Christ to unite himself to the race, 
in order to save it. 

IV. Origin of the Soul. 

Three theories with regard to this subject have divided opinion : 

1. The Theory of Preexistence. 

This view was held by Plato, Philo, and Origen ; by the first, in order to 
explain the soul's possession of ideas not derived from sense ; by the sec- 
ond, to account for its imprisonment in the body ; by the third, to justify 
the disparity of conditions in which men enter the world. We concern 
ourselves, however, only with the forms which the view has assumed in 
modern times. Kant and Julius Muller in Germany, and Edward Beecher 
in America, have advocated it, upon the ground that the inborn depravity 
of the human will can be explained only by supposing a personal act of 
self-determination in a previous, or timeless, state of being. 

The truth at the basis of the theory of preexistence is simply the ideal existence of 
the soul, before birth, in the mind of God — that is, God's foreknowledge of it. The 
intuitive ideas of which the soul finds itself in possession, such as space, time, cause, 
substance, right, God, are evolved from itself ; in other words, man is so constituted 
that he perceives these truths upon proper occasions or conditions. The apparent 
recollection that we have seen at some past time a landscape which we know to be now 
for the first time before us, is an illusory putting together of fragmentary concepts, or 
a mistaking of a part for the whole ; we have seen something like a part of the land- 
scape, — we fancy that we have seen this landscape, and the whole of it. Plato held, 
however, that intuitive ideas are reminiscences of things learned in a previous state of 
being ; he regarded the body as the grave of the soul ; and urged the fact that the soul 
had knowledge before it entered the body, as proof that the soul would have knowledge 
after it left the body, that is, would be immortal. See Plato, Meno, 82-85, Phaedo, 72-75, 
Phaedrus, 245-250, Republic, x : 614 ; also Introductions to each of these works, in 
Jowett's translation. 

Philo held that all souls are emanations from God, and that those who allowed them- 
selves, unlike the angels, to be attracted by matter, are punished for this fall by 
imprisonment in the body, which corrupts them, and from which they must break 
loose. See Philo, De Gigantibus, Pfeitfer's ed., 2 : 360-364. Origen accounted for dispar- 
ity of conditions at birth by the differences in the conduct of these same souls in a 
previous state. God's justice at the first made all souls equal ; condition here corre- 
sponds to the degree of previous guilt : Mat. 20 : 3 — " others standing idle in the market place " = souls 
not yet brought into the world. The Talmudists regarded all souls as created at once in 
the beginning, and as kept like grains of corn in God's granary, until the time should 
come for joining each to its appointed body. See Origen, De Anima, 7 ; nepl apx<av, ii : 9 : 
6; cf. i : 1 : 2, 4, 18; 4 : 36. Origen's view was condemned at the Synod of Constan- 
tinople, 538. 

For modern advocates of the theory, see Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, sec. 15; 
Religion in. d. Grenzen d. bl. Vernunf t, 26, 27 ; Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 357-401 ; 
Edward Beecher, Conflict of Ages. The idea of preexistence has appeared to a notable 
extent in modern poetry > See Vaughan, The Retreate ( 1621 ) ; Wordsworth, Intima- 
tions of Immortality in Early Childhood ; Tennyson, Two Voices, stanzas 105-119. Many 
of the preceding facts and references are taken from Bruch, Lehre der Praexistenz, 
translated in Bib. Sac, 20 : 681-733. 

To the theory of preexistence we urge the following objections : 

(a) It is not only wholly without support from Scripture, but it directly 



ORIGIN OF THE SOUL. ^49 

contradicts the Mosaic account of man's creation in the image of God, and 
Paul's description of all evil and death in the human race as the result of 
Adam's sin. 

Gen. 1 : 27 — " And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him " ; 31 — " And God saw 
every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Rom. 5 : 12 — " Therefore, as through one man sin entered 
into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." The theory of 
preexistence would still leave it doubtful whether all men are sinners, or whether God 
assembles only sinners upon the earth. 

(b) If the soul in this preexistent state was conscious and personal, it is 
inexplicable that we should have no remembrance of such preexistence, and 
of so important a decision in that previous condition of being ; — if the soul 
was yet unconscious and impersonal, the theory fails to show how a moral 
act involving consequences so vast could have been performed at all. 

Christ remembered his preexistent state ; why should not we ? There is every reason 
to believe that in the future state we shall remember our present existence ; why should 
we not now remember the past state from which we came ? It may be objected that 
Augustinians hold to a sin of the race in Adam — a sin which none of Adam's descend- 
ants can remember. But we reply that no Augustinian holds to a personal existence of 
each member of the race in Adam, and therefore no Augustinian needs to account for 
lack of memory of Adam's sin. The advocate of preexistence, however, does hold to a 
personal existence of each soul in a previous state, and therefore needs to account for 
our lack of memory of it. 

( c ) The view sheds no light either upon the origin of sin, or upon God's 
justice in dealing with it, since it throws back the first transgression to a 
state of being in which there was no flesh to tempt, and then represents 
God as putting the fallen into sensuous conditions in the highest degree 
unfavorable to their restoration. 

This theory only increases the difficulty of explaining the origin of sin, by pushing 
back its beginning to a state of which we know less than we do of the present. To say 
that the soul in that previous state was only potentially conscious and personal, is to 
deny any real probation, and to throw the blame of sin on God the Creator. 

(d) While this theory accounts for inborn spiritual sin, such as pride 
and enmity to God, it gives no explanation of inherited sensual sin, which 
it holds to have come from Adam, and the guilt of which must logically be 
denied. 

While certain forms of the preexistence theory are exposed to the last objection indi- 
cated in the text, Julius Muller claims that his own view escapes it ; see Doctrine of Sin, 
2 : 393. His theory, he says, " would contradict holy Scripture if it derived inborn sinful- 
ness solely from this extra-temporal act of the individual, without recognizing in this 
sinfulness the element of hereditary depravity in the sphere of the natural life, and its 
connection with the sin of our first parents. ' ' Muller, whose trichotomy here determines 
his whole subsequent scheme, holds only the nvedfjia to have thus fallen in a pree'xistent 
state. The ^vxv comes, with the body, from Adam. The tempter only brought man's 
latent perversity of will into open transgression. Sinfulness, as hereditary, does not 
involve guilt, but the hereditary principle is the " medium through which the transcend- 
ent self-perversion of the spiritual nature of man is transmitted to his whole temporal 
mode of being." While man is born guilty as to his nvevixa, for the reason that this nvevfia 
sinned in a preexistent state, he is also born guilty as to his ^vxv, because this was one 
with the first man in his transgression. 

Even upon the most favorable statement of Miiller's view, we fail to see how it can 
consist with the organic unity of the race ; for in that which chiefly constitutes ^.s men 
— the nvevna — we are as distinct and separate creations as are the angels. We also fail 
to see how, upon this view, Christ can be said to take our nature ; or, if he takes it, how 
it can be without sin. See Ernesti, Ursprung der Siinde, 2 : 1-247 ; Frohschammer, 
Ursprung der Seele, 11-17; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 92-122; Bruch, Lehre der Praexis- 



250 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

tenz, translated in Bib. Sac, 20 : 681-733. Also Bib. Sac, 11 : 186-191 ; 12 : 156 ; IT : 419-427 ; 
20 : 447 ; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 250 — " This doctrine is inconsistent with the indisputable 
fact that the souls of children are like those of the parents ; and it ignores the connec- 
tion of the individual with the race." 

2. The Creatian Theory. 

This view was held by Aristotle, Jerome, and Pelagius, and in modern 
times has been advocated by most of the Roman Catholic and Reformed 
theologians. It regards the soul of each human being as immediately cre- 
ated by God and joined to the body either at conception, at birth, or at 
some time between these two. The advocates of the theory urge in its favor 
certain texts of Scripture, referring to God as the Creator of the human 
spirit, together with the fact that there is a marked individuality in the 
child, which cannot be explained as a mere reproduction of the qualities 
existing in the parents. 

Creatianisin, as ordinarily held, regards only the body as propagated from past gene- 
rations. Creatianists who hold to trichotomy would say, however, that the animal soul, 
the tyvxr), is propagated with the body, while the highest part of man, the nvev/xa, is in 
each case a direct creation of God,— the nvevfj.a not being created, as the advocates of 
preexistence believe, ages before the body, but rather at the time that the body assumes 
its distinct individuality. 

Aristotle ( De Anima ) first gives definite expression to this view. Jerome speaks of 
God as " making souls daily." The scholastics followed Aristotle, and through the influ- 
ence of the Reformed church, creatianism has been the prevailing opinion for the last 
two hundred years. Among its best representatives are Turretin, Inst., 5 : 13 (vol. 1: 
425) ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 65-76 ; Martensen, Dogmatics, 141-148 ; Liddon, Elements of 
Religion, 99-106. Certain Reformed theologians have defined very exactly God's method 
of creation. Polanus ( 5 : 31 : 1 ) says that God breathes the soul into boys, forty days, 
and into girls, eighty days, after conception. Goschel ( in Herzog, Encyclop., art.: Seele) 
holds that while dichotomy leads to traducianism, trichotomy allies itself to that form 
of creatianism which regards the npeifxa as a direct creation of God, but the tyvxn as 
propagated with the body. To the latter answers the family name ; to the former the 
Christian name. 

Creatianism is untenable for the following reasons : 

(a) The passages adduced in its support may with equal propriety be 
regarded as expressing God's mediate agency in the origination of human 
souls ; while the general tenor of Scripture, as well as its representations of 
God as the author of man's body, favor this latter interpretation. 

Passages commonly relied upon by creatianists are the following: Eccl. 12 : 7 — "the spirit 
ream unto God who gave it " ; Is. 57 : 16 — " the souls which I have made " ; Zech. 12 : 1 — " the Lord .... which 
formeth the spirit of man within him " ; Heb. 12 : 9 — " the Father of spirits." But God is with equal clear- 
ness declared to be the former of man's body : see Ps. 139 : 13, 14 — "thou hast possessed [ marg. 
'formed' ] my reins: Thou hast covered me [marg. 'knit me together' ] in my mother's womb. I will give thanks 
unto thee ; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : Wonderful are thy works " ; Jer. 1 : 5— " I formed thee in the 
belly." Yet we do not hesitate to interpret these latter passages as expressive of mediate, 
not immediate, creatorship,— God works through natural laws of generation and devel- 
opment so far as the production of man's body is concerned. None of the passages first 
mentioned forbid us to suppose that he works through these same natural laws in the 
production of the soul. 

( b ) Creatianism regards the earthly father as begetting only the body 

of his child — certainly as not the father of the child's highest part. This 

makes the beast to possess nobler powers of propagation than man ; for the 

beast multiplies himself after his own image. 

The new physiology properly views soul, not as something added from without, but 
as the animating principle of the body from the beginning: and as having a determining 



ORIGIN OF THE SOUL. 251 

influence upon its whole development. That children are like their parents, in intel- 
lectual and spiritual as well as in physical respects, is a fact of which the creatian theory 
gives no proper explanation. 

( c ) The individuality of the child, even in the most extreme cases, as in 
the sudden rise from obscure families and surroundings of marked men like 
Luther, may be better explained by supposing a law of variation impressed 
upon the species at its beginning — a law whose operation is foreseen and 
supervised by God. 

The differences of the child from the parent are often exaggerated ; men are generally 
more the product of their ancestry and of their time than we are accustomed to think. 
Dickens made angelic children to be horn of depraved parents, and to grow up in the 
slums. But this writing belong-s to a past generation, when the facts of heredity were 
unrecognized. George Eliot's school is neai'er the truth; although she exaggerates the 
doctrine of heredity in turn, until all idea of free will and all hope of escaping our fate 
vanish. 

Sometimes, in spite of George Eliot, a lily grows out of a stagnant pool,— how shall we 
explain the fact V We must remember that the paternal and the maternal elements are 
themselves unlike ; the union of the two may well produce a third in some respects 
unlike either ; as, when two chemical elements unite, the product differs from either of 
the constituents. "We must remember also that nature is one factor ; nurture is another ; 
and that the latter is often as potent as the former ( see Galton, Inquiries into Human 
Faculty, 77-81 ). Environment determines to a large extent both the fact and the degree 
of development. Genius is often another name for Providence. Yet before all and 
beyond all we must recognize a manifold wisdom of God, which in the very organization 
of species impresses upon it a law of variation, so that at proper times and under proper 
conditions the old is modified in the line of progress and advance to something higher. 
Dante, Purgatory, canto vii— "Rarely into the branches of the tree Doth human worth 
mount up ; and so ordains He that bestows it, that as his free gift It may be called." 

(d) This theory, if it allows that the soul is originally possessed of 
depraved tendencies, makes God the direct author of moral evil ; if it holds 
the soul to have been created pure, it makes God indirectly the author of 
moral evil, by teaching that he puts this pure soul into a body which will 
inevitably corrupt it. 

The decisive argument against creatianism is this one, that it makes God the author 
of moral evil. See Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 250 — "Creatianism rests upou a justly anti- 
quated dualism between soul and body, and is irreconcilable with the sinful condition of 
the human soul. The truth in the doctrine is just this onls r , that generation can bring- 
forth an immortal human life only according to the power imparted by God's word, and 
with the special cooperation of God himself." The difficulty of supposing that God 
immediately creates a pure soul, only to put it into a body that will infallibly corrupt it 
— sicut vinum in vase acetoso — has led many of the most thoughtful Reformed theolo- 
gians to modify the creatian doctrine by combining it with traducianism. 

Rothe, Dogmatik, 1 : 249-251, holds to a creation in a wider sense — a union of the 
paternal and maternal elements under the express and determining efficiency of God. 
Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1 : 327-332, regards the soul as new-created, yet by a process of mediate 
creation according to law, which he calls ' metaphysical generation.' Dorner, System of 
Doctrine, 3 : 56, says that the individual is not simply a manifestation of the species ; 
God applies to the origination of every single man a special creative thought and act of 
will; yet he does this through the species, so that it is creation by law,— else the child 
would be, not a continuation of the old species, but the establishment of a new one. So 
in speaking of the human soul of Christ, Dorner says ( 3 : 840-349 ) that the soul itself 
•Iocs not owe its origin to Mary nor to the species, but to the creative act of God. This 
soul appropriates to itself from Mary's body the elements of a human form, purifying 
them in the process so far as is consistent with the beginning of a life yet subject to 
development and human weakness. 

Bowne, Metaphysics, 500— "The laws of heredity must be viewed simply as descrip- 
tions of a fact and never as its explanation. Not as if ancestors passed on something to 
posterity, but solely because of the inner consistency of the divine action " are children 
like their parents. We cannot regard either of these mediating views as self-consistent 
or intelligible. We pass on therefore to consider the traducian theory which we believe 



252 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

more fully to meet the requirements of Scripture and of reason. For further discussion 
of creatianism, see Frohschammer, Ursprung der Seele, 18-58; Alger, Doctrine of a 
Future Life, 1-17. 

3. The Traducian Theory. 

This view was propounded by Tertullian, and was implicitly held by 
Augustine. In modern times it has been the prevailing opinion of the 
Lutheran Church. It holds that the human race was immediately created 
in Adam, and, as respects both body and soul, was propagated from him 
by natural generation — all souls since Adam being only mediately created 
by God, as the upholder of the laws of propagation which were originally 
established by him. 

Tertullian, De Anima : Tradux peccati, tradux animse. Gregory of Nyssa : " Man being 
one, consisting of soul and body, the common beginning of his constitution must he 
supposed also one ; so that he may not be both older and younger than himself — that in 
him which is bodily being first, and the other coming after " ( quoted in Crippen, Hist, of 
Christ. Doct., 80). Augustine, De Pec. Mer. et Rem., 3 : 7— "In Adam all sinned, at the 
time when in his nature all were still that one man" ; De Civ. Dei, 13 : 14 — "For we all 

were in that one man, when we all were that one man The form in which we each 

should live was not as yet individually created and distributed to us, but there already 
existed the seminal nature from which we were propagated." 

Augustine, indeed, wavered in his statements with regard to the origin of the soul, 
apparently fearing that an explicit and pronounced tradu danism might involve mate- 
rialistic consequences ; yet, as logically lying at the basis of his doctrine of original sin, 
traducianism came to be the ruling view of the Lutheran reformers. In his Table Talk, 
Luther says : " The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery. Had God 
consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the 
species by fashioning them out of clay, in the way Adam was fashioned ; as I should 
have counseled him also to let the sun remain always suspended over the earth, like a 
great lamp, maintaining perpetual light and heat." 

Traducianism holds that man, as a species, was created in Adam. In Adam, the sub- 
stance of humanity was yet undistributed. We derive our immaterial as well as our 
material being, by natural laws of propagation, from Adam,— each individual man after 
Adam possessing a part of the substance that was originated in him. See Shedd, Dogm. 
Theol., 2 : 7-94, Hist. Doctrine, 2 : 1-26, Discourses and Essays, 259 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 
137-151, 335-384; Edwards, Works, 2 : 483; Hopkins, Works, 1 : 289; Birks, Difficulties of 
Belief, 161; Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., 128-142; Frohschammer, Ursprung der Seele, 59-224. 

With regard to this view we remark : 

(a) It seems best to accord with Scripture, which represents God as 
creating the species in Adam (Gen. 1 : 27), and as increasing and perpetu- 
ating it through secondary agencies (1 : 28 ; of. 22). Only once is breathed 
into man's nostrils the breath of life ( 2 : 7 ; ef. 22 ; 1 Cor. 11 : 8. Gen. 
4:1; 5:3; 46 : 26 ; cf. Acts 17 : 24-26 ; Heb. 7 : 10), and after man's for- 
mation God ceases from his work of creation (Gen. 2:2). 

Gen. 1 : 27 —"And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him : male and female created 
he them " ; 28 —"And God blessed them ; and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth " ; 
cf. 22 — of the brute creation : "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters 
in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth." Gen. 2 : 7 — "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" ; cf. 22 — "And the rib, which the 
Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 8— "For the man is 
not of the woman; but the woman of the man" (e£ avSpos). Gen. 4 : 1 — "Eve .... bare Cain" ; 5 : 3— "Adam 

. . .. begat a son ... . Seth " ; 46 : 26 — " He made of one [ ' father ' or ' body ' ] every nation of men " ; Heb. 
7 : 10 — Levi "was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedek met him." Gen. : 2— "And on the seventh day 
God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." 
Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 19-29, adduces also John 1 : 13 ; 3:6; Rom. 1 : 13 ; 5 : 12 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 22 ; Bph. 
2:3; Heb. 12 : 9 ; Ps. 139 : 15, 16. Only Adam had the right to be a creatianist. 

( b ) It is favored by the analogy of vegetable and animal life, in which 
increase of numbers is secured, not by a multiplicity of immediate creations, 



ORIGIN OF THE SOUL. 253 

but by the natural derivation of new individuals from a parent stock. A 
derivation of the human soul from its parents no more implies a materialis- 
tic view of the soul and its endless division and subdivision, than the similar 
derivation of the brute proves the principle of intelligence in the lower 
animals to be wholly material. 

God's method is not the method of endless miracle. God works in nature through 
second causes. God does not create a new vital principle at the beginning of existence 
of each separate apple, and of each separate dog. Each of these is the result of a self- 
multiplying force, implanted once for all in the first of its race. To say, with Moxom 
( Baptist Review, 1881 : 278), that God is the immediate author of each new individual, is 
to deny second causes, and to merge nature in God. The whole tendency of modern 
science is in the opposite direction. Nor is there any good reason for making the origin 
of the individual human soul an exception to the general rule. Augustine wavered in 
his traducianistn because he feared the inference that the soul is divided and subdivided, 
—that is, that it is composed of parts, and is therefore material in its nature. But it 
does not follow that all separation is material separation. We do not, indeed, know how 
the soul is propagated. But we know that animal life is propagated, and still that it is 
not material, nor composed of parts. The fact that the soul is not material, nor com- 
posed of parts, is no reason why it may not be propagated also. 

( c ) The observed transmission not merely of physical, but of mental and 
spiritual, characteristics in families and races, and especially the uniformly 
evil moral tendencies and dispositions which all men possess from their 
birth, are proof that in soul, as well as in body, we derive our being from 
our human ancestry. 

Galton, in his Hereditary Genius, and Inquiries into Human Faculty, furnishes abun- 
dant proof of the transmission of mental and spiritual characteristics from father to 
son. Illustrations, in the case of families, are the American Adamses, the English 
Georges, the French Bourbons, the German Bachs. Illustrations, in the case of races, 
are the Indians, the Negroes, the Chinese, the Jews. Hawthorne represented the intro- 
spection and the conscience of Puritan New England. Emerson had a minister among 
his ancestry, either on the paternal or the maternal side, for eight generations back. 
Every man is " a chip of the old block." "A man is an omnibus, in which all his ances- 
tors are seated " ( O. "W. Holmes). Variation is one of the properties of living things,— 
the other is transmission. " On a dissecting table, in the membranes of a new-born 
infant's body, can be seen 'the drunkard's tinge.' The blotches on his grand-child's 
cheeks furnish a mirror to the old debauchee. Heredity is God's visiting of sin to the 
third and fourth generations." On heredity and depravity, see Phelps in Bib. Sac, Apr., 
1884 : 254—" When every molecule in the paternal brain bears the shape of a point of 
interrogation, it would border on the miraculous if we should find the exclamation-sign 
of faith in the brain-cells of the child." 

(d) The traducian doctrine embraces and acknowledges the element of 
truth which gives plausibility to the creatian view. Traducianism, properly 
denned, admits a divine concurrence throughout the whole development of 
the human species, and allows, under the guidance of a superintending 
Providence, special improvements in type at the birth of marked men, sim- 
ilar to those which we may suppose to have occurred in the introduction of 
new varieties in the animal creation. 

Page-Roberts, Oxford University Sermons : " It is no more unjust that man should 
inherit evil tendencies, than that he should inherit good. To make the former impossible 
is to make the latter impossible. To object to the law of heredity, is to object to God's 
ordinance of society, and to say that God should have made men, like the angels, a com- 
pany, and not a race." The common moral characteristics of the race can only be 
accounted for upon the Scriptural view that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). 
Since propagation is a propagation of soul, as well as body, we see that to beget children 
under improper conditions is a crime, and that foeticide is murder. On organic unity in 
connection with realism, see Hodge, in Princeton Rev., Jan., 1865 : 125-135. See also 



254 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN". 

Dabney, Theology, 317-321 ; Ribot, Heredity ; W. K. Brooks, Heredity : the male element 
representing- the law of variation ; the female the conservative principle. 

V. The Mobal Nature of Man. 

By the moral nature of man we mean those powers which fit him for 
right or wrong action. These powers are intellect, sensibility, and will, 
together with that peculiar power of discrimination and impulsion, which 
we call conscience. In order to moral action, man has intellect or reason, to 
discern the difference between right and wrong ; sensibility, to be moved 
by each of these ; free will, to do the one or the other. Intellect, sensibil- 
ity, and will, are man's three faculties. But in connection with these facul- 
ties there is a sort of activity which involves them all, and without which 
there can be no moral action, namely, the activity of conscience. Con- 
science applies the moral law to particular cases in our personal experience, 
and proclaims that law as binding upon us. Only a rational and sentient 
being can be truly moral ; yet it does not come within our province to treat 
of man's intellect or sensibility in general. We speak here only of Con- 
science and of Will. 

1. Conscience. 

As already intimated, conscience is not a separate faculty, like intellect, 
sensibility, and will, but rather a mode in which these faculties act. Like 
consciousness, conscience is an accompanying knowledge. Conscience is a 
knowing of self ( including our acts and states ) in connection with a moral 
standard, or law. Adding now the element of feeling, we may say that 
conscience is man's consciousness of his own moral relations, together with 
a peculiar feeling in view of them. It thus involves the combined action 
of the intellect and of the sensibility, and that, in view of a certain class of 
objects, viz. : right and wrong. 

But we need to define more narrowly both the intellectual and the emo- 
tional elements in conscience. As respects the intellectual element, we may 
say that conscience is a power of judgment, — it declares our acts or states to 
conform, or not to conform, to law ; it declares the acts or states which con- 
form to be obligatory, — those which do not conform, to be forbidden. In 
other words, conscience judges : ( 1 ) This is right ( or, wrong) ; (2) I ought 
( or, I ought not ). In connection with this latter judgment, there comes into 
view the emotional element of conscience, — we feel the claim of duty ; there 
is an inner sense that the wrong must not be done. Thus conscience is 
(1) discriminative, and (2) impulsive. 

The nature and office of conscience will be still more clearly perceived if 
we distinguish it from other processes and operations with which it is too 
often confounded. The term conscience has been used by various writers 
to designate either one or all of the following: 1. Moral intuition — the 
intuitive perception of the difference between right and wrong, as opposite 
moral categories. 2. Accepted law — the application of the intuitive idea 
to general classes of actions, and the declaration that these classes of actions 
are right or wrong, apart from our individual relation to them. This 
accepted law is the complex product of ( a ) the intuitive idea, ( b ) the logi- 
cal intelligence, (c) experiences of utility, (d) influences of society and 



THE MORAL NATURE OF MAW. 255 

education, and (e) positive divine revelation. 3. Judgment — applying this 
accepted law to individual and concrete cases in onr own experience, and 
pronouncing our own acts or states either rjast, present, or prospective, to 
be right or wrong. 4. Command — authoritative declaration of obligation 
to do the right, or forbear the wrong, together with an impulse of the sensi- 
bility away from the one, and toward the other. 5. Remorse or approval 
— moral sentiments either of approbation or disapprobation, in view of past 
acts or states, regarded as wrong or right. 6. Fear or hope — instinctive 
disposition of disobedience to expect punishment, and of obedience to expect 
reward. 

From what has been previously said, it is evident that only 3. and 4. are 
properly included under the term conscience. Conscience is the moral 
judiciary of the soul — the power within of judgment and command. Con- 
science must judge according to the law given to it, and therefore, since the 
moral standard accepted by the reason may be imperfect, its decisions, while 
relatively just, may be absolutely unjust. — 1. and 2. belong to the moral 
reason, but not to conscience proper. Hence the duty of enhghtening and 
cultivating the moral reason, so that conscience may have a proper standard 
of judgment. — 5. and 6. belong to the sphere of moral sentiment, and not 
to conscience proper. Since conscience, in the proper sense, gives uniform 
and infallible judgment that the right is supremely obligatory, and that 
the wrong must be forborne at every cost, it can be called an echo of God's 
voice, and an indication in man of that which is supreme in the nature of 
God. Its office is to "bear witness" (Bora. 2 : 15). 

In Rom. 2 : 15 — " they shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, 
and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them" — we hare conscience clearly distin- 
guished both from the law and the perception of law on the one hand, and from the 
moral sentiments of approbation and disapprobation on the other. Conscience does 
not furnish the law, but it bears witness with the law which is furnished by other 
sources. It is not "that power of mind by which moral law is discovered to each 
individual " ( Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 77), nor can we speak of " Conscience, the 
Law " (as Whewell does in his elements of Morality, 1 : 259-266). Conscience is not the 
law-book, in the court room, but it is the judge,— whose business is, not to make law. 
but to decide cases according- to the law given to him. 

As conscience is not legislative, so it is not retributive ; as it is not the law-book, so it 
is not the sheriff. We say, indeed, in popular language, that conscience scourges or 
chastises, but it is only in the sense in which we say that the judge punishes,— i. c. 
through the sheriff. The moral sentiments are the sheriff,— they carry out the decisions 
of conscience, the judge ; but they are not themselves conscience, any more than the 
sheriff is the judge. 

Only this doctrine, that conscience does not discover law, can explain on the one hand 
the fact that men are bound to follow their consciences, and on the other hand the fact 
that their consciences so greatly differ as to what is right or wrong in particular cases. 
The truth is, that conscience is uniform and infallible, in the sense that it always decides 
rightly according to the law given it. Men's decisions vary, only because the moral 
reason has presented to the conscience different standards by which to judge. 

Conscience can be educated only in the sense of acquiring greater facility and quick- 
ness in making its decisions. Education has its chief effect, not upon the conscience, 
but upon the moral reason, in rectifying its erroneous or imperfect standards of judg- 
ment. Give conscience a right law by which to judge, and its decisions will be uniform. 
and absolutely as well as relatively just. "We are bound, not only to "follow our con- 
science," but to have a right conscience to follow,— and to follow it, not as one follows 
the beast he drives, but as the soldier follows his commander. 

Conscience is the con-knowing of a particular act or state, as coming under the law 
accepted by the reason as to right and wrong ; and the judgment of conscience subsumes 



256 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

this act or state under that general standard. Conscience cannot include the law,— 
cannot itself &e the law, — because reason only knows, never con-knows. Reason says 
scio ; only judgment says conscio. 

This view enables us to reconcile the intuitional and the empirical theories of morals. 
Each has its element of truth. The original sense of right and wrong is intuitive,— no 
education could ever impart the idea of the difference between right and wrong to one 
who had it not. But what classes of things are right or wrong, we learn by the exer- 
cise of our logical intelligence, in connection with experiences of utility, influences of 
society and tradition, and positive divine revelation. Thus our moral reason, through 
a combination of intuition and education, of internal and external information as 
to general principles of right and wrong, furnishes the standard according to which 
conscience may judge the particular cases which come before it. 

This moral reason may become depraved by sin, so that the light becomes darkness 
( Mat. 6 : 22, 23 ) and conscience has only a perverse standard by which to judge. The " weak " 
conscience (1 Cor. 8 : 12) is one whose standard of judgment is yet imperfect; the consci- 
ence "branded" ( Rev. Vers.) or "seared" ( A. "V. ) "as with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:2) is one whose 
standard has been wholly perverted by practical disobedience. The word and the Spirit 
of God are the chief agencies in rectifying our standards of judgment, and so of enabling 
conscience to make absolutely right decisions. God can so unite the soul to Christ, that 
it becomes partaker on the one hand of his satisfaction to justice and is thus " sprinkled from 
an evil conscience" (leb. 10 : 22), and on the other hand of his sanctifying power and is thus 
enabled in certain respects to obey God's command and to speak of a "good conscience" 
(1 Pet. 3 : 16 — of single act; 3 : 21 — of state) instead of an "evil conscience" (Heb. 10 : 22) or a 
conscience " defiled " ( Tit. 1 : 15 ) by sin. Here the " good conscience " is the conscience which has 
been obeyed by the will, and the "evil conscience" the conscience which has been disobeyed ; 
with the result, in the first case, of approval from the moral sentiments, and, in the 
second case, of disapproval. 

The conscience of the regenerate man may have such right standards, and its decisions 
may be followed by such uniformly right action, that its voice, though it is not itself 
God's voice, is yet the very echo of God's voice. The renewed conscience may take up 
into itself, and may express, the witness of the Holy Ghost (Rom. 9 : 1— "I say the truth in 
Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Ghost" ; cf. 8 : 16 — "the Spirit himself beareth 
witness with our spirit, that we are children of God " ). 

But even when conscience judges according to imperfect standards, and is imperfectly 
obeyed by the will, there is a spontaneity in its utterances and a sovereignty in its com- 
mands. It declares that whatever is right must be done. The imperative of conscience 
is a "categorical imperative" (Kant). It is independent of the human will. Even 
when disobeyed, it still asserts its authority. Before conscience, every other impulse 
and affection of man's nature is called to bow. 

Yet conscience is not an original authority. "The authority of conscience" is an 
abbreviated form of expression for the authority of the moral law, or rather, the 
authority of the personal God, of whose nature the law is but a transcript. Conscience, 
therefore, with its continual and supreme demand that that which is right should be 
done, furnishes the best witness to man of the existence of a personal God, and of the 
supremacy of holiness in him in whose image we are made. 

On the New Testament passages with regard to conscience, see Hofmann, Lehre von 
dem Gewissen, 30-38; KShler, Das Gewissen, 225-293. For the view that conscience is 
primarily the cognitive or intuitional power of the soul, see Calderwood, Moral Philos- 
ophy, 77; Alexander, Moral Science, 20; McCosh, Div. Gov't, 297-312; Talbot, Ethical 
Prolegomena, in Bap. Quar., July, 1877:257-274; Park, Discourses, 260-296; Whewell, 
Elements of Morality, 1 : 259-266. On the whole subject of conscience, see Mansel, Meta- 
physics, 158-170; Martineau, Religion and Materialism, 45 — "The discovery of duty is 
as distinctly relative to an objective Righteousness as the perception of form to an 
external space " ; also Types, 2 : 27-30—" We first judge ourselves ; then others " ; 53, 54, 
74, 103—" Subjective morals are as absurd as subjective mathematics." 

Hopkins, Outline Study of Man, 283-285, Moral Science, 49, Law of Love, 41— "Con- 
science is the moral consciousness of man in view of his own actions as related to moral 
law. It is a double knowledge of self and of the law. Conscience is not the whole of 
the moral nature. It presupposes the moral reason, which recognizes the moral law 
and affirms its universal obligation for all moral beings. It is the office of conscience 
to bring man into personal relation to this law. It sets up a tribunal within him by 
which his own actions are judged. Not conscience, but the moral reason, judges of the 
conduct of others. This last is science, but not conscience." Wayland, Moral Science, 
49; Harless, Christian Ethics, 45, 60; H. N. Day, Science of Ethics, 17; Janet, Theory 



THE MORAL NATURE OF MAN. 257 

of Morals, 364, 348 ; Kant, Metaphysic of Ethics, 62 ; cf. Schwegler, Hist. Philosophy, 233; 
Haven, Mor. Philos., 41 ; Fairchild, Mor. Phil., 75 ; Gregory, Christian Ethics, 71. 

Peabody, Moral Philos., 41-60— "Conscience not a source, but a means, of knowledge. 
Analogous to consciousness. A judicial faculty. Judges according to the law before 
it. Verdict ( verum dictum ) always relatively right, although, by the absolute standard 
of right, it may be wrong. Like all perceptive faculties, educated by use (not by 
increase of knowledge only, for man may act worse, the more knowledge he has ). For 
absolutely right decisions, conscience is dependent upon knowledge. To recognize 
conscience as legislator ( as well as judge ), is to fail to recognize any objective standard 
of right." The Two Consciences, 46, 47 — " Conscience the Law, and Conscience the Wit- 
ness. The latter is the true and proper Conscience." 

H. B. Smith, System of Christ. Theology, 178-191— "The unity of conscience is not in 
its being one faculty or in its performing one function, but in its having one object, its 
relation to one idea, viz. right .... The term ' conscience ' no more designates a special 
faculty than the term ' religion ' does ( or than the ' aesthetic sense ').... The exist- 
ence of conscience proves a moral law above us ; it leads logically to a Moral Governor ; 
.... it implies an essential distinction between right and wrong, an immutable 
morality; .... yet needs to be enlightened; .... men may be conscientious in 
iniquity ; . . . . conscience is not righteousness ; . . . . this may only show the greatness 
of the depravity, having conscience, and yet ever disobeying it." The best brief treat- 
ment of the whole subject is that of E. G. Robinson, Principles and Practice of 
Morality, 26-78. 

2. Will. 

A. Will defined. — Will is the soul's power to choose between motives 
and to direct its subsequent activity according to the motive thus chosen, — 
in other words, the soul's power to choose both an end and the means to 
attain it. The choice of an ultimate end we call immanent preference ; the 
choice of means we call executive volition. 

B. Will and other faculties. — (a) We accept the threefold division of 
human faculties into intellect, sensibility, and will. (6) Intellect is the 
soul knowing; sensibility is the soul feeling (desires, affections); will is 
the soul choosing (end or means), (c) In every act of the soul, all the 
faculties act. Knowing involves feeling and willing; feeling involves 
knowing and willing ; willing involves knowing and feeling. ( d ) Logi- 
cally, each latter faculty involves the preceding action of the former : the 
soul must know before feeling ; must know and feel before willing, 
(e) Yet since knowing and feeling are activities, neither of these is 
possible without willing. 

C. Will and permanent states. — (a) Though every act of the soul 
involves the action of all the faculties, yet in any particular action one 
faculty may be more prominent than the others. So we speak of acts of 
intellect, of affection, of will. ( b ) This predominant action of any single 
faculty produces effects upon the other faculties associated with it. The 
action of will gives a direction to the intellect and to the affections, as well 
as a permanent bent to the will itself, (c) Each faculty, therefore, has its 
permanent states as well as its transient acts, and the will may originate 
these states. Hence we speak of voluntary affections, and may with equal 
propriety speak of voluntary opinions. These permanent voluntary states 
we denominate character. 

D. Will and motives. — (a) The permanent states just mentioned, when 
they have been once determined, also influence the will. Internal views 
and dispositions, and not simply external presentations, constitute the 
strength of motives. (6) These motives often conflict, and though the 

17 



258 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

soul never acts without motive, it does notwithstanding choose between 
motives, and so determines the end toward which it will direct its activi- 
ties. ( c ) Motives are not causes, which compel the will, but influences, 
which persuade it. The power of these motives, however, is proportioned 
to the strength of will which has entered into them and has made them 
what they are. 

E. Will and contrary choice. — (a) Though no act of pure will is pos- 
sible, the soul may put forth single volitions in a direction opposed to 
its previous ruling purpose, and thus far man has the power of a contrary 
choice (Eom. 7 : 18 — "to will is present with me"), (b) But in so far as 
will has entered into and revealed itself in permanent states of intellect 
and sensibility and in a settled bent of the will itself, man cannot by a 
single act reverse his moral state, and in this respect has not the power of a 
contrary choice. ( c ) In this latter case he can change his character only 
indirectly, by turning his attention to considerations fitted to awaken oppo- 
site dispositions, and by thus summoning up motives to an opposite course. 

F. Will and responsibility. — (a) By repeated acts of will put forth in 
a given moral direction, the affections may become so confirmed in evil or 
in good as to make previously certain, though not necessary, the future 
good or evil action of the man. Thus, while the will is free, the man may 
be the "bondservant of sin" (John 8 : 31-36) or the "servant of right- 
eousness" (Rom. 6 : 15-23; cf. Heb. 12 : 23 — "spirits of just men made 
perfect"). (6) Man is responsible for all effects of will, as well as for will 
itself; for voluntary affections, as well as for voluntary acts; for the 
intellectual views into which will has entered, as well as for the acts of will 
by which these views have been formed in the past or are maintained in 
the present (2 Pet. 3 : 5— "wilfully forget"). 

G. Inferences from this view of the will. — (a) We can be responsible 
for the voluntary evil affections with which we are born, and for the will's 
inherited preference of selfishness, only upon the hypothesis that we 
originated these states of the affections and will, or had a part in origi- 
nating them. Scripture furnishes this explanation, in its doctrine of Original 
Sin, or the doctrine of a common apostasy of the race in its first father, 
and our derivation of a corrupted nature by natural generation from him. 
( b ) While there remains to man, even in his present condition, a natural 
power of will by which he may put forth transient volitions externally 
conformed to the divine law and so may to a limited extent modify his 
character, it still remains true that the sinful bent of his affections is not 
directly under his control; and this bent constitutes a motive to evil so 
constant, inveterate, and powerful, that it actually influences every member 
of the race to reaffirm his evil choice, and renders necessary a special 
working of God's Spirit upon his heart to ensure his salvation. Hence the 
Scripture doctrine of Regeneration. 

For references, and additional statements with regard to the will and its freedom, see 
chapter on Decrees, pages 177, 178, and article by A. H. Strong, in Baptist Review, 1883 : 
219-343, and reprinted in Philosophy and Religion, H4r-138. In the remarks upon the 
Decrees, we have intimated our rejection of the Arminian liberty of indifference, or 
the doctrine that the will can act without motive. See this doctrine advocated in 
Peabody, Moral Philosophy, 1-9. But we also reject the theory of determinism pro- 



THE MORAL XATURE OF MAN. 259 

pounded by Jonathan Edwards (Freedom of the Will, in Works, vol. 2), which, as we 
have before remarked, identifies sensibility with the will, regards affections as the effi- 
cient causes of volitions, and speaks of the connection between motive and action as a 
necessary one. Hazard, Man a Creative First Cause, and The Will, 407 — " Edwards gives 
to the controlling- cause of volition in the past the name of motive. He treats the inch- 
nation as a motive, but he also makes inclination synonymous with choice and will, which 
would make will to be only the soul willing — and therefore the cause of its own act." 
For objections to the Arminian theory, see H. B. Smith, Review of Whedon, in Faith 
and Philosophy, 359-399 ; McCosh, Divine Government, 263-318, esp. 312 ; E. G. Robinson, 
Principles and Practice of Morality, 109-137 ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 115-147. 

We subjoin quotations from writers with whom, upon the subject of the will, we sub- 
stantially agree. Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 54— "A being is free, in so far as 
the inner centre of its life, from which it acts, is conditioned by self-determination. It 
is not enough that the deciding agent in an act be the man himself, his own nature, his 
distinctive character. In order to accountability, we must have more than this ; we 
must prove that this, his distinctive nature and character, springs from his own volition, 
and that it is itself the product of freedom in moral development. Math. 12 : 33 —"make the 
tree good, and its fruit good "— combines both. Acts depend upon nature; but nature again 
depends upon the primary decisions of the will ( "make the tree good" ). Some determinism 
is not denied; but it is partly limited [by the will's remaining power of choice] and 
partly traced back to a former self -detennining." Ibid., 67 — "If freedom be the self- 
deterrnining of the will from that which is undetermined, Determinism is found want- 
ing,— because in its most spiritual form, though it grants a self-determination of the 
will, it is only such a one as springs from a determinateness already present ; and Indif- 
ferentism is found wanting too, because while it maintains indeterminateness as pre- 
supposed in every act of will, it does not recognize an actual self -determining on the 
part of the will, which, though it be a self -determining, yet begets determinateness 

of character We must, therefore, hold the doctrine of a conditional and limited 

freedom." 

Fisher, chapter on the Personality of God, in Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief 
— " Self-determination, as the very term signifies, is attended with an irresistible convic- 
tion that the direction of the will is self -imparted .... That the will is free, that is, not 
constrained by causes exterior, which is fatalism — and not a mere spontaneity, confined 
to one path by a force acting from within, which is determinism — is immediately evident 
to every unsophisticated mind. We can initiate action by an efficiency which is neither 
irresistibly controlled by motives, nor determined, without any capacity of alternative 
action, by a proneness inherent in its nature Motives have an influence, but influ- 
ence is not to be confounded with causal efficiency." 

Talbot, on Will and Free Will, Bap. Rev., July, 1882—" Will is neither a power of un- 
conditioned self-determination — which is not freedom, but an aimless, irrational, fatal- 
istic power ; nor pure spontaneity — which excludes from will all law but its own ; but 
it is rather a power of originating action — a power which is limited however by inborn 
dispositions, by acquired habits and convictions, by feelings and social relations." Ernest 
Naville, in Rev. Chrerienne, Jan., 1878 : 7— " Our liberty does not consist in producing an 
action of which it is the only source. It consists in choosing between two preexistent 
impulses. It is choice, not creation, that is our destiny — a drop of water that can choose 
whether it will go into the Rhine or the Rhone. Gravity carries it down, — it chooses only 
its direction. Impulses do not come from the will, but from the sensibility ; but free will 
chooses between these impulses." Bowne, Metaphysics, 169— "Freedom is not a power 
of acting without, or apart from, motives, but simply a power of choosing an end or 
law, and of governing one's self accordingly." 

Porter, Moral Science, 77-111: Will is "not a power to choose without motive." It 
"does not exclude motives to the contrary." Volition "supposes two or more objects 
between which election is made. It is an act of preference, and to prefer implies that 
one motive is chosen to the exclusion of another .... To the conception and the act two 
motives at least are required." Lyall, Intellect, Emotions, and Moral Nature, 581, 592— 
"The will follows reasons, inducements,— but it is not caused. It obeys or acts under 
inducement, but it does so sovereignly. It exhibits the phenomena of activity, in rela- 
tion to the very motive it obeys. It obeys it, rather than another. It determines, in 
reference to it, that this is the very motive it will obey. There is undoubtedly this phe- 
nomenon exhibited: the will obeying — but elective, active, in its obedience. If it be 
asked how this is possible— how the will can be under the influence of motive, and yet 



260 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

possess an intellectual activity — we reply that this is one of those ultimate phenomena 
which must be admitted, while they cannot be explained." 

Mind v Oct., 1882: 567 — "Kant seems to be in quest of the phantasmal freedom which 
is supposed to consist in the absence of determination by motives. The error of the 
determinists from which this idea is the recoil, involves an equal abstraction of the man 
from his thoughts, and interprets the relation between the two as an instance of the 
mechanical causality which exists between two things in nature. The point to be 
grasped in the controversy is that a man and his motives are one, and that consequently 
he is in every instance self-determined .... Indeterminism is tenable only if an ego 
can be found which is not an ego already determinate ; but such an ego, though it may 
be logically distinguished and verbally expressed, is not a factor in psychology. ' ' Morell, 
Mental Philosophy, 390—" Motives determine the will, and so far the will is not free ; but 
the man governs the motives, allowing them a less or a greater power of influencing his 
life, and so far the man is a free agent." Santayana: "A free man, because he is free, 
may make himself a slave ; but once a slave, because he is a slave, he cannot make him- 
self free." 

Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 349-407 — "Action without motives, or contrary to all 
motives, would be irrational action. Instead of being free, it would be like the convul- 
sions of epilepsy. Motives = sensibilities. Motive is not cause ; does not determine ; is 
only influence. Yet determination is always made under the influence of motives. 
Uniformity of action is not to be explained by any law of uniform influence of 
motives, but by character in the will. By its choice, will forms in itself a character; by 
action in accordance with this choice, it confirms and develops the character. Choice 
modifies sensibilities, and so modifies motives. Volitional action expresses character, 
but also forms and modifies it. Man may change his choice ; yet intellect, sensibility, 
motive, habit, remain. Evil choice, having formed intellect and sensibility into accord 
with itself, must be a powerful hindrance to fundamental change by new and contrary 
choice ; and gives small ground to expect that man left to himself ever will make the 
change. After will has acquired character by choices, its determinations are not transi- 
tions from complete indeterminateness or indifference, but are more or less expressions 
of character already formed. The theory that indifference is essential to freedom im- 
plies that will never acquires character ; that voluntary action is atomistic ; that every 
act is disintegrated from every other ; that character, if acquired, would be incompatible 
with freedom. Character is a choice, yet a choice which persists, which modifies sensi- 
bility and intellect, and which influences subsequent determinations." 

Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics, 51 — "This almost overwhelming cumulative proof [of 
necessity ] seems, however, more than balanced by a single argument on the other side : 
the immediate affirmation of consciousness in the moment of deliberate volition. It is 
impossible for me to think, at each moment, that my volition is completely determined 
by my formed character and the motives acting upon it. The opposite conviction is so 
strong as to be absolutely unshaken by the evidence brought against it. I cannot belie ve 
it to be illusory." 

Martineau, Study of Religion, 2 : 195-324, and especially 240— "Where two or more rival 
preconceptions enter the field together, they cannot compare themselves inter se : they 
need and meet a superior : it rests with the mind itself to decide. The decision will not 
be unmotived, for it will have its reasons. It will not be unconformable to the charac- 
teristics of the mind, for it will express its preferences. But none the less is it issued by 
a free cause that elects among the conditions, and is not elected by them." 241 — " So 
far from admitting that different effects cannot come from the same cause, I even ven- 
ture on the paradox that nothing is a proper cause which is limited to one effect." 309— 
" Freedom, in the sense of option, and will, as the power of deciding an alternative, have 
no place in the doctrines of the German schools. ' ' 311 — " The whole illusion of Necessity 
springs from the attempt to fling out, for contemplation in the field of Nature, the crea- 
tive new beginnings centered in personal subjects that transcend it." 

See also H. B. Smith, System of Christ. Theol., 236-251 ; Mansel, Proleg. Log., 113-155, 
270-278, and Metaphysics, 366 ; Gregory, Christian Ethics, 60 ; Abp. Manning, in Contem. 
Rev., Jan., 1871 : 468 ; Ward, Philos. of Theism, 1 : 287-352 ; 2 : 1-79, 274-349 ; Bp. Temple, \ 
Bampton Lect., 1884 : 69-96 ; Row, Man not a Machine, in Present Day Tracts, 5 : no. 30 ; 
Richards, Lectures on Theology, 97-153; Solly, The Will, 167-203; William James, The 
Dilemma of Determinism, in Unitarian Review, Sept., 1884; T. H. Green, Prolegomena 
to Ethics, 90-159. For Lotze's view of Will, see his Philosophy of Religion, 95-106, and 
his Practical Philosophy, 35-50. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN". 

In determining man's original state, we are wholly dependent upon 
Scripture. This represents human nature as coming from God's hand, 
and therefore "very good" (Gen. 1 : 31). It moreover draws a parallel 
between man's first state and that of his restoration ( Col. 3:10; Eph. 
4 : 24). In interpreting these passages, however, we are to remember the 
twofold danger, on the one hand of putting man so high that no progress 
is conceivable, on the other hand of putting him so low that he could not 
fall. We shall the more easily avoid these dangers by distinguishing 
between the essentials and the incidents of man's original state. 

Gen. i : 31 — "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good " ; Col. 3 : 10 — "the new 
man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him " ; Eph. 4 24 — " the new man, 
which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." 

Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 337-399 — " The original state must be ( 1 ) a contrast to 
sin ; (2 ) a parallel to the state of restoration. Difficulties in the way of understanding- 
it: (1) What lives in regeneration is something foreign to our present nature ("it is no 
longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me " — Gal. 2 : 20 ) ; but the original state was something native. 
( 2 ) It was a state of childhood. We cannot fully enter into childhood, though we see it 
about us, and have ourselves been through it. The original state is yet more difficult to 
reproduce to reason. (3) Man's external circumstances and his organization have 
suffered great changes, so that the present is no sign of the past. We must recur to the 
Scriptures, therefore, as well-nigh our only guide." 

Lord Bacon: "The sparkle of the purity of man's first estate." Calvin: "It was 
monstrous impiety that a son of the earth should not be satisfied with being made after 
the similitude of God, unless he could also be equal with him." Prof. Hastings : "The 
truly natural is not the real, but the ideal. Made in the image of God— between that 
beginning and the end stands God made in the image of man." On the general sub- 
ject of man's original state, see Zockler, 3 : 283-290 ; Thomasms, Christi Person und 
Werk, 1:215-243; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1:267-276; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 374-375; 
Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 92-116. 

I. Essentials of Man's Original State. 

These are summed up in the phrase "the image of God." In God's 
image man is said to have been created (Gen. 1 : 26, 27). In what did 
this image of God consist ? We reply that it consisted in 1. Natural like- 
ness to God, or personality ; 2. Moral likeness to God, or holiness. 

Gen. 1 : 26, 27 — "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness .... And God created man in 
his own image, in the image of God created he him." It is of great importance to distinguish clearly 
between the two elements embraced in this image of God, the natural and the moral. 
By virtue of the first, man possessed certain faculties (intellect, affection, will); by 
virtue of the second, he had right tendencies (bent, proclivity, disposition). By virtue 
of the first, he was invested with certain powers ; by virtue of the second, a certain 
(Unction was imparted to these powers. As created in the natural image of God, man 
had a moral nature; as created in the moral image of God, man had a holy character. 
The first gave him natural ability; the second gave him moral ability. The Greek 
Fathers emphasized the first element, or personality ; the Latin Fathers emphasized the 
second element, or holiness. 

261 



262 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

1. Natural likeness to God, or personality. 

Man was created a personal being, and was by this personality distin- 
guished from the brute. By personality we mean the twofold power to 
know self as related to the world and to God, and to determine self in view 
of moral ends. By virtue of this personality, man could at his creation 
choose which of the objects of his knowledge — self, the world, or God — 
should be the norm and centre of his development. This natural likeness 
to God is inalienable, and as constituting a capacity for redemption gives 
value to the life even of the unregenerate (Gen. 9:6; 1 Cor. 11 : 7; 
James 3:9). 

For definitions of personality, see notes on the Anthropological Argument, page 45 ; 
on Pantheism, page 57 ; on the Attributes, pages 131, 122 ; and on the Person of Christ, 
pages 376, 377. Here we may content ourselves with the formula : Personality = self- 
consciousness + self-determination. SeZ/-consciousness and se7/-determination, as dis- 
tinguished from the consciousness and determination of the brute, involve all the higher 
mental and moral powers which constitute us men. Conscience is but a mode of their 
activity. Notice that the term ' image ' does not, in man, imply perfect representation. 
Only Christ is the "very image" of God (Heb. 1:3), the "image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15 — 
on which see Lightf oot ). Christ is the image of God absolutely and archetypally ; man, 
only relatively and derivatively. But notice also that, since God is Spirit, man made in 
God's image cannot be a material thing. By virtue of his possession of this first ele- 
ment of the image of God, namely, personality, materialism is excluded. 

This first element of the divine image man can never lose until he ceases to be man. 
Even insanity can only obscure this natural image,— it cannot destroy it. St. Bernard 
well said that it could not be burned out, even in hell. The lost piece of money ( Luke 
15 : 8) still bore the image and superscription of the Bang, even though it did not know 
it, and did not even know that it was lost. Human nature is therefore to be 
reverenced, and he who destroys human life is to be put to death: Gen. 9 : 6— "for in the 
image of God made he man" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 7 — "A man indeed ought not to have his head veiled, forasmuch as he is the 
image and glory of God" ; James 3 : 9 — even men whom we curse "are made after the likeness of God." 
Cf. Ps. 8 : 5 — "thou hast made him but little lower than God." Cicero : " Homo mortalis deus." This 
possession of personality involves boundless possibilities of good or ill, and it consti- 
tutes the natural foundation for the love for man as man which is required of us by 
the law. See Porter, Hum. Intellect, 393, 394, 401 ; Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 2 : 42 ; 
Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 343. 

2. Moral likeness to God, or holiness. 

In addition to the powers of self-consciousness and self-determination 
just mentioned, man was created with such a direction of the affections and 
the will, as constituted God the supreme end of man's being, and consti- 
tuted man a finite reflection of God's moral attributes. Since holiness is 
the fundamental attribute of God, this must of necessity be the chief 
attribute of his image in the moral beings whom he creates. That 
original righteousness was essential to this image, is also distinctly taught 
in Scripture (Eccl. 7 : 29; Eph. 4 : 24; Col. 3 : 10). 

Besides the possession of natural powers, the rmage of God involves the possession 
of right moral tendencies. It is not enough to say that man was created in a state of 
innocence. The Scripture asserts that man had a righteousness like God's : Eccl. 7 : 29 — 
"God made man upright" ; Eph. 4 : 24— "the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and 
holiness of truth"— here Meyer says: " Kara ©e6v, 'after God,' i. e., ad exemplum Dei, after the 
pattern of God (Gal. 4:28— Kara 'io-ai/c, 'after Isaac '= as Isaac was). This phrase 
makes the creation of the new man a parallel to that of our first parents, who were 
created after God's image ; they too, before sin came into existence through Adam, 
were sinless — 'in righteousness and holiness of the truth.' " 

Meyer refers also, as a parallel passage, to Col." 3 : 10 — " the new man, which is being renewed unto 



ESSENTIALS OF MAN'S ORIGINAL STATE. 263 

knowledge after the image of him that created him." Here the "knowledge " referred, to is that knowl- 
edge of God which is the source of all virtue, and which is inseparable from holiness of 
heart. " Holiness has two sides or phases : ( 1 ) it is perception and knowledge ; ( 2 ) it is 
inclination and feeling " ( Shedd, Dogm. TheoL, 2 : 97). On Eph. 4 : 24 and Col. 3 : 10, the 
classical passages with regard to man's original state, see also the Commentaries of 
DeWette, Ruckert, EUicott, and compare Gen. 5 : 3 — "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, 
and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image," i. e. in his own sinful likeness, which is evidently 
contrasted with the " likeness of God " ( verse 1 ) in which he himself had been created ( An. Par. 
Bible) ; 2 Cor. 4 : 4 — " Christ, who is the image of God"— where the phrase "image of God" is not sim- 
ply the natural, but also the moral, image. 

This original righteousness, in which the image of God chiefly consisted, 
is to be viewed : 

(a) Not as constituting the substance or essence of human nature, — for 
in this case human nature would have ceased to exist as soon as man sinned. 

Men every day change their tastes and loves, without changing the essence or sub- 
stance of their being. When sin is called a " nature," therefore ( as by Shedd, in his Essay 
on " Sin a Nature, and that Nature Guilt " ), it is only in the sense of being something 
inborn ( natura, from nascor ). Hereditary tastes may just as properly be denominated 
a " nature " as may the substance of one's being. Moehler, the greatest modern Roman 
Catholic critic of Protestant doctrine, in his Symbolism, 58, 59, absurdly holds Luther to 
have taught that by the Fall man lost his essential nature, and that another essence was 
substituted in its room. Luther, however, is only rhetorical when he says : " It is the 
nature of man to sin ; sin constitutes the essence of man ; the nature of man since the 
Fall has become quite changed ; original sin is that very thing which is born of father 
and mother ; the clay out of which we are formed is damnable ; the foetus in the mater- 
nal womb is sin ; man as born of his father and mother, together with his whole essence 
and nature, is not only a sinner but sin itself." 

( b ) Nor as a gift from without, foreign to human nature, and added to 
it after man's creation, — for man is said to have possessed the divine image 
by the fact of creation, and not by subsequent bestowal. 

As men, since Adam, are born with a sinful nature, that is, with tendencies away from 
God, so Adam was created with a holy nature, that is, with tendencies toward God. 
Moehler says: "God cannot give a man actions." We reply: "No, but God can give 
man dispositions ; and he does this at the first creation, as well as at the new creation 
(regeneration )." 

( c ) But rather, as an original direction or tendency of man's affections 
and will, still accompanied by the power of evil choice, and so, differing 
from the perfected holiness of the saints, as instinctive affection and child- 
like innocence differ from the holiness that has been developed and con- 
firmed by experience of temptation. 

Man's original righteousness was not immutable or indefectible ; there was still the 
possibility of sinning. Though the first man was fundamentally good, he still had the 
power of choosing evil. There was a bent of the affections and will toward God, but 
man was not yet confirmed in holiness. 

( d ) As a moral disposition, moreover, which was propagable to Adam's 
descendants, if it continued, and w r hich, though lost to him and to them, if 
Adam sinned, would still leave man possessed of a natural likeness to God 
which made him susceptible of God's redeeming grace. 

Hooker (Works, ed. Keble, 2 : 683) distinguishes between aptness and ableness. The 
latter, men have lost ; the former, they retain,— else grace could not work in us, more 
than in the brutes. Hase : " Only enough likeness to God remained to remind man of 
what he had lost, and to enable him to feel the hell of God's forsaking." The moral 
likeness to God can be restored, but only by God nimself . God secures this to men by 

making " the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God dawn upon them " ( 2 Cor. 4:4). 

See Edwards, Works, 2 : 19, 20, 381-390; 3 : 102, 103; Hopkins, Works, 1 : 162; Shedd, Hist. 
Doctrine, 2 : 50-66 ; Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 14 : 11. 



264 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

In the light of the preceding investigation, we may properly estimate two 
theories of man's original state which claim to be more Scriptural and 
reasonable : 

A. The image of God as including only personality. 

This theory denies that any positive determination to virtue inhered 
originally in man's nature, and regards man at the beginning as simply 
possessed of spiritual powers, perfectly adjusted to each other. This is the 
view of Schleiermacher, who is followed by Mtzsch, Julius Miiller, and 
Hofmann. 

For the view here combated, see Schleiermacher, Christl. Glaube, sec. 60; Nitzsch, 
System of Christian Doctrine, 201 ; Julius Miiller, Doct. of Sin, 2 : 115-133, 350-357 ; Hof- 
mann, Schriftbeweis, 1 : 287-291 ; Bib. Sac, 7 : 409-425. Julius Miiller's theory of the Fall 
in a preexistent state makes it impossible for him to hold here that Adam was possessed 
of moral likeness to God. The origin of his view of the image of God renders it liable 
to suspicion. Raymond ( Theology, 2 : 43, 132 ) is an American representative of the view 
that the image of God consists in mere personality : " The image of God in which man 
was created did not consist in an inclination and determination of the will to holiness." 
This is maintained upon the ground that such a moral likeness to God would have 
rendered it impossible for man to fall,— to which we reply that Adam's righteousness 
was not immutable, and the bias of his will toward God did not render it impossible for 
him to sin. Motives do not compel the will, and Adam at least had a certain power of 
contrary choice. 

In addition to what has already been said in support of the opposite view, 
we may urge against this theory the following objections : 

( a ) It is contrary to analogy, in making man the author of his own holi- 
ness ; our sinful condition is not the product of our individual wills, nor is 
our subsequent condition of holiness the product of anything but God's 
regenerating power. 

To hold that Adam was created undecided, would make man, as Philippi says, in the 
highest sense his own creator. But morally, as well as physically, man is God's crea- 
ture. In regeneration it is not sufficient for God to give power to decide for good ; God 
must give new love also. If this be so in the new creation, God could give love in the 
first creation also. Holiness therefore is creatable. " Underived holiness is possible 
only in God; in its origin, it is given both to angels and men." Therefore we pray: 
" Create in me a clean heart " ( Ps. 51 : 10 ) ; " Incline my heart unto thy testimonies " Ps. 119 : 36 See Edwards, 
Eft. Grace, sec. 43-51. 

(b) The knowledge of God in which man was originally created logically 
presupposes a direction toward God of man's affections and will, since only 
the holy heart can have any proper understanding of the God of holiness. 

Ubi caritas, ibi claritas. Man's heart was originally filled with divine love, and out of 
this came the knowledge of God. We know God only as we love him, and this love 
comes not from our own single volition. No one loves by command, because no one 
can give himself love. In Adam love was an inborn impulse, which he could affirm or 
deny. Compare 1 Cor. 8:3 — "If any man loveth God, the same [ God ] is known by him " ; 1 John 4:8 — "He 
that loveth not knoweth not God." See other Scripture references on page 3. 

( c ) A likeness to God in mere personality, such as Satan also possesses, 
comes far short of answering the demands of the Scripture, in which the 
ethical conception of the divine nature so overshadows the merely natural. 
The image of God must be, not simply ability to be like God, but actual 
likeness. 

God could never create an intelligent being evenly balanced between good and evil — 
" on the razor's edge " — " on the fence." The preacher who took for his text " Adam, where 
art thou ? " had for his first head : " It is every man's business to be somewhere." A simple 



ESSENTIALS OF MAN'S ORIGINAL STATE. 265 

capacity for good or evil is, as Augustine says, already sinful. A man who is neutral 
between good and evil is already a violator of that law, which requires likeness to God 
in the bent of his nature. Delitzsch, Bib. Psychol., 31 : 78-87 — " Personality is only the 
basis of the divine image,— it is not the image itself." Bledsoe says there can be no 
created virtue or viciousness. Whedon ( On the Will, 388 ) objects to this, and says 
rather : " There can be no created moral desert, good or evil. Adam's nature as created 
was pure and excellent, but there was nothing meritorious until he had freely and 
rightly exercised his will with full power to the contrary." We add : There was nothing 
meritorious even then. For substance of these objections, see Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 
2:346. 

B. The image of God as consisting simply in man's natural capacity for 
religion. 

This view, first elaborated by the scholastics, is the doctrine of the Roman 
Catholic Church. It distinguishes between the image and the likeness of 
God. The former ( □/>' — Gen. 1 : 26) alone belonged to man's nature at its 
creation. The latter (rUD'i) was the product of his own acts of obedience. 
In order that this obedience might be made easier and the consequent like- 
ness to God more sure, a third element was added — an element not belong- 
ing to man's nature — namely, a supernatural gift of special grace, which 
acted as a curb upon the sensuous impulses, and brought them under the 
control of reason. Original righteousness was therefore not a natural 
endowment, but a joint product of man's obedience and of God's super- 
natural grace. 

Many of the considerations already adduced apply equally as arguments 
against this view. We may say, however, with reference to certain features 
peculiar to the theory : 

(a) No such distinction can justly be drawn between the words D7¥ and 
rUD"!. The addition of the synonym simply strengthens the expression, and 
both together signify "the very image." 

( b ) Whatever is denoted by either or both of these words was bestowed 
upon man in and by the fact of creation, and the additional hypothesis of a 
supernatural gift not originally belonging to man's nature, but subsequently 
conferred, has no foundation either here or elsewhere in Scripture. Man is 
said to have been created in the image and likeness of God, not to have 
been afterwards endowed with either of them. 

(e) The concreated opposition between sense and reason which this 
theory supposes is inconsistent with the Scripture declaration that the work 
of God's hands "was very good" (Gen. 1 : 31), and transfers the blame of 
temptation and sin from man to God. To hold to a merely negative inno- 
cence, in which evil desire was only slumbering, is to make God author of 
sin by making him author of the constitution which rendered sin inevitable. 

(d) This theory directly contradicts Scripture by making the effect of 
the first sin to have been a weakening but not a perversion of human nature, 
and the work of regeneration to be not a renewal of the affections but merely 
a strengthening of the natural powers. The theory regards that first sin as 
simply despoiling man of a special gift of grace and as putting him where 
he was when first created — still able to obey God and to cooperate with God 
for his own salvation, — whereas the Scripture represents man since the Fall 
as "dead through .... trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), as incapable of 



266 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

true obedience (Bom. 8 : 7 — "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can it be " ), and as needing to be " created in Christ Jesus for good works " 
(Eph. 2:10). 

At few points in Christian doctrine do we see more clearly than here the large results 
of error which may ultimately spring from what might at first sight seem to he only a 
slight divergence from the truth. Augustine had rightly taught that in Adam the 
posse non peccare was accompanied by a posse peccare, and that for this reason man's 
holy disposition needed the help of divine grace to preserve its integrity. But the scho- 
lastics wrongly added that this original disposition to righteousness was not the outflow 
of man's nature as originally created, hut was the gift of grace. As this later teaching, 
however, was hy some disputed, the Council of Trent ( sess. 5, cap. 1 ) left the matter 
more indefinite, simply declaring man: "Sanctitatem et justitiam in qua constitutus 
fuerat, amisisse." The Roman Catechism, however (1:2:19), explained the phrase 
"constitutus fuerat" hy the words: "Turn originalis justitiae admirabile donum addv- 
dit." And Bellarmine ( De Gratia, 2 ) says plainly : " Imago, quae est ipsa natura mentis 
et voluntatis, a solo Deo fieri potuit; similitudo autem, quae in virtute et probitate 
consistit, a nobis quoque Deo adjuvante perficitur." .... (5) " Integritas ilia .... non 
fult naturalis ejus conditio, sed supernaturalis evectio .... Addidisse homini donum 
quoddam insigne, justitiam videlicet originalem, qua veluti aureo quodam frasno pars 
inferior parti superiori subjecta contineretur." 

Moehler (Symbolism, 21-35) holds that the religious faculty = the "image of God"; 
the pious exertion of this faculty = the " likeness of God." He seems to favor the view 
that Adam received " this supernatural gift of a holy and blessed communion with God 
at a later period than his creation, i. e., only when he had prepared himself for its 
reception and by his own efforts had rendered himself worthy of it." He was created 
"just" and acceptable to God, even without communion with God or help from God. 
He became " holy " and enjoyed communion with God, only when God rewarded his 
obedience and bestowed the supernaturale donum. Although Moehler favors this view 
and claims that it is permitted by the standards, he also says that it is not definitely 
taught. The quotations from Bellarmine and the Roman Catechism above make it clear 
that it is the prevailing doctrine of the Roman Catholic church. 

So, to quote the words of Shedd, " the Tridentine theology starts with Pelagianism 
and ends with Augustinianism. Created without character, God subsequently endows 

man with character The Papal idea of creation differs from the Augustinian in 

that it involves imperfection. There is a disease and languor which require a subse- 
quent and supernatural act to remedy." The Augustinian and Protestant conception of 
man's original state is far nobler than this. The ethical element is not a later addition, 
but is man's true nature — essential to God's idea of him. The normal and original con- 
dition of man {pura naturalia) is one of grace and of the Spirit's indwelling — hence, of 
direction toward God. 

From this original difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrine with 
regard to man's original state result diverging views as to sin and as to regeneration. 
The Protestant holds that, as man was possessed by creation of moral likeness to God, 
or holiness, so his sin robbed his nature of its integrity, deprived it of essential and 
concreated advantages and powers, and substituted for these a positive corruption and 
tendency to evil. Unpremeditated evil desire, or concupiscence, is original sin ; as con- 
created love for God constituted man's original righteousness. No man since the Fall 
has original righteousness, and it is man's sin that he has it not. Since without love to 
God no act, emotion, or thought of man can answer the demands of God's law, the 
Scripture denies to fallen man all power of himself to know, think, feel, or do aright. 
His nature therefore needs a new-creation, a resurrection from death, such as God only, 
by his mighty Spirit, can work ; and to this work of God man can contribute nothing, 
except as power is first given him by God himself. 

According to the Roman Catholic view, however, since the image of God in which 
man was created included only man's religious faculty, his sin can rob him only of 
what became subsequently and adventitiously his. Fallen man differs from unfallen 
only as spoliatus a nudo. He loses only a sort of magic spell, which leaves him still in 
possession of all his essential powers. Unpremeditated evil desire, or concupiscence, is 
not sin ; for this belonged to his nature even before he fell. His sin has therefore only 
put him back into the natural state of conflict and concupiscence, ordered by God in the 
concreated opposition of sense and reason. The sole qualification is this, that, having 
made an evil decision, his will is weakened. ""Man does not need resurrection from 



INCIDENTS OF MAN'S ORIGINAL STATE. 267 

death, but rather a crutch to help his lameness, a tonic to reinforce his feebleness, a 
medicine to cure his sickness." He is still able to turn to God : and in regeneration the 
Holy Spirit simply awakens and strengthens the natural ability slumbering in the natural 
man. But even here, man must yield to the influence of the Holy Spirit ; and regenera- 
tion is effected by uniting his power to the divine. In baptism the guilt of original sin is 
remitted, and everything called sin is taken away. No baptized person has any further 
process of regeneration to undergo. Man has not only strength to cooperate with God 
for his own salvation, but he may even go beyond the demands of the law and perform 
works of supererogation. And the whole sacramental system of the Roman Catholic 
Church, with its salvation by works, its purgatorial fires, and its invocation of the saints, 
connects itself logically with this erroneous theory of man's original state. 

See Dorner's Augustinus, 116 ; Perrone, Prselectiones Theologicae, 1 : 737-748 ; Winer, 
Confessions, 79, 80 ; Dorner, History Protestant Theology, 38, 39, and Glaubenslehre, 1 : 51 ; 
Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 376 Cunningham, Historical Theology, 1 : 516-586 ; Shedd, 
Hist. Doctrine, 2 : 140-149. 

LT. Incidents of Man's Oeiginal State. 

1. Results of man's possession of the divine image. 

(a) Reflection of this divine image in man's imysical form. — Even in 
man's body were typified those higher attributes which chiefly constituted 
his likeness to God. A gross perversion of this truth, however, is the view 
which holds, upon the ground of Gen. 2 : 7, and 3 : 8, that the image of God 
consists in bodily resemblance to the Creator. In the first of these passages, 
it is not the divine image, but the body, that is formed of dust, and into 
this body the soul that possesses the divine image is breathed. The second 
of these passages is to be interpreted by those other portions of the Pen- 
tateuch in which God is represented as free from all limitations of matter 
(Gen. 11:5; 18:15.) 

The spirit presents the divine image immediately ; the body, mediately. The scholas- 
tics called the soul the image of God pi^oprie ; the body they called the image of God 
significative. Soul is the direct reflection of God ; body is the reflection of that reflec- 
tion. The os sublime manifests the dignity of the endowments within. Hence the word 
'upright,' as applied to moral condition ; one of the first impulses of the renewed man 
is to physical purity. Compare Ovid, Metaph., bk. 1, Dryden's transl. : " Thus while the 
mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks 
aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies." ('AWfyumos, from avd, av<a, 
suffix tra, and ^, with reference to the upright posture.) 

Bretschneider ( Dogmatik, 1 : 682 ) regards the Scripture as teaching that the image of 
God consists in bodily resemblance to the Creator, but considers this as only the imper- 
fect method of representation belonging to an early age. So Strauss, Glaubenslehre, 
1 : 687. They refer to Gen. 2:7—" And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground " ; 3:8—" the Lord 
God walking in the garden." But see Gen. 11 : 5 — " And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the 
children of men builded " ; Is. 66 : 1 — " The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool " ; 1 K. 8 : 27 — "behold 
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." On the Anthropomorphites, see Hagenbach, 
Hist. Doct., 1 : 103, 308, 491. For answers to Bretschneider and Strauss, see Philippi, 
Glaubenslehre, 2 : 364. 

(6) Subjection of the sensuous impulses to the control of the spirit. — 
Here we are to hold a middle ground between two extremes. On the one 
hand, the first man possessed a body and a spirit so fitted to each other that 
no conflict was felt between their several claims. On the other hand, this 
physical perfection was not final and absolute, but relative and provisional. 
There was still room for progress to a higher state of being ( Gen. 3 : 22 ). 

Sir Henry Watton's Happy Life : " That man was free from servile bands Of hope to 
rise or fear to fall, Lord of himself if not of lands, And having nothing yet had all." 
Here we hold to the cequale temperamentum. There was no disease, but rather the joy 
of abounding health. Labor was only a happy activity. God's infinite creatorship and 



268 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

fountainhead of being was typified in man's powers of generation. But there was no 
concreated opposition of sense and reason, nor an imperfect physical nature with whose 
impulses reason was at war. With this moderate Scriptural doctrine, contrast the exag- 
gerations of the Fathers and of the scholastics. Augustine says that Adam's reason was 
to ours what the bird's is to that of the tortoise ; propagation in the unf alien state 
would have been without concupiscence, and the new-born child would have attained 
perfection at birth. Albertus Magnus thought the first man would have felt no pain, 
even though he had been stoned with heavy stones. Scotus Erigena held that the male 
and female elements were yet undistinguished. Others called sexuality the first sin. 
Jacob Boehme regarded the intestinal canal, and all connected with it, as the consequence 

of the Fall. South, Sermons, 1 : 24, 25— " Man came into the world a philosopher 

Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam." But the Scripture presents to us, on the 
contrary, a being as yet inexperienced ; see Gen. 3 : 22— "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to 
know good and evil." 

(c) Dominion over the lower creation. — Adam possessed an insight into 
nature analogous to that of susceptible childhood, and therefore was able 
to name and to rule the brute creation ( Gen. 2 : 19 ). Yet this native 
insight was capable of development into the higher knowledge of culture 
and science. From Gen. 1 : 26 ( cf. Ps. 8 : 5-8 ), it has been erroneously 
inferred that the image of God in man consists in dominion over the brute 
creation and the natural world. But, in this verse, the words "let them 
have dominion" do not define the image of God, but indicate the result 
of possessing that image. To make the image of God consist in this 
dominion, would imply that only the divine omnipotence was shadowed 
forth in man. 

Gen. 2 : 19 — " the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air ; and brought them unto the man 
to see what he would call them " ; 20 — " And the man gave names to all cattle " ; Gen. 1 : 26 — " Let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
the cattle " ; cf. Ps. 8 • 5-8 — " thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. 
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; Thou hast put all things under his feet : All sheep 
and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field." Adam's naming the animals implied insight into their 
nature; see Porter, Hum. Intellect, 393, 394, 401. On man's original dominion over 
(1) self, (2i nature, (3) fellow-man, see Hopkins, Scriptural Idea of Man, 105. 

Socinian writers generally hold the view that the image of God consisted simply in this 
dominion. Holding a low view of the nature of sin, they are naturally disinclined to 
believe that the Fall has wrought any profound change in human nature. See their view 
stated in the Racovian Catechism, 21. It is held also by the Arminian Limborch, Theol. 
Christ., ii, 24 : 2, 3, 11. Upon the basis of this interpretation of Scripture, the Encratites 
held, with Peter Martyr, that women do not possess the divine image at aD. 

(d ) Communion with God. — Our first parents enjoyed the divine presence 
and teaching (Gen. 2 : 16). It would seem that God manifested himself to 
them in visible form (Gen. 3:8). This companionship was both in kind 
and degree suited to their spiritual capacity, and by no means necessarily 
involved that perfected vision of God which is possible to beings of con- 
firmed and unchangeable holiness (Mat. 5:8; 1 John 3:2). 

Gen. 2 : 16 — ' And the Lord God commanded the man " ; 3:8—" And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in 
the garden in the cool of the day " ; Mat. 5 : 8 — " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God " ; 1 John 3 : 2 
— " We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him even as he is " ; Rev. 22 : 4 — 
"and they shall see his face." 

2. Concomitants of man's possession of the divine image. 

(a) Surroundings and society fitted to yield happiness and to assist a 
holy development of human nature (Eden and Eve). 
Eden = pleasure, delight. Tennyson : " When high in Paradise By the four rivers the 



INCIDENTS OF MAK'S ORIGINAL STATE. 269 

first roses blew." Streams were necessary to the very existence of an Oriental garden. 
Hopkins, Script. Idea of Man, 107— "Man includes woman. Creation of a man without 
a woman would not have been the creation of man. Adam called her name Eve, but God 
called their name Adam." Mat. Henry : " Not out of his head to top him, nor out of his 
feet to be trampled on by him ; but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to 
be protected by him, and near his heart to be beloved."— "The golden conception of a 
Paradise is the poet's guiding thought." There is a universal feeling that we are not 
now in our natural state ; that we are far away from home ; that we are exiles from our 
true habitation. Keble, Groans of Nature : " Such thoughts, the wreck of Paradise, 
Through many a dreary age, Upbore whate'er of good or wise Yet lived in bard or sage." 
Poetry and music echo the longing for some possession lost. Jessica, in Shakespeare's 
Merchant of Venice : " I am never merry when I hear sweet music." All true poetry is 
forward-looking or backward-looking prophecy, as sculpture sets before us the original 
or the resurrection body. See Isaac Taylor, Hebrew Poetry, 94-101 ; Tyler, Theol. of 
Greek Poets, 225, 226. 

Hegel claimed that the Paradisaic condition is only an ideal conception underlying 
human development. But may not the traditions of the gardens of Brahma and of the 
Hesperides embody the world's recollection of an historical fact, when man was free 
from external evil and possessed all that could minister to innocent joy ? The " golden 
age " of the heathen was connected with the hope of restoration. So the use of the doc- 
trine of man's original state is to convince men of the high ideal once realized, properly 
belonging to man, now lost, and recoverable, not by man's own powers, but only through 
God's provision in Christ. For references in classic writers to a golden age, see Lut- 
hardt, Compendium, 115. He mentions the following : Hesiod, vTorks and Days, 109-208 ; 
Aratus, Phenom., 100-184 ; Plato, Tim., 233 ; Vergil, Ec, 4, Georgics, 1 : 135, ^Eneid, 8 : 314. 

(6) Provisions for the trying of man's virtue. — Since man was not yet in 
a state of confirmed holiness, but rather of simple childlike innocence, he 
could be made perfect only through temptation. Hence the ' ' tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9). The one slight command best 
tested the spirit of obedience. Temptation did not necessitate a fall. If 
resisted, it would strengthen virtue. In that case, the posse non peecare 
would have become the non posse peecare. 

Thomasius : " That evil is a necessary transition-point to good, is Satan's doctrine and 
philosophy." The tree was mainly a tree of probation. It is right for a father to make 
his son's title to his estate depend upon the performance of some filial duty, as Thad- 
deus Stevens made his son's possession of property conditional upon his keeping the 
temperance-pledge. Whether, besides this, the tree of knowledge was naturally hurtful 
or poisonous, we do not know. 

( c ) Opportunity of securing physical immortality. — The body of the first 
man was in itself mortal (1 Cor. 15 : 44). Science shows that physical life 
involves decay and loss. But means were apparently provided for checking 
this decay and preserving the body's youth. This means was the "tree of 
life" (Gen. 2:9). If Adam had maintained his integrity, the body might 
have been developed and transfigured, without intervention of death. In 
other words, the posse non mori might have become a non posse mori. 

The tree of life was symbolic of communion with God and of man's dependence upon 
him. But this, only because it had a physical efficacy. It was sacramental and memorial 
to the soul, because it sustained the life of the body. Natural immortality without holi- 
ness would have been unending misery. Sinful man was therefore shut out from the 
tree of life, till he could be prepared for it by God's righteousness. Redemption and 
resurrection not only restore that which was lost, but give what man was originally 
created to attain : 1 Cor. 15 : 45 — "The first man Adam became a living soul. The last man Adam became a 
life-giving spirit"; Rev. 22 : 14 — "Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the 
tree of life." 

The conclusions we have thus reached with regard to the incidents of 
man's original state are combated upon two distinct grounds : 

1st. The facts bearing upon man's prehistoric condition point to a 



270 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

development from primitive savagery to civilization. Among these facts: 
may be mentioned the succession of implements and weapons from stone 
to bronze and iron ; the polyandry and communal marriage systems of the 
lowest tribes ; the relics of barbarous customs still prevailing among the 
most civilized. 

For the theory of an originally savage condition of man, see Sir John Lubbock, 
Prehistoric Times, and Origin of Civilization : " The primitive condition of mankind 
was one of utter barbarism " ; but especially L. H. Morgan, Ancient Society, who 
divides human progress into three great periods, the savage, the barbarian and the 
civilized. Each of the two former has three states, as follows : I. Savage : 1. Lowest 
state, marked by attainment of speech and subsistence upon roots. 2. Middle state, 
marked by fish-food and fire. 3. Upper state, marked by use of the bow and hunting. 
II. Barbarian : 1. Lower state, marked by invention and use of pottery. 2. Middle state, 
marked by use of domestic animals, maize, and building stone. 3. Upper state, marked 
by invention and use of iron tools. III. Civilized man next appears, with the introduc- 
tion of the phonetic alphabet and writing. 

With regard to this view we remark : 

(a) It is based upon an insufficient induction of facts. — History shows a 
law of degeneration supplementing and often counteracting the tendency 
to development. In the earliest times of which we have any record, we find 
nations in a high state of civilization ; but in the case of every nation whose 
history runs back of the Christian era — as for example, the Eomans, the 
Greeks, the Egyptians — the subsequent progress has been downward, and 
no nation is known to have recovered from barbarism except as the result 
of influence from without. 

Lubbock seems to admit that cannibalism was not primeval ; yet he shows a general 
tendency to take every brutal custom as a sample of man's first state. And this, in spite 
of the fact that many such customs have been the result of corruption. Bride-catching, 
for example, could not possibly have been primeval, in the strict sense of that term. 
Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1 : 48, presents a far more moderate view. He favors a theory 
of development, but with degeneration " as a secondary action largely and deeply affect- 
ing the development of civilization." So the Duke of Argyll, Unity of Nature : " Civil- 
ization and savagery are both the results of evolutionary development ; but the one is a 
development in the upward, the latter in the downward direction ; and for this reason, 
neither civilization nor savagery can rationally be looked upon as the primitive condi- 
tion of man." Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 1 : 467— "As plausible an argument might be con- 
structed out of the deterioration and degradation of some of the human family to prove 
that man may have evolved downward into an anthropoid ape, as that which has been 
constructed to prove that he has been evolved upward from one." 

Modern nations fall far short of the old Greek perception and expression of beauty. 
Modern Egyptians, Bushmen, Australians, are unquestionably degenerate races. See 
Lankester, Degeneration The same is true of Italians and Spaniards, as well as of 
Turks. Abyssinians are now polygamists, though their ancestors were Christians and 
monogamists. The physical degeneration of portions of the population of Ireland is 
well known. See Mivart, Lessons from Nature, 146-160, who applies to the savage-theory 
the tests of language, morals, and religion, and who quotes Herbert Spencer as saying : 
"Probably most of them [savages], if not ali of them, had ancestors in higher states, 
and among their beliefs remain some which were evolved during those higher states. 
.... It is quite possible, and I believe highly probable, that retrogression has been as 
frequent as progression." Spencer, however, denies that savagery is always caused by 
lapse from civilization. 

Bib. Sac, 6 : 715 ; 29 : 282—" Man as a moral being does not tend to rise but to fall, and 
that with a geometric progress, except he be elevated and sustained by some force from 
without and above himself. While man once civilized may advance, yet moral ideas 
are apparently never developed from within." Had savagery been man's primitive 
condition, he never could have emerged. See Whately, Origin of Civilization, who 
maintains that man needed not only a divine Creator, but a divine Instructor. Pres. 
J. H. Seelye, in A Century of Dishonor, 3— "The first missionaries to the Indians in 
Canada took with them skilled laborers to teach the savages how to till their fields, to 



INCIDENTS OF MAN'S ORIGINAL STATE. 271 

provide them with comfortable homes, clothing, and food. But the Indians preferred 
their wigwams, skins, raw flesh, and filth. Only as Christian influences taught the 
Indian his inner need, and how this was to be supplied, was he led to wish and work for 
the improvement of his outward condition and habits. Civilization does not reproduce 
itself. It must first be kindled, and it can then be kept alive only by a power genuinely 
Christian." So Wallace, in Nature, Sept. 7, 1876, vol. 14 : 408-413. 

(6) Later investigations have rendered it probable that the stone age 
of some localities was contemporaneous with the bronze and iron ages of 
others, while certain tribes and nations, instead of making progress from 
one to the other, were never, so far back as we can trace them, without the 
knowledge and use of the metals. It is to be observed, moreover, that 
even without such knowledge and use man is not necessarily a barbarian, 
though he may be a child. 

On the question whether the arts of civilrzation can be lost, see Arthur Mitchell, Past 
and Present, 301 : Rude art is often the debasement of a higher, instead of being the 
earlier ; the rudest art in a nation may coe'xist with the highest ; cave-life may accom- 
pany high civilization. Illustrations from modern Scotland, where burial of a cock for 
epilepsy, and sacrifice of a bull, were until very recently extant. Certain arts have 
unquestionably been lost, as glass-making and iron- working in Assyria (see Mivart, 
referred to above). The most ancient men do not appear to have been inferior to the 
latest, either physically or intellectually. Rawlinson : " The explorers who have dug 
deep into the Mesopotamian mounds, and have ransacked the tombs of Egypt, have 
come upon no certain traces of savage man in those regions which a wide-spread tradi- 
tion makes the cradle of the human race." The Tyrolese peasants show that a rude 
people may be moral, and a very simple people may be highly intelligent. See Southall, 
Recent Origin of Man, 386-449 ; SchUemann, Troy and her Remains, 274. 

(<-•) The barbarous customs to which this view looks for support mav 
better be explained as marks of broken-down civilization than as relics of a 
primitive and universal savagery. Even if they indicated a former state of 
barbarism, that state might have been itself preceded by a condition of 
comparative culture. 

Mark Hopkins, in Princeton Rev., Sept., 1882 : 194— "There is no cruel treatment of 
females among animals. If man came from the lower animals, then he cannot have 
been originally savage ; for you find the most of this cruel treatment among savages." 
Tylor instances "street Arabs." He compares street Arabs to a ruined house, but 
savage tribes to a builder's yard. See Duke of Argyll, Primeval Man, 129, 133 ; Bushnell, 
Nature and the Supernatural, 223 ; McLennan, Studies in Ancient History. 

(d) The well-nigh universal tradition of a golden age of virtue and hap- 
piness may be most easily explained upon the Scripture view of an actual 
creation of the race in holiness and its subsequent apostasy. 

For references in classic writers to a golden age, see Luthardt, Compendium der 
Dogmatik, 115. 

2nd. That the religious history of mankind warrants us in inferring a 
necessary and universal law of progress, in accordance with which man 
passes from fetichism to polytheism and monotheism, — this first theologi- 
cal stage, of which fetichism, polytheism, and monotheism are parts, being- 
succeeded by the metaphysical stage, and that in turn by the positive. 

This theory is propounded by Comte, in his Positive Philosophy, English transl., 25, 
26, 515-636. 

This assumed law of progress, however, is contradicted by the following 
facts: 

(a) Not only did the monotheism of the Hebrews precede the great 



272 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

polytheistic systems of antiquity, but even these heathen religions are 
purer from polytheistic elements, the further back we trace them ; so that 
the facts point to an original monotheistic basis for them all. 

On the evidences of an original monotheism, see Max MUller, Chips, 1 : 337 ; Rawlin- 
son, in Present Day Tracts, 2 : no. 11 ; Legge, Religions of China, 8, 11 ; Diestel, in Jahr- 
buch f iir deutsche Theologie, 1860, and vol. 5 : 669 ; Philip Smith, Anc. Hist, of East, 
65, 195 ; Warren, on the Earliest Creed of Mankind, in the Meth. Quar. Rev., Jan., 1884. 

(b) "There is no proof that the Indo- Germanic or Semitic stocks ever 
practiced fetich worship, or were ever enslaved by the lowest types of myth- 
ological religion, or ascended from them to somewhat higher" (Fisher). 

See Fisher, Essays on Supernat. Origin of Christianity, 545 ; Bartlett, Sources of His- 
tory in the Pentateuch, 36-115. 

( c ) Some of the earliest remains of man yet found show, by the burial 
of food and weapons with the dead, that there already existed the idea of 
spiritual beings and of a future state, and therefore a religion of a higher 
sort than f etichism. 

Idolatry proper regards the idol as the symbol and representative of a spiritual being 
who exists apart from the material object, though he manifests himself through it. 
Fetichism, however, identifies the divinity with the material thing, and worships the 
stock or stone ; spirit is not conceived of as existing apart from body. Belief in spirit- 
ual beings and a future state is therefore proof of a religion higher in kind than 
fetichism. See Lyell, Antiquity of Man, quoted in Dawson, Story of Earth and Man, 
384; see also 368, 372, 386— "Man's capacities for degradation are commensurate with 
his capacities for improvement" (Dawson). Lyell, in his last edition, however, admits 
the evidence from the Aurignac cave to be doubtful. See art. by Dawkins, in Nature, 
4:208. 

(d) The theory in question, in making theological thought a merely 
transient stage of mental evolution, ignores the fact that religion has its 
root in the intuitions and yearnings of the human soul, and that therefore 
no philosophical or scientific progress can ever abolish it. While the terms 
theological, metaphysical, and positive may properly mark the order in 
which the ideas of the individual and the race are acquired, positivism errs 
in holding that these three phases of thought are mutually exclusive, and 
that upon the rise of the later the earlier must of necessity become extinct. 

John Stuart Mill suggests that "personifying" would be a much better term than 
"theological" to designate the earliest efforts to explain physical phenomena. On the 
fundamental principles of Positivism, see New Englander, 1873 : 323-386 ; Diman, The- 
istic Argument, 338— "Three coexistent states are here confounded with three succes- 
sive stages of human thought; three aspects of things with three epochs of time. 
Theology, metaphysics, and science must always exist side by side, for all positive 
science rests on metaphysical principles, and theology lies behind both. All are as per- 
manent as human reason itself." Martineau, Types, 1 : 487 — " Comte sets up mediaeval 
Christianity as the typical example of evolved monotheism, and develops it out of the 
Greek and Roman polytheism which it overthrew and dissipated. But the religion of 
modern Europe notoriously does not descend from the same source as its civilization 
and is no continuation of the ancient culture,"— it comes rather from Hebrew sources ; 
Essays, Philos. and Theol., 1 : 24, 62— "The Jews were always a disobliging people: what 
business had they to be up so early in the morning, disturbing the house ever so long 
before M. Comte's bell rang to prayers ? " See also Gillett, God in Human Thought, 
1:17-23; Rawlinson, in Journ. Christ. Philos., April, 1883:353; Nineteenth Century, 
Oct., 1886 : 473-490. 



CHAPTER III. 
SIN, OR MAN'S STATE OF APOSTASY. 



SECTION I. — THE LAW OF GOD. 

As preliminary to a treatment of man's state of apostasy, it becomes 
necessary to consider the nature of that law of God, the transgression of 
which is sin. We may best approach the subject by inquiring what is the 
true conception of 

I. Law in General. 

The essential idea of law is that of a general expression of will enforced 
by power. It implies : ( a ) A lawgiver, or authoritative will. ( b ) Sub- 
jects, or beings upon whom this will terminates. ( c ) A general command, 
or expression of this will, (d) A power, enforcing the command. 

These elements are found even in what we call natural law. The phrase 
'law of nature' involves a self-contradiction, when used to denote a mode 
of action or an order of sequence behind which there is conceived to be no 
intelligent and ordaining will. Physics derives the term 'law' from juris- 
prudence, instead of jurisprudence deriving it from physics. It is first 
used of the relations of voluntary agents. Causation in our own wills 
enables us to see something besides mere antecedence and consequence in 
the world about us. Physical science, in her very use of the word ' law, ' 
implicitly confesses that a supreme Will has set general rules which control 
the processes of the universe. 

Wayland, Moral Science, 1, unwisely defines law as " a mode of existence or order of 
sequence," thus leaving out of his definition all reference to an ordaining will. He 
subsequently says that law presupposes an establishes but in his definition there is 
nothing to indicate this. "We insist, on the other hand, that the term * law ' itself 
includes the idea of force and cause. The word 'law' is from 'lay' (German legen),= 
something laid down ; German Gexetz, from setzen,= something set or established ; Greek 
vo/u.05, from re>a>,= something assigned or apportioned; Latin lex, from lego,= something 
said or spoken. 

All these derivations show that man's original conception of law is that of something 
proceeding from volition. Lewes, in his Problems of Life and Mind, says that the term 
'law ' is so suggestive of a giver and impresser of law, that it ought to be dropped, and 
the word ' method ' substituted. The merit of Austin's treatment of the subject is that 
he " rigorously limits the term ' law ' to the commands of a superior " ; see John Austin, 
Province of Jurisprudence, 1 : 88-93, 220-223. The defects of his treatment we shall note 
further on. 

J. S. Mill : "It is the custom, wherever they [scientific men] can trace regularity of 
anj- kind, to call the general proposition which expresses the nature of that regularity, 
a law ; as when in mathematics we speak of the law of the successive terms of a con- 
verging series. But the expression ' law of nature ' is generally employed by scientific 
men with a sort of tacit reference to the original sense of the word 'law,' namelj r , the 
18 273 



274 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

expression of the will of a superior — the superior in this case being the Ruler of the 
universe." Paley, Nat. Theology, chap. 1 — "It is a perversion of language to assign 
any law as the efficient operative cause of anything. A law presupposes an agent ; this 
is only the mode according to which an agent proceeds ; it implies a power, for it is the 
order according to which that power acts. Without this agent, without this power, 
which are both distinct from itself, the law does nothing." Quis custodiet ipsos cus- 
todes ? " Rules do not fulfill themselves, any more than a statute-book can quell a riot " 

— Martineau, Types, 1 : 367. 

The characteristic of law is generality. It is addressed to substances or 
persons in classes. Special legislation is contrary to the true theory of law. 

— It is, moreover, essential to the existence of law, that there be power to 
enforce. Otherwise law becomes the expression of mere wish or advice. 
Since physical substances and forces have no intelligence and no power to 
resist, the four elements already mentioned exhaust the implications of the 
term 'law' as applied to nature. In the case of rational and free agents, 
however, law implies in addition : ( e ) Duty or obligation to obey ; and 
(/) Sanctions, or pains and penalties for disobedience. 

The order of an absolute despot, that an enemy be beheaded, is not properly a law. 
Amos, Science of Law, 33, 34— "Law eminently deals in general rules." It knows not 
persons or personality. It must apply to more than one case. "The characteristic of 
law is generality, as that of morality is individual application." Special legislation is 
the bane of good government ; it does not properly fall within the province of the law- 
making power; it savors of the caprice of despotism, which gives commands to each 
subject at will. Hence our more advanced political constitutions check lobby influence 
and bribery, by prohibiting special legislation in all cases where general laws already 
exist. 

" Law that has no penalty is not law but advice, and the government in which inflic- 
tion does not follow transgression is the reign of rogues or demons." On the question 
whether any of the punishments of civil law are legal sanctions, except the punishment 
of death, see N. W. Taylor, Moral Gov't, 2 : 367-387. 

Rewards are motives, but they are not sanctions. Since public opinion 
may be conceived of as inflicting penalties for violation of her will, we 
speak figuratively of the laws of society, of fashion, of etiquette, of honor. 
Only so far as the community of nations can and does by sanctions compel 
obedience, can we with propriety assert the existence of international law. 

But the will which thus binds its subjects by commands and penalties is 
an expression of the nature of the governing power, and reveals the normal 
relations of the subjects to that power. Finally, therefore, law (g) Is an 
expression of the nature of the lawgiver ; and (/i) Sets forth the condition 
or conduct in the subjects which is requisite for harmony with that nature. 
Any so-called law which fails to represent the nature of the governing 
power soon becomes obsolete. All law that is permanent is a transcript of 
the facts of being, a discovery of what is and must be, in order to harmony 
between the governing and the governed ; in short, positive law is just and 
lasting only as it is an expression and republication of the law of nature. 

Diman, Theistic Argument, 106, 107 : John Austin, although he " rigorously limited 
the term law to the commands of a superior," yet " rejected Ulpian's explanation of the 
law of nature, and ridiculed as fustian the celebrated description in Hooker." This we 
conceive to be the radical defect of Austin's conception. The Will from which natural 
law proceeds is conceived of after a deistic fashion, instead of being immanent in the 
universe. Lightwood, in his Nature of Positive Law, 78-90, criticizes Austin's definition 
of law as command, and substitutes the idea of law as custom. Sir Henry Maine's 
Ancient Law has shown us that the early village communities had customs which only 
gradually took form as definite laws. But we reply that custom is not the ultimate 
source of anything. Repeated acts of will are necessary to constitute custom. The first 



THE LAW OF GOD IX PARTICULAR. 275 

customs are due to the commanding will of the father in the patriarchal family. So 
Austin's definition is justified. Collective morals (mores) come from individual duty 
( clue ) ; law originates in will ; Martineau, Types, 2 : 18, 19. Behind this will, however, 
is something- which Austin does not take account of, namely, the nature of things as 
constituted by God, as revealing the universal Eeason, and as furnishing the standard 
to which all positive law, if it would be permanent, must conform. 

See Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, book 1, sec. 14— "Laws are the necessary relations 

arising from the nature of things There is a primitive Eeason, and laws are the 

relations subsisting between it and different beings, and the relations of these to one 

another These rules are a fixed and invariable relation Particular intelligent 

beings may have laws of their own making, but they have some likewise that they 

never made To say that there is nothing just or unjust but what is commanded 

or forbidden by positive laws, is the same as saying that before the describing of a circle 
all the radii were not equal. "We must therefore acknowledge relations antecedent to 
the positive law by which they were established." Kant, Metaphysic of Ethics, 169-172— 
" By the science of law is meant the systematic knowledge of the principles of the law of 
nature — from which positive law takes its rise — which is forever the same, and carries 
its sure and unchanging obligations over all nations and throughout all ages." 

It is true even of a despot's law, that it reveals his nature, and shows what is requisite 
in the subject to constitute him in harmony with that nature. A law which does not 
represent the nature of things, or the real relations of the governor and the governed, 
has only a nominal existence, and cannot be permanent. On the definition and nature 
of law, see also Pomeroy, in Johnson's Encyclopaedia, art. : Law ; Ahrens, Cours de 
Droit Naturel, book 1, sec. 14 ; Lorimer, Institutes of Law, 256, who quotes from Burke : 
"All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory. They may alter the mode 
and application, but have no power over the substance of original justice " ; Lord Bacon : 
"Regula enim legem (ut acus nautica polos) indicat, non statuit." Duke of Argyll, 
Eeign of Law, 64 ; H. C. Carey, Unity of Law. 

II. The Law of God in Particular. 

The law of God is a general expression of the divine -will enforced by 
power. It has two forms : Elemental Law and Positive Enactment. 

1. Elemental Law, or law inwrought into the elements, substances, and 
forces of the rational and irrational creation. This is twofold : 

A. The expression of the divine will in the constitution of the material 
universe ; — this we call physical, or natural law. Physical law is not neces- 
sary. Another order of things is conceivable. Physical order is not an end 
in itself ; it exists for the sake of moral order. Physical order has there- 
fore only a relative constancy, and God supplements it at times by miracle. 
Augustine: "Dei voluntas rerum natura est." Joseph Cook: "The laws of nature 
are the habits of God." But Campbell, Atonement, Introd., xxvi, says there is this 
difference between the laws of the moral universe and those of the phj^sical, namely, 
that we do not trace the existence of the former to an act of will, as we do the latter. 
" To say that God has given existence to goodness, as he has to the laws of nature, would 
be equivalent to saying that he has given existence to himself." Pepper, Outlines of 
Syst. Theol., 91 — " Moral law, unlike natural law, is a standard of action to be adopted 
or rejected in the exercise of rational freedom, i. e., of moral agency." See also Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 1 : 531. 

Mark Hopkins, in Princeton Rev., Sept., 1882 : 190—" In moral law there is enforcement 
by punishment only — never by power, for this would confound moral law with physical, 
and obedience can never be produced or secured by power. In physical law, on the 
contrary, enforcement is wholly by power, and punishment is impossible. So far as man 
is free, he is not subject to law at all, in its physical sense. Our wills are free from law, 
as enforced by power; but are free under law, as enforced by punishment. Where law 
prevails in the same sense as in the material world, there can be no freedom. Law does 
not prevail when we reach the region of choice. We hold to a power in the mind of man 
originating a free choice. Two objects or courses of action, between which choice is to 
be made, are presupposed: (1) A uniformity or set of uniformities implying a force 
by which the uniformity is produced [physical or natural law]; (2) A command. 



276 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

addressed to free and intelligent beings, that can be obeyed or disobeyed, and that has 
connected with it rewards or punishments " [ moral law ]. See also Wm. Arthur, Differ- 
ence between Physical and Moral Law. 

B. The expression of the divine will in the constitution of rational and 
free agents; — this we call moral law. This elemental law of our moral 
nature, with which only we are now concerned, has all the characteristics 
mentioned as belonging to law in general. It implies : (a) A divine Law- 
giver, or ordaining Will. (6) Subjects, or moral beings upon whom the 
law terminates, (c) General command, or expression of this will in the 
moral constitution of the subjects, (d) Power, enforcing the command, 
(e) Duty, or obligation to obey. (/) Sanctions, or pains and penalties for 
disobedience. 

All these are of a loftier sort than are found in human law. But we need 
especially to emphasize the fact that this law ( g ) Is an expression of the 
moral nature of God, and therefore of God's holiness, the fundamental 
attribute of that nature ; and that it (h) Sets forth absolute conformity to 
that holiness, as the normal condition of man. This law is inwrought into 
man's rational and moral being. Man fulfills it, only when in his moral as 
well as his rational being he is the image of God. 

Although the will from which the moral law springs is an expression of the nature of 
God, and a necessary expression of that nature in view of the existence of moral beings, 
it is none the less a personal will. "We should be careful not to attribute to law a per- 
sonality of its own. When Plutarch says : " Law is king both of mortal and of immor- 
tal beings," and when we say: "The law will take hold of you," "The criminal is in 
danger of the law," we are simply substituting the name of the agent for that of the 
principal. God is not subject to law ; God is the source of law ; and we may say : " If 
Jehovah be God, worship him ; but if Law, worship it." 

Since moral law merely reflects God, it is not a thing made. Men discover laws, but 
they do not make them, any more than the chemist makes the laws by which the ele- 
ments combine. Instance the solidification of hydrogen at Geneva. Utility does not 
constitute law, although we test law by utility ; see Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 
53-71. The true nature of the moral law is set forth in the noble though rhetorical 
description of Hooker (Eccl. Pol., 1 : 194)— "Of law there can be no less acknowledged 
than that her seat is in the bosom of God ; her voice the harmony of the world ; all 
things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the 
greatest as not exempted from her power ; both angels and men, and creatures of what 
condition soever, though each in a different sort and manner, yet all with uniform con- 
sent admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." See also Martineau, Types, 
2 : 119, and Study, 1 : 35. 

The law of God, then, is simply an expression of the nature of God in the 
form of moral requirement, and a necessary expression of that nature in 
view of the existence of moral beings (Ps. 19 : 7; cf. 1). To the existence 
of this law all men bear witness. The consciences even of the heathen tes- 
tify to it (Bom. 2 : 14, 15). Those who have the written law recognize this 
elemental law as of greater compass and penetration (Bom. 7 : 14; 8:4). 
The perfect embodiment and fulfillment of this law is seen only in Christ 
(Bom. 10:4; Phil. 3:8, 9). 

Ps. 19 : 7 — " The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul " ; cf. verse 1 — " The heavens declare the glory of God " 
= two revelations of God — one in nature, the other in the moral law. Rom. 2 : 14, 15 — "For 
when Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto 
themselves ; in that they shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, 
and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them" — here the "work of the law"=, not the 
ten commandments, for of these the heathen were ignorant, but rather the work corre- 
sponding to them, i. e., the substance of them. Rom. 7 : 14 — " For we know that the law is spiritual " — 
this, says Meyer, is equivalent to saying "its essence is divine, of like nature Avith the 



THE LAAV OF GOD IX PARTICULAR 277 

Holy Spirit who gave it, a holy self -revelation of God." Rom. 8:4—" that the ordinance of the law 
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, hut after the Spirit " ; 10 : 4 — " For Christ is the end of the law 
unto righteousness to every one that believeth " ; Phil. 3 : 9— "that I may gain Christ, and he found in him, not having 
a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness 
which is of God by faith"; Heb. 10 : 9— "Lo, I am come to do thy will." In Christ "the law appears 
Drawn out in living- characters." Just such as he was and is, we feel that we ought to 
be. Hence the character of Christ convicts us of sin, as does no other manifestation of 
God. See, on the passages from Romans, the Commentary of Philippi. 

Fleming, Vocab. Philos., 286— "Moral laws are derived from the nature and will of 
God, and the character and condition of man." God's nature is reflected in the laws of 
our nature. Since law is inwrought into man's nature, man is a law unto himself. To 
conform to his own nature, in which conscience is supreme, is to conform to the nature 
of God. The law is only the revelation of the constitutive principles of being, the decla- 
ration of what must be, so long as man is man and God is God. It says in effect : " Be 
like God, or you cannot be truly man." So moral law is not simply a test of obedience, 
but is also a revelation of eternal reality. Man cannot be lost to God, without being lost 
to himself. "The 'hands of the living God' (leb. 10 : 31) into which we fall, are the laws of 
nature." In the spiritual world "the same wheels revolve, only there is no iron" 
( Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 27 ). Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 2 : 
82-92—" The totality of created being is to be in harmony with God and with itself. The 
idea of this harmony, as active in God under the form of will, is God's law." A manu- 
script of the IT. S. Constitution was so written that when held at a little distance the 
shading of the letters and their position showed the countenance of George Washington. 
So the law of God is only God's face disclosed to human sight. For fuller treatment of 
the subject, see Bowen, Metaph. and Ethics, 321-344 ; Talbot, Ethical Prolegomena, in 
Bap. Quar., July, 1877 : 257-274 ; Whewell, Elements of Morality, 2 : 35 ; and especially 
E. G. Robinson, Principles and Practice of Morality, 79-108. 

Each of the two last- mentioned characteristics of God's law is important 
in its implications. We treat of these in their order. 

First, the law of God as a transcript of the divine nature. — If this be the 
nature of the law, then certain common misconceptions of it are excluded. 
The law of God is 

( a ) Not arbitrary, or the product of arbitrary will. Since the will from 
which the law springs is a revelation of God's nature, there can be no rash- 
ness or unwisdom in the law itself. 

( b ) Not temporary, or ordained simply to meet an exigency. The law 
is a manifestation, not of temporary moods or desires, but of the essential 
nature of God. 

(c) Not merely negative, or a law of mere prohibition, — since positive 
conformity to God is the inmost requisition of law. 

(d) Not partial, or addressed to one part only of man's being, — since 
likeness to God requires purity of substance in man's soul and body, as well 
as purity in all the thoughts and acts that proceed therefrom. As law pro- 
ceeds from the nature of God, so it requires conformity to that nature in 
the nature of man. 

(e) Not outwardly published, — since all positive enactment is only the 
imperfect expression of this underlying and unwritten law of being. 

(/) Not inwardly conscious, or limited in its scope by men's conscious- 
ness of it. Like the laws of our physical being, the moral law exists 
whether we recognize it or not. 

{g) Not local, or confined to place, — since no moral creature can escape 
from God, from his own being, or from the natural necessity that unlike- 
ness to God should involve misery and ruin. 

( // ) Not changeable, or capable of modification. Since law represents 
the unchangeable nature of God, it is not a sliding-scale of requirements 



278 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN". 

which adapts itself to the ability of the subjects. God himself cannot 
change it without ceasing to be God. 

The law, then, has a deeper foundation than that God merely "said so." God's word 
and God's will are revelations of his inmost being ; every transgression of the law is a 
stab at the heart of God. 

The obligation to obey this law and to be conformed to God's perfect moral character 
is based upon man's original ability and the gifts which God bestowed upon him at the 
beginning. Created in the image of God, it is man's duty to render back to God that 
which God first gave, enlarged and improved by growth and culture ( Luke 19 : 23 — " where- 
fore gavest thou not my money into the bank, and I at my coming should have required it with interest" ). This 
obligation is not impaired by sin and the weakening of man's powers. To let down the 
standard would be to misrepresent God. Adolphe Monod would not save himself from 
shame and remorse by lowering the claims of the law : " Save first the holy law of my 
God," he says, " after that you shall save me ! " 

Even salvation is not through violation of law The moral law is immutable, because 
it is a transcript of the nature of the immutable God. Shall nature conform to me, or I 
to nature ? If I attempt to resist even physical laws, I am crushed. I can use nature 
only by obeying her laws. Lord Bacon : " Natura enim non nisi parendo vincitur." So 
in the moral realm. "We cannot buy off nor escape the moral law of God. God will not, 
and God cannot, change his law by one hair's breadth, even to save a universe of sinners. 
Martineau, Types, 2 : 120. 

Secondly, the law of God as the ideal of human nature. — A law thus 
identical with the eternal and necessary relations of the creature to the 
Creator, and demanding of the creature nothing less than perfect holiness, 
as the condition of harmony with the infinite holiness of God, is adapted 
to man's finite nature, as needing law ; to man's free nature, as needing 
moral law ; and to man's progressive nature, as needing ideal law. 

Man, as finite, needs law, just as railway cars need a track to guide them — to leap the 
track is to find, not freedom, but ruin. Railway President : " Our rules are written in 
blood." "In vain shall spirits that are all unbound To the pure heights of perfectness 
aspire ; In limitation first the Master shines, And law alone can give us liberty."— Man, 
as a free being, needs moral law. He is not an automaton, a creature of necessity, gov- 
erned only by physical influences. With conscience to command the right, and will to 
choose or reject it, his true dignity and calling are that he should freely realize the right. 
—Man, as a progressive being, needs nothing less than an ideal and infinite standard of 
attainment, a goal which he can never overpass, an end which shall ever attract and 
urge him forward. This he finds in the holiness of God. 

The law of God is therefore characterized by : 

(a) All-comprehensiveness. — It is over us at all times; it respects our 
past, our present, our future. It forbids every conceivable sin ; it requires 
every conceivable virtue ; omissions as well as commissions are condemned 
by it. 

Ps. 119 : 96 — "I have seen an end of all perfection .... thy commandment is exceeding broad" ; Rom. 3 : 23 — 
"all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" ; James 4 : 17— "To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and 
doeth it not, to him it is sin." 

(6) Spirituality. — It demands not only right acts and words, but also 
right dispositions and states. Perfect obedience requires not only the 
intense and unremitting reign of love toward God and man, but conformity 
of the whole inward and outward nature of man to the holiness of God. 

Mat. 5 : 22, 28 — the angry word is murder ; the sinful look is adultery. Mark 12 : 30, 31 — " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength 
.... Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" ; 2 Cor. 10 : 5— "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience 
of Christ" ; Eph. 5 : 1 — "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children " ; 1 Pet. 1 : 16 — " Ye shall be holy ; for 
I am holy." As the brightest electric light, seen through a smoked glass against the sun, 
appears like a black spot, so the brightest unregenerate character compared with the 
holiness of God. 



THE LAW OF GOD IK PARTICULAR. 279 

(r) Solidarity. — It exhibits in all its parts the nature of the one Law- 
giver, and it expresses, in its least command, the one requirement of har- 
mony -with him. 

Mat. 5 : 48 — "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect " ; Mark 12 : 29, 30 — " The Lord our 
God, the Lord is one : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God " ; James 2 : 10 — "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, 
and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all " ; 4 : 12 — " One only is the lawgiver and judge." 

Only to the first man, then, was the law proposed as a method of salva- 
tion. With the first sin, all hope of attaining the divine favor by perfect 
obedience is lost. To sinners, the law remains as a means of discovering 
and developing sin in its true nature, and of compelling a recourse to the 
mercy provided in Jesus Christ. 

Rom. 3 : 20 — " by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight : for through the law cometh the knowl- 
edge of sin " ; 5 : 20 — " the law came in beside, that the trespass might abound " ; 7 : 7, 8 — " I had not known sin, 
except through the law : for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet : but sin, finding 
occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting : for apart from the law, sin is dead " ; 
10 : 4 — "Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth" ; Gal. 3 : 24 — "So that the law 
hath been our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." 

No man ever yet drew a straight line or a perfect curve ; yet he would be a poor archi- 
tect who contented himself with anything 1 less. Since men never come up to their 
ideals, he who aims to live only an average moral life will inevitably fall below the 
average. The law, then, leads to Christ. He who is the ideal is also the way to attain 
the ideal. He who is himself the Word and the Law embodied, is also the Spirit of life 
that makes- obedience possible to us (John 14 : 6 — "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" ; Rom. 
8:2 — "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death "). Mrs. Brown- 
ing, Aurora Leigh : " The Christ himself had been no Lawgiver, Unless he had given the 
Life too with the Law." 

Law, then, with its picture of spotless innocence, simply reminds man of the heights 
from which he has fallen. "It is a mirror which reveals derangement, but does not 
create or remove it." With its demand of absolute perfection, up to the measure of 
man's original endowments and possibilities, it drives us, in despair of ourselves, to 
Christ as our only righteousness and our only Savior ( Rom. 8:3 — "For what the law could not do 
in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned 
sin in the flesh : that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit " ; Phil. 3:9 — " that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that 
which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith ' ' ). Thus 
law must prepare the way for grace, and John the Baptist must precede Christ. See 
Fairbairn, Revelation of Law and Scripture ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 187-043 ; Hovey, 
God with Us, 187-210 ; Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 45-50 ; Murphy, Scientific Bases 
of Faith, 52-71 ; Martineau, Types, 2 : 120-125. 

2. Positive Enactment, or the expression of the will of God in published 
ordinances. This is also twofold : 

A. General moral precepts. — These are written summaries of the elemen- 
tal law (Mat. 5 : 48 ; 22 : 37-40), or authorized applications of it to special 
human conditions (Ex. 20 : 1-17 ; Mat. chap. 5-8). 

Mat. 5 : 48— "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; 22 : 37-40— "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God ... . thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law ? 
and the prophets"; Ex. 20:1-17 — the Ten Commandments; Mat. chap. 5-8 — the Sermon on the 
Mount. Cf. Augustine, on Ps. 57 : 1. 

Solly, On the Will, 162, gives two illustrations of the fact that positive precepts are 
merely applications of elemental law or the law of nature : " ' Thou sltalt not steal,' is a 
moral law which may be stated thus : thou shalt not take that for thy own property, wh ich 
is the property of another. The contradictory of this proposition would be : thou mayest 
take that for thy own property which is the property of another. But this is a contradic- 
tion in terms ; for it is the very conception of property, that the owner stands in a 
peculiar relation to its subject-matter ; and what is every man's property is no man's 
property, as it is proper to no man. Hence the contradictory of the commandment con- 
tains a simple contradiction directly it is made a rule universal ; and the commandment 
itself is established as one of the principles for the harmony of individual wills." 



280 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

" ' Thou shalt not tell a lie,' as a rule of morality, may be expressed generahy : thou 
shalt not by thy outward act make another to believe thy thought to be other than it is. The 
contradictory made universal is : every man may by his outward act make another to 
believe his thought to be other than it is. Now this maxim also contains a contradiction, 
and is self -destructive. It conveys a permission to do that which is rendered impossible 
by the permission itself. Absolute and universal indifference to truth, or the entire 
mutual independence of the thought and symbol, makes the symbol cease to be a sym- 
bol, and the conveyance of thought by its means, an impossibility." 

Kant, Metaphysic of Ethics, 48, 90— "Fundamental law of reason: So act, that thy 
maxims of will might become laws in a system of universal moral legislation." This is 
Kant's categorical imperative. He expresses it in yet another form : "Act from maxims 
fit to be regarded as universal laws of nature." For expositions of the Decalogue which 
bring out its spiritual meaning, see Kurtz, Religionslehre, 9-72; Dick, Theology, 2 : 513- 
554 ; Dwight, Theology, 3 : 163-560 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 3 : 259-465. 

B. Ceremonial or special injunctions. — These are illustrations of the 
elemental law, or approximate revelations of it, suited to lower degrees of 
capacity and to earlier stages of spiritual training ( Ez. 20 : 25 ; Mat. 19 : 8 ; 
Mark 10 : 5). Though temporary, only God can say when they cease to be 
binding upon us in their outward form. 

All positive enactments, therefore, whether they be moral or ceremonial, 
are republications of elemental law. Their forms may change, but the sub- 
stance is eternal. Certain modes of expression, like the Mosaic system, 
may be abolished, but the essential demands are unchanging (Mat. 5 : 17, 
18 ; cf. Eph. 2 : 15). From the imperfection of human language, no posi- 
tive enactments are able to express in themselves the whole content and 
meaning of the elemental law. "It is not the purpose of revelation to 
disclose the whole of our duties." Scripture is not a complete code of rules 
for practical action, but an enunciation of principles, with occasional pre- 
cepts by way of illustration. Hence we must supplement the positive enact- 
ment by the law of being — the moral ideal found in the nature of God. 

Ez. 20 : 25 — " Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments wherein they should not live " ; 
Mat. 19 : 8 — " Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your wives " ; Mark 10 : 5 — " For your hard- 
ness of heart he wrote you this commandment" ; Mat. 5 : 17, 18 — "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the 
prophets : I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or 
one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished " ; cf. Eph. 2 : 15 — "having abol- 
ished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances." 

The written law was imperfect because God could, at the time, give no higher to an 
unenlightened people. " But to say that the scope and design were imperfectly moral, is 
contradicted by the whole course of the history. We must ask what is the moral stand- 
ard in which this course of education issues." And this we find in the life and precepts 
of Christ. Even the law of repentance and faith does not take the place of the old law 
of being, but applies the latter to the special conditions of sin. Under the Levitical 
law, the prohibition of the touching of the dry bone (Num. 19 :16), equally with the 
purifications and sacrifices, the separations and penalties of the Mosaic code, expressed 
God's holiness and his repelling from him all that savored of sin or death. The laws 
with regard to leprosy were symbolic, as well as sanitary. So church polity and the 
ordinances are not arbitrary requirements, but they publish to dull sense-environed 
consciences, better than abstract propositions could have done, the fundamental truths 
of the Christian scheme. Hence they are not to be abrogated " till he come " ( i Cor. 11 : 26 ). 

The Puritans, however, in reenacting the Mosaic code, made the mistake of confound- 
ing the eternal law of God with a partial, temporary, and obsolete expression of it. 
So we are not to rest in external precepts respecting women's hair and dress and speech, 
but to find the underlying principle of modesty and subordination which alone is of 
universal and eternal validity. Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book, 1 : 255—" God 
breathes, not speaks, his verdicts, felt not heard — Passed on successively to each court, 
I call Man's conscience, custom, manners, all that make More and more effort to pro- 
mulgate, mark God's verdict in determinable words, Till last come human jurists — 
solidify Fluid results,— what 's fixable lies forged, Statute,— the residue escapes in fume, 



RELATION OF THE LAW TO THE GEACE OF GOD. 281 

Yet hangs aloft a cloud, as palpable To the finer sense as word the legist welds. Jus- 
tinian's Pandects only make precise What simply sparkled in men's eyes before, 
Twitched in their brow or quivered on their Up, Waited the speech they called, but 
would not come." See Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, 104; Tulloch, Doctrine of 
Sin, 141-144; Finney, Syst. Theol.. 1-40, 135-319; Mansel, Metaphysics, 378, 379; H. B. 
Smith, System of Theology, 191-195. 

UT. Relation of the Law to the Geace of God. 

In human government, while law is an expression of the will of the 
governing power, and so of the nature lying behind the will, it is by no 
means an exhaustive expression of that will and nature, since it consists 
only of general ordinances, and leaves room for particular acts of command 
through the executive, as well as for "the institution of equity, the faculty 
of discretionary punishment, and the prerogative of pardon." 

Amos, Science of Law, 29-46, shows how "the institution of equity, the faculty of 
discretionary punishment, and the prerogative of pardon " all involve expressions of 
will above and beyond what is contained in mere statute. 

Applying now to the divine law this illustration drawn from human law, 
we remark : 

(a) The law of God is a general expression of God's will, applicable to 
all moral beings. It therefore does not exclude the possibility of special 
injunctions to individuals, and special acts of wisdom and power in creation 
and providence. The very specialty of these latter expressions of will 
prevents us from classing them under the category of law. 

Lord Bacon, Confession of Faith : " The soul of man was not produced by heaven or 
earth, but was breathed immediately from God ; so the ways and dealings of God with 
spirixs are not included in nature, that is, in the laws of heaven and earth, but are 
reserved to the law of his secret will and grace." 

(b) The law of God, accordingly, is a partial, not an exhaustive, 
expression of God's nature. It constitutes, indeed, a manifestation of that 
attribute of holiness which is fundamental in God, and which man must 
possess in order to be in harmony with God. But it does not fully exjxress 
God's nature in its aspects of personality, sovereignty, helpfulness, mercy. 

The chief error of all pantheistic theology is the assumption that law is an exhaustive 
expression of God : Strauss, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 31 — "If nature, as the self-realization of 
the divine essence, is equal to this divine essence, then it is infinite, and there can be 
nothing above and beyond it." This is a denial of the transcendence of God (see notes 
on Pantheism, pages 55-57 ). Mere law is illustrated by the Buddhist proverb : " As the 
cartwheel follows the tread of the ox, so punishment follows sin." Denovan : " Apart 
from Christ, even if we have never yet broken the law, it is only by steady and perfect 
obedience for the entire future that we can remain justified. If we have sinned, we 
can be justified [ without Christ ] only by suffering and exhausting the whole penalty of 
the law." 

(c) Mere law, therefore, leaves God's nature in these aspects of person- 
ality, sovereignty, helpfulness, mercy, to be expressed toward siuners in 
another way, namely through the atoning, regenerating, pardoning, sancti- 
fying work of the gospel of Christ. As creation does not exclude miracles, 
so law does not exclude grace (Rom. 8 : 3 — "what the law could not do 
. . . . God" did). 

Murphy, Scientific Bases, 303-327, esp. 315— "To impersonal law, it is indifferent 
whether its subjects obey or not. But God desires, not the punishment, but the 



282 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

destruction, of sin." Campbell, Atonement, Introd., 28— "There are two regions of 
the divine self -manifestation, one the reign of law, the other the kingdom of God." 
C. H.M. : " Law is the transcript of the mind of God as to what man ought to be. But 
God is not merely law, but love. There is more in his heart than could be wrapped up in 
the 'ten words.' Not the law, but only Christ, is the perfect image of God" (John 1 : 17 
—"For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" ). So there is more in man's 
heart toward God than exact fulfillment of requirement. The mother who sacrifices 
herself for her sick child does it, not because she must, but because she loves. To say 
that we are saved by grace, is to say that we are saved both without merit on our own 
part, and without necessity on the part of God. Grace is made known in proclama- 
tion, offer, command ; but in all these it is gospel, or glad-tidings. 

(d) Grace is to be regarded, however, not as abrogating law, but as 
republishing and enforcing it (Rom. 3 : 31 — "we establish the law"). By 
removing obstacles to pardon in the mind of God, and by enabling man to 
obey, grace secures the perfect fulfillment of law (Rom. 8 : 4 — "that the 
ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us"). Even grace has its law 
(Rom. 8 :2 — "the law of the Spirit of life"); another higher law of 
grace, the operation of individualizing mercy, overbears the "law of sin 
and of death," — this last, as in the case of the miracle, not being sus- 
pended, annulled, or violated, but being merged in, while it is transcended 
by, the exertion of personal divine will. 

Hooker, Eccl. Polity, 1 : 155, 185, 194— "Man, having utterly disabled his nature unto 
those [ natural ] means, hath had other revealed by God, and hath received from heaven 
a law to teach him how that which is desired naturally, must now be supernaturally 
attained. Finally, we see that, because those latter exclude not the former as unneces- 
sary, therefore the law of grace teaches and includes natural duties also, such as are 
hard to ascertain by the law of nature." The truth is midway between the Pelagian 
view, that there is no obstacle to the forgiveness of sins, and the modern rationalistic 
view, that since law fully expresses God, there can be no forgiveness of sins at all. 
Greg, Creed of Christendom, 2 : 217-228— "God is the only being who cannot forgive 

sins Punishment is not the execution of a sentence, but the occurrence of an 

effect." Robertson, Lect. on Genesis, 127 — " Deeds are irrevocable,— their consequences 
are knit up with them irrevocably." So Baden Powell, Law and Gospel, in Noyes' 
Theological Essays, 27. All this is true if God be regarded as merely the source of law. 
But there is such a thing as grace, and grace is more than law. There is no forgiveness 
in nature, but grace is above and beyond nature. 

( e ) Thus the revelation of grace, while it takes up and includes in itself 
the revelation of law, adds something different in kind, namely, the mani- 
festation of the personal love of the Lawgiver. Without grace, law has 
only a demanding aspect. Only in connection with grace does it become 
"the perfect law, the law of liberty" (James 1 : 25). In fine, grace is 
that larger and completer manifestation of the divine nature, of which law 
constitutes the necessary but preparatory stage. 

Law reveals God's love and mercy, but only in their mandatory aspect : it requires 
in men conformity to the love and mercy of God; and as love and mercy in God are 
conditioned by holiness, so law requires that love and mercy should be conditioned 
by holiness in men. Law is therefore chiefly a revelation of holiness : it is in grace that 
we find the chief revelation of love ; though even love does not save by ignoring holi- 
ness, but rather by vicariously satisfying its demands. Robert Browning, Saul: "I 
spoke as I saw. I report as man may of God's work— All 's Love, yet all 's Law." 

Dorner, Person of Christ, 1 : 64, 78— "The law was a word (Aoyos), but it was not a 
Aoyos reAeios, a plastic word, like the words of God that brought forth the world, for it 
was only imperative, and there was no reality nor willing corresponding to the com- 
mand (dem SoUen fehlte das Seyn, dasWollen). The Christian Aoyos is Aoyos a\r)deias — 
1/oju.os reAeios -7% eAev#eptas — an operative and effective word, as that of creation." See 
Burton, in Bap. Rev., July, 1879 : 261-273, art. : Law and Divine Intervention ; Farrar, 
Science and Theology, 184 ; Salmon, Reign of Law ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 31. 



DEFINITION OF SIX. 283 

SECTION II. — NATURE OF SIN". 

I. Definition of Sin. 

Sin is lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposi- 
tion, or state. 

In explanation, we remark that (a) This definition regards sin as pred- 
icable only of rational and voluntary agents. (6) It assumes, however, 
that man has a rational nature below consciousness, and a voluntary nature 
apart from actual volition. ( c ) It holds that the divine law requires moral 
likeness to God in the affections and tendencies of the nature, as well as in 
its outward activities. ( d ) It therefore considers lack of conformity to the 
divine holiness in disposition or state as a violation of law, equally with the 
outward act of transgression. 

In our discussion of the "Will ( pages 357-260 ), we noticed that there were permanent 
states of the will, as well as of the intellect and of the sensibilities. It is evident, more- 
over, that these permanent states, unlike man's deliberate acts, are always very imper- 
fectly conscious, and in many cases are not conscious at all. Yet it is in these very 
states that man is most unlike God, and so, as law only reflects God ( see pages 276-279 ), 
most lacking in conformity to God's law. 

One main difference between Old School and New School views of sin is that the latter 
constantly tends to limit sin to mere act, while the former finds sin in the states of the 
soul. "We propose what we think to be a valid and proper compromise between the two. 
We make sin coextensive, not with act, but with activity. The Old School and the New 
School are not so far apart, when we remember that the New School " choice " is elective 
preference, exercised so soon as the child is born ( Park ) and reasserting itself in all 
the subordinate choices of life; while the Old School "state" is not a dead, passive, 
mechanical thing, but is a state of active movement, or of tendency to move, toward evil. 
As God's holiness is not passive purity but purity willing ( page 129), so the opposite to 
this, sin, is not passive impurity, but is impurity willing. 

The soul may not always be conscious, but it may always be active. At his creation 
man "became a living soul " (Gen. 2:7), and it may be doubted whether the human spirit ever 
ceases its activity, any more than the divine Spirit in whose image it is made. There is 
some reason to believe that even in the deepest sleep the body rests rather than the 
mind. And when we consider how large a portion of our activity is automatic and con- 
tinuous, we see the impossibility of limiting the term ' sin ' to the sphere of momentary 
act, whether conscious or unconscious. 

On unconscious mental action, see Carpenter, Mental Physiology, 139, 515-543 ; Porter, 
Human Intellect, 333, 334 ; versus Sir "Wm. Hamilton, who adopts the maxim : " Non 
sentimus, nisi sentiamus nos sentire" (Philosophy, ed. Wight, 171). Observe also that 
sin may infect the body, as well as the soul, and may bring it into a state of non- 
conformity to God's law (see H. B. Smith, Syst. TheoL, 267). 

1. Proof. 

As it is readily admitted that the outward act of transgression is properly 
denominated sin, we here attempt to show only that lack of conformity to the 
law of God in disposition or state is also and equally to be so denominated. 

A. From Scripture. 

(a) The words ordinarily translated 'sin,' or used as synonyms for it, 
are as applicable to dispositions and states as to acts (HNttn and dfj,apria = 
a missing, failure, coming short [sc. of God's will]). 

See Num. 15 : 28— "sinneth unwittingly"; Ps. 51 : 2— "cleanse me from my sin" ; 5— "Behold, I was shapen in 
iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me" ; Rom. 7 : 17 — "sin which dwelleth in me" ; compare Judges 
20 : 16, where the literal meaning of the word appears: "sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not 
miss" ( Xtpn )• In a similar manner, y\&0 [ lxx. a<re'/3e<.a ]=- separation from, rebellion 



284 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

against [sc. God] ; see Lev. 16 : 16, 21 ; cf. Delitzsch on Ps. 32 : 1. py [lxx. a8uaa] = bending-,, 
perversion [ sc. of what is right ], iniquity ; see Lev. 5:17; cf. JohiT? : 18. So also the Hebrew 

JH, yW~), [ = ruin, confusion], and the Greek airoaTaaia, eTridujai'a, ex#P a > «<""«, woi>ijpia, 

o-dp£. None of these designations of sin limit it to mere act, — most of them more 
naturally suggest disposition or state. 'Aixapria implies that man in sin does not reach 
what he seeks therein ; sin is a state of delusion and deception ( Julius Miiller ). On 
the words mentioned, see Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms ; Cremer, Lexicon N. T. Greek ; 
Present Day Tracts, 5 : no. 28, pp. 43-47 ; Trench, N. T. Synonyms, part 2 : 61, 73. 

( b ) The New Testament descriptions of sin bring more distinctly to view 
the states and dispositions than the outward acts of the soul (1 John 3:4 — 
■f] djuaprla eariv rj avo/nia, where avojuia =, not "transgression of the law," but, 
as both context and etymology show, "lack of conformity to law "or " law- 
lessness" — Eev. Vers.). 

See 1 John 5 : 17 — "All unrighteousness is sin " ; Rom. 14 : 23 — " whatsoever is not of faith is sin " ; James 4 : 17 
— "To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Where the sin is that of 
not doing, sin cannot be said to consist in act. It must then at least be a state. 

(c) Moral evil is ascribed not only to the thoughts and affections, but to 
the heart from which they spring (we read of the "evil thoughts" and of 
the " evil heart "— Mat. 15 : 19 and Heb. 3 : 12 ). 

See also Mat. 5 : 22— anger in the heart is murder; 28 — impure desire is adultery. Luke 
6 : 45— "the evil man out of the evil treasure [ of his heart] bringeth forth that which is evil." Heb. 3 : 12 — 
"an evil heart of unbelief" ; cf. Is. 1 : 5 — "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint" ; Jer. 17 : 9 — "The 
heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick: who can know it?" — here the sin that cannot 
be known is not sin of act, but sin of the heart. 

( d ) The state or condition of the soul which gives rise to wrong desires 
and acts is expressly called sin ( Eom. 7 : 8 — "Sin . . . wrought in me .... 
all manner of coveting "). 

John 8 : 34 — "Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin" ; Rom. 7 : 11, 13, 14, 17, 20 — "sin .... 
beguiled me ... . working death to me .... I am carnal, sold under sin ... . sin which dwelleth in me." These 
representations of sin as a principle or state of the soul are incompatible with the defi- 
nition of it as a mere act. 

(e) Sin is represented as existing in the soul, prior to the consciousness 
of it, and as only discovered and awakened by the law (Eom. 7:9, 10 — 
"when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" — if sin "revived," 
it must have had previous existence and life, even though it did not mani- 
fest itself in acts of conscious transgression). 

Rom. 7 : 8 — "apart from the law sin was dead" — here is sin which is not yet sin of act. Dead or 
unconscious sin is still sin. The fire in a cave discovers reptiles and stirs them, but they 
were there before ; the light and heat do not create them. Let a beam of light, says 
Jean Paul Richter, through your window-shutter into a darkened room, and you reveal 
a thousand motes floating in the air whose existence was before unsuspected. So the 
law of God reveals our "hidden faults" (Ps. 19 : 12) — infirmities, imperfections, evil tenden- 
cies and desires — which cannot all be classed as acts of transgression. 

(/) The allusions to sin as a permanent power or reigning principle, not 
only in the individual but in humanity at large, forbid us to define it as a 
momentary act, and compel us to regard it as being primarily a settled 
depravity of nature, of which individual sins or acts of transgression are 
the workings and fruits (Rom. 5 : 21 — "sin reigned in death"; 6 : 12 — 
" let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body "). 

In Rom. 5 : 21, the reign of sin is compared to the reign of grace. As grace is not an act 
but a principle, so sin is not an act but a principle. As the poisonous exhalations from 
a well indicate that there is corruption and death at the bottom, so the ever-recurring 



DEFINITION" OF SIN. 285 

thoughts and acts of sin are evidence that there is a principle of sin in the heart,— in 
other words, that sin exists as a permanent disposition or state. A momentary act 
cannot " reign " nor " dwell " ; a disposition or state can. 

(g) The Mosaic sacrifices for sins of ignorance and of omission, and 
especially for general sinfulness, are evidence that sin is not to be limited 
to mere act, but that it includes something deeper and more permanent in 
the heart and the life (Lev. 1 : 3 ; cf. Luke 2 : 24). 

The sin-offering for sins of ignorance (Lev. 4 : 14, 20, 31), the trespass-offering for sins of 
omission (Lev. 5 : 5, 6), and the burnt-offering to expiate general sinfulness (Lev. 1 : 3; cf. 
Luke 2 .- 22-24 ), all witness that sin is not confined to mere act. See Oehler, O. T. Theology, 
1:233; Schmid, Bib. Theol. N. T., 194, 381, 442, 448, 492, 604; Philippi, G-laubenslehre, 
3 : 210-217 ; Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 259-306 ; Edwards, Works, 3 : 16-18. For the 
New School definition of sin, see Fitch, Nature of Sin, and Park, in Bib. Sac, 7 : 551. 

B. From the common judgment of mankind. 

(a) Men universally attribute vice as well as virtue not only to conscious 
and deliberate acts, but also to dispositions and states. Belief in some- 
thing more permanently evil than acts of transgression is indicated in the 
common phrases, " hateful temper, " " wicked pride, " "bad character." 

As the beatitudes (Mat. 5 : 1-12) are pronounced, not upon acts, but upon dispositions of 
the soul, so the curses of the law are uttered not so much against single acts of trans- 
gression as against the evil affections from which they spring. Compare the " works of 
the flesh " (Gal. 5 : 19) with the "fruit of the Spirit" (5 : 22). In both, dispositions and states pre- 
dominate. 

( b ) Outward acts, indeed, are condemned only when they are regarded 
as originating in, and as symptomatic of, evil dispositions. Civil law pro- 
ceeds upon this principle in holding crime to consist, not alone in the 
external act, but also in the evil motive or intent with which it is per- 
formed. 

The mens rea is essential to the idea of crime. The "idle word" (Mat. 12 : 36) shall be 
brought into the judgment, not because it is so important in itself, but because it is a 
floating straw that indicates the direction of the whole current of the heart and life. 
Murder differs from homicide, not in any outward respect, but simply because of the 
motive that prompts it,— and that motive is always, in the last analysis, an evil dispo- 
sition or state. 

(c) The stronger an evil disposition, or in other words, the more it 
connects itself with, or resolves itself into, a settled state or condition of 
the soul, the more blameworthy is it felt to be. This is shown by the 
distinction drawn between crimes of passion and crimes of deliberation. 

Edwards : " Guilt consists in having one's heart wrong, and in doing wrong from the 
heart." There is guilt in evil desires, even when the will combats them. But there is 
greater guilt when the will consents. The outward act may be in each case the same, 
but the guilt of it is proportioned to the extent to which the evil disposition is settled 
and strong. 

(d) This condemning sentence remains the same, even although the 
origin of the evil disposition or state cannot be traced back to any conscious 
act of the individual. Neither the general sense of mankind, nor the 
civil law in which this general sense is expressed, goes behind the fact of 
an existing evil will. Whether this evil will is the result of personal trans- 
gression, or is a hereditary bias derived from generations past, this evil 
will is the man himself, and upon him terminates the blame. We do not 
excuse arrogance or sensuality upon the ground that they are family traits. 



286 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

The young murderer in Boston was not excused upon the ground of a congenitally 
cruel disposition. We repent in later years of sins of boyhood, which we only now see 
to be sins ; and converted cannibals repent, after becoming Christians, of the sins of 
heathendom which they once committed without a thought of their wickedness. 

(e) When any evil disposition has such strength in itself, or is so com- 
bined with others, as to indicate a settled moral corruption in which no 
power to do good remains, this state is regarded with the deepest disappro- 
bation of all. Sin weakens man's power of obedience, but the can-not is a 
will-not, and is therefore condemnable. The opposite principle would lead 
to the conclusion that, the more a man weakened Lis powers by transgres- 
sion, the less guilty he would be, until absolute depravity became absolute 
innocence. 

The boy who hates his father cannot change his hatred into love by a single act of 
will; but he is not therefore innocent. Spontaneous and uncontrollable profanity is 
the worst profanity of all. It is a sign that the whole will, like a subterranean Ken- 
tucky river, is moving away from God, and that no recuperative power is left in 
the soul which can reach into the depths to reverse its course. See Dorner, Glaubens- 
lehre, 2 : 110-114 ; Shedd, Hist. Doct., 2 : 79-92, 152-157 ; Richards, Lectures on Theology, 
256-301 ; Edwards, Works, 2 : 134 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 243-262 ; Princeton Essays, 
2 : 224-239 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 394. 

C. From the experience of the Christian. 

Christian experience is a testing of Scripture truth, and therefore is not 
an independent source of knowledge. It may, however, corroborate con- 
clusions drawn from the word of God. Since the judgment of the Christian 
is formed under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we may trust this more 
implicitly than the general sense of the world. We affirm, then, that just in 
proportion to his spiritual enlightenment and self-knowledge, the Christian 

(a) Regards his outward deviations from God's law T , and his evil inclina- 
tions and desires, as outgrowths and revelations of a depravity of nature 
which lies below his consciousness ; and 

( b ) Repents more deeply for this depravity of nature, which constitutes 
his inmost character and is inseparable from himself, than for what he 
merely feels or does. 

In proof of these statements we appeal to the biographies and writings 
of those in all ages who have been by general consent regarded as most 
advanced in spiritual culture and discernment. 

" Intelligentia prima est, ut te noris peccatorem." Compare David's experience, Ps. 
51 : 6 — " Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts : And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom " 
— with Paul's experience in Rom. 7 : 24 — " wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me out of the body 
of this death?"— with Isaiah's experience (6:5), when in the presence of God's glory he 
uses the words of the leper (Lev. 13 : 45) and calls himself "unclean," and with Peter's experi- 
ence ( Luke 5:8), when at the manifestation of Christ's miraculous power " he fell down at 
Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, Lord." So the publican cries : "God be merci- 
ful to me the sinner " ( Luke 18 : 13 ), and Paul calls himself the " chief" of sinners ( 1 Tim. 1 : 15 ). It 
is evident that in none of these cases were there merely single acts of transgression in 
view ; the humiliation and self -abhorrence were in view of permanent states of deprav- 
ity. Van Oosterzee: "What we do outwardly is only the revelation of our inner 
nature." The outcropping and visible rock is but small in extent compared with the 
rock that is underlying and invisible. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any repent- 
ance is genuine which is not repentance for sin rather than for sins ; compare John 16 : 8 
— the Holy Spirit "will convict the world in respect of sin." 

Martensen, Dogmatics, 389 : Luther during his early experience " often wrote to Stau- 
pitz : 4 Oh, my sins, my sins ! ' and yet in the confessional he could name no sins in par- 
ticular which he had to confess ; so that it was clearly a sense of the general depravity 



DEFINITION OF SIN. 287 

of his nature which filled his soul with deep sorrow and pain." Luther's conscience 
would not accept the comfort that he wished to be without sin, and therefore had no 
real sin. When he thought himself too great a sinner to be saved, Staupitz replied : 
11 Would you have the semblance of a sinner, and the semblance of a Savior?" 

After twenty years of religious experience, Jonathan Edwards wrote ( Works, 1 : 22, 
23 ; also 3 : 16-18 ) : " Often since I have lived in this town I have had very affecting views 
of my own sinfulness and vileness, very frequently to such a degree as to hold me in a 
kind of loud weeping, sometimes for a considerable time together, so that I have been 
often obliged to shut myself up. I have had a vastly greater sense of my own wicked- 
ness and the badness of my heart than ever I had before my conversion. It has often 
appeared to me that if God should mark iniquity against me, I should appear the very 
worst of all mankind, of all that have been since the beginning of the world to this 
time ; and that I should have by far the lowest place in hell. When others that have 
come to talk with me about their soul's concerns have expressed the sense they have 
had of their own wickedness, by saying that it seemed to them they were as bad as the 
devil himself ; I thought their expressions seemed exceeding faint and feeble to repre- 
sent my wickedness." 

Edwards continues : " My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me per- 
fectly ineffable and swallowing up all thought and imagination — like an infinite deluge, 
or mountains over my head. I know not how to express better what my sins appear to 
me to be, than by heaping infinite on infinite and multiplying infinite by infinite. Very 
often for these many years, these expressions are in my mind and in my mouth : ' Infinite 
upon infinite — infinite upon infinite ! ' When I look into my heart and take a view of 
my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell. And it appears to me 
that were it not for free grace, exalted and raised up to the infinite height of all the 
fullness and glory of the great Jehovah, and the arm of his power and grace stretched 
forth in all the majesty of his power and in all the glory of his sovereignty, I should 
appear sunk down in my sins below hell itself, far beyond the sight of everything but 
the eye of sovereign grace that can pierce even down to such a depth. And yet it seems 
to me that my conviction of sin is exceeding small and faint ; it is enough to amaze me 
that I have no more sense of my sin. I know certainly that I have very little sense of 
my sinfulness. When I have had turns of weeping for my sins, I thought I knew at the 
time that my repentance was nothing to my sin .... It is affecting to think how igno- 
rant I was, when a young Christian, of the bottomless, infinite depths of wickedness, 
pride, hypocrisy, and deceit left in my heart." 

Jonathan Edwards was not an ungodly man, but the holiest man of his time. He was 
not an enthusiast, but a man of acute, philosophic mind. He was not a man who 
indulged in exaggerated or random statements, for with his powers of introspection 
and analysis he combined a faculty and habit of exact expression unsurpassed among 
the sons of men. If the maxim "cuique in arte sua credendum est" is of any value, 
Edwards's statements in a matter of religious experience are to be taken as correct inter- 
pretations of the facts. H. B. Smith ( System. Theol., 275 ) quotes Thomasius as saying : 
"It is a striking fact in Scripture that statements of the depth and power of sin are 
chiefly from the regenerate." Another has said that " a serpent is never seen at its whole 
length until it is dead." Thomas a Kempis ( ed. Gould and Lincoln, 142 ) — " Do not think 
that thou hast made any progress toward perfection, till thou feelest that thou art less 
than the least of all human beings." 

Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life : " You may justly condemn yourself 
for being the greatest sinner that you know, 1. Because you know more of the folly 
of your own heart than of other people's, and can charge yourself with various sins 
which you know only of yourself and cannot be sure that others are guilty of them. 
2. The greatness of our guilt arises from the greatness of God's goodness to us. You 
know more of these aggravations of your sins than you 'do of the sins of other people. 
Hence the greatest saints have in all ages condemned themselves as the greatest sin- 
ners." We may add : 3. That, since each man is a peculiar being, each man is guilty of 
peculiar sins, and in certain particulars and aspects may constitute an example of the 
enormity and hatefulness of sin, such as neither earth nor hell can elsewhere show. 

Of Cromwell, as a representative of the Puritans, Green says ( Short History of the 
English People, 454 ) : " The vivid sense of the divine Purity close to such men, made the 
life of common men seem sin." Dr. Arnold of Rugby ( Life and Corresp., App. D. ) : " In 
a deep sense of moral evil, more perhaps than anything else, abides a saving knowledge 
of God." Augustine, on his death-bed, had the 32nd Psalm written over against him on 
the wall. For his expressions with regard to sin, see his Confessions, book 10. See also 
Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 284, note. 



288 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

2. Inferences. 

In the light of the preceding discussion, we may properly estimate the 
elements of truth and of error in the common definition of sin as ' the vol- 
untary transgression of known law. ' 

(a) Not all sin is voluntary as being a distinct and conscious volition ; 
for evil disposition and state often precede and occasion evil volition, and 
evil disposition and state are themselves sin. All sin, however, is voluntary 
as springing either directly from will, or indirectly from those perverse 
affections and desires which have themselves originated in will. * Voluntary ' 
is a term broader than ' volitional, ' and includes all those permanent states 
of intellect and affection which the will has made what they are. Will, 
moreover, is not to be regarded as simply the faculty of volitions, but as 
primarily the underlying determination of the being to a supreme end. 

Will, as we have seen, includes preference ( dikrina, voluntas, Wille ) as well as volition 
(Pov\ri, arbitrium, Willktir). We do not, with Edwards and Hodge, regard the sensi- 
bilities as states of the will. They are, however, in their character and their objects 
determined by the will, and so they may be called voluntary. The permanent state of 
the will ( New School "elective preference " ) is to be distinguished from the permanent 
states of the sensibilities ( dispositions, or desires ). But both are voluntary because 
both are due to past decisions of the will, and " whatever springs from will we are 
responsible for " ( Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 243 ). Julius Muller, 2 : 51 — " We speak 
of self -consciousness and reason as something which the ego has, but we identify the 
will with the ego. No one would say, ' my will has decided this or that,' although we do 
say ' my reason, my conscience teaches me this or that.' The will is the very man him- 
self, as Augustine says : ' Voluntas est in omnibus ; imo omnes nihil aliud quam volun- 
tatessunt.'" 

For other statements of the relation of disposition to will, see Alexander, Moral Sci- 
ence, 151 — " In regard to dispositions, we say that they are in a sense voluntary. They 
properly belong to the will, taking the word in a large sense. In judging of the morality 
of voluntary acts, the principle from which they proceed is always included in our view 
and comes in for a large part of the blame " ; see also pages 201, 207, 208. Edwards on 
the Affections, 3 : 1-22 ; on the Will, 3 : 4—" The affections are only certain modes of the 
exercise of the will." A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 234 —"All sin is voluntary, in 
the sense that all sin has its root in the perverted dispositions, desires, and affections 
which constitute the depraved state of the will." But to Alexander, Edwards, and 
Hodge, we reply that the first sin was not voluntary in this sense, for there was no such 
depraved state of the will from which it could spring. We are responsible for disposi- 
tions, not upon the ground that they are a part of the will, but upon the ground that 
they are effects of will, in other words, that past decisions of the will have made them 
what they are. See pages 257-259. 

(6) Deliberate intention to sin is an aggravation of transgression, but it 
is not essential to constitute any given act or feeling a sin. Those evil 
inclinations and impulses which rise unbidden and master the soul before it 
is well aware of their nature, are themselves violations of the divine law, and 
indications of an inward depravity which in the case of each descendant of 
Adam is the chief and fontal transgression. 

Joseph Cook : " Only the surface-water of the sea is penetrated with light. Beneath 
is a half -lit region. Still further down is absolute darkness. We are greater than we 
know." Cf. Ps. 51 : 6 ; 19 : 12 — "the inward parts .... the hidden part . . hidden faults" — hidden 
not only from others, but even from ourselves. 

( c ) Knowledge of the sinfulness of an act or feeling is also an aggrava- 
tion of transgression, but it is not essential to constitute it a sin. Moral 
blindness is the effect of transgression, and, as inseparable from corrupt 
affections and desires, is itself condemned by the divine law. 



THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE OF SHT. 289 

We cannot excuse disobedience by saying: "I forgot." God's commandment is: 
■' Remember "— as in Ex. 20 : 8 ; cf. 2 Pet. 3:5—" For this they wilfully forget." " Ignorantia legis nemi- 
nem excusat." Rom. 2 : 12 — "as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law " ; Luke 12 : 
48 — " he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten [ though ] with few stripes." The aim 
of revelation and of preaching is to bring man "to himself" ( cf. Luke 15 : 17)— to show him 
what he has been doing and what he is. Goethe : " We are never deceived : we deceive 
ourselves." 

(d) Ability to fulfill the law is not essential to constitute the non-fulfill- 
ment sin. Inability to fulfill the law is a result of transgression, and, as 
consisting not in an original deficiency of faculty but in a settled state of the 
affections and will, it is itself condemnable. Since the law presents the 
holiness of God as the only standard for the creature, ability to obey can 
never be the measure of obligation or the test of sin. 

Xot power to the contrary, in the sense of ability to change all our permanent states 
by mere volition, is the basis of obligation and responsibility ; for surely Satan's respon- 
sibility does not depend upon his power at any moment to turn to God and be holy. 

Definitions of sin. — Melancthon: Defectus vel inclinatio vel actio pugnans cum lege 
Dei. Calvin : niegalitas, seu difformitas a lege. Hollaz : Aberratio a lege divina. Hol- 
laz adds : " Voluntariness does not enter into the definition of sin, generically con- 
sidered. Sin may be called voluntary, either in respect to its cause, as it inheres in the 
will, or in respect to the act, as it proceeds from deliberate volition. Here is the antith- 
esis to the Roman Catholics and to the Socinians, the latter of whom define sin as a 
voluntary [i. e., a volitional] transgression of law"— a new, says Hase (Hutterus 
Redivivus, 11th ed., 162-164), "which is derived from the necessary methods of civil 
tribunals, and which is incompatible with the orthodox doctrine of original sin." 

On the Xew School definition of sin, see Fairchild, Nature of Sin, in Bib. Sac, 25 : 30- 
48 ; Whedon, in Bib. Sac, 19 : 251, and On the Will, 328. Per contra, see Hodge, Syst. 
Theol., 2 : 180-190; Lawrence, Old School in N. E. TheoL, in Bib. Sac, 20 : 317-328; Julius 
Muller, Doct. Sin, 1 : 40-72 ; Nitzsch, Christ. Doct., 216 ; Luthardt, Compendium der 
Dogmatik, 124-126. 

II. The EssENTTAii PkinctpijE of Six. 

The definition of sin as lack of conformity to the divine law does not 
exclude, but rather necessitates, an inquiry into the characterizing motive or 
impelling power which explains its existence and constitutes its guilt. Only 
three views require extended examination. Of these the first two constitute 
the most common excuses for sin, although not propounded for this jjurpose 
by their authors : Sin is due ( 1 ) to the human body, or ( 2 ) to finite weak- 
ness. The third, which we regard as the Scriptural view, considers sin as 
1 3 ) the supreme choice of self, or selfishness. 

1. Sin as Sensuousness. 

This view regards sin as the necessary product of man's sensuous nature 
— a result of the soul's connection with a physical organism. This is the 
view of Schleiermacher and of Kothe. 

For statement of the view here opposed, see Schleiermacher, Der Christliche Glaube, 
1 : 361-364— "Sin is a prevention of the determining power of the spirit, caused by the 
independence ( Selbstiindigkeit ) of the sensuous functions." Rothe, Dogmatik, 1 : 300- 
302 ; notice the connection of Rothe's view of sin with his doctrine of continuous crea- 
tion ( see page 205 ). The advocates of this view would say that the child lives at first a 
life of sense, in which the bodily appetites are supreme. The senses are the avenues of 
all temptation, the physical domineers over the spiritual, and the soul never shakes off 
the body. Sin is, therefore, a malarious exhalation from the low grounds of human 
nature, or, to use the words of Schleiermacher, " a positive opposition of the flesh to the 
spirit." John Fiske, Destiny of Man, 103 — " Original sin is neither more nor less than the 
19 



290 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

brute-inheritance which every man carries with him, and the process of evolution is an 
advance toward true salvation,"— thus making- sin a mere physical necessity. 

In refutation of this view, it will be sufficient to urge the following con- 
siderations : 

( a ) It involves an assumption of the inherent evil of matter, at least so 
far as regards the substance of man's body. But this is either a form of 
dualism, and may be met with the objections already brought against that 
system, or it implies that God, in being the author of man's physical 
organism, is also the responsible originator of human sin. 

This has been called the " caged-eagle theory " of man's existence ; it holds that the 
body is a prison only, or, as Plato expressed it, "the tomb of the soul," so that the soul 
can be pure only by escaping- from the body. But matter is not eternal. God made it, 
and made it pure. The body was made to be the servant of the spirit. We must not 
throw the blame of sin upon the senses, but upon the spirit that used the senses so 
wickedly. To attribute sin to the body is to make God, the author of the body, to be 
also the author of sin,— which is the greatest of blasphemies. Men cannot "justly 
accuse Their Maker, or their making, or their fate" (Milton, Paradise Lost, 3 : 112). 

( b ) It rests upon an incomplete induction of facts, taking account of sin 
solely in its aspect of self-degradation, but ignoring the worst aspect of it 
as self-exaltation. Avarice, envy, pride, ambition, malice, cruelty, revenge, 
self-righteousness, unbelief, enmity to God, are none of them fleshly sins, 
and upon this principle are incapable of explanation. 

Goethe and Napoleon I were neither of them markedly sensual men ; yet the spiritual 
vivisection which Goethe practiced on Frederica Brion, his perfidious misrepresentation 
of his relations with Resteer's wife in the " Sorrows of Werther," and his flattery of 
Napoleon, when Wieland rejected with scorn the advances of the invader of his country, 
show Goethe to have been a very incarnation of heartlessness and selfishness ; while of 
Napoleon it has been well said that " his self-sufficiency surpassed the self-sufficiency 
of common men as the great Sahara desert surpasses an ordinary sand-patch." Hutton 
calls Goethe " a Narcissus in love with himself." Like George Eliot's "Dinah," in 
Adam Bede, Goethe's " Confessions of a Beautiful Soul," in Wilhelm Meister, are the 
purely artistic delineation of a character with which he had no inner sympathy. And 
the most truthful epitaph to Napoleon was : " The little butchers of Ghent to Napoleon 
the Great " [butcher]. On Goethe, see references, page 291. 

(c) It leads to absurd conclusions, — as, for example, that asceticism, by 

weakening the power of sense, must weaken the power of sin; that man 

becomes less sinful as his senses fail with age ; that disembodied spirits are 

necessarily holy. 

Asceticism only turns the current of sin in other directions. Spiritual pride and 
tyranny take the place of fleshly desires. The miser clutches his gold more closely as he 
nears death. Satan has no physical organism, yet he is the prince of evil. 

(d) It interprets Scripture erroneously. In passages like Eom. 7 : 18 — 
ovk oiksI kv EfMoi, tovt' eariv ev Ty gciqk'l fj-ov, aya-&6v — capZ, , or flesh, signifies, not 
man's body, but man's whole being when destitute of the Spirit of God. 
The Scriptures distinctly recognize the seat of sin as being in the soul 
itself, not in its physical organism. God does not tempt man, nor has he 
made man's nature to tempt him (James 1 : 13, 14). 

In the use of the term "flesh," Scripture puts a stigma upon sin, and intimates that 
human nature without God is as corruptible and perishable as the body would be with- 
out the soul to inhabit it. The ' ' carnal mind, " or " mind of the flesh ' ' ( Rom. 8:7), accordingly 
means, not the sensual mind, but the mind which is not under the control of the Holy 
Spirit, its true life. See Meyer, on 1 Cor. 1 : 26— adp£= "the purely human element in 
man, as opposed to the divine principle"; Pope, Theology, 2 : 65 — <rap£="the whole 
being of man, body, soul, and spirit, separated from God and subjected to the creature " ; 



THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE OF SIN. 291 

Julius Miiller, Proof -texts, 19— <rd P £=" human nature as living in and for itself, sun- 
dered from God and opposed to him." The earliest and best statement of this view of 
the term o-6.pt- is that of Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 395-333, especially 321. See 
also Dickson, St. Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit, 270-271 — <rd P g=" human 
nature without the nvev^a .... man standing by himself, or left to himself, over against 
God .... the natural man, conceived as not having yet received grace, or as not yet 
wholly under its influence." 

(e) Instead of explaining sin, this theory virtually denies its existence, 
— for if sin arises from the original constitution of our being, reason may 
recognize it as misfortune, but conscience connot attribute to it guilt. 

Sin which in its ultimate origin is a necessary thing is no longer sin. On the whole 
theory of the sensuous origin of sin, see Neander, Planting and Training, 386, 428; 
Ernesti, Ursprung der Sunde, 1:29-274; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2:132-147; Tulloch, 
Doctrine of Sin, 144— "That which is an inherent and necessary power in the creation 
cannot be a contradiction of its highest law." This theory confounds sin with the mere 
consciousness of sin. On Schleiermacher, see Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 1 : 341-349. 

2. Sin as Finiteness. 

This view explains sin as a necessary result of the limitations of man's 
finite being. As an incident of imperfect development, the fruit of igno- 
rance and impotence, sin is not absolutely but only relatively evil — an 
element in human education and a means of progress. 

This theory is advocated by Leibnitz, Theodicee, part i, §§ 20, 31 ; Spinoza, Ethics, part 
iv, prop. 20. LTpon this view, sin is the blundering of inexperience, the thoughtlessness 
that takes evil for good, the ignorance that puts its fingers into the fire, the stumbling 
without which one cannot learn to walk. It is a fruit which is sour and bitter simply 
because it is immature. It is a means of discipline and training for something better- 
it is holiness in the germ, good in the making — "Erhebung des Menschen zur freien 
Vernunft." The Fall was a fall up, and not down. 

We object to this theory, that 

[a) It rests upon a pantheistic basis, as the sense-theory rests upon 
dualism. The moral is confounded with the physical ; might is identified 
with right. Since sin is a necessary incident of finiteness, and creatures 
can never be infinite, it follows that sin must be everlasting, not only in the 
universe, but in each individual soul. 

Goethe, Carlyle, and Emerson are representatives of this view in literature. Goethe 
spoke of the "idleness of wishing to jump off from one's own shadow." Carlyle began 
by worshiping truth ; then he worshiped sincerity ; still later, will ; finally, force. In 
our Civil War he was upon the side of the slave-holder. Confounding all moral distinc- 
tions, as he did in his later writings, he was fit to wear the title which he invented for 
another: "President of the Heaven-and-Hell- Amalgamation Society." Froude calls 
him a "Calvinist without the theology" (a believer in predestination without grace?). 
Emerson also was the worshiper of successful force. His pantheism is most manifest 
in his poems " Cupido " and " Brahma," and in his Essays on " Spirit " and on the " Over- 
soul." He thought the Africans not worth the saving, and he would treat them as he 
would treat the ants of one of their great ant-hills — step on them. His view of Jesus 
is found in his Essays, 2 : 263— "Jesus would absorb the race; but Tom Paine, or the 
coarsest blasphemer, helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power." Sin is an 
inseparable factor in the nature of finite things. The highest archangel cannot be 
without it. Man in moral character is the " asymptote of God." The throne of iniquity 
is set up forever in the universe. London Spectator on Mephistopheles in Goethe's 
Faust : " The great drama is radically false in its fundamental philosophy. Its primary 
notion is that even a spirit of pure evil is an exceedingly useful being, because he stirs 
into activity those whom he leads into sin, and so prevents them from rusting away in 
pure indolence. There are other and better means of stimulating the positive affections 
of men than by tempting them to sin." On Goethe, see Hutton, Essays, 2 : 1-79; Shedd, 
Dogin. Theol., 1 : 490. 

(b) It is inconsistent with known facts, — as for example, the following: 



292 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

Not all sins are negative sins of ignorance and infirmity ; there are acts 
of positive malignity, conscious transgressions, willful and i)resuniptuous 
choices of evil. Increased knowledge of the nature of sin does not of itself 
give strength to overcome it ; but, on the contrary, repeated acts of con- 
scious transgression harden the heart in evil. Men of greatest mental 
powers are not of necessity the greatest saints, nor are the greatest sinners 
men of least strength of will and understanding. 

Not the weak but the strong- are the greatest sinners. We do not pity Nero and Caesar 
Borgia for their weakness ; we abhor them for their crimes. Judas was an able man, a 
practical administrator ; and Satan is a being of great natural endowments. Sin is not 
simply a weakness,— it is also a power. A pantheistic philosophy should worship Satan 
most of all ; for he is the truest type of godless intellect and selfish strength. 

(c) Like the . sense-theory of sin, it contradicts both conscience and 
Scripture by denying human responsibility and by transferring the blame 
of sin from the creature to the Creator. This is to explain sin, again, by 
denying its existence. 

CEdipus said that his evil deeds had been suffered, not done. Agamemnon, in the 
Iliad, says the blame belongs, not to himself, but to Jupiter and to fate. So sin blames 
everything and everybody but self. Gen. 3 : 12 — " The woman -whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave 
me of the tree, and I did eat." But self -vindicating is God-accusing. Made imperfect at the 
start, man cannot help his sin. By the very fact of his creation he is cut loose from 
God. That cannot be sin which is a necessary outgrowth of human nature, which is 
not our act but our fate. To all this, the one answer is found in Conscience. Conscience 
testifies that sin is not "das Gewordene," but "das Gemachtc," and that it was his own 
act when man by transgression fell. The Scriptures refer man's sin, not to the limita- 
tions of his being, but to the free will of man himself. On the theory here combated, 
see Miiller, Doct. Sin, 271-295; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 123-131. On Hegel's view of 
sin, a view which denies holiness even to Christ, see Miiller, Doct. Sin, 1 : 390-407 ; Dorner, 
Hist. Doct. Person of Christ, B. 3 : 131-162. So Herbert Spencer's evolutionary Ethics ; 
"A perfect man in an imperfect race is impossible." 

3. Sin as Selfishness. 

We hold the essential principle of sin to be selfishness. By selfishness 
we mean not simply the exaggerated self-love which constitutes the antith- 
esis of benevolence, but that choice of self as the supreme end which 
constitutes the antithesis of supreme love to God. That selfishness is the 
essence of sin may be shown as follows : 

A. Love to God is the essence of all virtue. The opposite to this, the 
choice of self as the supreme end, must therefore be the essence of sin. 

We are to remember, however, that the love to God in which virtue con- 
sists is love for that which is most characteristic and fundamental in God, 
namely, his holiness. It is not to be confounded with supreme regard for 
God's interests or for the good of being in general. Not mere benevolence, 
but love for God as holy, is the principle and source of holiness in man. 
Since the love of God required by the law is of this sort, it not only does 
not imply that love, in the sense of benevolence, is the essence of holiness 
in God, — it implies rather that holiness, or self -loving and self -affirming 
purity, is fundamental in the divine nature. From this self-loving and 
self-affirming purity, love properly so-called, or the seH-communicating 
attribute, is to be carefully distinguished (see page 129). 

Bossuet, describing heathendom, says : " Every thing was God but God himself." Sin 
goes further than this, and says : "I am myself all things,"— not simply as Louis XVI : 
"I am the state," but : "I am the world, the universe, God." Heine represents Napo- 
leon as saying to the world: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Comte's 



THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE OF SIN. 293 

religion is a "synthetic idealization of our existence" — a worship, not of God, but of 
humanity; and "the festival of humanity" among Positivists = Walt Whitman's "I 
celebrate myself." On Comte, see Martineau, Types, 1 : 499. The most thorough discus- 
sion of the essential principle of sin is that of Julius M Oiler, Doct. Sin, 1 : 147-182. He 
defines sin as "a turning away from the love of God to self-seeking." 

N. W. Taylor holds that self-love is the primary cause of all moral action ; that selfish- 
ness is a different thing, and consists not in making our own happiness our ultimate 
end, which we must do if we are moral beings, but in love of the world, and in prefer- 
ring the world to God as our portion or chief good ( see N. W. Taylor, Moral Gov't, 1 : 
24-26; 2:20-24, and Rev. Theol., 134-162 ; Tyler, Letters on the New Haven Theology, 
72). We claim, on the contrary, that to make our own happiness our ultimate aim is 
itself sin, and the essence of sin. As God makes his holiness the central thing, so we are 
to live for that, loving self only in God and for God's sake. This love for God as holy is 
the essence of virtue. The opposite to this, or supreme love for self, is sin. As the poet 
writes : " I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honor more," so Christian 
friends can say : " Our loves in higher love endure." The sinner raises some lower 
object of instinct or desire to supremacy, regardless of God and his law, and this he does 
for no other reason than to gratify self. On the distinction between mere benevolence 
and the love required by God's law, see Hovey, God With Us, 187-200; Hopkins, Works, 
1 : 235; F. W. Robertson, Sermon I. Emerson: "Your goodness must have some edge 
to it, else it is none." 

B. All the different forms of sin can be shown to have their root in 
selfishness, while selfishness itself, considered as the choice of self as a 
supreme end, cannot be resolved into any simpler elements. 

(a) Selfishness may reveal itself in the elevation to supreme dominion 
of any one of man's natural appetites, desires, or affections. Sensuality is 
selfishness in the form of inordinate appetite. Selfish desire takes the forms 
respectively of avarice, ambition, vanity, pride, according as it is set upon 
property, power, esteem, independence. Selfish affection is falsehood or 
malice, according as it hopes to make others its voluntary servants, or 
regards them as standing in its way ; it is unbelief or enmity to God, 
according as it simply turns away from the truth and love of God, or 
conceives of God's holiness as positively resisting and punishing it. 

Augustine and Aquinas held the essence of sin to be pride; Luther and Calvin 
regarded its essence to be unbelief. Kreibig ( Versohnungslehre ) regards it as " world- 
love " ; still others consider it as enmity to God. In opposing the view that sensuality 
is the essence of sin, Julius M tiller says: "Wherever we find sensuality, there we find 
selfishness, but we do not find that, where there is selfishness, there is always sensuality. 
Selfishness may embody itself in fleshly lust or inordinate desire for the creature, but 
this last cannot bring forth spiritual sins which have no element of sensuality in them." 

Covetousness or avarice makes, not sensual gratification itself, but the things that 
may minister thereto, the object of pursuit, and in this last chase often loses sight of 
its original aim. Ambition is selfish love of power ; vanity is selfish love of esteem. 
Pride is but the self-complacency, self-sufficiency, and self -isolation of a selfish spirit 
that desires nothing so much as unrestrained independence. Falsehood originates in 
selfishness, first as self-deception, and then, since man by sin isolates himself and yet in 
a thousand ways needs the fellowship of his brethren, as deception of others. Malice, 
the perversion of natural resentment ( together with hatred and revenge ), is the reac- 
tion of selfishness against those who stand, or are imagined to stand, in its way. 
Unbelief and enmity to God are effects of sin, rather than its essence ; selfishness leads 
us first to doubt, and then to hate, the Lawgiver and Judge. Tacitus: "Humani 
generis proprium est odisse quern laeseris." In sin, self-affirmation and self -surrender 
are not coordinate elements, as Dorner holds, but the former conditions the latter (see 
page 141). 

( b ) Even in the nobler forms of unregenerate life, the principle of self- 
ishness is to be regarded as manifesting itself in the preference of lower 
ends to that of God's proposing. Others are loved with idolatrous affection 
because these others are regarded as a part of self. That the selfish ele- 



294 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

Hient is present even here, is evident upon considering that such affection 
does not seek the highest interest of its object, that it often ceases when 
unreturned, and that it sacrifices to its own gratification the claims of God 
and his law. 

Even in the mother's idolatry of her child, the explorer's devotion to science, the 
sailor's risk of his life to save another's, the gratification sought may he that of a lower 
instinct or desire, and any substitution of a lower for the highest object is non-con- 
formity to law, and therefore sin. H. B. Smith, System Theology, 277— "Some lower 
affection is supreme." And the underlying motive which leads to this substitution is 
self -gratification. There is no such thing as disinterested sin, for " every one that loveth is 
begotten of God" (1 John 4:7). Thomas Hughes, The Manliness of Christ: Much of the hero- 
ism of battle is simply " resolution in the actors to have their way, contempt for ease, 
animal courage which we share with the bulldog and the weasel, intense assertion of 
individual will and force, avowal of the rough-handed man that he has that in him 
which enables him to defy pain and danger and death." 

Mozley on Blanco White, in Essays, 2 : 143 : Truth may be sought in order to absorb 
truth in self, not for the sake of absorbing self in truth. So Blanco White, in spite of 
the pain of separating from old views and friends, lived for the selfish pleasure of new 
discovery, till all his early faith vanished, and even immortality seemed a dream. He 
falsely thought that the pain he suffered in giving up old beliefs was evidence of self- 
sacrifice with which God must be pleased, whereas it was the inevitable pain which 
attends the victory of selfishness. Robert Browning, Paracelsus, 81— "I still must 
hoard, and heap, and class all truths With one ulterior purpose : I must know I Would 
God translate me to his throne, believe That I should only listen to hi3 words To further 
my own ends." P. W. Robertson on Genesis, 57—" He who sacrifices his sense of right, 
his conscience, for another, sacrifices the God within him ; he is not sacrificing self. 
.... He who prefers his dearest friend or his beloved child to the call of duty, will 
soon show that he prefers himself to his dearest friend, and would not sacrifice himself 
for his child." 25., 91— "In those who love little, love [for finite beings ] is a primary 
affection,— a secondary, in those who love much .... The only true affection is that 
which is subordinate to a higher." True love is love for the soul and its highest, its 
eternal, interests ; love that seeks to make it holy ; love for the sake of God and for the 
accomplishment of God's idea in his creation. 

Although we cannot, with Augustine., cad the virtues of the heathen "splendid vices" 
—for they were relatively good and useful,— they still, except in possible instances 
where God's spirit wrought upon the heart, were illustrations of a morality divorced 
from love to God, were lacking in the most essential element demanded by the law, 
were therefore infected with sin. Since the law judges all action by the heart from 
which it springs, no action of the unregenerate can be other than sin. The ebony-tree 
is white in its outer circles of woody fibre ; at heart it is black as ink. 

On the various forms of sin as manifestations of selfishness, see Julius Miiller, Doct. 
Sin, 1 : 147-182; Jonathan Edwards, Works, 2 : 268,269; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 5, 6; 
Baird, Elohim Revealed, 243-262; Stewart, Active and Moral Powers, 11-91; Hopkins, 
Moral- Science, 86-156. On the Roman Catholic "Seven Deadly Sins" (Pride, Envy, 
Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust), see Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexikon, and 
Orby Shipley, Theory about Sin, preface, xvi-xviii. On Dante's view of sin, see A. H. 
Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 510-515. 

C. This view accords best with Scripture. 

(a) The law requires love to God as its all-embracing requirement. 

Mat. 22 : 37-39 — the command of love to God and man ; Rom. 13 : 8-10 —"love therefore is the ful- 
fillment of the law ' ' ; Gal. 5:14—" the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this : Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself" ; James 2:8 — "the royal law." 

( b ) The holiness of Christ consisted in this, that he sought not his own 
will or glory, but made God his supreme end. 

John 5 : 30 — "my judgment is righteous ; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me " ; 
7 : 18 — "He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory : but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the 
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him " ; Rom. 15 : 3 — " Christ also pleased not himself." 

(c) The Christian is one who has ceased to live for self. 

Rom. 14 : 7— "none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself" ; 2 Cor. 5 : 15 — "he died for all, that they 



THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN. 295 

which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again ' ; Gal. 2 : 20 — 
"I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." Contrast 2 Tim. 3 : 2 
— "lovers of self." 

(d) The tempter's promise is a promise of selfish independence. 

Gen. 3:5—" ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." 

( e ) The prodigal separates himself from his father, and seeks his own 
interest and pleasure. 

Luke 15 : 12, 13 — " Give me the portion of thy substance .... gathered all together, and took his journey into a 
far country." 

(/) The "man of sin" illustrates the nature of sin, in "opposing and 
exalting himself against all that is called God." 

2 Thess. 2 : 3, 4 — " the man of sin ... . the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that 
is called God or that is worshipped ; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 

Sin therefore is not merely a negative thing, or an absence of love to God. 
It is a fundamental and positive choice or preference of self instead of God, 
as the object of affection and the supreme end of being. Instead of making 
God the centre of his life, surrendering himself unconditionally to God and 
possessing himself only in subordination to God's will, the sinner makes 
self the centre of his life, sets himself directly against God, and constitutes 
his own interest the supreme motive and his own will the supreme rule. 

We may follow Dr. E. G. Robinson in saying that, while sin as a state is 
unlikeness to God, as a principle is opposition to God, and as an act is trans- 
gression of God's law, the essence of it always and everywhere is selfishness. 
It is therefore not something external, or the result of compulsion from 
without ; it is a depravity of the affections and a perversion of the will, 
which constitutes man's inmost character. 

See Harris, in Bib. Sac, 18 : 148—" Sin is essentially egoism or selfism, putting self in 
God's place. It has four principal characteristics or manifestations : ( 1 ) self-sufficiency, 
instead of faith ; ( 2 ) self-will, instead of submission ; ( 3 ) self-seeking, instead of benev- 
olence; (4) self -righteousness, instead of humility and reverence." All sin is either 
explicit or implicit "enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). All true confessions are like David's 
( Ps. 51 : 4 ) — "Against thee, thee only have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight." Of all sinners it might 
be said that they " Fight neither with small nor great, but only with the king of Israel " ( 1 L 22 : 31 ). 

Not every sinner is conscious of this enmity. Sin is a principle in course of develop- 
ment. It is not yet "full-grown" (James 1 : 15 — "the sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death"). 
Even now, as James Martineau has said : "If it could be known that God was dead, the 
news would cause but little excitement in the streets of London and Paris." But this 
indifference easily grows, in the presence of threatening and penalty, into violent hatred 
to God and positive defiance of his law. If the sin which is now hidden in the sinner's 
heart were but permitted to develop itself according to its own nature, it would hurl 
the Almighty from his throne, and would set up its own kingdom upon the ruins of the 
moral universe. See Dwight, Works, Sermon 80. 



SECTION" III. — UNIVERSALITY OF SIN. 

In showing that sin is universal in the human race, we divide our proof 
into two parts. In the first, we regard sin in its aspect as conscious viola- 
tion of law ; in the second, in its aspect as a bias of the nature to evil, prior 
to or underlying consciousness. 



296 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

I. Every human being who has arbived at moral consciousness 

HAS COMMITTED ACTS, OB CHEEISHED DISPOSITIONS, CONTRARY TO THE 
DIVTNE DAW. 

1. Proof from Scripture. 

The universality of transgression is : 

( a ) Set forth in direct statements of Scripture. 

1 K. 8 : 46 — " there is no man that sinneth not " ; Ps. 143 : 2 — "enter not into judgment with thy servant; For in 
thy sight shall no man living be justified " ; Prov. 20 : 9 — " "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from 
my sin?" Eccl. 7 : 20 — "Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not" ; Luke 
11 : 13 — "If ye then, being evil" ; Rom. 3 : 10, 12 — "There is none righteous, no, not one ... . There is none that 
doeth good, no, not so much as one" ; 19, 20 — "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought 
under the judgment of God : because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight ; for through the law 
cometh the knowledge of sin" ; 23— "for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" ; Gal. 3 : 22 — "the 
scripture shut up all things under sin" ; James 3 : 2— "For in many things we all stumble" ; 1 John 1 : 8 — "If we 
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Compare Mat. 6 : 12 — "forgive us our 
debts"— given as a prayer for all men ; 14— "if ye forgive men their trespasses "—the condition of 
our own forgiveness. 

( b ) Implied in declarations of the universal need of atonement, regene- 
ration, and repentance. 

Universal need of atonement : Mark 16 : 16 — " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved " ( Mark 
16 : 9-20, though probably not written by Mark, is nevertheless of canonical authority ) ; 

John 3 : 16 — "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish" ; 6 : 50 — "This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die" ; 
12 : 47 — " I came not to judge the world, but to save the world " ; Acts 4 : 12 — "in none other is there salvation ; for 
neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." Universal 
need of regeneration : John 3 : 3, 5 — " Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God ... . 
except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Universal need of 
repentance : Acts 17 : 30 — " commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent." 

( e ) Shown from the condemnation resting upon all who do not accept 
Christ. 

John 3 : 18 — " he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only 
begotten Son of God" ; 36 — "he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abidetb. on him" ; 
Compare 1 John 5 : 19 — "the whole world lieth in [i. e., in union with] the evil one" ; see Annotated 
Paragraph Bible, in loco. 

( d ) Consistent with those passages which at first sight seem to ascribe 
to certain men a goodness which renders them acceptable to God, where a 
closer examination will show that in each case the goodness supposed is 
either a merely imperfect and fancied goodness, or else a goodness resulting 
from the trust of a conscious sinner in God's method of salvation. 

In Mat. 9 : 12 — "They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick" — Jesus means 
those who in their own esteem are whole ; cf. 13 — "I came net to call the righteous, but sinners "= 
" if any were truly righteous, they would not need my salvation ; if they think them- 
selves so, they will not care to seek it " ( An. Par. Bib. ). In Luke 10 : 30-37— the parable of 
the good Samaritan — Jesus intimates, not that the good Samaritan was not a sinner, but 
that there were saved sinners outside of the bounds of Israel. In Acts 10 : 35— "in every 
nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him " — Peter declares, not that Corne- 
lius was not a sinner, but that God had accepted him through Christ ; Cornelius was 
already justified, but he needed to know (1) that he was saved, and (2) how he was 
saved ; and Peter was sent to tell him of the fact, and of the method, of his salvation in 
Christ. In Rom. 2 : 14 — "for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not 
having the law, are a law unto themselves " — it is only said that in certain respects the obedience of 
these Gentiles shows that they have an unwritten law in their hearts ; it is not said that 
they perfectly obey the law and therefore have no sin — for Paul says immediately after 
( Rom. 3:9) — "we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin." 

So with regard to the words " perfect " and " upright," as applied to godly men. We shall see, 



THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN". 29? 

-when we come to consider the doctrine of Sanctification (pages 489, 490) that the word 
"perfect," as applied to spiritual conditions already attained, signifies only a relative per- 
fection, equivalent to sincere piety or maturity of Christian judgment, in other words, 
the perfection of a sinner who has long trusted in Christ, and in whom Christ has over- 
come his chief defects of character. See i Cor. 2 : 6— "we speak wisdom among the perfect" (Am. 
Rev. : " among them that are fall-grown " ) ; Phil. 3 : 15 — " Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded " 
—i. c. to press toward the goal— a goal expressly said by the apostles to be not yet 
attained (v. 12-14). 

2. Proof from history, observation, and the common judgment of 
mankind. 

( a ) History witnesses to the universaKty of sin, in its accounts of the 
universal prevalence of priesthood and sacrifice. 

See references in Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 161-172, 335-339. Baptist Review, 1882 : 343— 
M Plutarch speaks of the tear-stained eyes, the pallid and woe-begone countenances 
which he sees at the public altars, men rolling themselves in the mire and confessing 
their sins. Among the common people the dull feeling of guilt was too real to be shaken 
off or laughed away." 

( b ) Every man knows himself to have come short of moral perfection, 
and, in proportion to his experience of the world, recognizes the fact that 
every other man has come short of it also. 

Chinese proverb : " There are but two good men ; one is dead, and the other is not yet 
born." 

(c) The common judgment of mankind declares that there is an element 
of selfishness in every human heart, and that every man is prone to some 
form of sin. This common judgment is expressed in the maxims: "~No 
man is perfect"; "Every man has his weak side"; or "his price"; and 
every great name in literature has attested its truth. 

Seneca, De Ira, 3 : 26 — " We are all wicked. What one blames in another he will find 
in his own bosom. We live among the wicked, ourselves being wicked" ; Ep., 22— "No 
one has strength of himself to emerge [from this wickedness] ; some one must needs 
hold forth a hand ; some one must draw us out." Ovid, Met., 7 : 19—" I see the things 
that are better and I approve them, yet I follow the worse .... We strive even after 
that which is forbidden, and we desire the things that are denied." Cicero : "Nature 
has given us faint sparks of knowledge ; we extinguish them by our immoralities." 

Goethe: "I see no fault committed which I too might not have committed." Dr. 
Johnson : " Every man knows that of himself which he dare not tell to his dearest 
friend." Thackeray showed himself a master in fiction by having no heroes ; the para- 
gons of virtue belonged to a cruder age of romance. So George Eliot represents life 
correctly by setting before us no perfect characters ; all act from mixed motives. Car- 
lyle, hero- worshiper as he was inclined to be, is said to have become disgusted with 
each of his heroes before he finished his biography. 

Every man will grant ( 1 ) that he is not perfect in moral character ; (2 ) that love to 
God has not been the constant motive of his actions, i. e., that he has been to some 
degree selfish ; (3) that he has committed at least one known violation of conscience. 
Shedd, Sermons to the Natural Man, 66, 87 —"Those theorists who reject revealed relig- 
ion, and remand man to the first principles of ethics and morality as the only religion 
that he needs, send him to a tribunal that damns him" ; for it is simple fact that "no 
human creature, in any country or grade of civilization, has ever glorified God to the 
extent of his knowlege of God." 

3. Proof front Christian experience. 

(a) In proportion to his spiritual progress does the Christian recognize 
evil dispositions within him, which but for divine grace might germinate 
and bring forth the most various forms of outward transgression. 
See Goodwin's experience, in Baird, Elohim Revealed, 409 ; Goodwin, member of the 



298 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

Westminster Assembly of Divines, speaking of his conversion, says : " An abundant dis- 
covery was made to me of my inward lusts and concupiscence, and I was amazed to see 
with what greediness I had sought the gratification of every sin." Tollner's experience, 
in Martensen's Dogmatics ; Tollner, though inclined to Pelagianism, says : " I look into 
my own heart and I see with penitent sorrow that I must in God's sight accuse myself 
of all the offences I have named "—and he had named only deliberate transgressions,— 
" he who does not allow that he is similarly guilty, let him look deep into his own heart." 
John Newton sees the murderer led to execution, and says : " There, but for the grace 
of God, goes John Newton." Count de Maistre: "I do not know what the heart of a 
villain may be — I only know that of a virtuous man, and that is frightful." Tholuck 
on the fiftieth anniversary of his professorship at Halle, said to his students : " In review 
of God's manifold blessings, the thing I seem most to thank him for is the conviction of 
sin." 

( b ) Since those most enlightened by the Holy Spirit recognize them- 
selves as guilty of unnumbered violations of the divine law, the absence of 
any consciousness of sin on the part of unregenerate men must be regarded 
as proof that they are blinded by persistent transgression. 

It is a remarkable fact that, while those who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit and 
who are actually overcoming their sins see more and more of the evil of their hearts 
and lives, those who are the slaves of sin see less and less of that evil, and often deny 
that they are sinners at all. Rousseau, in his Confessions, confesses sin in a spirit which 
itself needs to be confessed. He glosses over his vices, and magnifies his virtues. " No 
man," he says, "can come to the throne of God and say: 4 I am a better man than 
Rousseau.' .... Let the trumpet of the last judgment sound when it will : I will pre- 
sent myself before the Sovereign Judge with this book in my hand, and I will say aloud : 
' Here is what I did, what I thought, and what I was.' " " Ah, " said he, just before he 
expired, " how happy a thing it is to die, when one has no reason for remorse or self- 
reproach ! " And then, addressing himself to the Almighty, he said : " Eternal Being, 
the soul that I am going to give thee back is as pure at this moment as it was when it 
proceeded from thee ; render it a partaker of thy felicity ! " Yet, in his boyhood, Rous- 
seau was a petty thief. In his writings, he advocated adultery and suicide. He lived for 
more than twenty years in practical licentiousness. His children, most of whom, if not 
all, were illegitimate, he sent off to the foundling hospital as soon as they were born, 
thus casting them upon the charity of strangers. He was mean, vacillating, treacher- 
ous, hypocritical, and blasphemous. And in his Confessions, he rehearses the exciting 
scenes of his fife in the spirit of the bold adventurer. See N. M. Williams, in Bap. 
Review, art. : Rousseau, from which the substance of the above is taken. 

Edwin Forrest, when accused of being converted in a religious revival, wrote an 
indignant denial to the public press, saying that he had nothing to regret ; his sins were 
those of omission rather than commission ; he had always acted upon the principle of 
loving his friends and hating his enemies; and trusting in the justice as well as the 
mercy of God, he hoped, when he left this earthly sphere, to l wrap the drapery of his 
couch about him, and lie down to pleasant dreams.' And yet no man of his time was 
more arrogant, self-sufficient, licentious, revengeful. It has been well said that "the 
greatest of sins is to be conscious of none." 

The following reasons may be suggested for men's unconsciousness of their sins: 
1. We never know the force of any evil passion or principle within us, until we begin to 
resist it. 2. God's providential restraints upon sin have hitherto prevented its full 
development. 3. God's judgments against sin have not yet been made manifest. 4. Sin 
itself has a blinding influence upon the mind. 5. Only he who has been saved from the 
penalty of sin is willing to look into the abyss from which he has been rescued.— That a 
man is unconscious of any sin is therefore only proof that he is a great and hardened 
transgressor. This is also the most hopeless feature of his case, since for one who never 
realizes his sin there is no salvation. In the light of this truth, we see the amazing grace 
of God, not only in the gift of Christ to die for sinners, but in the gift of the Holy Spirit 
to convince men of their sins and to lead them to accept the Savior. See Julius Miiller, 
Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 248-259 ; Edwards, Works, 2 : 326 ; John Caird, Reasons for Men's 
Unconsciousness of their Sins, in Sermons, 33 ; Rowland Hill : " The devil makes little 
of sin, that he may retain the sinner." 



THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN. 299 

H. EVEBY MEMBER OF THE HUM AN RACE, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, POSSESSES 
A CORRUPTED NATURE, WHICH IS A SOURCE OF ACTUAL SIN, AND IS ITSELF SIN. 

1. Proof from Scripture. 

A. The sinful acts and dispositions of men are referred to, and explained 

by, a corrupt nature. 

By ' nature ' we mean that which is bo7'n in a man, that which he has by birth. That 
there is an inborn corrupt state, from which sinful acts and dispositions flow, is evident 
from Luke 6 : 43-45 — "Here is no good tree that bringeth forth corrupt fruit .... the evil man out of the evil 
treasure [of his heart] bringeth forth that which is evil" ; Mat. 12 : 34— '-'Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, 
being evil, speak good things ? " Ps. 58 • 3 — " The wicked are estranged from the womb ; They go astray as soon as 
they be born, speaking lies." 

This corrupt nature : 

( a ) Belongs to man from the first moment of his being. 

Ps. 51 : 5 — '• Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; And in sin did my mother conceive me " — here David is con- 
fessing, not his mother's sin, but his own sin ; and he declares that this sin goes back to 
the very moment of his conception. Tholuck, quoted by H. B. Smith, System, 381— 
" David confesses that sin begins with the lif e of man ; that not only his works, but the 
man himself, is guilty before God." Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 94—" David mentions the 
fact that he was born sinful, as an aggravation of his particular act of adultery, and not 
as an excuse for it." 

( b ) Underlies man's consciousness. 

Ps. 19 : 12 — " Who can discern his errors? Clear thou me from hidden faults" ; 51 : 6, 7— ''Behold, thou desirest 
truth in the inward parts : And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I 
shall be clean : Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." 

( c ) Cannot be changed by man's own power. 

Jer. 13 : 23 — " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, that are 
accustomed to do evil" ; Rom. 7 : 24 — "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this 
death?" 

(d) First constitutes him a sinner before God. 

Ps. 51 : 6 — "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts" ; Jer. 17 : 9 — "The heart is deceitful above all things 
and it is desperately sick: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart,"=only God can fully know 
the native and incurable depravity of the human heart ; see Annotated Paragraph 
Bible, in loco. 

( e ) Is the common heritage of the race. 

Job 14 : 4 — " Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one " ; John 3 : 6 — ""That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh," i. e. human nature sundered from God. Pope, Theology, 2 : 53— "Christ, 
who knew what was in man, says : ' If ye then, being evil ' ( Mat. 7 : 11 ), and ' That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh' (John 3:6), that is — putting the two together — 'men are evil, because they 
are born evil.' " 

B. All men are declared to be by nature children of wrath ( Eph. 2:3). 
Here 'nature' signifies something inborn and original, as distinguished 
from that which is subsequently acquired. The text implies that : ( a ) Sin 
is a nature, in the sense of a congenital depravity of the will, (b) This 
nature is guilty and condemnable, — since God's wrath rests only upon that 
which deserves it. (c) All men participate in this nature and in this con- 
sequent guilt and condemnation. 

Eph. 2:3—" were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Shedd : " Nature here is not sub- 
stance created by God, but corruption of that substance, which corruption is created by 
man." ' Nature ' ( from nascor ) may denote anything inborn, and the term may just as 
properly designate inborn evil tendencies and state, as inborn faculties or substance. 
"By nature" therefore "by birth " ; compare GaL 2 : 15 — "Jews by nature." 

Meyer, however, interprets the verse : " "We become children of wrath by following a 
natural propensity." He claims the doctrine of the apostle to be, that man incurs the 



300 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

divine wrath by his actual sin, when he submits his will to the inborn sin-principle. So 
N. W. Taylor, Coneio ad Clerum, quoted in H. B. Smith, System, 281— "We were by 
nature such that we became through our own act children of wrath." " But," says 
Smith, "if the apostle had meant this, he could have said so ; there is a proper Greek 
word for ' became ' ; the word which is used can only be rendered ' were.' " So 1 Cor. 7 : 14 
—"else were your children unclean"— implies that, apart from the operations of grace, all men 
are defiled in virtue of their very birth from a corrupt stock. 

For the proper interpretation of Eph. 2 : 3, see Julius MiiDer, Doct. of Sin, 2 : 278, and 
Commentaries of Harless and Olshausen. See also Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 212 sq., 
and Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 289. Per contra, see Reuss, Christ. Theol. 
in Apost. Age, 2 : 29, 79-84; Weiss, Bib. Theol. N. T., 239. 

C. Death, the penalty of sin, is visited even upon those who have never 
exercised a personal and conscious choice (Kom. 5:12-14). This text 
implies that ( a ) Sin exists in the case of infants prior to moral conscious- 
ness, .and therefore in the nature, as distinguished from the personal 
activity. ( b ) Since infants die, this visitation of the penalty of sin upon 
them marks the ill-desert of that nature which contains in itself, though 
undeveloped, the germs of actual transgression. ( c ) It is therefore certain 
that a sinful, guilty, and condemnable nature belongs to all mankind. 

Rom. 5 : 12-14 — "Therefore as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death 
passed unto all men, for that all sinned : — for until the law sin was in the world : but sin is not imputed when there is 
no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of 
Adam's transgression "—that is, over those who, like infants, had never personally and con- 
sciously sinned. See a more full treatment of these last words in connection with an 
exegesis of the whole passage — Rom. 5 : 12-19 — under Imputation of Sin, pages 331-333. 

N. W. Taylor maintained that infants, prior to moral agency, are not subjects of the 
moral government of God, any more than are animals. In this he disagreed with 
Edwards, Bellamy, Hopkins, Dwight, Smalley, Griffin. See Tyler, Letters on N. E. 
Theol., 8, 132-142— "To say that animals die, and therefore death can be no proof of sin 
in infants, is to take infidel ground. The infidel has just as good a right to say : Because 
animals die without being sinners, therefore adults may. If death may reign to such an 
alarming extent over the human race and yet be no proof of sin, then you adopt the 
principle that death may reign to any extent over the universe, yet never can be made 
a proof of sin in any case." We reserve our full proof that physical death is the penalty 
of sin to the section on Penalty as one of the Consequences of Sin, pages 352-354. 

2. Proof from Reason. 

Three facts demand explanation : [a) The universal existence of sinful 
dispositions in every mind, and of sinful acts in every life. ( b ) The pre- 
ponderating tendencies to evil, which necessitate the constant education of 
good impulses, while the bad grow of themselves. ( c ) The yielding of the 
will to temptation, and the actual violation of the divine law, in the case of 
every human being so soon as he reaches moral consciousness. 

Reason seeks an underlying principle which will reduce these multitudi- 
nous phenomena to unity. As we are compelled to refer common physical 
and intellectual phenomena to a common physical and intellectual nature,, 
so we are compelled to refer these common moral phenomena to a common 
moral nature, and to find in it the cause of this universal, spontaneous, and 
all-controlling opposition to God and his law. The only possible solution 
of the problem is this, that the common nature of mankind is corrupt, or, in 
other words, that the human will, prior to the single volitions of the indi- 
vidual, is turned away from God and supremely set upon self -gratification. 
This unconscious and fundamental direction of the will, as the source o£ 
actual sin, must itself be sin ; and of this sin all mankind are partakers. 



THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN. 301 

The greatest thinkers of the world have certified to the correctness of this conclusion. 
Plato speaks of "that blind, many-headed wild beast of all that is evil within thee." 
He repudiates the idea that men are naturally good, and says that, if this were true, all 
that would be needed to make them holy would be to shut them up, from their earliest 
years, so that they might not be corrupted by others. 

See Aristotle's doctrine of "the slope," described in Chase's Introd. to Aristotle's 
Ethics, xxxv and 33—" In regard to moral virtue, man stands on a slope. His appetites 
and passions gravitate downward ; his reason attracts him upward. Conflict occurs. A 
step upward, and reason gains what passion has lost ; but the reverse is the case if he 
steps downward. The tendency in the former case is to the entire subjection of passion ; 
in the latter case, to the entire suppression of reason. The slope will termi n ate upwards 
in a level summit where men's steps will be secure, or downwards in an irretrievable 
plunge over the precipice. Continual self-control leads to absolute self-mastery ; con- 
tinual failure to the utter absence of self-control. But all we can see is the slope. No 
man is ever at the ^pe/xia of the summit, nor can we say that a man has irretrievably 
fallen into the abyss. How it is that men constantly act against their own convictions 
of what is right, and their previous determinations to follow right, is a mystery which 
Aristotle discusses, but leaves unexplained. 

"Compare the passage in the Ethics, 1 : 11 — 'Clearly there is in them [men], besides 
the Reason, some other inborn principle ( -e^wKds ) which fights with and strains against 

the Reason There is in the soul also somewhat besides the Reason which is opposed 

to this and goes against it.'— Compare this passage with Paul, in Rom. 7 : 23— 'I see a different 
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity wider the law of sin which 
is in my members.' But as Aristotle does not explain the cause, so he suggests no cure. 
Revelation alone can account for the disease, or point out the remedy." 

Wuttke, Christian Ethics, 1 : 102— "Aristotle makes the significant and almost surpris- 
ing observation, that the character which has become evil by guilt can just as little be 
thrown off again at mere volition, as the person who has made himself sick by his own 
fault can become well again at mere volition ; once become evil or sick, it stands no 
longer within his discretion to cease to be so ; a stone, when once cast, cannot be caught 
back from its flight ; and so is it with the character that has become evil." He does not 
tell "how a reformation in character is possible,— moreover he does not concede to evil 
any other than an individual effect, — knows nothing of any natural solidarity of evil in 
self-propagating, morafly degenerated races " (Xic. Eth., 3 : 6, 7; 5 : 12; 7 : 2, 3; 10 : 10). 
The good nature, he says, "is evidently not within our power, but is by some kind of 
divine causality conferred upon the truly happy." On Aristotle, see further on page 88. 

Plato, Meno, 89— "The cause of corruption is from our parents, so that we never 
relinquish their evil way, or escape the blemish of their evil habit." Horace, Ep., 1 : 10 
— "Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret." Latin proverb: "Nemo repente 
fuit turpissimus." Pascal: "We are born unrighteous; for each one tends to himself , 
and the bent toward self is the beginning of all disorder." Kant spoke of "the radical 
evil of human nature." "Hegel, pantheist as he was, declared that original sin is the 
nature of every man,— every man begins with it " ( H. B. Smith). A sceptic who gave 
his children no religious training, with the view of letting them each in mature years 
choose a faith for himself, reproved Coleridge for letting his garden run to weeds ; but 
Coleridge replied, that he did not think it right to prejudice the soil in favor of roses 
and strawberries. Van Oosterzee : Rain and sunshine make weeds grow more quickly, 
but could not draw them out of the soil if the seeds did net lie there already; so evil 
education and example draw out sin, but do not implant it. Tennyson: "He finds a 
baseness in his blood, At such strange war with what is good, He cannot do the thing he 
would." On Plato, see further on page 88. 

Chief Justice Thompson, of Pennsylvania : " If those who preach had been lawyers 
previous to entering the ministry, they would know and say far more about the 
depravity of the human heart than they do. The old doctrine of total depravity is the 
only thing that can explain the falsehoods, the dishonesties, the licentiousness, and the 
murders which are so rife in the world. Education, refinement, and even a high order 
of talent, cannot overcome the inclination to evil which exists in the heart, and haa 
taken possession of the very fibres of our nature." See Edwards, Original Sin, in "Works, 
2 : 309-510; Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 259-307; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 231-238; Shedd, 
Discourses and Essays, 226-236. 



302 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

SECTION IV. — ORIGIN OF SIN IN THE PERSONAL ACT OF ADAM. 

With regard to the origin of this sinful nature which is common to the 
race, and which is the occasion of all actual transgressions, reason affords 
no light. The Scriptures, however, refer the origin of this nature to that 
free act of our first parents by which they turned away from God, corrupted 
themselves, and brought themselves under the penalties of the law. 

I. The Scriptural Account of the Temptation and Fall in Gen- 
esis 3 : 1-7. 

1. Its general character not mythical or allegorical, but historical. 

We adopt this view for the following reasons: — (a) There is no inti- 
mation in the account itself that it is not historical, (b) As a part of a 
historical book, the presumption is that it is itself historical, (c) The 
later Scripture writers refer to it as a veritable history even in its details. 

(d) Particular features of the narrative, such as the placing of our first 
parents in a garden and the speaking of the tempter through a serpent-form, 
are incidents suitable to man's condition of innocent but untried childhood. 

(e) This view that the narrative is historical does not forbid our assuming 
that the trees of life and of knowledge were symbols of spiritual truths, 
while at the same time they were outward realities. 

See John 8 : 44 — " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a mur- 
derer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. "When he speaketh a lie, he 
speaketh cf his own, for he is a liar and the father thereof " ; 2 Cor. 11:3 — " the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness " ; 
Rev. 20 : 2 — "the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan." 

Infantile and innocent man found his fit place and work in a garden. The language 
of appearances is doubtless used. Satan might enter into a brute-form, and might 
appear to speak through it. In all languages, the stories of brutes speaking show that 
such a temptation is congruous with the condition of early man. Asiatic myths agree 
in representing the serpent as the emblem of the spirit of evil. The tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil was the symbol of God's right of eminent domain, and indicated 
that all belonged to him. It is not necessary to suppose that it was known by this name 
before the Fall. By means of it man came to know good, by the loss of it ; to know 
evil, by bitter experience; C. H. M. : "To know good, without the power to do it; to 
know evil, without the power to avoid it." Bible Com., 1 : 40 -The tree of life was 
symbol of the fact that " life is to be sought not from within, from himself, in his own 
powers or faculties ; but from that which is without him, even from him who hath life 
in himself." 

As the water of baptism and the bread of the Lord's supper, though themselves com- 
mon things, are symbolic of the greatest truths, so the tree of knowledge and the tree 
of life were sacramental. Mcllvaine, Wisdom of Holy Scripture, 99-141 — " The two trees 
represented good and evil. The prohibition of the latter was a declaration that man of 
himself could not distinguish between good and evil, and must trust divine guidance. 
Satan urged man to discern between good and evil by his own wisdom, and so become 
independent of God. Sin is the attempt of the creature to exercise God's attribute of 
discerning and choosing between good and evil by his own wisdom. It is therefore 
self-conceit, self -trust, self-assertion, the preference of his own wisdom and will to the 
wisdom and will of God." Mcllvaine refers to Lord Bacon, Works, 1 : 82, 162. See also 
Pope, Theology, 2 : 10, 11 ; Boston Lectures for 1871 : 80, 81. For the mythical or alle- 
gorical explanation of the narrative, see Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, 164, 165, and Nitzsch, 
Christ. Doct., 218. 

2. The course of the temptation, and the resulting fall. 

The stages of the temptation appear to have been as follows : 

(a) An appeal on the part of Satan to innocent appetites, together with 



SCRIPTURAL ACCOUXT OF THE TEMPTATIOX AXD FALL. 303 

an implied suggestion that God was arbitrarily withholding the means of 
their gratification (Gen. 3:1). The first sin was in Eve's isolating herself 
and choosing to seek her own pleasure without regard to God's will. This 
initial selfishness it was, which led her to listen to the tempter instead of 
rebuking him or flying from him, and to exaggerate the divine command 
in her response (Gen. 3:3). 

Gen. 3 : 1 — " Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden ? " Satan emphasizes the Urn i- 
tation, but is silent with regard to the generous permission—'- Of every tree of the garden [but 
one] thou mayest freely eat" (2:16). C. H. M., in loco: "To admit the question 'hath God 
said ? ' is already positive infidelity. To add to God's word is as bad as to take from it. 
'Hath God said?' is quickly followed by 'ye shall not surely die.' Questioning whether God has 
spoken, results in open contradiction of what God has said. Eve suffered God's word 
to be contradicted by a creature, only because she had abjured its authority over her 
conscience and heart." The command was simply: "thou shalt not eat of it" (Gen. 2 : 17). In 
her rising dislike to the authority she had renounced, she exaggerates the command 
into : " Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it " ( Gen. 3:3). Here is already self -isolation, 
instead of love. 

( 6 ) A denial of the veracity of God, on the part of the tempter, with a 
charge against the Almighty of jealousy and fraud in keeping his creatures 
in a position of ignorance and dependence (Gen. 3 : 4, 5). This was fol- 
lowed, on the part of the woman, by positive unbelief, and by a conscious 
and presumptuous cherishing of desire for the forbidden fruit, as a means 
of independence and knowledge. Thus unbelief, pride, and lust all sprang 
from the self -isolating, self-seeking spirit, and fastened upon the means of 
gratifying it (Gen. 3:6). 

Gen. 3 : 4, 5 — " And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye 
eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil " ; 3:6 — " And when the 
woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to 
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat " 
—so "taking the word of a Professor of Lying, that he does not he" (John Henry 
Xewman ). 

( c ) The tempter needed no longer to urge his suit. Having poisoned 
the fountain, the stream would naturally be evil. Since the heart and its 
desires had become corrupt, the inward disposition manifested itself in act 
(Gen. 3 : 6 — 'did eat ; and she gave also unto her husbund with her' = who 
had been with her, and had shared her choice and longing). Thus man 
fell inwardly, before the outward act of eating the forbidden fruit, — fell in 
that one fundamental determination whereby he made supreme choice of 
self instead of God. This sin of the inmost nature gave rise to sins of the 
desires, and sins of the desires led to the outward act of transgression 
(James 1 : 15). 

James 1 : 15— "Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin." Baird, ELohim Revealed, 38S— " The 
law of God had already been violated; man was fallen before the fruit had been 
plucked, or the rebellion had been thus signalized. The law required not only outward 
obedience but fealty of the heart, and this was withdrawn before any outward token 
indicated the change." Philippi, Glaubenslehre : "So man became like God, a setter of 
law to himself. Man's self -elevation to godhood was his fall. God's self-humiliation to 
manhood was man's restoration and elevation .... 'The man has become as one of us' in his 
condition of self -centered activity,— thereby losing all real likeness to God, which con- 
sists in having the same aim with God himself. De te fabula narratur; it is the 
condition, not of one alone, but of all the race." Sin once brought into being is self- 
propagating ; its seed is in itself : the centuries of misery and crime that have followed 
have only shown what endless possibilities of evil were wrapped up in that single sin. 
Keble: "'Twas but a little drop of sin We saw this morning enter in, And lo, at 



304 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

eventide a world is drowned ! " Farrar, Fall of Man : " The guilty wish of one woman 
has swollen into the irremediable corruption of a world." See Oehler, O. T. Theology, 
1 : 231 ; Muller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 381-385; Edwards on Original Sin, part 4, chap. 2; Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 2 : 168-180. 

II Difficulties connected with the Fall consldebed as the per- 
sonal Act of Adam. 

1. How could a holy being fall ? 

Here we must acknowledge that we cannot understand how the first 
unholy emotion could have found lodgment in a mind that was set 
supremely upon God, nor how temptation could have overcome a soul in 
which there were no unholy propensities to which it could appeal. The 
mere power of choice does not explain the fact of an unholy choice. The 
fact of natural desire for sensuous and intellectual gratification does not 
explain how this desire came to be inordinate. Nor does it throw light upon 
the matter, to resolve this fall into a deception of our first parents by Satan. 
Their yielding to such deception presupposes distrust of God and aliena- 
tion from him. Satan's fall, moreover, since it must have been uncaused 
by temjDtation from without, is more difficult to explain than Adam's fall. 

But sin is an existing fact. God cannot be its author, either by creating 
man's nature so that sin was a necessary incident of its development, or by 
withdrawing a supernatural grace which was necessary to keep man holy. 
Eeason, therefore, has no other recourse than to accept the Scripture doc- 
trine that sin originated in man's free act of revolt from God — the act of a 
will which, though inclined toward God, was not yet confirmed in virtue 
and was still capable of a contrary choice. The original possession of such 
power to the contrary seems to be the necessary condition of probation and 
moral development. Yet the exercise of this power in a sinful direction 
can never be explained upon grounds of reason, since sin is essentially 
unreason. It is an act of wicked arbitrariness, the only motive of which is 
the desire to depart from God and to render self supreme. 

Sin is a " mystery of lawlessness " ( 2 Thess. 2 : 7 ), at the beginning, as well as at the end. Nean- 
der, Planting and Training, 388— " Whoerer explains sin, nullifies it." Man's power at 
the beginning to choose evil does not prove that, now that he has fallen, he has equal 
power of himself permanently to choose good. Because man has power to cast himself 
from the top of a precipice to the bottom, it does not follow that he has equal power to 
transport himself from the bottom to the top. 

Hodge, Essays and Reviews, 30— "There is a broad difference between the commence- 
ment of holiness and the commencement of sin, and more is necessary for the former 
than for the latter. An act of obedience, if it is performed under the mere impulse of 
self-love, is virtually no act of obedience. It is not performed with any intention to 
obey, for that is holy, and cannot, according to the theory, precede the act. But an act 
of disobedience, performed from the desire of happiness, is rebellion. The cases are 
surely different. If, to please myself, I do what God commands, it is not holiness ; but 
if, to please myself, I do what he forbids, it is sin. Besides, no creature is immutable. 
Though created holy, the taste for holy enjoyments may be overcome by a temptation 
sufficiently insidious and powerful, and a selfish motive or feeling excited in the mind. 
Neither is a sinful character immutable. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth 
may be clearly presented and so effectually applied as to produce that change which is 
called regeneration; that is, to call into existence a taste for holiness, so that it is 
chosen for its own sake and not as a means of happiness." 

H. B. Smith, System, 262— "The state of the case, as far as we can enter into Adam's 
experience, is this: Before the command, there was the state of love without the 
thought of the opposite : a knowledge of good only, a yet unconscious goodness : there 



DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH THE FALL. 305 

-was also the knowledge that the eating- of the fruit was against the divine command. 
The temptation aroused pride : the yielding to that was the sin. The change was there. 
The change was not in the choice as an executive act, nor in the result of that act — the 
eating; but in the choice of supreme love to the world and self, rather than supreme 
devotion to God. It was an immanent preference of the world, — not a love of the 
world following the choice, but a love of the world which is the choice itself." 

263— "We cannot account for Adam's fall, psychologically. In saying this we mean : 
It is inexplicable by anything outside itself. We must receive the fact as ultimate, and 
rest there. Of course we do not mean that it was not in accordance with the laws of 
moral agency — that it was a violation of those laws : but only that we do not see the 
mode, that we cannot construct it for ourselves iu a rational way. It differs from all 
other similar cases of ultimate preference which ice k)ioic; viz., the sinner's immanent 
preference of the world, where we know there is an antecedent ground in the bias to 
sin, and the Christian's regeneration, or immanent preference of God, where we know 
there is an influence from without, the working of the Holy Spirit." 261— "We must 
leave the whole question with the immanent preference standing forth as the ultimate 
fact in the case, which is not to be constructed philosophically, as far as the processes of 
Adam's soul are concerned : we must regard that immanent preference as both a choice 
and an affection, not an affection the result of a choice, not a choice which is the conse- 
quence of an affection, but both together." 

In one particular, however, we must differ with H. B. Smith : Since the power of vol- 
untary internal movement is the power of will, we must regard the change from good 
to evil as primarily a choice, and only secondarily a state of affection caused thereby. 
Only by postulating a free and conscious act of transgression on the part of Adam, an 
act which bears to evil affection the relation not of effect but of cause, do we reach, at 
the beginning of human development, a proper basis for the responsibility and guilt of 
Adam and the race. See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 148-167. 

2. How could God justly permit Satanic temptation t 

We see in this permission not injustice but benevolence. 

(a) Since Satan fell without external temptation, it is probable that 

man's trial would have been substantially the same, even though there had 

been no Satan to tempt him. 

Angels had no animal nature to obscure the vision; they could not be influenced 
through sense ; yet they were tempted and they fell. 

(6) In this case, however, man's fall would perhaps have been without 
what now constitutes its single mitigating circumstance. Self-originated 
sin would have made man himself a Satan. 

Mat 13 : 28— "An enemy hath done this." " God permitted Satan to divide the guilt with man, 
so that man might be saved from despair." See Trench, Studies in the Gospels, 16-29. 

( c ) As, in the conflict with temptation, it is an advantage to objectify evil 
under the image of corruptible flesh, so it is an advantage to meet it as 
embodied in a personal and seducing spirit. 

Man's body, corruptible and perishable as it is, furnishes him with an illustration and 
reminder of the condition of soul to which sin has reduced him. The flesh, with its 
burdens and pains, is thus, under God, a help to the distinct recognition and overcom- 
ing of sin. So it was an advantage to man to have temptation confined to a single 
external voice. We may say of the influence of the tempter, as Birks, in his Difficulties 
of Belief, 101, says of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: "Temptation did 
not depend upon the tree. Temptation was certain in any event. The tree was a type 
into which God contracted the possibilities of evil, so as to strip them of delusive vast- 
ness, and connect them with definite and palpable warning,— to show man that it was 
only one of the many possible activities of his spirit which was forbidden, that God had 
right to all and could forbid all." 

( d ) Such temptation has in itself no tendency to lead the soul astray. If 
the soul be holy, temptation may only confirm it in virtue. Only the evil will, 
self-determined against God, can turn temptation into an occasion of ruin. 

20 



306 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

As the sun's heat has no tendency to wither the plant rooted in deep and moist soil, 
but only causes it to send down its roots the deeper and to fasten itself the more strongly, 
so temptation has in itself no tendency to pervert the soul. It was only the seeds that 
"fell upon the rocky places, where they had not much earth " (Mat. 13 : 5, 6), that " were scorched " when "the sun 
was risen " ; and our Lord attributes their failure, not to the sun, but to their lack of root 
and of soil : "because they had no root," "because they had no deepness of earth." The same temptation 
which occasions the ruin of the false disciple stimulates to sturdy growth the virtue of 
the true Christian. Contrast with the temptation of Adam the temptation of Christ. 
Adam had everything- to plead for God, the garden and its deligbts, while Christ had 
everything to plead against him, the wilderness and its privations. But Adam had con- 
fidence in Satan, while Christ had confidence in God ; and the result was in the former 
case defeat, in the latter victory. See Baird, Elohim Revealed, 385-396. 

3. How could a penalty so great be justly connected with disobedi- 
ence to so slight a command f 

To this question we may reply : 

( a ) So slight a coin m and presented the best test of the spirit of obedience. 

Cicero : "Parva res est, at magna culpa." The child's persistent disobedience in one 
single respect to the mother's command shows that in all his other acts of seeming 
obedience he does nothing for his mother's sake, but all for his own sake,— shows, in 
other words, that he does not possess the spirit of obedience in a single act. 

( b ) The external command was not arbitrary or insignificant in its sub- 
stance. It was a concrete presentation to the hiiman will of God's claim to 
eminent domain or absolute ownership. 

John Hall, Lectures on the Religious Use of Property, 10— "It sometimes happens 
that owners of land, meaning to give the use of it to others, without alienating it, 
impose a nominal rent — a quit-rent, the passing of which acknowledges the recipient as 
owner and the occupier as tenant. This is understood in all lands. In many an old 
English deed, 'three barley-corns,' 'a fat capon,' or 'a shilling,' is the consideration 
which permanently recognizes the rights of lordship. God taught men by the forbid- 
den tree that he was owner, that man was occupier. He selected the matter of property 
to be the test of man's obedience, the outward and sensible sign of a right state of heart 
toward God ; and when man put forth his hand and did eat, he denied God's ownership 
and asserted his own. Nothing remained but to eject him." 

( c ) The sanction attached to the command shows that man was not left 
ignorant of its meaning or importance. 

Gen. 2:17 — " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. " Cf. Gen. 3 : 3 — "the tree which is in the 
midst of the garden" ; and see Dodge, Christian Theology, 206, 207 : "The tree was central, as 
the commandment was central. The choice was between the tree of life and the tree of 
death,— between self and God. Taking the one was rejecting the other." 

( d ) The act of disobedience was therefore the revelation of a will thor- 
oughly corrupted and alienated from God — a will given over to ingratitude, 
unbelief, ambition, and rebellion. 

The motive to disobedience was not appetite, but the ambition to be as God. The 
outward act of eating the forbidden fruit was only the thin edge of the wedge, behind 
which lay the whole mass— the fundamental determination to isolate self and to seek 
personal pleasure regardless of God and his law. So the man under conviction for sin 
commonly clings to some single passion or plan, only half-conscious of the fact that 
opposition to God in one thing is opposition in all. 

III. Consequences of the Fall, so fab as kespects Adam. 

1. Death. — This death was twofold. It was partly : 
A. Physical death, or the separation of the soul from the body. — The 
seeds of death, naturally implanted in man's constitution, began to develop 



DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH THE FALL. 307 

themselves the moment that access to the tree of life was denied him. Man 
from that moment was a dying creature. 

In a true sense death began at once. To it belonged the pains which both man and 
■woman should suffer in their appointed callings. The fact that man's earthly existence 
did not at once end, was due to God's counsel of redemption. " The law of the Spirit of life " (Rom. 
8:2) began to work even then, and grace began to counteract the effects of the Fall. 
Christ has now " abolished death "' ( 2 Tim. 1 : 10 ) by taking its terrors away, and by turning it 
into the portal of heaven. He will destroy it utterly ( 1 Cor. 15 : 26 ) when, by resurrection 
from the dead, the bodies of the saints shall be made immortal. Dr. "William A. Ham- 
mond, f ollowing a French scientist, declares that there is no reason in a normal physical 
system why man should not live forever. We reserve the full proof that physical death 
is part of the penalty of sin until we discuss the Consequences of Sin to Adam's Poster- 
ity, pages 352-354. 

But this death was also, and chiefly, 

B. Spiritual death, or the separation of the soul from God. — In this are 
included : (a) Negatively, the loss of man's moral likeness to God, or that 
underlying tendency of his whole nature toward God which constituted his 
original righteousness, (b) Positively, the depraving of all those powers 
which, in their united action with reference to moral and religious truth, 
we call man's moral and religious nature ; or, in other words, the blinding 
of his intellect, the corruption of his affections, and the enslavement of his 
will. 

Seeking to be a god, man became a slave ; seeking independence, he ceased to be 
master of himself. Once his intellect was pure, — he was supremely conscious of God, 
and saw all things else in God's light. Now he was supremely conscious of self , and saw 
all things as they affected self. This self-consciousness— how unlike the objective life 
of the first apostles, of Christ, and of every loving soul ! Once man's affections were 
pure, — he loved God supremely, and other things in subordination to God's will. Now 
he loved self supremely, and was ruled by inordinate affections towards the creatures 
which could minister to his selfish gratification. Now man could do nothing pleasing to 
God, because he lacked the love which is necessary to all true obedience. 

In fine, man no longer made God the end of his life, but chose self 
instead. While he retained the power of self-determination in subordinate 
things, he lost that freedom which consisted in the power of choosing God 
as his ultimate aim, and became fettered by a fundamental inclination of 
his will toward evil. The intuitions of the reason were abnormally obscured, 
since these intuitions, so far as they are concerned with moral and religious 
truth, are conditioned upon a right state of the affections ; and — as a nec- 
essary result of this obscuring of reason — conscience, which, as the moral 
judiciary of the soul, decides upon the basis of the law given to it by reason, 
became perverse in its deliverances. Yet this inability to judge or act 
aright, since it was a moral inability springing ultimately from will, was 
itself hateful and condemnable. 

See Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 61-73 ; Shedd, Sermons on the Natural Man, 202-230, 
esp. 205—" Whatsoever springs from will we are responsible for. Man's inability to love 
God supremely results from his intense self-will and self-love, and therefore his impo- 
tence is a part and element of his sin, and not an excuse for it." And yet the question 
" Adam, where art thou ? " ( Gen. 3 : 9 ), says C. J. Baldwin, " was, ( 1 ) a question, not as to Adam's 
physical locality, but as to his moral condition ; (2) a question, not of justice threaten- 
ing, but of love inviting to repentance and return ; (3) a question, not to Adam as an 
individual only, but to the whole humanity of which he was the representative." 

2. Positive and formal exclusion from God's presence. — This included: 
(«) The cessation of man's former familiar intercourse with God, and 



308 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN". 

the setting up of outward barriers between man and his Maker ( cherubim 
and sacrifice). 

" In die Welt hinausgestossen, Stent der Mensch verlassen da." Though God punished 
Adam and Eve, he did not curse them as he did the serpent. Their exclusion from the 
tree of life was a matter of benevolence as well as of justice, for it prevented the 
immortality of sin. 

(b) Banishment from the garden, where God had specially manifested 
his presence. — Eden was perhaps a spot reserved, as Adam's body had been, 
to show what a sinless world would be. This positive exclusion from God's 
presence, with the sorrow and pain which it involved, may have been 
intended to illustrate to man the nature of that eternal death from which 
he now needed to seek deliverance. 

At the gates of Eden, there seems to have been a manifestation of God's presence, in 
the cherubim, which constituted the place a sanctuary. Both Cain and Abel brought 
offerings "unto the Lord" ( Gen. 4 : 3, 4), and when Cain fled, he is said to have gone out "from 
the presence of the Lord " ( Gen. 4 : 16 ). On the consequences of the Eall to Adam, see Edwards, 
Works, 2 : 390-405; Hopkins, Works, 1 : 206-246; Dwight, Theology, 1 : 393-434; Watson, 
Institutes, 2 : 19-42 ; Martensen, Dogmatics, 155-173 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 402-412. 



SECTION V. — IMPUTATION" OF ADAM ? S SIN" TO HIS POSTERITY. 

We have seen that all mankind are sinners ; that all men are by nature 
depraved, guilty, and condemnable ; and that the transgression of our first 
parents, so far as respects the human race, was the first sin. We have still 
to consider the connection between Adam's sin and the depravity, guilt, and 
condemnation of the race. 

(a) The Scriptures teach that the transgression of our first parents con- 
stituted their posterity sinners (Rom. 5:19 — "through the one man's 
disobedience the many w r ere made sinners"), so that Adam's sin is imputed, 
reckoned, or charged to every member of the race of which he was the germ 
and head (Rom. 5 : 16 — "the judgment came of one [offence] unto condem- 
nation"). It is because of Adam's sin that we are born depraved and 
subject to God's penal inflictions (Eom. 5 : 12 — "through one man sin 
entered into the world, and death through sin" ; Eph. 2:3 — "by nature 
children of wrath"). Two questions demand answer, — first, how we can 
be responsible for a depraved nature which w T e did not personally and con- 
sciously originate ; and, secondly, how God can justly charge to our account 
the sin of the first father of the race. These questions are substantially 
the same, and the Scriptures intimate the true answer to the problem, when 
they declare that "in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22) and "that death 
passed unto all men, for that all sinned" when "through one man sin 
entered into the world" (Rom. 5 : 12). In other words, Adam's sin is the 
cause and ground of the depravity, guilt, and condemnation of all his pos- 
terity, simply because Adam and his posterity are one, and, by virtue of 
their organic unity, the sin of Adam is the sin of the race. 

The steps of our treatment thus far are as follows : 1. God's holiness is purity of 
nature. 2. God's law demands purity of nature. 3. Sin is impure nature. 4. All 
men have this impure nature. 5. Adam originated this impure nature. In the present 
section we expect to add : 6. Adam and we are one ; and, in the succeeding section, to 
complete the doctrine with : 7. The guilt and penalty of Adam's sin are ours. 



imputation of adam's sin to his pkosperity. 309 

( b ) According as we regard this twofold problem from the point of view 
of the abnormal human condition, or of the divine treatment of it, we may 
call it the problem of original sin, or the problem of imputation. Neither 
of these terms is objectionable when its meaning is denned. By imputa- 
tion of sin we mean, not the arbitrary and mechanical charging to a man of 
that for which he is not naturally responsible, but the reckoning to a man of 
a guilt which is properly his own, whether by virtue of his individual acts, 
or by virtue of his connection with the race. By original sin we mean that 
participation in the common sin of the race with which God charges us, in 
virtue of our descent from Adam, its first father and head. 

We should not permit our use of the term ' imputation ' to be hindered or prejudiced 
by the fact that certain schools of theology, notably the Federal school, have attached 
to it an arbitrary, external, and mechanical meaning— holding that God imputes sin to 
men, not because they are sinners, but upon the ground of a legal fiction whereby 
Adam, without their consent, was made their representative. We shall see, on the con- 
trary, that (1) in the case of Adam's sin imputed to us, (2) in the case of our sins 
imputed to Christ, and (3) in the case of Christ's righteousness imputed to the believer, 
there is always a realistic basis for the imputation, namely, a real union, ( 1 ) between 
Adam and his descendants, (2) between Christ and the race, and (3) between believers 
and Christ, such as gives in each case community of life, and enables us to say that God 
imputes to no man what does not properly belong to him. 

■ ( c ) There are two fundamental principles which the Scriptures already 
cited seem clearly to substantiate, and which other Scriptures corroborate. 
The first is that man's relations to moral law extend beyond the sphere of 
conscious and actual transgression, and embrace those moral tendencies and 
qualities of his being which he has in common with every other member of 
the race. The second is, that God's moral government is a government 
which not only takes account of persons and personal acts, but also recog- 
nizes race-responsibilities and inflicts race-penalties ; or, in other words, 
judges mankind, not simply as a collection of separate individuals, but also 
as an organic whole, which can collectively revolt from God and incur the 
curse of the violated law. 

On race-responsibility, see H. B. Smith, System of Theology, 288-302— "No one can 
apprehend the doctrine of original sin, nor the doctrine of redemption, who insists that 
the whole moral government of God has respect only to individual desert, who does not 
allow that the moral government of God, as moral, has a wider scope and larger rela- 
tions, so that God may dispense suffering and happiness ( in his all -wise and inscrutable 
providence ) on other grounds than that of personal merit and demerit. The dilemma 
here is : the facts connected with native depravity and with the redemption through 
Christ either belong to the moral government of God, or not. If they do, then that 
government has to do with other considerations than those of personal merit and de- 
merit (since our disabilities in consequence of sin and the grace offered in Christ are 
not in any sense the result of our personal choice, though we do choose in our rela- 
tions to both ). If they do not belong to the moral government of God, where shall we 
assign them ? To the physical ? That certainly can not be. Tothe divine sovereignty ? 
But that does not relieve any difficulty ; for the question still remains, Is that sov- 
ereignty, as thus exercised, just or unjust ? We must take one or the other of these. 
The whole ( of sin and grace ) is either a mystery of sovereignty — of mere omnipotence 
— or a proceeding of moral government. The question will arise with respect to grace 
as well as to sin : How can the theory that all moral government has respect only to the 
merit or demerit of personal acts, be applied to our justification ? If all sin is in sinning, 
with a personal desert of everlasting death, by parity of reasoning all holiness must 
consist in a holy choice with personal merit of eternal life. We say then, generally, that 
all definitions of sin which mean a sin are irrelevant here." Dr. Smith quotes Edwards, 
2:309 — "Original sin, the innate sinful depravity of the heart, includes not only the 



310 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

depravity of nature but the imputation of Adam's first sin, or, in other words, the liable- 
ness or exposedness of Adam's posterity, in the divine judgment, to partake of the 
punishment of that sin." For further statements with regard to race-responsibility, see 
Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 39-39 (System Doctrine, 2 : 324-333), quoted on pages 311, 313, 
among objections to the Pelagian Theory. 

The watchword of a large class of theologians— popularly called "New School"— is 
that "all sin consists in sinning,"— that is, all sin is sin of act. But we have seen that 
the dispositions and states in which a man is unlike God and his purity are also sin 
according to the meaning of the law. We have now to add that each man is responsible 
also for that sin of our first father in which the human race apostatized from God. In 
other words, we recognize the guilt of race-sin as well as of personal sin. We desire to 
say at the outset, however, that our view, and, as we believe, the Scriptural view, 
requires us also to hold : ( 1 ) that actual sin, in which the personal agent reaffirms the 
underlying evil determination of his will, is more guilty than original sin alone ; (2) that 
no human being is finally condemned solely on account of original sin ; but that all who, 
like infants, do not commit personal transgressions, are saved through the application 
of Christ's atonement; and (3) that our responsibility for inborn evil dispositions, or 
for the depravity common to the race, can be maintained only upon the ground that 
this depravity was caused by an original and conscious act of free will, when the race 
revolted from God in Adam. Over against the maxim, " All sin consists in sinning," we 
put the more correct statement : Personal sin consists in sinning, but in Adam's first 
sinning the race also sinned, so that "in Adam all die " (1 Cor. 15 : 22). 

( d ) There is a race-sin, therefore, as well as a personal sin ; and that race- 
sin was committed by the first father of the race, when he comprised the 
whole race in himself. All mankind since that time have been born in 
the state into which he fell — a state of depravity, guilt, and condemnation. 
To vindicate God's justice in imputing to us the sin of our first father, many 
theories have been devised, a part of which must be regarded as only 
attempts to evade the problem, by denying the facts set before us in the 
Scriptures. Among these attempted explanations of the Scripture state- 
ments, we proceed to examine the six theories which seem most worthy of 
attention. 

The fii'st three of the theories which we discuss may be said to be evasions of the 
problem of original sin ; all, in one form or another, deny that God imputes to all men 
Adam's sin, in such a sense that all are guilty for it. These theories are the Pelagian* 
the Arminian, and the New School. The last three of the theories which we are about 
to treat, namely, the Federal theory, the theory of Mediate Imputation, and the theory 
of Adam's Natural Headship, are all Old School theories, and have for their common 
characteristic that they assert the guilt of inborn depravity. All three, moreover, hold 
that we are in some way responsible for Adam's sin, though they differ as to the precise 
way in which we are related to Adam. We must grant that no one, even of these latter 
theories, is wholly satisfactory. We hope, however, to show that the last of them— the 
Augustinian theory, the theory of Adam's natural headship, the theory that Adam and 
his descendants are naturally and organically one — explains the largest number of facts, 
is least open to objection, and is most accordant with Scripture. 

I. Theories op Imputation. 

1. The Pelagian Theory, or Theory of Man's natural Innocence. 

Pelagius, a British monk, propounded his doctrines at Rome, 409. They 
were condemned by the Council of Carthage, 418. Pelagianism, however, 
as opposed to Augustinianism, designates a complete scheme of doctrine 
with regard to sin, of which Pelagius was the most thorough representative, 
although every feature of it cannot be ascribed to his authorship. Socinians 
and Unitarians are the more modern advocates of this general scheme. 

According to this theory, every human soul is immediately created by 
God, and created as innocent, as free from depraved tendencies, and as per- 



PELAGIAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 311 

fectly able to obey God, as Adam was at his creation. The only effect of 
Adam's sin upon his posterity is the effect of evil example ; it has in no way 
corrupted human nature; the only corruption of human nature is that 
habit of sinning which, each individual contracts by persistent transgres- 
sion of known law. 

Adam's sin therefore injured only himself ; the sin of Adam is imputed 
only to Adam, — it is imputed in no sense to his descendants ; God imputes 
to each of Adam's descendants only those acts of sin which he has person- 
ally and consciously committed. Men can be saved by the law as well as 
by the gospel ; and some have actually obeyed God perfectly, and have 
thus been saved. Physical death is therefore not the penalty of sin, but an 
original law of nature ; Adam would have died whether he had sinned or 
not; in Rom. 5 : 12, "death passed unto all men, for that all sinned," sig- 
nifies : "all incurred eternal death by sinning after Adam's example." 

Wiggers, Augustinism and Pelagianism, 59, states the seven points of the Pelagian 
doctrine as follows : ( 1 ) Adam was created mortal, so that he would have died even if 
he had not sinned ; ( 2 ) Adam's sin injured, not the human race, hut only himself ; 
(3) new-bom infants are in the same condition as Adam before the Fall ; (4) the whole 
human race neither dies on account of Adam's sin, nor rises on account of Christ's 
resurrection ; ( 5 ) infants, even though not baptized, attain eternal life ; ( 6 ) the law is 
as good a means of salvation as the gospel ; (7 ) even before Christ some men lived who 
did not commit sin. 

In Pelagius' Com. on Rom. 5 : 12, published in Jerome's Works, vol. xi, we learn who 
these sinless men were, namely, Abel, Enoch, Joseph, Job, and, among the heathen, 
Socrates, Aristides, Numa. The virtues of the heathen entitle them to reward. Their 
worthies were not indeed without evil thoughts and inclinations ; but, on the view of 
Pelagius that all sin consists in act, these evil thoughts and inclinations were not sin. 
Non pleni nascimur : we are bom, not full, but vacant, of character. Holiness, Pelagius 
thought, could not be concreated. Adam's descendants are not weaker, but stronger, 
than he ; since they have fulfilled many commands, while he did not fulfill so much as 
one. In every man there is a natural conscience ; he has an ideal of life ; he forms right 
resolves; he recognizes the claims of law; he accuses himself when he sins,— all these 
things Pelagius regards as indications of a certain holiness in all men, and misinterpre- 
tation of these facts gives rise to his system. Grace, en the Pelagian theory, is simply 
the grace of creation — G-od's originally endowing man with these high powers of reason 
and wilL "While Augustinianism regards human nature as dead, and Semi-Pelagianism. 
regards it as sick, Pelagianism proper declares it to be well. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:43 (Syst. Doct., 2 : 338 )—" Neither the body, man's sur- 
roundings, nor the inward operation of God have any determining influence upon the 
will. God reaches man only through external means, such as Christ's doctrine, 
example, and promise. This clears God of the charge of evil, but also takes from him 
the authorship of good. It is Deism, applied to man's nature. God cannot enter man's 
being if he would, and he would not if he could. Free will is everything." 27)., 1 : 626 
(Syst. Doct., 2 : 188, 189) - " Pelagianism at one time counts it too great an honor that 
man should be directly moved upon by God, and at another, too great a dishonor that 
man should not be able to do without God. In this inconsistent reasoning, it shows its 
desire to be rid of God as much as possible. The true conception of God requires a 
living relation to man, as well as to the external universe. The true conception of man 
requires satisfaction of his longings and powers by reception of impulses and strength 
from God. Pelagianism, in seeking for man a development only like that of nature, 
shows that its high estimate of man is only a delusive one ; it really degrades him, by 
ignoring his true dignity and destiny." See lb., 1 : 124, 125 (Syst. Doct., 1 : 136, 137); 
2 : 43-45 (Syst. Doct., 2 : 338, 339) ; 2 : 148 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 44). Also Schaff, Church His- 
tory, 2 : 783-856 ; Doctrines of the Early Socinians, in Princeton Essays, 1 : 194-211 ; 
Worter, Pelagianismus. For substantially Pelagian statements, see Sheldon, Sin and 
Redemption ; Ellis, Half Century of Unitarian Controversy. 76. 

Of the Pelagian theory of sin, we may say : 

A. It has never been recognized as Scriptural, nor has it been formu- 



312 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

lated in confessions, by any branch of the Christian church. Held only 
sporadically and by individuals, it has ever been regarded by the church at 
large as heresy. This constitutes at least a presumption against its truth. 

B. It contradicts Scripture in denying : 

( a ) That evil disposition and state, as well as evil acts, are sin. 

Pelagianism, holding, as it does, that virtue and vice consist only in single decisions, 
does not account for character at all. There is no such thing as a state of sin, or a self- 
propagating power of sin. And yet upon these the Scriptures lay greater emphasis 
than upon mere acts of transgression. 

( b ) That such evil disposition and state are inborn in all mankind. 

John 3 : 6 — " That which is born of the flesh is flesh " = " that which comes of a sinful and guilty 
stock is itself, from the very beginning, sinful and guilty" (Dorner). Witness the 
tendency to degradation in families and nations. 

(c) That men universally are guilty of overt transgression so soon as 
they come to moral consciousness. 

( d ) That no man is able without divine helxj to fulfill the law. 

(e) That all men, without exception, are dependent for salvation upon 
God's atoning, regenerating, sanctifying grace. 

(/) That man's present state of corruption, condemnation, and death is 
the direct effect of Adam's transgression. 

Schaff, on the Pelagian controversy, in Bib. Sac, 5 : 205-243 — The controversy "re- 
solves itself into the question whether redemption and sanctification are the work of 
man or of God. Pelagianism in its whole mode of thinking starts from man and seeks 
to work itself upward gradually, by means of an imaginary good- will, to holiness and 
communion with God. Augustinism pursues the opposite way, deriving from God's 
unconditioned and all- working grace a new life and all power of working good. The 
first is led from freedom into a legal, self-righteous piety ; the other rises from the 
slavery of sin to the glorious liberty of the children of God. Eor the first, revelation is 
of force only as an outward help, or the power of a high example ; for the last, it is the 
inmost lif e, the very marrow and blood of the new man. The first involves an Ebionitic 
view of Christ, as noble man, not high-priest or king ; the second finds in him one in 
whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The first makes conversion a 
process of gradual moral purification on the ground of original nature ; with the last, 
it is a total change, in which the old passes away and all becomes new .... Rational- 
ism is simply the form in which Pelagianism becomes theoretically complete. The high 
opinion which the Pelagian holds of the natural will is transferred with equal right 
by the Rationalist to the natural reason. The one does without grace, as the other 
does without revelation. Pelagian divinity is rationalistic. Rationalistic morality is 
Pelagian. 1 ' See this Compendium, page 50. 

C. It rests upon false philosophical principles ; as, for example, 

( a ) That the human will is simply the faculty of volitions ; whereas it is 
also, and chiefly, the faculty of self-determination to an ultimate end. 

Neander, Church History, 2 : 564-625, holds one of the fundamental principles of 
Pelagianism to be "the ability to choose, equally and at any moment, between good 
and evil." There is no recognition of the law by which acts produce states ; the power 
which repeated acts of evil possess to give a definite character and tendency to the will 
itself .—" Volition is an everlasting 'tick,' 'tick,' and swinging of the pendulum, but 
no moving forward of the hands of the clock follows." "There is no continuity of 
moral life — no character, in man, angel, devil, or God." 

( b ) That the power of a contrary choice is essential to the existence of 
will ; whereas the will fundamentally determined to self -gratification has 



PELAGIAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 313 

this power only with respect to subordinate choices, and cannot by a single 
volition reverse its moral state. 

See art. on Power of Contrary Choice, in Princeton Essays, 1 : 212-233 : Pelagianism 
holds that no confirmation in holiness is possible. Thornwell, Theology : " The sinner is 
as free as the saint ; the devil as the angel." Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 399 — " The 
theory that indifference is essential to freedom implies that will never acquires char- 
acter ; that voluntary action is atomistic, every act disintegrated from every other ; that 
character, if acquired, would be incompatible with freedom." " By mere volition the 
soul now a plenum can become a vacuum, or now a vacuum can become a plenum.'*'' On 
the Pelagian view of freedom, see Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 37-44. 

(c) That ability is the measure of obligation, — a principle which would 
diminish the sinner's responsibility, just in proportion to his progress in sin. 

(d) That law consists only in positive enactment; whereas it is the 
demand of perfect harmony with God, inwrought into man's moral nature. 

(e) That each human soul is immediately created by God, and holds no 
other relations to moral law than those which are individual ; whereas all 
human souls are organically connected with each other, and together have 
a corporate relation to God's law, by virtue of their derivation from one 
common stock. 

Notice the analogy of individuals who suffer from the effects of parental mistakes or 
of national transgression. Julius M tiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 316, 317— "Neither the atomistic 
nor the organic view of human nature is the complete truth." Each must be comple- 
mented by the other. For statement of race-responsibility, see Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 
2 : 30-39, 51-64, 161, 162 (System of Doctrine, 2 : 324-334, 345-359 ; 3 : 50-54) —"Among the 
Scripture proofs of the moral connection of the individual with the race are the visiting 
of the sins of the fathers upon the children ; the obligation of the people to punish the 
sin of the individual, that the whole land may not incur guilt ; the offering of sacrifice 
for a murder, the perpetrator of which is unknown. Achan's crime is charged to the 
whole people. The Jewish race is the better for its parentage, and other nations are the 
worse for theirs. The Hebrew people become a legal personality. 

" Is it said that none are punished for the sins of their fathers unless they are like their 
fathers ? But to be unlike their fathers requires a new heart. They who are not held 
accountable for the sins of their fathers are those who have recognized their respon- 
sibility for them, and have repented for their likeness to their ancestors. Only the self- 
isolating spirit says : ' Am I my brother's keeper ? ' ( Gen. 4:9), and thinks to construct a constant 
equation between individual misfortune and individual sin. The calamities of the 
righteous led to an ethical conception of the relation of the individual to the com- 
munity. Such sufferings show that men can love God disinterestedly, that the good has 
unselfish friends. These sufferings are substitutionary, when borne as belonging to the 
sufferer, not foreign to him, the guilt of others attaching to him by virtue of his national 
or race-relation to them. So Moses in Ex. 34 : 9, David in Ps. 51 : 6, Isaiah in Is. 59 : 9-16, recog- 
nize the connection between personal sin and race-sin. 

" Christ restores the bond between man and his fellows, turns the hearts of the fathers 
to the children. He is the creator of a new race-consciousness. In him as the head we 
see ourselves bound to, and responsible for, others. Love finds it morally impossible to 
isolate itself. It restores the consciousness of unity and the recognition of common 
guilt. Does every man stand for himself in the N. T. ? This would be so, only if each 
man become a sinner solely by free and conscious personal decision, either in the present, 
or in a past state of existence. But this is not Scriptural. Something comes before per- 
sonal transgression : ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh ' ( John 3:6). Personality is the stronger 
for recognizing the race-sin. We have common joy in the victories of the good ; so in 
shameful lapses we have sorrow. These are not our worst moments, but our best,— there 
is something great in them. Original sin must be displeasing to God ; for it perverts the 
reason, destroys likeness to God, excludes from communion with God, makes redemp- 
tion necessary, leads to actual sin, influences f uture generations. But to complain of 
God for permitting its propagation is to complain of his not destroying the race,— that 
is, to complain of one's own existence." See Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 2 : 93-110 ; Hagen- 
bach, Hist. Doctrine, 1 : 287, 296-310 ; Martensen, Dogmatics, 354-362; Princeton Essays, 
1 : 74-97 ; Dabney, Theology, 296-302, 314, 315. 



314 ANTHKOPOLOGY, OE THE DOCTEIKE OF MAN". 

2. The Arminian Theory, or TJieory of voluntarily appropriated 
Depravity. 

Arminius (1560-1609), professor in the University of Leyden, in South 
Holland, while formally accepting the doctrine of the Adamic unity of the 
race propounded both by Luther and Calvin, gave a very different interpre- 
tation to it — an interpretation which verged toward Semi-Pelagianism and 
the anthropology of the Greek Church. The Methodist body is the modern 
representative of this view. 

According to this theory, all men, as a divinely appointed sequence of 
Adam's transgression, are naturally destitute of original righteousness, and 
are exposed to misery and death. By virtue of the infirmity propagated 
from Adam to all his descendants, mankind are wholly unable without 
divine help perfectly to obey God or to attain eternal life. This inability, 
however, is physical and intellectual, but not voluntary. As matter of jus- 
tice, therefore, God bestows upon each individual from the first dawn of 
consciousness a special influence of the Holy Spirit, which is sufficient to 
counteract the effect of the inherited depravity and to make obedience pos- 
sible, provided the human will cooperates, which it still has power to do. 

The evil tendency and state may be called sin ; but they do not in them- 
selves involve guilt or punishment ; still less are mankind accounted guilty 
of Adam's sin. God imputes to each man his inborn tendencies to evil, only 
when he consciously and voluntarily appropriates and ratifies these in spite 
of the power to the contrary, which, in justice to man, God has specially 
communicated. In Rom. 5 : 12, "death passed unto all men, for that all 
sinned," signifies that physical and spiritual death is inflicted upon all men, 
not as the penalty of a common sin in Adam, but because, by divine decree, 
all suffer the consequences of that sin, and because all personally consent to 
their inborn sinfulness by acts of transgression. 

See Arminius, Works, 1 : 252-254, 317-324, 325-327, 523-531, 575-583. The description given 
above is a description of Arminianism proper. The expressions of Arminius himself 
are so guarded that Moses Stuart ( Bib. Eepos., 1831 ) found it possible to construct an 
argument to prove that Arminius was not an Arminian. But it is plain that by inher- 
ited sin Arminius meant only inherited evil, and that it was not of a sort to justify God's 
condemnation. He denied any inbeing in Adam, such as made us justly chargeable with 
Adam's sin, except in the sense that we are obliged to endure certain consequences of it. 
This Shedd has shown in his History of Doctrine, 2 : 178-196. The system of Arminius 
was more fully expounded by Limborch and Episcopius. See Limborch, Theol. Christ., 
3:4:6 (p. 189 ). The sin with which we are born " does not inhere in the soul, for this 
[soul] is immediately created by God, and therefore, if it were infected with sin, that 
sin would be from God." Many so-called Arminians, such as Whitby and John Taylor, 
were rather Pelagians. 

John Wesley, however, greatly modified and improved the Arminian doctrine. 
Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 329, 330— " Wesley anism (1) admits entire moral depravity; 

(2) denies that men in this state have any power to cooperate with the grace of God; 

(3) asserts that the guilt of all through Adam was removed by the justification of all 
through Christ; (4) ability to cooperate is of the Holy Spirit, through the universal 
influence of the redemption of Christ. The order of the decrees is (1) to permit the 
fall of man ; ( 2 ) to send the Son to be a full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world ; 
(3) on that ground to remit all original sin, and to give such grace as would enable all 
to attain eternal life ; (4) those who improve that grace and persevere to the end are 
ordained to be saved." We may add that Wesley made the bestowal upon our depraved 
nature of ability to cooperate with God to be a matter of grace, while Arminius regarded 
it as a matter of justice, man without it not being accountable. 

Wesleyanism was systematized by Watson, who, in his Institutes, 2 : 53-55, 59, 77, 



ARMLNTAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 315 

although denying the imputation of Adam'a sin in any proper sense, jet declares that 
"Limborch and others materially departed from the tenets of Arminius in denying 
inward lusts and tendencies to be sinful till complied with and improved by the will. 
But men universally choose to ratify these tendencies ; therefore they are corrupt in 
heart. If there be a universal depravity of will previous to the actual choice, then it 
inevitably follows that though infants do not commit actual sin, yet that theirs is a sin- 
ful nature .... As to infants, they are not indeed born justified and regenerate; so that 
to say original sin is taken away, as to infants, by Christ, is not the correct view of the 
case, for the reasons before given ; but they are all born under ' the free gift,' the effects 
of the ' righteousness ' of one, which is extended to all men ; and this free gift is 
bestowed on them in order to justification of life, the adjudging of the condemned to 
live .... Justification in adults is connected with repentance and faith ; in infants, we 
do not know how. The Holy Spirit may be given to children. Divine and effectual 
influence may be exerted on them, to cure the spiritual death and corrupt tendency of 
their nature." 

It will be observed that Watson's Wesleyanism is much more near to Scripture than 
what we have described, and properly described, as Arminianism proper. Pope, in his 
Theology, follows Wesley and Watson, and (2 : 70-86) gives a valuable synopsis of the 
differences between Arminius and Wesley. Whedon and Raymond, in America, better 
represent original Arminianism. They hold that God was under obligation to restore 
man's ability, and yet they inconsistently speak of this ability as a gracious ability. 
Two passages from Raymond's Theology show the inconsistency of calling that " grace," 
which God is bound in justice to bestow, in order to make man responsible. 2 : 84^86— 
" The race came into existence under grace. Existence and justification are secured for 
it only through Christ ; for, apart from Christ, punishment and destruction would have 
followed the first sin. So all gifts of the Spirit necessary to qualify him for the putting 
forth of free moral choices are secured for him through Christ. The Spirit of God is 
not a bystander, but a quickening power. So man is by grace, not by his fallen nature, 
a moral being capable of knowing, loving, obeying, and enjoying God. Such he ever 
will be, if he does not frustrate the grace of God. Not till the Spirit takes his final flight 
is he in a condition of total depravity." 

Compare with this the following passage of the same work in which this " grace " is 
called a debt. 2 : 317— "The relations of the posterity of Adam to God are substan- 
tially those of newly created beings. Each individual person is obligated to God, and 
God to him, precisely the same as if God had created him such as he is. Ability must 
equal obligation. God was not obligated to provide a Redeemer for the first transgress- 
ors, but having provided Redemption for them, and through it having permitted them 
to propagate a degenerate race, an adequate compensation is due. The gracious influ- 
ences of the Spirit are then a debt due to man — a compensation for the disabilities of 
inherited depravity." McClintock and Strong (Cyclopaedia, art.: Arminius) endorse 
Whedon's art. in the Bib. Sac, 19 : 241 as an exhibition of Arminianism, and Whedon 
himself claims it to be such. See Hagenbach, Hist. Doct., 2 : 214r-216. 

With regard to the Arminian theory we remark : ■ 

A. It is wholly extra-Scriptural in its assumptions : (a) That there is a 
universal gift of the Holy Spirit. ( b ) That this gift remedies the general 
evil derived from Adam's fall. ( c ) That without this gift man would not be 
responsible for being morally imperfect, (d) That at the beginning of 
moral life men consciously appropriate their inborn tendencies to evil. 

(a) Wesley adduced in proof of universal grace the text: John 1:9— "the light which 
lighteth every man" — which however refers, not to a universal gift of the Holy Spirit, but 
to the natural light of reason and conscience which the preincarnate Logos bestowed 
on all men, though in different degrees, before his coming in the flesh. Rom. 5 : 18 was 
also referred to — "through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life" — 
but here the "all men" is conterminous with "the many" who are " made righteous " inversely 
and with the "all " who are " made alive " in 1 Cor. 15 : 22 ; in other words, the " all " in this case 
is " all believers " : else the passage teaches, not a universal gift of the Spirit, but uni- 
versal salvation. 

(c) Must God bestow upon Satan a special gift of the Spirit, or a "gracious ability," 
before he can be responsible for his depravity or for the actual sin that proceeds there- 
from? Dabney, Theology, 315, 316— "Arminianism is orthodox as to the legal conse- 



316 ANTHROPOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

quences of Adam's sin to his posterity ; but what it gives with one hand, it takes back 
mth the other, attributing to grace the restoration of this natural ability lost by the 
fall. If the effects of Adam's fall on his posterity are such that they would have been 
unjust if not repaired by a redeeming plan that was to follow it, then God's act in pro- 
viding a Redeemer was not an act of pure grace. He was under obligation to do some 
such thing,— salvation is not grace, but debt." 

B. It contradicts Scripture in maintaining : ( a ) That inherited moral 
evil does not involve guilt. ( b ) That the gift of the Spirit, and the regen- 
eration of infants, are matters of justice, (c) That the effect of grace is 
simply to restore man's natural ability, instead of disposing him to uss that 
ability aright. ( d) That election is God's choice of certain men to be saved 
upon the ground of their foreseen faith, instead of being God's choice to 
make certain men believers, (e) That physical death is not the just pen- 
alty of sin, but is a matter of arbitrary decree. 

(a) See Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 58 ( System of Doctrine, 2 : 352-359) — " With Armin- 
ius, original sin is original evil only, not guilt. He explained the problem of original sin 
by denying the fact, and turning the native sinfulness into a morally indifferent thing. 
No sin without consent ; no consent at the beginning of human development ; there- 
fore, no guilt in evil desire. This is the same as the Romanist doctrine of concupiscence, 

and like that leads to blaming God for an originally bad constitution of our nature . 

Original sin is merely an enticement to evil addressed to the free will. All internal 
disorder and vitiosity is morally indifferent, and becomes sin only through appropria- 
tion by free will. But involuntary, loveless, proud thoughts are recognized in Scripture 
as sin ; yet they spring from the heart without our conscious consent. Undeliberate 
and deliberate sins run into each other, so that it is impossible to draw a line between 
them. The doctrine that there is no sin without consent, implies power to withhold con- 
sent. But this contradicts the universal need of redemption and our observation that 
none have ever thus entirely withheld consent from sin." 

(b) H. B. Smith's Review of Whedon on the Will, in Faith and Philosophy, 359-399— 
"A child, upon the old view, needs only growth to make him guilty of actual sin; 
whereas, upon this view, he needs growth and grace too." See Bib. Sac, 20 : 327, 328. 
According to Whedon, Com. on Rom. 5 : 12, " the condition of an infant apart from 
Christ is that of a sinner, as one sure to sin, yet never actually condemned before per- 
sonal apostasy. This ivould be its condition, rather, for in Christ the infant is regenerate 
and justified and endowed with the Holy Spirit. Hence all actual sinners are apostates 
from a state of grace." But we ask : 1. Why then do infants die before they have com- 
mitted actual sin ? Surely not on account of Adam's sin, for they are delivered from 
all the evils of that, through Christ. It must be because they are still somehow sinners. 
2. How can we account for all infants sinning so soon as they begin morally to act, if, 
before they sin, they are in a state of grace and sanctiflcation ? It must be because they 
were still somehow sinners. In other words, the universal regeneration and justifica- 
tion of infants contradict Scripture and observation. 

( c ) Notice that this " gracious " ability does not involve saving grace to the recipient, 
because it is given equally to all men. Nor is it more than a restoring to man of his 
natural ability lost by Adam's sin. It is not sufficient to explain why one man who has the 
gracious ability chooses God, while another who has the same gracious ability chooses 
self. I Cor. 4 : 7— "•whomaketh theo to differ ? " Not God, but thyself . Over against this doctrine 
of Arminians, who hold to universal, resistible grace, restoring natural ability, Calvinists 
and Augustinians hold to particular, irresistible grace, giving moral ability, or in other 
words bestowing the disposition to use natural ability aright. " Grace " is a word much 
used by Arminians. Methodist Doctrine and Discipline, Articles of Religion, viii — " The 
condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, 
by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God ; wherefore we 
have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of 
God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when 
we have that good will." It is important to understand that, in Arminian usage, grace 
is simply the restoration of man's natural ability to act for himself ; it never actually 
saves him, but only enables him to save himself —if he will. 

(d) In the Arminian system, the order of salvation is, (1) faith— by an unrenewed 
but convicted man; (2) justification; (3) regeneration, or a holy heart. God decrees 



ARMINIAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 317 

not to originate faith, but to reward it. Hence Wesleyans make faith a work, and regard 
election as God's ordaining- those who, he foresees, will of their own accord believe. 

C. It rests upon false philosophical principles, as for example : (a) That 
the will is simply the faculty of volitions. ( b ) That the power of contrary 
choice, in the sense of power by a single act to reverse one's moral state, is 
essential to will, (c) That previous certainty of any given moral act is 
incompatible with its freedom, (d) That ability is the measure of obli- 
gation, (e) That law condemns only volitional transgression. (/) That 
man has no organic moral connection with the race. 

( b ) Raymond says : " Man is responsible for character, but only so far as that char- 
acter is self-imposed. We are not responsible for character irrespective of its origin. 
Freedom from an act is as essential to responsibility as freedom to it. If power to the 
contrary is impossible, then freedom does not exist in God or man. Sin was a necessity, 
and God was the author of it." But this is a denial that there is any such thing as char- 
acter ; that the will can give itself a bent which no single volition can change ; that the 
wicked man can become the slave of sin ; that Satan, though without power now in him- 
self to turn to God, is yet responsible for his sin. The power of contrary choice which 
Adam had exists no longer in its entirety ; it is narrowed down to a power to the con- 
trary in temporary and subordinate choices ; it no longer is equal to the work of chang- 
ing the fundamental determination of the being to selfishness as an ultimate end. Yet 
for this very inability, because originated by will, man is responsible. 

Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 28—" Formal freedom leads the way to real freedom. 
The starting-point is a freedom which does not yet involve an inner necessity, but the 
possibility of something else ; the goal is the freedom which is identical with necessity 
The first is a means to the last. When the will has fully and truly chosen, the power of 
acting otherwise may still be said to exist in a metaphysical sense ; but morally, i. e- 
with reference to the contrast of good and evil, it is entirely done away. Formal free- 
dom is freedom of choice, in the sense of volition with the express consciousness of 
other possibilities." Real freedom is freedom to choose the good only, with no remain- 
ing possibility that evil will exert a counter attraction. But as the will can reach a 
" moral necessity " of good, so it can through sin reach a " moral necessity " of evil. 

( c ) Park : " The great philosophical objection to Arminianism is its denial of the 
certainty of human action — the idea that a man may act either way without certainty 
how he will act — power of a contrary choice in the sense of a moral indifference which 
can choose without motive, or contrary to the strongest motive. The New School view 
is better than this, for that holds to the certainty of wrong choice, while yet the soul 
has power to make a right one The Arminians believe that it is objectively uncer- 
tain whether a man shall act in this way or in that, right or wrong. There is nothing, 
antecedently to choice, to decide the choice. It was the whole aim of Edwards to refute 
the idea that man would not certainly sin. The old Calvinists believe that antecedently 
to the Fall Adam was in this state of objective uncertainty, but that after the Fall it was 
certain he would sin, and his probation therefore was closed. Edwards affirms that no 
such objective uncertainty or power to the contrary ever existed, and that man now has 
all the liberty he ever had or could have. The truth in ' power to the contrary ' is simply 
the power of the will to act contrary to the way it does act. President Edwards believed 
in this, though he is commonly understood as reasoning to the contrary. The false 
4 power to the contrary ' is uncertainty how one will act, or a willingness to act otherwise 
than one does act. This is the Arminian power to the contrary, and it is this that 
Edwards opposes." 

(e) Whedon, On the Will, 338-360, 388-395— "Prior to free volition, man maybe uncon- 
formed to law, yet not a subject of retribution. The law has two offices, one judicatory 
and critical, the other retributive and penal. Hereditary evil may not be visited with 
retribution, as Adam's concreated purity was not meritorious. Passive, prevolitional 
holiness is moral rectitude, but not moral desert. Passive, prevolitional impurity needs 
concurrence of active will to make it condemnable." 

D. It renders uncertain either the universality of sin or man's respon- 
sibility for it. If man has full power to refuse consent to inborn depravity, 
then the universality of sin and the universal need of a Savior are merely 
hypothetical. If sin however be universal, there must have been an absence 



318 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

of free consent, and the objective certainty of man's sinning, according to 
the theory, destroys his responsibility. 

Raymond, Syst. Theol., 2 : 86-89, holds it "theoretically possible that a child may be so 
trained and educated in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, as that he will never 
knowingly and willingly transgress the law of God; in which case he will certainly 
grow up into regeneration and final salvation. But it is grace that preserves him from 
sin— [common grace?]. We do not know, either from experience or Scripture, that 
none have been free from known and willful transgressions." Per contra, see Julius 
Muller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 320-326 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 479-494 ; Bib. Sac, 23 : 206 ; 28 : 279 ; 
Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 56 sq. 

3. The New School Theory, or- Theory of uneondemnable Vitiosity. 

This theory is called New School, because of its recession from the old 
Puritan anthropology of which Edwards and Bellamy in^the last century 
were the expounders. The New School theory is a general scheme built 
up by the successive labors of Hopkins, Emmons, Dwight, Taylor, and 
Finney. It is held at present by New School Presbyterians, and by the 
larger part of the Congregational body. 

According to this theory, all men are born with a physical and moral con- 
stitution which predisposes them to sin, and all men do actually sin so soon 
as they come to moral consciousness. This vitiosity of nature may be 
called sinful, because it uniformly leads to sin ; but it is not itself sin, since 
nothing is to be properly denominated sin but the voluntary act of trans- 
gressing known law. 

God imputes to men only their own acts of personal transgression ; he 
does not impute to them Adam's sin ; neither original vitiosity nor physical 
death are penal inflictions ; they are simply consequences which God has in 
his sovereignty ordained to mark his displeasure at Adam's transgression, 
and subject to which evils God immediately creates each human soul. In 
Rom. 5:12, ''death passed unto all men, for that all sinned," signifies: 
"spiritual death passed on all men, because all men have actually and per- 
sonally sinned." 

Edwards held that God imputes Adam's sin to his posterity by arbitrarily identifying 
them with him,— identity, on the theory of continuous creation ( see pages 205, 206 ), being 
only what God appoints. Since this did not furnish sufficient ground for imputation, 
Edwards joined the Placean doctrine to the other, and showed the justice of the condem- 
nation by the fact that man is depraved. He adds, moreover, the consideration that 
man ratifies this depravity by his own act. So Edwards tried to combine three views. 
But all were vitiated by his doctrine of continuous creation, which logically made God 
the only cause in the universe, and left no freedom, guilt, or responsibility to man. He 
believed in "a real union between the root and the branches of the world of mankind, 
established by the author of the whole system of the universe .... the full consent of 
the hearts of Adam's posterity to the first apostasy .... and therefore the sin of the 
apostasy is not theirs merely because God imputes it to them, but it is truly and prop- 
erly theirs, and on that ground God imputes it to them." Hagenbach, Hist. Doct., 2 : 435- 
448, esp. 436, quotes from Edwards: "The guilt a man has upon his soul at his first 
existence is one and simple, viz. : the guilt of the original apostasy, the guilt of the sin 
by which the species first rebelled against God." Interpret this by other words of 
Edwards : " The child and the acorn, which come into existence in the course of nature, 
are truly immediately created by God"— i. e., continuously created (quoted by Dodge, 
Christian Theology, 188). 

Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 2 : 25, claims Edwards as a Traducianist. But Fisher, Discus- 
sions, 240, shows that he was not. As we have seen ( Prolegomena, page 26 ), Edwards 
thought too little of nature. He tended to Berkeleyanism as applied to mind. Hence 
the chief good was in happiness — a form of sensibility. Virtue is voluntary choice of this 
good. Hence union of acts and exercises with Adam was sufficient. This God's will 
might make identity of being with him. Baird, Elohim Revealed, 250 sq., says well, that 



NEW SCHOOL THEORY OF IMPUTATION". 319 

44 Edwards's idea that the character of an act was to he sought somewhere else than in 
its cause involves the fallacious assumption that acts have a subsistence and moral 
agency of their own apart from that of the actor." This divergence from the truth led 
to the Exercise-system of Hopkins and Emmons, who not only denied moral character 
prior to individual choices (i, c, denied sin of nature), but attributed all human acts 
and exercises to the direct efficiency of G-od. On Emmons, see Works, 4 : 503-507, and 
Bib. Sac, 7 : 479 ; 20 : 317 ; also H. B. Smith, in Faith and Philosophy, 215-263. 

N. W. Taylor, of New Haven, agreed with Hopkins and Emmons that there is no 
imputation of Adam's sin or of inborn depravity. He called that depravity physical, 
not moral. But he repudiated the doctrine of divine efficiency in the production of 
man's acts and exercises, and made all sin to be personal. He held to the power of 
contrary choice. Adam had it, and contrary to the belief of Augustinians, he never 
lost it. Man "not only can if he will, but he can if he won't." He can, but, without 
the Spirit, will not. Yet he did not hold to the Arminian liberty of indifference or con- 
tingence. He believed in the certainty of wrong action, yet in power to the contrary. 
See Moral Government, 2 : 132— "The error of Pelagius was not in asserting that man 
can obey God without grace, but in saying that man does actually obey God without 
grace." There is a part of the sinner's nature to which the motives of the gospel may 
appeal— a part of his nature which is neither holy nor unholy, viz. self-love, or innocent 
desire for happiness. Greatest happiness is the g-round of obligation. Under the influ- 
ence of motives appealing to happiness, the sinner can suspend his choice of the world 
as his chief good, and can give his heart to God. He can do this, whatever the Holy 
Spirit does, or does not do ; but the moral inability can be overcome only by the Holy 
Spirit, who moves the soul, without coercing, by means of the truth. On Dr. Taylor's 
system, and its connection with prior New England theology, see Fisher, Discussions, 
285-354. 

This form of New School doctrine suggests the following questions : 1. Can the sinner 
suspend his selfishness before he is subdued by divine grace ? 2. Can his choice of God 
from mere self-love be a holy choice ? 3. Since God demands love in every choice, must 
it not be a positively unholy choice ? 4. If it is not itself a holy choice, how can it be a 
beginning of holiness ? 5. If the sinner can become regenerate by preferring God on 
the ground of self-interest, where is the necessity of the Holy Spirit to renew the heart? 
6. Does not this asserted ability of the sinner to turn to G-od contradict consciousness 
and Scripture ? For Taylor's views, see his Revealed Theology, 134-309. For criticism 
of them, see Hodge, in Princeton Kev., Jan., 1868 : 63 sc, and 368-398 ; also, Tyler, Letters 
on the New Haven Theology. Neither Hopkins and Emmons on the one hand, nor 
Taylor on the other, represent most fully the general course of New England theology. 
Smalley, Dwight, Woods, all held to more conservative views than Taylor, or than 
Finney, whose system had much resemblance to Taylor's. All three of these denied the 
power of contrary choice which Dr. Taylor so strenuously maintained, although all 
agreed with him in denying the imputation of Adam's sin or of our hereditary deprav- 
ity. These are not sinful, except in the sense of being occasions of actual sin. 

Dr. Park, of Andover, is understood to teach that the disordered state of the sensi- 
bilities and faculties with which we are born is the immediate occasion of sin, while 
Adam's transgression is the remote occasion of sin. The will, though influenced by an 
evil tendency, is still free ; the evil tendency itself is not free, and therefore is not sin. 
The statement of New School doctrine given in the text is intended to represent the 
common New England doctrine, as taught by Smalley, Dwight, Woods, and Park; 
although the historical tendency, even among these theologians, has been to emphasize 
less and less the depraved tendencies prior to actual sin, and to maintain that moral 
character begins only with individual choice, most of them, however, holding that this 
individual choice begins at birth. See Bib. Sac, 7 : 552, 567; 8 : 607-647; 20 : 462-471, 576- 
593 ; Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 407-412. 

To the New School theory we object as follows : 

A. It contradicts Scripture in maintaining or implying : ( a ) That sin 
consists solely in acts, and in the dispositions caused in each case by man's 
individual acts, and that the state which predisposes to acts of sin is not 
itself sin. ( b ) That the vitiosity which jxredisposes to sin is a part of each 
man's nature as it proceeds from the creative hand of God. (c) That 
physical death in the human race is not a penal consequence of Adam's 



320 AXTHROPOLOGY, OK THE DOCTRIXE OF MAX. 

transgression, (d) That infants, before moral consciousness, do not need 
Christ's sacrifice to save them. Since they are innocent, no penalty rests 
npon them, and none needs to be removed, (e) That we are neither 
condemned upon the ground of actual inbeing in Adam, nor justified upon 
the ground of actual inbeing in Christ. 

If a child may not be unholy before he voluntarily transgresses, then, by parity of 
reasoning, Adam could not have been holy before he obeyed the law, nor can a change 
of heart precede Christian action. Xew School principles would compel us to assert 
that right action precedes change of heart, and that obedience in Adam must have 
preceded his holiness. Emmons held that, if children die before they become moral 
agents, it is most rational to conclude that they are annihilated. They are mere 
animals. The common Xew School doctrine would regard them as saved either on 
account of their innocence, or because the atonement of Christ avails to remove the 
consequences as well as the penalty of sin. 

But to say that infants are pure contradicts Rom. 5 . 12— "all sinned*' ; i Cor. 7 : 14 — "else were 
tout children unclean" ; Eph. 2 : 3 — "by nature children of -wrath." That Christ's atonement removes 
natural consequences of sin, is nowhere asserted or implied in Scripture. See per 
contra, H. B. Smith, System, 271, where, however, it is only maintained that Christ saves 
from all the just consequences of sin. But all just consequences are penalty, and should 
be so called. The exigencies of Xew School doctrine compel it to put the beginning of 
sin in the infant at the very first moment of its separate existence,— in order not to 
contradict those Scriptures which speak of sin as being universal, and of the atonement 
as being needed by all. But by putting sin thus early in human experience, all meaning 
is taken out of the Xew School definition of sin as the " voluntary transgression of 
known law.'' It is difficult to say, upon this theory, what sort of a choice the infant 
makes of sin, or what sort of a known laic it violates. 

B. It rests upon false philosophical principles, as for example : (a) That 
the soul is immediately created by God. (b ) That the law of God consists 
wholly in outward command. ( c ) That present natural ability to obey the 
law is the measure of obligation, (d) That man's relations to moral law 
are exclusively individual. ( e ) That the will is merely the faculty of indi- 
vidual and personal choices. (/) That the will, at man's birth, has no 
moral state or character. 

See Baird, Elohim Revealed, 250 sq — " Personality is inseparable from nature. The 
one duty is love. Unless any given duty is performed through the activity of a princi- 
ple of love springing up in the nature, it is not performed at all. The law addresses the 
nature. The efficient cause of moral action is the proper subject of moral law. It is 
only in the perversity of unscriptural theology that we find the absurdity of separating 
the moral character from the substance of the soul, and tying it to the vanishing deeds 
of lif e. The idea that responsibility and sin are predicable of . actions merely is only 
consistent with an utter denial that man's nature as such owes anything to God, or has 
.an office to perform in showing forth his glory. It ignores the fact that actions are 
empty phenomena, which in themselves have no possible value. It is the heart, soul, 
might, mind, strength, with which we are to love. Christ conformed to the law, by 
being 'that holy thing' (Luke 1 : 35, marg.)." 

C. It impugns the justice of God : 

( a ) By regarding him as the direct creator of a vicious nature which 
infallibly leads every human being into actual transgression. To maintain 
that, in consequence of Adam's act, God brings it about that all men 
become sinners, and this, not by virtue of inherent laws of propagation, 
but by the direct creation in each case of a vicious nature, is to make God 
indirectly the author of sin. 

(b) By representing him as the inflicter of suffering and death upon 
-milli ons of human beings who in the present life do not come to moral 
consciousness, and who are therefore, according to the theory, perfectly 



N"EW SCHOOL THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 321 

Innocent. This is to make him visit Adam's sin on his posterity, while at 
the same time it denies that moral connection between Adam and his pos- 
terity which alone could make such visitation just. 

( c ) By holding that the probation which God appoints to men is a sepa- 
rate probation of each soul, when it first comes to moral consciousness and 
is least qualified to decide aright. It is much more consonant with our ideas 
of the divine justice, that the decision should have been made by the whole 
race, in one whose nature was pure and who perfectly understood God's law, 
than that heaven and hell should have been determined for each of us by a 
decision made in our own inexperienced childhood, under the influence of 
a vitiated nature. 

On this theory, God determines, in his mere sovereignty, that because one man sinned, 
all men should be called into existence depraved, under a constitution which secures the 
certainty of their sinning. But we claim that it is unjust that any should suffer without 
ill-desert. To say that God thus marks his sense of the guilt of Adam's sin is to con- 
tradict the main principle of the theory, namely, that men are held responsible only for 
their own sins. We prefer to justify God by holding that there is a reason for this inflic- 
tion, and that this reason is the connection of the infant with Adam. If mere tendency 
to sin is innocent, then Christ might have taken it, when he took our nature. But if he 
had taken it, it would not explain the fact of the atonement, for upon this theory it 
would not need to be atoned for. 

"Man kills a snake," says Raymond, "because it is a snake, and not because it is to 
blame for being a snake," — which seems to us a new proof that the advocates of inno- 
cent depravity regard infants, not as moral beings, but as mere animals. " We must 
distinguish automatic excellence or badness," says Raymond again, " from moral desert, 
whether good or ill." This seems to us a doctrine of punishment without guilt. Prince- 
ton Essays, 1 : 138, quote Coleridge : " It is an outrage on common sense to affirm that it 
is no evil for men to be placed on their probation under such circumstances that not 
one of ten thousand millions ever escapes sin and condemnation to eternal death. 
There is evil inflicted on us, as a consequence of Adam's sin, antecedent to our personal 
transgressions. It matters not what this evil is, whether temporal death, corruption of 
nature, certainty of sin, or death in its more extended sense ; if the ground of the evil's 
coming on us is Adam's sin, the principle is the same." Baird, Elohim Revealed, 488 — 
So, it seems, " if a creature is punished, it implies that some one has sinned, but does not 
necessarily intimate the sufferer to be the sinner ! But this is wholly contrary to the 
argument of the apostle in Rom. 5 : 12-19, which is based upon the opposite doctrine, and 
it is also contrary to the justice of God, who punishes only those who deserve it." See 
Julius Muller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 67-74. 

D. Its limitation of responsibility to the evil choices of the individual 
and the dispositions caused thereby is inconsistent with the following facts : 

(a) The first moral choice of each individual is so undeliberate as not to 
be remembered. Put forth at birth, as the chief advocates of the New 
School theory maintain, it does not answer to their definition of sin as a 
voluntary transgression of known law. Responsibility for such choice does 
not differ from responsibility for the inborn evil state of the will which 
manifests itself in that choice. 

( b ) The uniformity of sinful action among men cannot be explained by 
the existence of a mere faculty of choices. That men should uniformly 
choose may be thus explained ; but that men should uniformly choose evil, 
requires us to postulate an evil tendency or state of the will itself, prior to 
these separate acts of choice. This evil tendency or inborn determination 
to evil, since it is the real cause of actual sins, must itself be sin, and as such 
must be guilty and condemnable. 
21 



322 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

(e) Power in the will to prevent the inborn vitiosity from developing- 
itself is upon this theory a necessary condition of responsibility for actual 
sins. But the absolute uniformity of actual transgression is evidence that 
the will is practically impotent. If responsibility diminishes as the difficul- 
ties in the way of free decision increase, the fact that these difficulties are 
insuperable shows that there can be no responsibility at all. To deny the 
guilt of inborn sin is therefore virtually to deny the guilt of the actual sin 
which springs therefrom. 

The aim of all the theories is to find a decision of the will which will justify God in 
condemning men. Where shall we find such a decision ? At the age of fifteen, ten, five ? 
Then all who die before this age are not sinners, cannot justly be punished with death, 
do not need a Savior. Is it at birth ? But decision at such a time is not such a conscious 
decision against God as, according to this theory, would make it the proper determiner 
of our future destiny. We claim that the theory of Augustine — that of a sin of the 
race in Adam — is the only one that shows a conscious transgression fit to be the cause 
and ground of man's guilt and condemnation. 

Causa causae est causa causati. Inborn depravity is the cause of the first actual sin. 
The cause of inborn depravity is the sin of Adam. If there be no guilt in original sin, 
then the actual sin that springs therefrom cannot be guilty. There are subsequent 
presumptuous sins in which the personal element overbears the element of race and 
heredity. But this cannot be said of the first acts which make man a sinner. These are 
so naturally and unif ormlj r the result of the inborn determination of the will, that they 
cannot be guilty, unless that inborn determination is also guilty. In short, not all sin is 
personal. There must be a sin of nature — a race-sin — or the beginnings of actual sin 
cannot be accounted for or regarded as objects of God's condemnation. Julius Muller, 
Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 320-328, 341— "If the deep-rooted depravity which we bring with us 
into the world be not our sin, it at once becomes an excuse for our actual sins." Prince- 
ton Essays, 1 : 138, 139 : Alternative : 1. May a man by his own power prevent the devel- 
opment of this hereditary depravity ? Then we do not know that all men are sinners, 
or that Christ's salvation is needed by all. 2. Is actual sin a necessary consequence of 
hereditary depravity ? Then it is, on this theory, a free act no longer, and is not guilty, 
since guilt is predicable only of voluntary transgression of known law. See Baird, 
Elohim Revealed, 256 sq. ; Hodge, Essays, 571-633 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3 : 61-73 ; 
Edwards on the Will, part iii, sec. 4 ; Bib. Sac, 20 : 317-320. 

4. The Federal Theory, or Theory of Condemnation by Covenant. 

The Federal theory, or theory of the Covenants, had its origin with 
Cocceius (1603-1669), professor at Leyden, but was more fully elaborated 
by Turretin (1623-1687). It has become a tenet of the Reformed as dis- 
tinguished from the Lutheran church, and in this country it has its main 
advocates in the Princeton school of theologians, of whom Dr. Charles 
Hodge was the representative. 

According to this view, Adam was constituted by God's sovereign appoint- 
ment the representative of the whole human race. With Adam as their 
representative, God entered into covenant, agreeing to bestow upon them 
eternal life on condition of his obedience, but making the penalty of his 
disobedience to be the corruption and death of all his posterity. In accord- 
ance with the terms of this covenant, since Adam sinned, God accounts all 
his descendants as sinners, and condemns them because of Adam's trans- 
gression. 

In execution of this sentence of condemnation, God immediately creates 
each soul of Adam's posterity with a corrupt and depraved nature, which 
infallibly leads to sin, and which is itself sin. The theory is therefore a 
theory of the immediate imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, their 



FEDERAL THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 323 

corruption of nature not being the cause of that imputation, but the effect 
of it. In Rom. 5 : 12, "death passed unto all men, for that all sinned," 
signifies: "physical, spiritual, and eternal death came to all, because all 
were regarded and treated as sinners. " 

Fisher, Discussions, 355-409, compares the Augustinian and Federal theories of Origi- 
nal Sin. His account of the Federal theory and its origin is substantially as follows : 
The Federal theory is a theory of the covenants (foedus, a covenant). 1. The covenant 
is a sovereign constitution imposed by God. 2. Federal union is the legal ground of 
imputation, though kinship to Adam is the reason why Adam and not another was 
selected as our representative. 3. Our guilt for Adam's sin is simply a legal responsi- 
bility. 4. That imputed sin is punished by inborn depravity, and that inborn depravity 
by eternal death. Augustine could not reconcile inherent depravity with the justice of 
God ; hence he held that we sinned in Adam. 

So Anselm says: "Because the whole human nature was in them (Adam and Evey, 
and outside of them there was nothing of it, the whole was weakened and corrupted." 
After the first sin "this nature was propagated just as it had made itself by sinning." 
All sin belongs to the will ; but this is a part of our inheritance. The descendants of 
Adam were not in him as individuals ; yet what he did as a person, he did not do sine, 
iiatura, and this nature is ours as well as his. So Peter Lombard. Sins of our immediate 
ancestors, because they are qualities which are purely personal, are not propagated. 
After Adam's first sin, the actual qualities of the first parent or of other later parents 
do not corrupt the nature as concerns its qualities, but only as concerns the qualities 
of the person. 

Calvin maintained two propositions : 1. We are not condemned for Adam's sin apart 
from our own inherent depravity which is derived from him. The sin for which we 
are condemned is our own sin. 2. This sin is ours, for the reason that our nature is 
vitiated in Adam, and we receive it in the condition in which it was put by the first 
transgression. Melancthon also held to an imputation of the first sin conditioned upon 
our innate depravity. The impulse to Federalism was given by the difficulty, on the pure 
Augustinian theory, of accounting for the non-imputation of Adam's subsequent sins, 
and those of his posterity. 

Cocceius, the author of the covenant-theory, conceived that he had solved this diffi- 
culty by making Adam's sin to be imputed to us upon the ground of a covenant 
between God and Adam, according to which Adam was to stand as the representative of 
his posterity. In Cocceius's use of the term, however, the only difference between 
covenant and command is found in the promise attached to the keeping of it. Fisher 
remarks on the mistake, in modern defenders of imputation, of ignoring the capital fact 
of a true and real participation in Adam's sin. The great body of Calvinistic theolo- 
gians in the 17th century were Augustinians as well as Federalists. So Owen and the 
Westminster Confession. Turretin, however, almost merged the natural relation to 
Adam in the federal. 

Edwards fell back on the old doctrine of Aquinas and Augustine. He tried to make 
out a real participation in the first sin. The first rising of sinful inclination, by a 
divinely constituted identity, is this participation. But Hopkins and Emmons regarded 
the sinful inclination, not as a real participation, but only as a constructive consent to 
Adam's first sin. Hence the New School theology, in which the imputation of Adam's 
sin was given up. On the contrary, Calvinists of the Princeton school planted them- 
selves on the Federal theory, and taking Turretin as their text book, waged war on 
New England views, not wholly sparing Edwards himself. After this review of the 
origin of the theory, for which we are mainly indebted to Fisher, it can be easily seen 
how little show of truth there is in the assumption of the Princeton theologians that 
the Federal theory is "the immemorial doctrine of the church of God." 

Statements of the theory are found in Cocceius, Summa Doct rinse de Fcedere, cap. 1, 5; 
Turretin, Inst., loc. 9, quses. 9; Princeton Essays, 1 : 98-1&5, esp. 120— "In imputation 
there is, first, an ascription of something to those concerned ; secondly, a determination 
to deal with them accordingly." The ground for this imputation is " the union between 
Adam and his posterity, which is twofold,— a natural union, as between father and 
children, and the union of representation, which is the main idea here insisted on." 
123— "As in Christ we are constituted righteous by the imputation of righteousness, so 

in Adam we are made sinners by the imputation of his sin Guilt is liability or 

exposedness to punishment : it does not in theological usage imply moral turpitude 
or criminality." 162 — Turretin is quoted : " The foundation therefore of imputation is 



324 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

not merely the natural connection which exists between us and Adam — for, were this 
the case, all his sins would be imputed to us— but principally the moral and federal, on 
the ground of which God entered into covenant with him as our head. Hence in that 
sin Adam acted not as a private but a public person and representative." The oneness 
results from contract; the natural union is frequently not mentioned at all. Marck: 
All men sinned in Adam, "eos representantc." The acts of Adam and of Christ are ours 
"jure representationis." 

G. W. Northrup makes the order of the Federal theory to be : ( 1 ) imputation of 
Adam's guilt; (2) condemnation on the ground of this imputed guilt; (3) corruption 
of nature consequent upon treatment as condemned." So judicial imputation of 
Adam's sin is the cause and ground of innate corruption. The Presb. Rev., Jan., 1882: 
30, claims that Kloppenburg (1642) preceded Cocceius (1648) in holding to the theory 
of the Covenants, as did also the Canons of Dort. For additional statements of Feder- 
alism, see Hodge, Essays, 49-86, and Syst. Theol., 2 : 192-204; Bib. Sac. 21 : 95-107; Cun- 
ningham, Historical Theology. 

To the federal theory we object : 

A. It is extra-Scriptural, there being no mention of such a covenant 
with Adam in the account of man's trial. The assumed allusion to Adam's 
apostasy in Hosea 6 : 7, where the word "covenant" is used, is too preca- 
rious and too obviously metaphorical to afford the basis for a scheme of 
imputation (see Henderson, Com. on Minor Prophets, in loco). In Heb. 
8 : 8 — " new covenant " — there is suggested a contrast, not with an Adamic, 
but with the Mosaic covenant {cf. verse 9). 

In Hosea 6 : 7— "they like Adam [marg. 'men'] have transgressed the covenant" (Rev. Ver. ) — the cor- 
rect translation is given by Henderson, Minor Prophets: "But they, like men that break a 
covenant, there they proved false to me." LXX : avrol Si €l<tlv tos av&punos Tvapafialvuv Sta^-qKriv. 
De Wette : "Aber sie iibertreten den Bund nach Menschenart ; daselbst sind sie mir 
treulos." Here the word adam, translated "man," either means "a man," or "man," 
i. e., generic man. " Israel had as little regard to their covenants with God as men of 
unprincipled character have for ordinary contracts." "Like a man"=as men do. 
Compare Ps. 82:7 — "ye shall die like men"; Hosea 8:1,2 — "they have transgressed my covenant" — an 
allusion to the Abrahamic or Mosaic covenant. Heb. 8 : 9 — " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, 
that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah ; not according to the covenant 
which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt." 

B. . It contradicts Scripture, in making the first result of Adam's sin to 
be God's regarding and treating the race as sinners. The Scripture, on 
the contrary, declares that Adam's offense constituted us sinners (Rom. 5 : 
19). We are not sinners simply because God regards and treats us as such, 
but God regards us as sinners because we are sinners. Death is said to have 
"passed unto all men," not because all were regarded and treated as sinners, 
but "because all sinned" (Eom. 5 : 12). 

For a full exegesis of the passage Rom. 5 : 12-19, see note to the discussion of the Theory 
of Adam's Natural Headship, pages 331-333. 

C. It impugns the justice of God by implying : 

(a) That God holds men responsible for the violation of a covenant 
which they had no part in establishing. The assumed covenant is only a 
sovereign decree ; the assumed justice, only arbitrary will. 

"We not only never authorized Adam to make such a covenant, but there is no evidence 
that he ever made one at all. It is not even certain that Adam knew he should have 
posterity. In the case of the imputation of, our sins to Christ, Christ covenanted vol- 
untarily to bear them, and joined himself to our nature that he might bear them. In 
the case of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us, we first become one with 
Christ, and upon the ground of our union with him are justified. But upon the Federal 



PLACEAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 325 

theory, we are condemned upon the ground of a covenant which we neither instituted, 
nor participated in, nor assented to. 

( b ) That upon the basis of this covenant God accounts men as sinners 
who are not sinners. But God judges according to truth. His condemna- 
tions do not proceed upon a basis of legal fiction. He can regard as 
responsible for Adam's transgression only those who in some real sense 
have been concerned, and have had part, in that transgression. 

See Baird, Elohim Revealed, 544—" Here is a sin, which is no crime, but a mere condi- 
tion of being" regarded and treated as sinners ; and a guilt, which is devoid of sinfulness, 
and which does not imply moral demerit or turpitude," — that is, a sin which is no sin, 
and a guilt which is no guilt. Why might not God as justly reckon Adam's sin to the 
account of the fallen angels, and punish them for it? Dorner, System Doct., 2 : 351 ; 3 : 53, 
54—" Hollaz held that God treats men in accordance with what he foresaw all would do, 
if they were in Adam's place " ( scientia media and imputatio metaphysica ). Birks, Diffi- 
culties of Belief, 141—" Immediate imputation is as unjust aaimputatio metaphysica, i. e., 
God's condemning us for what he knew we would have done in Adam's place. On such 
a theory there is no need of a trial at all. God might condemn half the race at once to 
hell without probation, on the ground that they would ultimately sin and come thither 
at any rate." Justification can be gratuitous, but not condemnation. " Like the social- 
compact theory of government, the covenant-theory of sin is a mere legal fiction. It 
explains, only to belittle. The theory of New England theology, which attributes to 
mere sovereignty God's making us sinners in consequence of Adam's sin, is more reason- 
able than the Federal theory " ( Fisher ). 

(c ) That, after accounting men to be sinners who are not sinners, God 
makes them sinners by immediately creating each human soul with a cor- 
rupt nature such as will correspond to his decree. This is not only to 
assume a false view of the origin of the soul, but also to make God directly 
the author of sin. Imputation of sin cannot precede and account for cor- 
ruption ; on the contrary, corruption must precede and account for imputa- 
tion. 

By God's act we became depraved, as a penal consequence of Adam's act imputed to 
us solely as peccatum alienum. Dabney, Theology, 343, says the theory regards the soul 
as originally pure until imputation. See Hodge on Rom. 5 : 13 ; Syst. Theol., 2 : 203, 210 ; 
Thornwell, Theology, 1 : 346-349 ; Chalmers, Institutes, 1 : 485, 487. The Federal theory 
" makes sin in us to be the penalty of another's sin, instead of being 1 the penalty of our 
own sin, as on the Augnstinian scheme, which regards depravity in us as the punish- 
ment of our own sin in Adam .... It holds to a sin which does not bring eternal pun- 
ishment, but for which we are legally responsible as truly as Adam." It only remains 
to say that Dr. Hodge always persistently refused to admit the one added element which 
might have made his view less arbitrary and mechanical, namely, the traducian theory 
of the origin of the soul. He was a creatianist, and to the end maintained, that God 
immediately created the soul, and created it depraved. For objections to the Federal 
theory, see Fisher, Discussions, 401 sq. ; Bib. Sac, 20 : 455-462, 577 ; New Englander, 1868 : 
551-603 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 305-334, 435-450 ; Julius Mtiller, Doct. Sin., 2 : 336 ; Dab- 
ney, Theology, 341-351. 

5. Theory of Mediate, Imputation, or Theory of Condemnation for 
Depravity. 

This theory was first maintained by Placeus (1606-1655), professor of 
Theology at Saumur in France. Placeus originally denied that Adam's sin 
was in any sense imputed to his posterity, but after his doctrine was con- 
demned by the Synod of tho French Reformed Church at Charenton in 
1644, he published the view which now bears his name. 

According to this view, all men are born physically and morally depraved; 



326 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

this native depravity is the source of all actual sin, and is itself sin ; in 
strictness of speech, it is this native depravity, and this only, which God 
imputes to men. So far as man's physical nature is concerned, this inborn 
sinfulness has descended by natural laws of propagation from Adam to all 
his posterity. The soul is immediately created by God, but it becomes 
actively corrupt so soon as it is united to the body. Inborn sinfulness is 
the consequence, though not the penalty, of Adam's transgression. 

There is a sense, therefore, in which Adam's sin may be said to be im- 
puted to his descendants, — it is imputed, not immediately, as if they had 
been in Adam or were so represented in him that it could be charged 
directly to them, corruption not intervening, — but it is imputed mediately, 
through and on account of the intervening corruption which resulted from 
Adam's sin. As on the Federal theory imputation is the cause of depravity, 
so on this theory depravity is the cause of imputation. In Rom. 5 : 12, 
"death passed unto all men, for that all sinned," signifies : "death physical, 
spiritual, and eternal passed upon all men, because all sinned by possessing 
a depraved nature." 

See Placeus, De Imputatione Primi Peccati Adami, in pera, 1 : 709— "The sensitive 
soul is produced from the parent ; the intellectual or rational soul is directly created. 
The soul, on entering the corrupted physical nature, is not passively corrupted, but 
becomes corrupt actively, accommodating itself to the other part of human nature in 
character." 710 — So this soul " contracts from the vitiosity of the dispositions of the 
body a corresponding vitiosity, not so much by the action of the body upon the soul, as 
by that essential appetite of the soul by which it unites itself to the body in a way 
accommodated to the dispositions of the body, as liquid put into a bowl accommodates 
itself to the figure of the bowl. God was therefore neither the author of Adam's fall, 
nor of the propagation of sin." 

Herzog, Encyclopaedic, art. : Placeus — " In the title of his Works we read ' Placaeus ' ; 
he himself, however, wrote ' Placeus,' which is the more correct Latin form [ of the 
French ' de la Place ' ]. In Adam's first sin, Placeus distinguished between the actual 
sinning and the first habitual sin ( corrupted disposition ). The former was transient ; 
the latter clung to his person, and was propagated to all. It is truly sin, and it is imputed 
to all, since it makes all condemnable. Placeus believes in the imputation of this cor- 
rupted disposition, but not in the imputation of the first act of Adam, except mediately, 
through the imputation of the inherited depravity." Fisher, Discussions, 389— "Mere 
native corruption is the whole of original sin. Placeus justifies his use of the term 
'imputation' by Rom. 2 : 26— 'If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his 
uncircumcision be reckoned [imputed] for circumcision? * Our own depravity is the necessary con- 
dition of the imputation of Adam's sin, just as our own faith is the necessary condition 
of the imputation of Christ's righteousness." 

The two most noted modern advocates of the theory of Mediate Imputation are, in 
Great Britain, G. Payne, in his book entitled : Original Sin ; and in America, H. B. 
Smith, in his System of Christian Doctrine, 284, 285, 314-323. The editor of Dr. Smith's 
work says : " On the whole, he favored the theory of Mediate Imputation. There is a 
note which reads thus : ' Neither Mediate nor Immediate Imputation is wholly satisfac- 
tory.' Understand by ' Mediate Imputation ' a full statement of the facts in the case, 
and the author accepted it ; understand by it a theory professing to give the final ex- 
planation of the facts, and it was ' not wholly satisfactory.' " Dr. Smith himself says, 
316— "Original sin is a doctrine respecting the moral conditions of human nature as 
from Adam— generic : and it is not a doctrine respecting personal liabilities and desert. 
For the latter, we need more and other circumstances. Strictly speaking, it is not sin, 
which is deserving, but only the sinner. The ultimate distinction is here : There is a 
well-grounded difference to be made between personal desert, strictly personal char- 
acter and liabilities ( of each individual under the divine law, as applied specifically, e. g. 
in the last adjudication ), and a generic moral condition — the antecedent ground of such 
personal character. 

"The distinction, however, is not between what has moral quality and what has not, 
but between the moral state of each as a member of the race, and his personal liabilities 



PLACEAN THEOKY OF IMPUTATION. 327 

-and desert as an individual. This original sin would wear to us only the character of 
evil, and not of sinfulness, were it not for the fact that we feel guilty in view of our 
corruption when it becomes known to us in our own acts. Then there is involved in it 
not merely a sense of evil and misery, hut also a sense of guilt ; moreover, redemption 
is also necessary to remove it, which shows that it is a moral state. Here is the point of 
junction between the two extreme positions, that we sinned in Adam, and that all sin 
consists in sinning-. The guilt of Adam's sin is — this exposure, this liability on account 
of such native corruption, our having the same nature in the same moral bias. The 
guilt of Adam's sin is not to be separated from the existence of this evil disposition. 
And this guilt is what is imputed to us." See art. on H. B. Smith, in Presb. Rev., 1881 : 
"He did not fully acquiesce in Placeus's view, which makes the corrupt nature by 
descent the only ground of imputation." 

The theory of Mediate Imputation is exposed to the following objections : 

A. It gives no explanation of man's responsibility for his inborn 
depravity. No explanation of this is possible, which does not regard 
man's depravity as having had its origin in a free personal act, either of 
the individual, or of collective human nature in its first father and head. 
But this participation of all men in Adam's sin the theory expressly denies. 

The theory holds that we are responsible for the effect, but not for the cause— "post 
Adamum, non propter Adamum." But, says Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 209, 331— "If 
this sinful tendency be in us solely through the act of others, and not through our own 
deed, they, and not we, are responsible for it,— it is not our guilt, but our misfortune. 
And even as to actual sins which spring from this inherent sinful tendency, these are 
not strictly our own, but the acts of our first parents through us. Why impute them 
to us as actual sins, for which we are to be condemned ? Thus, if we deny the existence 
of guilt, we destroy the reality of sin, and vice versa." Thornweli, Theology, 1 : 348, 349 
—This theory "does not explain the sense of guilt, as connected with depravity of 
nature, — how the feeling of ill-desert can arise in relation to a state of mind of which 
we have been only passive recipients. The child does not reproach himself for the 
afflictions which a father's f ollies have brought upon him. But our inward corruption 
we do feel to be our own fault,— it is our crime as well as our shame." 

B. Since the origination of this corrupt nature cannot be charged to the 
account of man, man's inheritance of it must be regarded in the light of an 
arbitrary divine infliction — a conclusion which reflects upon the justice of 
God. Man is not only condemned for a sinfulness of which God is the 
author, but is condemned without any real probation, either individual or 
collective. 

Dr. Hovey, Outlines of Theology, objects to the theory of Mediate Imputation, 
because: "1. It casts so faint a light on the justice of God in the imputation of 
Adam's sin to adults who do as he did. 2. It casts no light on the justice of God in 
bringing into existence a race inclined to sin by the fall of Adam. The inherited bias is 
still unexplained, and the imputation of it is a riddle, or a wrong, to the natural under- 
standing." It is unjust to hold us guilty of the effect, if we be not first guilty of the 
cause. 

C. It contradicts those passages of Scripture which refer the origin of 
human condemnation, as well as of human depravity, to the sin of our first 
parents, and which represent universal death, not as a matter of divine 
sovereignty, but as a judicial infliction of penalty upon all men for the sin 
of the race in Adam (Rom. 5 : 16, 18). It moreover does violence to the 
Scripture in its unnatural interpretation of "all sinned," in Rom. 5 : 12 — 
words which iinply the oneness of the race with Adam, and the causative 
relation of Adam's sin to our guilt. 

Certain passages which Dr. H. B. Smith, System, 317, quotes from Edwards, as favor- 
ing the theory of Mediate Imputation, seem to us to favor quite a different view. See 
Edwards, 2 : 482 sg. — "The first existing of a corrupt disposition in their hearts is not to 



328 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

be looked upon as sin belonging to them distinct from their participation in Adam's 
first sin ; it is, as it were, the extended pollution of that sin through the whole tree, by 

virtue of the constituted union of the branches with the root I am humbly of 

the opinion that, if any have supposed the children of Adam to come into the world 
with a double guilt, one the guilt of Adam's sin, another the guilt arising from their 
having a corrupt heart, they have not so well considered the matter." And afterwards : 
" Derivation of evil disposition ( or rather co-existence ) is in consequence of the union," 
— but "not properly a consequence of the imputation of his sin ; nay, rather antecedent 
to it, as it was in Adam himself. The first depravity of heart, and the imputation of 
that sin, are both the consequences of that established union ; but yet in such order, 
that the evil disposition is first, and the charge of guilt consequent, as it was in the case 
of Adam himself." 

Edwards quotes Stapfer : " The Reformed divines do not hold immediate and mediate 
imputation separately, but always together." And still further, 2 : 493 — "And there- 
fore the sin of the apostasy is not theirs, merely because God imputes it to them ; but it 
is truly and properly theirs, and on that ground God imputes it to them." It seems to 
us that Dr. Smith mistakes the drift of these passages from Edwards, and that in 
making the identification with Adam primary, and imputation of his sin secondary, 
they favor the theory of Adam's Natural Headship rather than the theory of Mediate 
Imputation. Edwards regards the order as (1) apostasy; (2) depravity; (3) guilt; — 
but in all three, Adam and we are, by divine constitution, one. To be guilty of the 
depravity, therefore, we must first be guilty of the apostasy. 

See Cunningham, Hist. Theology, 1 : 496-639; Princeton Essays, 1 : 129, 154, 168 ; Hodge, 
Syst. Theol., 2:205-214; Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 2:158; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 46, 47, 
474-479, 504-507. 

6. The Augustinian Theory, or Theory of Adam's Natural Headship. 

This theory was first elaborated by Augustine (354-430), the great oppo- 
nent of Pelagius; although its central feature appears in the writings of 
Tertullian (died about 220), Hilary (350), and Ambrose (374). It is fre- 
quently designated as the Augustinian view of sin. It was the view held 
by the Reformers, Zwingie excepted. Its principal advocates in this 
country are Dr. Shedd and Dr. Baird. 

It holds that God imputes the sin of Adam immediately to all his poster- 
ity, in virtue of that organic unity of mankind by which the whole race at 
the time of Adam's transgression existed, not individually, but seminally, 
in him as its head. The total life of humanity was then in Adam ; the race 
as yet had its being only in him. Its essence was not yet individualized ; 
its forces were not yet distributed ; the powers which now exist in separate 
men were then unified and localized in Adam ; Adam's will was yet the will 
of the species. In Adam's free act, the will of the race revolted from God 
and the nature of the race corrupted itself. The nature which we now 
possess is the same nature that corrupted itself in Adam — "not the same in 
kind merely, but the same as flowing to us continuously from him." 

Adam's sin is imputed to us immediately, therefore, not as something 
foreign to us, but because it is ours — we and all other men having existed 
as one moral person, or one moral whole, in him, and, as the result of that 
transgression, possessing a nature destitute of love to God and prone to 
evil. In Rom. 5 : 12 — "death passed unto all men, for that all sinned," 
signifies: "death physical, spiritual, and eternal passed unto all men, 
because all sinned in Adam their natural head. " 

Milton, Par. Lost, 9 : 414— "Where likeliest he [Satan] might find The only two of 
mankind, but in them The whole included race, his purpos'd prey." Augustine, De Pec. 
Mer. et Rem., 3 : 7— " In Adamo omnes tunc peccaverunt, quanto in ejus natura adhuc- 
omnes ille unus fuerunt"; De Civ. Dei, 13, 14— "Omnes enim fuimus in illo uno, 
quando omnes fuimus ille unus .... Nondum erat nobis singillatim creata et dis- 



AUGUSTINIAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 329 

tributa forma in qua singuli viveremus, sed jam natura erat seminalis ex qua propaga- 
remur." On Augustine's view, see Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 43-45 ( System Doct., 2 : 
338, 339)— In opposition to Pelagius who made sin to consist in single acts, "Augustine 
emphasized the sinful state. This was a deprivation of original righteousness + inordi- 
nate love. Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilarius, Ambrose had advocated traducianism, accord- 
ing to which, without their personal participation, the sinfulness of all is grounded in 
Adam's free act. They incur its consequences as an evil which is, at the same time, 
punishment of the inherited fault. But Irenaeus, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, say 
Adam was not simply a single individual but the universal man. We were comprehended 
in him, so that in him we sinned. On the first view, the posterity were passive ; on the 
second, they were active, in Adam's sin. Augustine represents both views, desiring to 
unite the universal sinfulness involved in traducianism with the universal will and guilt 
involved in cooperation with Adam's sin. Adam, therefore, to him, is a double concep- 
tion, and = individual + race." 

Mozley on Predestination, 402 — "In Augustine, some passages refer all wickedness to 
original sin ; some account for different degrees of evil by different degrees of original 
sin (Op. imp. cont. Julianum, 4:128 — 'Malitia naturalis .... in aliis minor, in aliis 
major est ' ) ; in some, the individual seems to add to original sin ( De Correp. et Gratia, 
c. 13—' Per liberum arbitrium aha insuper addiderunt, alii majus, alii minus, sed omnes 
mail.' De Grat. et Lib. Arbit., 2 : 1 —'Added to the sin of their birth sins of their own 
commission ' ; 2:4 — ' Neither denies our liberty of will, whether to choose an evil or a 
good life, nor attributes to it so much power that it can avail anything without God's 
grace, or that it can change itself from evil to good ' )." These passages seem to show 
that, side by side with the race-sin and its development, Augustine recognized a domain 
of free personal decision, by which each man could to some extent modify his character, 
and make himself more or less depraved. 

Calvin was essentially Augustinian and realistic ; see his Institutes, book 2, chap. 1-3 ; 
Hagenbach, Hist. Doct., 1 : 505, 506, with the quotations and references. Zwingle was 
not an Augustinian. He held that native vitiosity, although it is the uniform occasion 
of sin, is not itself sin : " It is not a crime, but a condition and a disease." See Hagen- 
bach, Hist. Doct., 2 : 256, with references. The Reformers, with the single exception of 
Zwingle, were Augustinians, and accounted for the hereditary guilt of mankind, not 
by the fact that all men were represented in Adam, but that all men participated in 
Adam's sin. 

The theory of Adam's Natural Headship regards humanity at large as the outgrowth of 
one germ. Though the leaves of a tree appear as disconnected units when we look down 
upon them from above, a view from beneath will discern the common connection with 
the twigs, branches, trunk, and will finally trace their life to the root, and to the seed 
from which it originally sprang. The race of man is one, because it sprang from one 
head. Its members are not to be regarded atomistically, as segregated individuals ; the 
deeper truth is the truth of organic unity. Yet we are not philosophical realists ; we do 
not believe in the separate existence of universals. We hold to " universalia in re, but 
insist that the universals must be recognized as realities, as truly as the individuals are " 
( H. B. Smith, System, 319, note ). Three acorns have a common fife as three spools have 
not. Moderate realism is true of organic things ; conceptualism is true of inorganic 
classes ; nominalism is true only of proper names. Our realism then only asserts the real 
historical connection of each member of the race with its first father and head, and such 
a derivation of each from him, as makes us partakers of the character which he formed. 
Adam was once the race ; and when he fell, the race fell. On realism, see Koehler, Real- 
ismus und Nominalismus ; Neander, Ch. Hist., 4 : 356; Dorner, Person of Christ, 2 : 377; 
Hase, Anselm, 2 : 77 ; F. E. Abbott, Scientific Theism, Introd., 1-29, and in Mind, Oct., 
1882 : 476, 477 ; Raymond, Theology, 2 : 30-33; especially, Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 69-74. 

The new conceptions of the reign of law and of the principle of heredity which pre- 
vail in modern science are working to the advantage of Christian theology. The 
doctrine of Adam's Natural Headship is only a doctrine of the hereditary transmission 
of character from the first father of the race to his descendants. Hence we use the 
word " imputation " in its proper sense — that of a reckoning or charging to us of that 
which is truly and properly ours. See Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 259-357, esp. 
328 — " The problem is : We must allow that the depravity, which all Adam's descendants 
inherit by natural generation, nevertheless involves personal guilt ; and yet this deprav- 
ity, so far as it is natural, wants the very conditions on which guilt depends. The only 
satisfactory explanation of this difficulty is the Christian doctrine of original sin. Here 
alone, if its inner possibility can be maintained, can the apparently contradictory prin- 
ciples be harmonized, viz. : the universal and deep-seated depravity of human nature, 



330 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

as the source of actual sin, and individual responsibility and guilt." These words, 
though written by one who advocates a different theory, are nevertheless a valuable 
argument in corroboration of the theory of Adam's Natural Headship. 

Thorn well, Theology, 1 : 343 —"We must contradict every Scripture text and every 
Scripture doctrine which makes hereditary impurity hateful to God and punishable in 
his sight, or we must maintain that we sinned in Adam in his first transgression." Sec- 
retan, in his Work on Liberty, held to a collective life of the race in Adam. He was 
answered by Naville, Problem of Evil : We existed in Adam, not individually, but sem- 
inally. Bersier, The Oneness of the Race, in its Fall and in its Future : " If we are com- 
manded to love our neighbor as ourselves, it is because our neighbor is ourself ." 

See Edwards, Original Sin, part 4, chap. 3 ; Shedd, on Original Sin, in Discourses and 
Essays, 218-271, and references, 261-263, also Dogm. Theol., 2:181-195; Baird, Elohim 
Revealed, 410-435, 451-460, 494 ; Schaff, in Bib. Sac, 5 : 230, and in Lange's Com., on Rom. 
5:12; Auberlen, Div. Revelation, 175-180; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3:28-38, 204-236; 
Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 269-400 ; Martensen, Dogmatics, 173-183 ; Mur- 
phy, Scientific Bases, 262 sq., cf. 101; Birks, Difficulties of Belief, 135; Bp. Reynolds, Sin- 
fulness of Sin, in Works, 1 : 102-350 ; Mozley on Original Sin, in Lectures, 136-152 ; Kendall, 
on Natural Heirship, or All the World Akin, in Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1885 : 614-626. 
Per contra, see Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 157-164, 227-257; Haven, in Bib. Sac, 20 : 451-455; 
Criticism of Baird's doctrine, in Princeton Rev., Apr., 1860 : 335-376 ; of Schaff 's doctrine, 
in Princeton Rev., Apr., 1870 : 239-262. 

We regard this theory of the Natural Headship of Adam as the most satis- 
factory of the theories mentioned, and as furnishing the most important 
help towards the understanding of the great problem of original sin. In 
its favor may be urged the following considerations : 

A. It puts the most natural interpretation upon Rom. 5 : 12-21. In 
verse 12 of this passage — "death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" 
— the great majority of commentators regard the word "sinned" as 
describing a common transgression of the race in Adam. The death 
spoken of is, as the whole context shows, mainly though not exclusively 
physical. It has passed upon all — even upon those who have committed 
no conscious and x^ersonal transgression whereby to explain its infliction 
(verse 14). The legal phraseology of the passage shows that this infliction 
is not a matter of sovereign decree, but of judicial penalty (verses 13, 14, 
15, 16, 18 — "law," "transgression," "trespass," "judgment .... of one 
unto condemnation," "act of righteousness," "justification"). As the 
explanation of this universal subjection to penalty, we are referred to 
Adam's sin. By that one act ( "so," verse 12) — the "trespass of the one" 
man (v. 15, 17), the "one trespass" (v. 18) — death came to all men, 
because all [not 'have sinned', but] sinned {■kclvteq tf/uaprov — aorist of 
instantaneous past action) — that is, all sinned in "the one trespass" of 
"the one" man. Compare 1 Cor. 15 : 22 — "As in Adam all die" — where 
the contrast with physical resurrection shows that physical death is meant ; 
2 Cor. 5 : 14 — "one died for all, therefore all died." See Commentaries of 
Meyer, Bengel, Olshausen, Philippi, Wordsworth, Lange, Godet, Shedd. 

B. It permits whatever of truth there may be in the Federal theory and 
in the theory of Mediate Imputation to be combined with it, while neither 
of these latter theories can be justified to reason unless they are regarded 
as corollaries or accessories of the truth of Adam's Natural Headship. Only 
on this supposition of Natural Headship could God justly constitute Adam 
our representative, or hold us responsible for the dej^raved nature we have 
received from him. It moreover justifies God's ways, in postulating a real 
and a fair probation of our common nature as preliminary to imputation of 



AUGUSTIXIAK" THEOKY OF IMPUTATION. 331 

sin — a truth -which the theories just mentioned, in common with that of 
the New School, virtually deny, — while it rests upon correct philosophical 
|Drinciples with regard to will, ability, law, and accej)ts the Scriptural 
representations of the nature of sin, the penal character of death, the 
origin of the soul, and the oneness of the race in the transgression. 

C. While its fundamental presupposition — a determination of the will 
of each member of the race jDrior to his individual consciousness — is an 
hypothesis difficult in itself, it is an hypothesis which furnishes the key to 
many more difficulties than it suggests. Once allow that the race was one 
in its first ancestor and fell in him, and light is thrown on a problem 
otherwise insoluble — the problem of our accountability for a sinful nature 
which we have not personally and consciously originated. Since we can- 
not, with the three theories first mentioned, deny either of the terms of 
this problem — inborn depravity or accountability for it, — we accept this 
solution as the best attainable. 

D. We are to remember, however, that while this theory of the method 
of our union with Adam is merely a valuable hypothesis, the problem 
which it seeks to explain is, in both its terms, presented to us both by 
conscience and by Scripture. In connection with this problem a central 
fact is announced in Scripture, which we feel compelled to believe upon 
divine testimony, even though every attempted explanation should prove 
unsatisfactory. That central fact, which constitutes the substance of the 
Scripture doctrine of original sin, is simply this : that the sin of Adam is 
the immediate cause and ground of inborn depravity, guilt, and condemna- 
tion to the whole human race. 

Three things must be received on Scripture testimony: (1) inborn depravity; 

(2) guilt and condemnation therefor; (3) Adam's sin the cause and ground of both. 
From these three positions of Scripture it seems not only natural, but inevitable, to 
draw the inference that we "all sinned" in Adam. The Augustinian theory simply puts 
in a link of connection between two sets of facts which otherwise would be difficult to 
reconcile. But, in putting in that link of connection, it claims that it is merely bring- 
ing out into clear light an underlying but implicit assumption of Paul's reasoning, and 
this it seeks to prove by showing that upon no other assumption can Paul's reasoning 
be understood at all. 

Philippi, Com. on Rom., 168 — Interpret Rom. 5: 12— "one sinned for all, therefore all 
sinned," by 2 Cor. 5 : 15— "one died for all, therefore all died." Evans, in Presb. Rev., 1883 : 294— 
"by the trespass of the one the many died," "by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one," "through the 
one man's disobedience " — all these phrases, and the phrases with respect to salvation which 
correspond to them, indicate that the fallen race and the redeemed race are each 
regarded as a multitude, a totality. So ol navreg in 2 Cor. 5 : 14 indicates a corresponding 
conception of the organic unity of the race. Of r^xa-prov in Rom. 5 : 12, Prof. A\ r . A. Stevens 
says: ''This might conceivably be: (1) the historical aorist proper, used in its momen- 
tary sense ; (2) the comprehensive or collective aorist, as in &t.r)\dev in the same verse ; 

(3) the aorist used in the sense of the English perfect, as in Rom. 3 : 23 — ndvTes yap rip-apro* 
Kal v<TTepoi>i>Tai. In 5 : 12, the context determines with great probability that the aorist is 
used in the first of these senses." We may add that interpreters are not wanting who 
so take n^-^p^ov in 3 : 23 ; see also margin of Rev. Version. But since the passage Rom. 5 : 
12-19 is so important, we proceed to examine it in greater detail. Our treatment is 
mainly a reproduction of the substance of Shedd's Commentary, although we have 
combined with it remarks from Meyer, Schaff , Moule, and others. 

Exposition of Rom. 5 : 12-19.— Parallel between the salvation in Christ and the ruin 
that has come through Adam, in each case through no personal act of our own, neither 
by our earning salvation in the case of the life received through Christ, nor by our 
individually sinning in the case of the death received through Adam. The statement of 
the parallel is begun in 



332 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

Verse 12 : " As through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men,, 
for that all sinned," so (as we may complete the interrupted sentence) by one man right- 
eousness entered into the world, and life by righteousness, and so life passed upon all 
men, because all became partakers of this righteousness. Both physical and spiritual 
death is meant. That it is physical, is shown (1) from verse 14; (2) from the allusion 
to Gen. 3:19; (3) from the universal Jewish and Christian assumption that physical 
death was the result of Adam's sin. See Wisdom 2 : 23, 24 ; Sirach 25 : 24 ; 2 Esdras 3 : 
7, 21 ; 7 : 11, 46, 48, 118 ; 9 : 19; John 8 : 44; 1 Cor. 15 : 21. That it is spiritual, is evident from 
Rom. 5 : 18, 21, 23, where £u»? is the opposite of ddvaros, and from 2 Tim. 1 : 10, where the same 
contrast occurs. The outw? in verse 12 shows the mode in which historically death has 
come to all, namely, that the one sinned, and thereby brought death to all ; in other 
words, death is the effect, of which the sin of the one is the cause. By Adam's act, 
physical and spiritual death passed upon all men, because all sinned. <?<p* <5 = because, 
on the ground of the fact that, for the reason that, all sinned. Trdvres = all, without 
exception, infants included, as verse 14 teaches. 

"Kixaproy mentions the particular reason why all men died, viz., because all men sinned. 
It is the aorist of momentary past action— sinned when, through the one, sin entered 
into the world. It is as much as to say, " because, when Adam sinned, all men sinned 
in and with him." This is proved by the succeeding explanatory context ( verses 15-19 ), in 
which it is reiterated five times in succession that one and only one sin is the cause of 
the death that befalls all men. Compare 1 Cor. 15 : 22. The senses " all were sinful," " all 
became sinful," are inadmissible, for dixapraveiv is not a/uapTa>Ab»> yLyvea&at. or elrat. The 
sense "death passed upon all men, because all have consciously and personally sinned," 
is contradicted ( 1 ) by verse 14, in which it is asserted that certain persons who are a part 
of 7rdi/Tes, the subject of r)p.aprou, and who suffer the death which is the penalty of sin, 
did not commit sins resembling Adam's first sin, i. e., individual and conscious trans- 
gressions ; and (2) by verses 15-19, in which it is asserted repeatedly that only one sin, and 
not millions of transgressions, is the cause of the death of all men. This sense would 
seem to require e</>' <5 iravres d^apTdvovcriv. Neither can rip-aprov have the sense "were 
accounted and treated as sinners"; for (1) there is no other instance in Scripture 
where this active verb has a passive signification ; and (2) the passive makes y]p.a.pTov to 
denote God's action, and not man's. This would not furnish the justification of the 
infliction of death, which Paul is seeking. 

Verse 13 begins a demonstration of the proposition, in verse 12, that death comes to all, 
because all men sinned the one sin of the one man. The argument is as follows : Before 
the law sin existed ; for there was death, the penalty of sin. But this sin was not sin 
committed against the Mosaic law, because that law was not yet in existence. The 
death in the world prior to that law proves that there must have been some other law, 
against which sin had been committed. 

Verse 14. Nor could it have been personal and conscious violation of an unwritten law, 
for which death was inflicted ; for death passed upon multitudes, such as infants and 
idiots, who did not sin in their own persons, as Adam did, by violating some known 
commandment. Infants are not specifically named here, because the intention is to 
include others who, though mature in years, have not reached moral consciousness. 
But since death is everywhere and always the penalty of sin, the death of all must have 
been the penalty of the common sin of the race, when Travre? ^apT-ov in Adam. The law 
which they violated was the Eden statute, Gen. 2 : 17. The relation between their sin and 
Adam's is not that of resemblance, but of identity. Had the sin by which death came 
upon them been one like Adam's, there would have been as many sins, to be the cause 
of death and to account for it, as there were individuals. Death would have come into 
the world through millions of men, and not "through one man" (verse 12), and judgment 
would have come upon all men to condemnation through millions of trespasses, and not 
" through one trespass " ( v. 18 ). The object, then, of the parenthetical digression in verses 13 and 
14 is to prevent the reader from supposing, from the statement that "all men sinned," 
that the individual transgressions of all men are meant, and to make it clear that only 
the one first sin of the one first man is intended. Those who died before Moses must- 
have violated some law. The Mosaic law, and the law of conscience, have been ruled 
out of the case. These persons must, therefore, have sinned against the commandment 
in Eden, the probationary statute ; and their sin was not similar ( o^oi^s ) to Adam's, 
but Adam's identical sin, the very same sin numerically of the " one man." They did not, 
in their own persons and consciously, sin as Adam did ; yet in Adam, and in the nature 
common to him and them, they sinned and fell ( versus Current Discussions in Theology,. 
5 : 277, 278). They did not sin like Adam, but they "sinned in him, and fell with him, fix 
that first transgression " ( Westminster Larger Catechism, 22 ). 



AUGUSTINTAN THEORY OF IMPUTATION. 333 

Verses 15-17 show how the work of grace differs from, and surpasses, the work of sin. 
Over against God's exact justice in punishing all for the first sin which all committed in 
Adam, is set the gratuitous justification of all who are in Christ. Adam's sin is the act 
of Adam and his posterity together ; hence the imputation to the posterity is just and 
merited. Christ's obedience is the work of Christ alone ; hence the imputation of it to 
the elect is gracious and unmerited. Here tovs ttoAAous is not of equal extent with oi 
jtoAAoc in the first clause, because other passages teach that "the many" who die in Adam 
are not conterminous with "the many" who five in Christ ; see 1 Cor. 15 : 22 ; Mat. 25 : 46 ; also, 
see note on verse 18, below. Tovs ttoAAovs here refers to the same persons who, in verse 17, are 
said to "receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness." Yerse 16 notices a numerical dif- 
ference between the condemnation and the justification. Condemnation results from 
one offence; justification delivers from many offences. Verse 17 enforces and explains 
verse 16. If the union with Adam in his sin was certain to bring destruction, the union 
with Christ in his righteousness is yet more certain to bring salvation. 

Verse 18 resumes the parallel between Adam and Christ which was commenced in verse 12, 
but was interrupted by the explanatory parenthesis in verses 13-17. "As through one trespass 
.... unto all men to condemnation ; even so through one act of righteousness .... unto all men unto justification 
of [necessary to] life." Here the "all men to condemnation "= the oi ttoAAoi in verse 15; and the 
"all men unto justification of life "= the tous ttoAAov? in verse 15. There is a totality in each case ; 
but, in the former case, it is the "all men" who derive their physical fife from Adam,— in 
the latter case, it is the "all men" who derive their spiritual fife from Christ (compare 
1 Cor. 15 : 22 — "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive " — in which last clause Paul 
is speaking, as the context shows, not of the resurrection of all men, both saints and 
sinners, but only of the blessed resurrection of the righteous ; in other words, of the 
resurrection o± those who are one with Christ ). 

Verse 19. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners, even so through the obedi- 
ence of the one shall the many be constituted righteous." The many were constituted sinners because, 
according to verse 12, they sinned in and with Adam in his fall. The verb presupposes 
the fact of natural union between those to whom it relates. All men are declared to 
be sinners on the ground of that "one trespass," because, when that one trespass was com- 
mitted, all men were one man — that is, were one common nature in the first human 
pair. Sin is imputed, because it is committed. All men are punished with death, because 
they literally sinned in Adam, and not because they are metaphorically reputed to have 
done so, but in fact did not. Oi ?roAAoi is used in contrast with the one forefather, and 
the atonement of Christ is designated as £770x077, in order to contrast it with the ira.pax.o-q 
of Adam. 

KaTaa-Ta^aovrat has the same signification as in the first part of the verse. Aucoxoi 
Ka.Tao-Tafrrio-ovTa.1. means simply "shall be justified," and is used instead of SiKauo&rjo-ovTan., 
in order to make the antithesis of a/xapTcoAoi KaTeo-raiJbjo-av more perfect. This being "con- 
stituted righteous" presupposes the fact of a union between 6 els and oi ttoAAoi, i. e. between 
Christ and believers, just as the being "constituted sinners" presupposed the fact of a union 
between 6 el? and oi 7roAAoi, i. e. between all men and Adam. The future KaTao-Ta&qo-ovTai. 
refers to the succession of believers; the justification of all was, ideally, complete 
already, but actually, it would await the times of individual believing. "The many" who 
shall be "constituted righteous "= not all mankind, but only "the many" to whom, in verse 15, 
grace abounded, and who are described, in verse 17, as " they that receive abundance of grace and of 
the gift of righteousness." 

11 But this union differs in several important particulars from that between Adam and 
his posterity. It is not natural and substantial, but moral and spiritual ; not generic 
and universal, but individual and by election ; not caused by the creative act of God, 
but by his regenerating act. All men without exception are one with Adam; only 
believing men are one with Christ. The imputation of Adam's sin is not an arbitrary 
act, in the sense that, if God so pleased, he could reckon it to the account of any beings 
in the universe, by a volition. The sin of Adam could not be imputed to the fallen 
angels, for example, and punished in them, because they never were one with Adam by 
unity of substance and nature. The fact that they have committed actual transgression 
of their own will not justify the imputation of Adam's sin to them, any more than the 
fact that the posterity of Adam have committed actual transgressions of their own 
would be a sufficient reason for imputing the first sin of Adam to them. Nothing but a 
real union of nature and being can justify the imputation of Adam's sin ; and, similarly, 
the obedience of Christ could no more be imputed to an unbelieving man than to a lost 
angel, because neither of these is morally and spiritually one with Christ" (Shedd). 
For a different interpretation ( iqnapTov = sinned personally and individually ), see Ken- 
urick, in Bap. Rev., 1885 : 48-72. 



334 



ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN". 









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OBJECTION'S TO THE AUGUSTIHIAN THEORY. 335 

II. — Objections to the Augustinian Doctrine of Imputation. 

The doctrine of Imputation, to which we have thus arrived, is met by its 
opponents with the following objections. In discussing them, we are to 
remember that a truth revealed in Scripture may have claims to our belief, 
in spite of difficulties to us insoluble. Yet it is hoped that examination will 
show the objections in question to rest either upon false philosophical prin- 
ciples or upon misconceptions of the doctrine assailed. 

A. That there can be no sin apart from and prior to consciousness. 

This we deny. The larger part of men's evil dispositions and acts are 
imperfectly conscious, and of many such dispositions and acts the evil qual- 
ity is not discerned at all. The objection rests upon the assumption that 
law is confined to published statutes or to standards formally recognized by 
its subjects. A profounder view of law as identical with the constituent 
principles of being, as binding the nature to conformity with the nature of 
God, as demanding right volitions only because these are manifestations of 
a right state, as having claims upon men in their corporate capacity, deprives 
this objection of all its force. 

If our aim is to find a conscious act of transgression upon which to base God's charge 
of guilt and man's condemnation, we can find this more easily in Adam's sin than at 
the beginning of each man's personal history ; for no human being can remember his 
first sin. The main question at issue is therefore this : Is all sin personal ? We claim 
that both Scripture and reason answer this question in the negative. There is such a 
thing as race-sin and race-responsibility. 

B. That man cannot be responsible for a sinful nature which he did not 
personally originate. 

We reply that the objection ignores the testimony of conscience and of 
Scripture. These assert that we are responsible for what we are. The sin- 
ful nature is not something external to us, but is our inmost selves. If man's 
original righteousness and the new affection implanted in regeneration have 
moral character, then the inborn tendency to evil has moral character ; a& 
the former are commendable, so the latter is condemnable. 

If it be said that sin is the act of a person, and not of a nature, we reply that in Adam 
the whole of human nature once subsisted in the form of a single personality, and the 
act of the person could be at the same time the act of the nature. That which could 
not be at any subsequent point of time, could be and was, at that time. Human nature 
could fall in Adam, though that fall could not be repeated in the case of any one of his 
descendants. Hovey, Outlines, 129—" Shall we say that will is the cause of sin in holy 
beings, while wrong desire is the cause of sin in unholy beings ? Augustine held this." 
Pepper, Outlines, 112— "We do not fall each one by himself. We were so on probation 
in Adam, that his fall was our fall." 

C. That Adam's sin cannot be imputed to us, since we cannot repent 
of it. 

The objection has plausibility only so long as we fail to distinguish 
between Adam's sin as the inward apostasy of the nature from God, and 
Adam's sin as the outward act of transgression which followed and mani- 
fested that apostasy. We cannot indeed repent of Adam's sin as our per- 
sonal act or as Adam's personal act, but regarding his sin as the apostasy of 
our common nature — an apostasy which manifests itself in our personal 
transgressions as it did in his, we can repent of it and do repent of it. In 



336 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN". 

truth it is this nature, as self -corrupted and averse to God, for which the 
Christian most deeply repents. 

God, we know, has not made our nature as we find it. We are conscious of our 
depravity and apostasy from God. We know that God cannot be responsible for this; 
we know that our nature is responsible. But this it could not be, unless its corruption 
were self -corruption. For this self -corrupted nature we should repent, and do repent. 
Anselm, De Concep. Virg., 23 — "Adam sinned in one point of view as a person, in 
another as man (i. e. as human nature which at that time existed in him alone). But 
since Adam and humanity could not be separated, the sin of the person necessarily 
affected the nature. This nature is what Adam transmitted to his posterity, and trans- 
mitted it such as his sin had made it, burdened with a debt which it could not pay, robbed 
of the righteousness with which God had originally invested it ; and in every one of his 
descendants this impaired nature makes the persons sinners. Yet not in the same degree 
sinners as Adam was, for the latter sinned both as human nature and as a person, while 
new-born infants sin only as they possess the nature,"— more briefly, in Adam a person 
made nature sinful ; in his posterity, nature makes persons sinful. 

D. That if we be responsible for Adam's first sin, we must also be 
responsible not only for every other sin of Adam, but for the sins of our 
immediate ancestors. 

We reply that the apostasy of human nature could occur but once. It 
occurred in Adam before the eating of the forbidden fruit, and revealed 
itself in that eating. The subsequent sins of Adam and of our immediate 
ancestors are no longer acts which determine or change the nature, — they 
only show what the nature is. Here is the truth and the limitation of the 
Scripture declaration that "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father " 
(Ez. 18 : 20 ; c/. Luke 13 : 2, 3 ; John 9 : 2, 3). Man is not responsible 
for the si3ecifically evil tendencies communicated to him from his immediate 
ancestors, as distinct from the nature he possesses ; nor is he responsible for 
the sins of those ancestors which originated these tendencies. But he is 
responsible for that original apostasy which constituted the one and final 
revolt of the race from God, and for the personal depravity and disobedi- 
ence which in his own case has resulted therefrom. 

Augustine, Encheiridion, 46, 47, leans toward an imputing of the sins of immediate 
ancestors, but intimates that, as a matter of grace, this may be limited to "the third and 
fourth generation" (Ex. 20 : 5 ). Aquinas thinks this last is said by God, because fathers live to 
see the third and fourth generation of their descendants, and influence them by their 
example to become voluntarily like themselves. Burgesse, Original Sin, 397, adds the 
covenant-idea to that of natural generation, in order to prevent imputation of the sins 
of immediate ancestors as well as those of Adam. So also Shedd. But Baird, Elohim 
Revealed, 508, gives a better explanation, when he distinguishes between the first sin of 
nature when it apostatized, and those subsequent personal actions which merely mani- 
fest the nature but do not change it. Imagine Adam to have remained innocent, but 
one of his posterity to have fallen. Then the descendants of that one would have been 
guilty for the change of nature in him, but not guilty for the sins of ancestors inter- 
vening between him and them. 

We add that man may direct the course of a lava-stream, already flowing downward, 
into some particular channel, and may even dig a new channel for it down the mountain. 
But the stream is constant in its quantity and quality, and is under the same influence 
of gravitation in all stages of its progress. I am responsible for the downward tendency 
which my nature gave itself at the beginning ; but I am not responsible for inherited 
and specifically evil tendencies as something apart from the nature, — for they are not 
apart from it — they are forms or manifestations of it. These tendencies run out after 
a time,— not so with sin of nature. The declaration of Ezekiel ( 18 : 20 ), " the son shall not bear 
the iniquity of the father," like Christ's denial that blindness was due to the blind man's indi- 
vidual sins or those of his parents (John 9 : 2, 3 ), simply shows that God does not impute 
to us the sins of our immediate ancestors ; it is not inconsistent with the doctrine that 
all the physical and moral evil of the world is the result of a sin of Adam with which 
the whole race is chargeable. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE At'GUSTIXIAX THEOET. 337 

Peculiar tendencies to avarice or sensuality inherited from one's immediate ancestry- 
are merely wrinkles in native depravity which add nothing- to its amount or its g-uilt. 
Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:88-94— "To inherit a temperament is to inherit a secondary 
trait." H. B. Smith, System, 296— "Ezekiel 18 does not deny that descendants are involved 
in the evil results of ancestral sins, under God's moral government ; hut simply shows 
that there is opportunity for extrication, in personal repentance and obedience." Moz- 
ley on Predestination, 179 —"Augustine says that EzeMel's declarations that the son shall 
not bear the iniquity of the father are not a universal law of the divine dealings, but 
only a special prophetical one, as alluding- to the divine mercy under the g-ospel dis- 
pensation and the covenant of grace, under which the effect of original sin and the 
punishment of mankind for the sin of their first parent was removed. ' ' See also Dorner, 
Glaubenslehre, 2 : 31 ( Syst. Doct., 2 : 326, 327 ), where God's visiting the sins of the fathers 
upon the children ( Ei. 20 : 5 ) is explained by the fact that the children repeat the sins of 
i:he parents. German proverb : " The apple does not fall far from the tree." 

E. That if Adam's sin and condemnation can be onrs by propagation, 
the righteousness and faith of the believer should be propagable also. 

We reply that no merely personal qualities, whether of sin or righteous- 
ness, are communicated by propagation. Ordinary generation does not 
transmit personal guilt, but only that guilt which belongs to the whole 
species. So personal faith and righteousness are not propagable. ' ' Origi- 
nal sin is the consequent of man's nature, whereas the parents' grace is a 
personal excellence, and cannot be transmitted" (Burgesse). 

Thornwell, Selected Writings, 1 : 543, says the Augustinian doctrine would imply that 
Adam, penitent and believing, must have begotten penitent and believing children, 
seeing that the nature as it is in the parent always flows from parent to child. But see 
Fisher, Discussions, 370, where Aquinas holds that no quality or guilt that is personal is 
propagated ( Thomas Aquinas. 2 : 629 ). Anselm ( De Concept. Yirg. et Origin. Peccato, 98 ) 
will not decide the question. "The original nature of the tree is propagated — not the 
nature of the graft " — when seed from the graft is planted. Burgesse : " Learned par- 
ents do not convey learning to their children, but they are born in ignorance as others." 
Augustine : "A Jew that was circumcised begat children not circumcised, but uncir- 
cumcised ; and the seed that was sown without husks, yet produced corn with husks." 

F. That, if all moral consequences are properly penalties, sin, considered 
as a sinful nature, must be the punishment of sin, considered as the act of 
our first parents. 

But we reply that the impropriety of punishing sin with sin vanishes 
when we consider that the sin which is j>unished is our own, equally with 
the sin with which we are punished. The objection is valid as against the 
Federal theory or the theory of Mediate Imputation, but not as against the 
theory of Adam's Natural Headship. To deny that God, through the opera- 
tion of second causes, may punish the act of transgression by the habit and 
tendency which result from it, is to ignore the facts of every-day life, as well 
as the statements of Scripture in which sin is represented as ever reproduc- 
ing itself, and with each reproduction increasing its guilt and punishment 
(Kom. 6 : 19 ; James 1 : 15). 

Rom. 6 : 19— "as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so 
now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification " ; James 1 : 15 — " Then the lust, when 
it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death" ; 2 Tim. 3 : 13 — ''evil men 
and impostors shall wai worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." See Mej'er on Rom. 1 : 24 — "Where- 
fore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness." All effects become in their turn 
causes. Schiller : " This is the very curse of evil deed, That of new evil it becomes the 
seed." Tennyson, Vision of Sin: "Behold it was a crime Of sense, avenged by sense 
that wore with time. Another said : The crime of sense became The crime of malice, 
and is equal blame." Whiton, Is Eternal Punishment Endless, 52— "The punishment 
of sin essentially consists in the wider spread and stronger hold of the malady of the 
soul. Prov. 5:22— 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked.' The habit of sinning holds the 

22 



338 ANTHROPOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF MAST. 

wicked 'with the cords of his sin.' Sin is self -perpetuating. The sinner gravitates from 
worse to worse, in an ever deepening fall." The least of our sins has in it a power of 
infinite expansion,— left to itself it would flood a world with misery and destruction. 

G. That the doctrine excludes all separate probation of individuals since 
Adam, by making their moral life a mere manifestation of tendencies 
received from him. 

We reply that the objection takes into view only our connection with the 
race, and ignores the complementary and equally important fact of each 
man's personal will. That personal will does more than simply express the 
nature ; it may to a certain extent curb the nature, or it may on the other 
hand add a sinful character and influence of its own. There is, in other 
words, a remainder of freedom, which leaves room for personal probation, 
in addition to the race-probation in Adam. 

Kreibig, Versohnungslehre, objects to the Augustinian view that if personal sin pro- 
ceeds from original, the only thing men are guilty for is Adam's sin ; all subsequent sin 
is a spontaneous development ; the individual will can only manifest its inborn charac- 
ter. But we reply that this is a misrepresentation of Augustine. He does not thus lose 
sight of the remainders of freedom in man (see references on page 329, in the state- 
ment of Augustine's view, and in the section following this, on Ability, 342-345 ). He 
says that the corrupt tree may produce the wild fruit of morality, though not the divine 
fruit of grace. It is not true that the will is absolutely as the character. Though char- 
acter is the surest index as to what the decisions of the will may be, it is not an infallible 
one. Adam's first sin, and the sins of men after regeneration, prove this. Irregular, 
spontaneous, exceptional though these decisions are, they are still acts of the will, and 
they show that the agent is not bound by motives nor by character. 

Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 316 — "The merely organic theory of sin leads to natural- 
ism, which endangers not only the doctrine of a final judgment, but that of personal 
immortality generally." In preaching, therefore, we should begin with the known and 
acknowledged sins of men. We should lay the same stress upon our connection with 
Adam that the Scripture does, to explain the problem of universal and inveterate 
sinful tendencies, to enforce our need of salvation from this common ruin, and to 
illustrate our connection with Christ. Scripture does not, and we need not, make our 
responsibility for Adam's sin the great theme of preaching. See A. H. Strong, on Chris- 
tian Individualism, and on The New Theology, in Philosophy and Religion, 156-163, 164-179. 

H. That the organic unity of the race in the transgression is a thing so 
remote from common experience that the preaching of it neutralizes all 
appeals to the conscience. 

But whatever of truth there is in this objection is due to the self -isolating 
nature of sin. Men feel the unity of the family, the profession, the nation to 
which they belong, and, just in proportion to the breadth of their sympathies 
and their experience of divine grace, do they enter into Christ's feeling of 
unity with the race (cf. Is. 6:5; Lam. 3 : 39-45 ; Ezra 9:6; Neh. 1:6). 
The fact that the self-contained and self-seeking recognize themselves as 
responsible only for their personal acts should not prevent our pressing 
upon men's attention the more searching standards of the Scriptures. Only 
thus can the Christian find a solution for the dark problem of a corruption 
which is inborn yet condemnable ; only thus can the unregenerate man 
be led to a full knowledge of the depth of his ruin and of his absolute 
dependence upon God for salvation. 

Identification of the individual with the nation or the race : Is. 6 : 5— "Woe is me ! for I am 

undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips " ; Lam. 3 : 42 — " We 
have transgressed and have rebelled" ; Ezra 9:6 — "I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for 
our iniquities are increased over our head" ; Neh. 1 : 6 — "I confess the sins of the children of Israel .... yea, I and 
my father's house have sinned." So God punishes all Israel for David's sin of pride ; so the sins 
of Reuben, Canaan, Achan, Gehazi, are visited on their children or descendants. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE AUGUSTINTAN THEORY. 339 

H. B. Smith, System, 296, 397— "Under the moral government of God one man may 
justly suffer on account of the sins of another. An organic relation of men is regarded 
in the great judgment of God in history .... There is evil which comes upon indi- 
viduals, not as punishment for their personal sins, but still as suffering which comes 
under a moral government .... Jer. 32 : 18 reasserts the declaration of the second com- 
mandment, that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon their children. It may he 
said that all these are merely * consequences ' of family or tribal or national or race 
relations,— ' Evil becomes cosmical by reason of fastening on relations which were 
originally adapted to making good cosmical : ' but then God's plan must be in the con- 
sequences—a plan administered by a moral being, over moral beings, according to 
moral considerations, and for moral ends ; and, if that be fully taken into view, the 
dispute as to ' consequences ' or 'punishment ' becomes a merely verbal one." 

Pascal: "It is astonishing that the mystery which is furthest removed from our 
knowledge — I mean the transmission of original sin — should be that, without which 
we have no true knowledge of ourselves. It is in this abyss that the clue to our condi- 
tion takes its turnings and windings, insomuch that man is more incomprehensible with- 
out the mystery than this mystery is incomprehensible to man." Yet Pascal's perplexity 
was largely due to his holding the Augustinian position that inherited sin is damning 
and brings eternal death, while not holding to the coordinate Augustinian position of a 
primary existence and act of the species in Adam ; see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 18. 
Atomism is egotistic. The purest and noblest feel most strongly that humanity is not 
like a heap of sand-grains or a row of bricks set on end, but that it is an organic unity. 
So the Christian feels for the family and for the church. So Christ, in Gethsemane, felt 
for the race. If it be said that the tendency of the Augustinian view is to diminish the 
sense of guilt for personal sins, we reply that only those who recognize sins as rooted in 
sin can properly recognize the evil of them. To such they are symptoms of an apostasy 
from God so deep-seated and universal that nothing but infinite grace can deliver us 
from it. 

I. That a constitution by which the sin of one individual involves the 
nature of all men who descend from him in guilt and condemnation is con- 
trary to God's justice. 

We acknowledge that no human theory can fully solve the mystery of 
imputation. But we prefer to attribute God's dealings to justice rather 
than to sovereignty. The following considerations, though partly hypo- 
thetical, may throw light upon the subject : ( a ) A probation of our com- 
mon nature in Adam, sinless as he was and with full knowledge of God's 
law, is more consistent with divine justice than a separate probation of each 
individual, with inexperience, inborn depravity, and evil example, all favor- 
ing a decision against God. ( 6 ) A constitution which made a common fall 
possible may have been indispensable to any provision of a common salva- 
tion. ( c ) Our chance for salvation as sinners under grace may be better 
than it would have been as sinless Adams under law. (d) A constitution 
which permitted oneness with the first Adam in the transgression cannot be 
unjust, since a like principle of oneness with Christ, the second Adam, 
secures our salvation. Our ruin and our redemption were alike wrought 
out without personal act of ours. As all the natural lif e of humanity was in 
Adam, so all the spiritual life of humanity was in Christ. As our old nature 
was corrupted in Adam and propagated to us by physical generation, so our 
new nature was restored in Christ and communicated to us by the regener- 
ating work of the Holy Spirit. If then we are justified upon the ground of 
our inbeing in Christ, we may in like manner be condemned on the ground 
of our inbeing in Adam. 

Stearns, in N. Eng., Jan., 1882 : 95— "The silence of Scripture respecting the precise 
connection between the first great sin and the sins of the millions of individuals who 
have lived since then is a silence that neither science nor philosophy has been, or is, able 
to break with a satisfactory explanation. Separate the twofold nature of man, corpo- 
rate and individual. Recognize in the one the region of necessity; in the other the 



340 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

region of freedom. The scientific law of heredity has brought into new currency the 
doctrine which the old theologians sought to express under the name of original sin,— 
a term which had a meaning as it was at first used by Augustine, but which is an awk- 
ward misnomer if we accept any other theory but his." 

Dr. Ho vey claims that the Augustinian view breaks down when applied to the connec- 
tion between the justification of believers and the righteousness of Christ ; for believers 
were not in Christ, as to the substance of their souls, when he wrought out redemption 
for them. But we reply that the life of Christ which makes us Christians is the same 
lif e which made atonement upon the cross and which rose from the grave for our justi- 
fication. The parallel between Adam and Christ is of the nature of analogy, not of 
identity. With Adam, we have a connection of physical life ; with Christ, a connection 
of spiritual life. 

Stahl, Philosophic des Rechts, quoted in Olshausen's Com. on Rom. 5 : 12-21— "Adam is 
the original matter of humanity ; Christ is its original idea in God ; both personally 
living. Mankind is one in them. Therefore Adam's sin became the sin of all ; Christ's 
sacrifice the atonement for all. Every leaf of a tree may be green or wither by itself ; 
but each suffers by the disease of the root, and recovers only by its healing. The shal- 
lower the man, so much more isolated will everything appear to him ; for upon the sur- 
face all lies apart. He will see in mankind, in the nation, nay, even in the family, mere 
individuals, where the act of the one has no connection with that of the other. The 
prof ounder the man, the more do these inward relations of unity, proceeding from the 
very centre, force themselves upon him. Yea, the love of our neighbor is itself nothing 
but the deep feeling of this unity; for we love him only, with whom we feel and 
acknowledge ourselves to be one. What the Christian love of our neighbor is for the 
heart, that unity of race is for the understanding. If sin through one, and redemption 
through one, is not possible, the command to love our neighbor is also unintelligible. 
Christian ethics and Christian faith are therefore in truth indissolubly united. Chris- 
tianity effects in history an advance like that from the animal kingdom to man, by its 
revealing the essential unity of men, the consciousness of which in the ancient world 
had vanished when the nations were separated." 

For replies to the foregoing and other objections, see Schaff, in Bib. Sac, 5 : 230 ; 
Shedd, Sermons to the Nat. Man., 266-284; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 507-509, 529-544; 
Birks, Difficulties of Belief, 134-188; Edwards, Original Sin, in Works, 2 : 473-510; Atwa- 
ter, on Calvinism in Doctrine and Life, in Princeton Review, 1875 : 73. Per contra, see 
Moxom, in Bap. Rev., 1881 : 273-287 ; Park, Discourses, 210-233. 



SECTION VI, CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTERITY. 

As the result of Adam's transgression, all his posterity are born in the 
same state into which he fell. But since law is the all-comprehending 
demand of harmony with God, all moral consequences flowing from trans- 
gression are to be regarded as sanctions of law, or expressions of the divine 
displeasure through the constitution of things which he has established. 
Certain of these consequences, however, are earlier recognized than others 
and are of minor scope ; it will therefore be useful to consider them under 
the three aspects of depravity, guilt, and penalty. 

I. Depravity. 

By this we mean, on the one hand, the lack of original righteousness or 
of holy affection toward God, and, on the other hand, the corruption of the 
moral nature, or bias toward evil. That such depravity exists has been 
abundantly shown, both from Scripture and from reason, in our considera- 
tion of the universality of sin. Two questions only need detain us : 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTEEITT. 341 

1. Depravity partial or total f 

The Scriptures represent human nature as totally depraved. The phrase 
"total depravity," however, is liable to misinterpretation, and should not be 
used without explanation. By the total depravity of universal humanity 
we mean : 

A. Negatively, — not that every sinner is : 

(a) Destitute of conscience, — for the existence of strong impulses to 
right, and of remorse for wrong doing, show that conscience is often keen. 

John 8 : 9 — "And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last " 
(John 7 : 53 — 8 : 11, though not written by John, is a perfectly true narrative, descended 
from the apostolic age ). The muscles of a dead frog's leg will contract when a current 
of electricity is sent into them. So the dead soul will thrill at touch of the divine law. 
Natural conscience, combined with the principle of self-love, may even prompt choice 
of the good, though no love for God is in the choice. 

( b ) Devoid of all qualities pleasing to men, and useful when judged by 
a human standard, — for the existence of such qiialities is recognized by 
Christ 

Mark 10 : 21 — "And Jesus looking upon him loved him." These very qualities, however, may show 
that their possessors are sinning against great light and are the more guilty ; c/. Mai. 1:6 — 
" A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master : if then I be a father, where is mine honor ? and if I be a master, 
where is my fear?" 

(r-) Prone to every form of sin, — for certain forms of sin exclude certain 
others. 

Mat. 23 : 23 — " ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgment, 
and mercy, and faith : but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone " ; Rom. 2 : 14 — "when 
Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law are a law unto themselves ; 
in that they shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith." The sin 
of miserliness may exclude the sin of luxury ; the sin of pride may exclude the sin of 
sensuality. 

(d) Intense as he can be in his selfishness and opposition to God, — for 
he becomes worse every day. 

Gen. 15 : 16 — " the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full " ; 2 Tim. 3 : 13 — " evil men and impostors shall wax worse 
and worse." 

B. Positively, — that every sinner is : 

( a ) Totally destitute of that love to God which constitutes the funda- 
mental and all-inclusive demand of the law. 

John 5 : 42 — " But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in yourselves." 

(b) Chargeable with elevating some lower affection or desire above 
regard for God and his law. 

2 Tim. 3 : 4 — " lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God " ; c/. Mai. 1 : 6 — " A son honoreth his father, and a 
servant his master : if then I be a father, where is mine honor ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? " See ( b ) 
above. 

(c) Supremely determined, in his whole inward and outward life, by a 
preference of self to God. 

2 Tim. 3 : 2 — " lovers of self." 

(d) Possessed of an aversion to God, which, though sometimes latent, 
becomes active enmity, so soon as God's will comes into manifest conflict 
with his own. 

Rom. 8 : 7— "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God." 



342 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

(c) Disordered and corrupted in every faculty, through this substitu- 
tion of selfishness for supreme affection toward God. 

Eph. 4 : 18 — " darkened in their understanding .... hardening of their heart" ; Tit. 1 : 15 — "both their mind and 
their conscience are defiled" ; 2 Cor. 7 : 1 — "defilement of flesh and spirit" ; Heb. 3 : 12 — "an evil heart of unbelief.' 

(/) Credited with no thought, emotion, or act of which divine holiness 
can fully approve. 

Rom. 3 : 9 — "they are all under sin" ; 7 : 18— "in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." 

(g) Subject to a law of constant progress in depravity, which he has no 
recuperative energy to enable him successfully to resist. 

Rom. 7 : 18 — " to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not " ; 23 — " law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members." 

Every sinner would prefer a milder law and a different administration. But whoever 
does not love God's law does not truly love God. The sinner seeks to secure his own 
interests rather than God's. Even so-called religious acts he performs with preference 
of his own good to God's glory. He disobeys, and always has disobeyed, the fundamen- 
tal law of love. 

H. B. Smith, System, 277—" By total depravity is never meant that men are as bad as 
they can be ; nor that they have not, in their natural condition, certain amiable qual- 
ities ; nor that they may not have virtues in a limited sense (justitia civilis). But it is 
meant (1) that depravity, or the sinful condition of man, infects the whole man: 
intellect, feeling, heart and will ; (2) that in each unrenewed person some lower affec- 
tion is supreme; and (3) that each such is destitute of love to God. On these posi- 
tions : as to ( 1 ) the power of depravity over the whole man, we have given proof from 
Scripture; as to (2) the fact that in every unrenewed man some lower affection is 
supreme, experience may be always appealed to ; men know that their supreme affec- 
tion is fixed on some lower good— intellect, heart, and will going together in it ; or that 
some form of selfishness is predominant— using selfish in a general sense —self seeks its 
happiness in some inferior object, giving to that its supreme affection; as to (3) that 
every unrenewed person is without supreme love to God, it is the point which is of 
greatest force, and is to be urged with the strongest effect, in setting forth the depth 
and ' totality ' of man's sinfulness : unrenewed men have not that supreme love of God 
which is the substance of the first and great command." See also Shedd, Discourses 
and Essays, 248 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 510-522 ; Chalmers, Institutes, 1 : 519-542 ; Cun- 
ningham, Hist. Theology, 1 : 516-531 ; Princeton Review, 1877 : 470. 

2. Ability or inability ? 

In opposition to the plenary ability taught by the Pelagians, the gracious 
ability of the Arminians, and the natural ability of the New School theolo- 
gians, the Scriptures declare the total inability of the sinner to turn him- 
self to God or to do that which is truly good in God's sight (see Scripture 
proof below). A proper conception also of the law, as reflecting the holi- 
ness of God and as expressing the ideal of human nature, leads us to the 
conclusion that no man whose powers are weakened by either original or 
actual sin can of himself come up to that perfect standard. Yet there is a 
certain remnant of freedom left to man. The sinner can (a) avoid the sin 
against the Holy Ghost ; ( b ) choose the less sin rather than the greater ; 
(c) refuse altogether to yield to certain temptations; (d) do outwardly 
good acts, though with imperfect motives; (e) seek God from motives of 
self-interest. 

But on the other hand the sinner cannot (a) by a single volition bring 
his character and life into complete conformity to God's law ; ( b ) change 
his fundamental preference for self and sin to supreme love for God ; nor 
(c) do any act, however insignificant, which shall meet with God's approval 
or answer fully to the demands of law. 

So long, then, as there are states of intellect, affection, and will which 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTEEITT. 343 

man cannot, by any power of volition or of contrary choice remaining to 
him, bring into subjection to God, it cannot be said that he possesses any 
sufficient ability of himself to do God's will; and if a basis for man's 
responsibility and guilt be sought, it must be found, if at all, not in his 
plenary ability, his gracious ability, or his natural ability, but in his orig- 
inal ability, when he came, in Adam, from the hands of his Maker. 

Man's present inability is natural, in the sense of being inborn, — it is 
not acquired by our personal act, but is congenital. It is not natural, 
however, as resulting from the original limitations of human nature, or 
from the subsequent loss of any essential faculty of that nature. Human 
nature, at its first creation, was endowed with ability perfectly to keep the 
law of God. Man has not, even by his sin, lost his essential faculties of 
intellect, affection, or will. He has weakened those faculties, however, so 
that they are now unable to work up to the normal measure of their powers. 
But more especially has man given to every faculty a bent away from God 
which renders him morally unable to render spiritual obedience. The 
inability to good which now characterizes human nature is an inability that 
results from sin, and is itself sin. 

We hold, therefore, to an inability which is both natural and moral, — 
moral, as having its source in the self-corruption of man's moral nature 
and the fundamental aversion of his will to God; — natural, as being 
inborn, and as affecting with partial paralysis all liis natural powers of 
intellect, affection, conscience, and will. For his inability, in both these 
aspects of it, man is responsible. 

To the use of the term "natural ability" to designate merely the sinner's 
possession of all the constituent faculties of human nature, we object upon 
the following grounds : 

A. The phrase is misleading, since it seems to imply that the existence 
of the mere powers of intellect, affection, and will is a sufficient quanti- 
tative qualification for obedience to God's law, whereas these powers have 
been weakened by sin, and are naturally unable, instead of naturally able, 
to render back to God with interest the talent first bestowed. Even if the 
moral direction of man's faculties were a normal one, the effect of heredi- 
tary and of personal sin would render naturally impossible that large likeness 
to God which the law of absolute perfection demands. Man has not there- 
fore the natural ability perfectly to obey God. He had it once, but he 
lost it with the first sin. 

B. Since the law of God requires of men not so much right single 
volitions as conformity to God in the whole inward state of the affections 
and will, the power of contrary choice in single volitions does not consti- 
tute a natural ability to obey God, unless man can by those single volitions 
change the underlying state of the affections and will. But this power man 
does not possess. Since God judges all moral action in connection with 
the general state of the heart and life, natural ability to good involves not 
only a full complement of faculties but also a bias of the affections and 
will toward God. Without this bias there is no possibility of right moral 
action, and where there is no such possibility, there can be no ability either 
natural or moral. 



344 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

C. In addition to the psychological argument just mentioned, we may 
urge another from experience and observation. These testify that man is 
cognizant of no such ability. Since no man has ever yet, by the exercise 
of his natural powers, turned himself to God or done an act truly good in 
God's sight, the existence of a natural ability to good is a pure assumption. 
There is no scientific warrant for inferring the existence of an ability which 
has never manifested itself in a single instance since history began. 

D. The practical evil attending the preaching of natural ability fur- 
nishes a strong argument against it. The Scriptures, in their declarations 
of the sinner's inability and helplessness, aim to shut him up to sole 
dependence upon God for salvation. The doctrine of natural ability, 
assuring him that he is able at once to repent and turn to God, encourages, 
delay by putting salvation at all times within his reach. If a single volition 
will secure it, he may be saved as easily to-morrow as to-day. The doc- 
trine of inability presses men to immediate acceptance of God's offers, lest 
the day of grace for them pass by. 

Let us repeat, however, that the denial to man of all ability, whether 
natural or moral, to turn himself to God or to do that which is truly good 
in God's sight, does not imply a denial of man's power to order his 
external life in many rjarticulars conformably to moral rules, or even to 
attain the praise of men for virtue. Man has still a range of freedom in 
acting out his nature, and he may to a certain limited extent act down 
upon that nature, and modify it, by isolated volitions externally conformed 
to God's law. He may choose higher or lower forms of selfish action, and 
may pursue these chosen courses with various degrees of selfish energy. 
Freedom of choice, within this limit, is by no means incompatible with 
complete bondage of the will in spiritual things. 

John. 1 : 13 — " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " ; 3:5 — " Except 
a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God " ; 6 : 44 — " No man can come to me, except 
the Father which sent me draw him" ; 8 : 34 — "Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin" ; 15 : 4, 5 
— "the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. .... apart from me ye can do nothing" ; Rom. 7 : 18 — "in me, that is, in 
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not" ; 24— "Oh 
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?" 8 : 7, 8 — "the mind of the flesh is 
enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be : and they that are in the flesh can- 
not please God " ; 1 Cor. 2 : 14 — "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness 
unto him ; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged " ; 2 Cor. 3 : 5 — "not that we are sufficient- 
of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves" ; Eph. 2 : 1 — "dead through your trespasses and sins" ; 8-10 — 
"by grace have ye been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, that no 
man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works" ; Heb. 11 : 6 — "without faith 
it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him." 

Kant's "I ought, therefore I can" is the relic of man's original consciousness of 
freedom — the freedom with which man was endowed at his creation— a freedom, now, 
alas ! destroyed by sin. Or, it may be the courage of the soul in which God is working 
anew by his Spirit. Emerson, in his poem entitled " Voluntariness," says : "So near is 
grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low Thou must, The 
youth replies, I can." But, apart from special grace, all the ability which man at 
present possesses comes far short of fulfilling the spiritual demands of God's law. 
Parental and civil law implies a certain kind of power. Puritan theology called man 
"free among the dead " (Ps. 88 : 5, A. V.). There was a range of freedom inside of slavery,— the 
will was "a drop of water imprisoned in a solid crystal" (Oliver Wendell Holmes). 
The man who kills himself is as dead as if he had been killed by another (Shedd, Dogm. 
Theol.,2:106). 

Westminster Confession, 16 : 7— "Man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly lost 
all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation ; so, as a natural man, 
being altogether averse to that of good, and dead in sin, he is not able by his own. 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTEEITY. 345 

strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto." Hopkins, Works, 1 : 233- 
235 — " So long- as the sinner's opposition of heart and will continues, he cannot come to 
Christ. It is impossible, and will continue so, until his unwillingness and opposition be 
removed by a change and renovation of his heart by divine grace, and he be made will- 
ing in the day of God's power." Hopkins speaks of "utter inability to obey the law of 
God, yea, utter impossibility." 

Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 257-277 — " Inability consists, not in the loss of any faculty of 
the soul, nor in the loss of free agency, for the sinner determines his own acts, nor in 
mere disinclination to what is good. It arises from want of spiritual discernment, and 
hence want of proper affections. Inability belongs only to the things of the Spirit- 
What man cannot do is to repent, believe, regenerate himself. He cannot put forth 
any act which merits the approbation of God. Sin cleaves to all he does, and from its 
dominion he cannot free himself. The distinction between natural and moral ability is 
of no value. Shall we say that the uneducated man can understand and appreciate the 
Iliad, because he has all the faculties that the scholar has ? Shall we say that man can 
love God, if he will ? This is false, if will means volition. It is a truism, if will means 
affection. The Scriptures never thus address men and tell them that they have power 
to do all that God requires. It is dangerous to teach a man this, for until a man feels 
that he can do nothing, God never saves him. Inability is involved in the doctrine of 
original sin ; in the necessity of the Spirit's influence in regeneration. Inability is con- 
sistent with obligation, when inability arises from sin and is removed by the removal 
of sin." 

Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 213-257, and in South Church Sermons, 33-59— "The origin of 
this helplessness lies, not in creation, but in sin. God can command the ten talents or 
the five which he originally committed to us, together with a diligent and faithful 
improvement of them. Because the servant has lost the talents, is he discharged from 
obligation to return them with interest ? Sin contains in itself the element of servitude. 
In the very act of transgressing the law of God, there is a reflex action of the human 
will upon itself, whereby it becomes less able than before to keep that law. Sin is the 
suicidal action of the human will. To do wrong destroys the power to do right. Total 
depravity carries with it total impotence. The voluntary faculty may be ruined from 
within ; may be made impotent to holiness, by its own action ; may surrender itself to 
appetite and selfishness with such an intensity and earnestness, that it becomes unable 
to convert itself and overcome its wrong inclination." See Stevenson, Dr. Jekylland 
Mr. Hyde, — noticed in Andover Rev., June, 1886 : 664. 

For the Arminian 'gracious ability,' see Raymond, Syst. Theol., 2 : 130; McClintock & 
Strong, Cyclopaedia, 10 : 990. Per contra, see Calvin, Institutes, bk. 2, chap. 2 (1 : 282); 
Edwards, Works, 2:464 (Orig. Sin, 3:1); Bennet Tyler, Works, 73; Baird, Elohim 
Revealed, 523-528; Cunningham, Hist. Theology, 1 : 567-639; Turretin, 10 : 4 : 19; A. A. 
Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 260-269 ; Thornwell, Theology, 1 : 394-399 ; Alexander, 
Moral Science, 89-208 ; Princeton Essays, 1 : 224-239 ; Richards, Lectures on Theology. 
On real as distinguished from formal freedom, see Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 1-225. 
On Augustine's lineamenta extrerna (of the divine image in man), see Wiggers, Augus- 
tinism and Pelagianism, 119, note. See also art. by A. H. Strong, on Modified Calvinism, 
or Remainders of Freedom in Man, in Bap. Rev., 1883 : 219-242 ; and reprinted in the 
author's Philosophy and Religion, 114-128. 

II. GUXLT. 

1. Nature of guilt. 

By guilt we mean desert of punishment, or obligation to render satisfac- 
tion to God's justice for self -determined violation of law. 

Schiller, Die Braut von Messina : " Das Leben ist der G titer hochstes nicht ; Der Uebel 
grosstes aber ist die Schuld "— " Lif e is not the highest of possessions; the greatest of 
ills, however, is guilt." Delitzsch: "Die Schamrothe ist das Abendrothe der unterge- 
gangenen Sonne der urspriinglichen Gerechtigkeit "— " The blush of shame is the even- 
ing red after the sun of original righteousness has gone down." E. G. Robinson: 
"Pangs of conscience do not arise from fear of penalty,— they are the penalty itself." 
See chapter on Fig-leaves, in Mcllvaine, Wisdom of Holy Scripture, 142-154—" Spiritual 
shame for sin sought an outward symbol, and found it in the nakedness of the lower 
parts of the body." 

The following remarks may serve both for proof and for explanation : 



346 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

A. Guilt is incurred only through self-determined transgression either 
on the part of man's nature or person. We are guilty only of that sin which 
we have originated or have had part in originating. Guilt is not, therefore, 
mere liability to punishment, without participation in the transgression for 
which the punishment is inflicted, — in other words, there is no such thing as 
constructive guilt under the divine government. We are accounted guilty 
only for what we have done, either personally or in our first parents, and 
for what we are, in consequence of such doing. 

Ez. 18 : 20 — "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father "=, as Calvin says ( Com. in loco) : "The 
son shall not bear the father's iniquity, since he shall receive the reward due to himself, 

and shall bear his own burden All are guilty through their own fault Every 

one perishes through his own iniquity." In other words, the whole race fell in Adam, 
and is punished for its own sin in him, not for the sins of immediate ancestors, nor for 
the sin of Adam as a person foreign to us. John 9 : 3— "Neither did this man sin, nor his parents" 
( that he should be born blind ) = Do not attribute to any special later sin what is a con- 
sequence of the sin of the race — the first sin which u brought death into the world, and 
all our woe." Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 195-213. 

B. Guilt is an objective result of sin, and is not to be confounded with 
subjective pollution, or depravity. Every sin, whether of nature or person, 
is an offense against God (Ps. 51 : 4-6), an act or state of opposition to his 
will, which has for its effect God's personal wrath (Ps. 7 : 11 ; John 3 : 18, 
36), and which must be expiated either by punishment or by atonement 
( Heb. 9 : 22 ). Not only does sin, as unlikeness to the divine purity, involve 
pollution, — it also, as antagonism to God's holy will, involves guilt This 
guilt, or obligation to satisfy the outraged holiness of God, is explained 
in the New Testament by the terms "debtor" and "debt" (Mat. 6: 12; 
Luke 13 : 4 ; Mat. 5 : 21 ; Eom. 3 : 19 ; 6 : 23 ; Eph. 2 : 3). Since guilt, 
the objective result of sin, is entirely distinct from depravity, the subjective 
result, human nature may, as in Christ, have the guilt without the depravity 
(2 Cor. 5 : 21), or may, as in the Christian, have the depravity without the 
guilt ( 1 John 1 : 7,8). 

Ps. 51 : 4-6— "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned And done that which is evil in thy sight : That thou mayest be 
justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest " ; 7 : 11 — " God is a righteous judge, Yea, a God that hath 
indignation every day " ; John 3 : 18 — "he that believeth not hath been judged already " ; 36— "he that obeyeth not 
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him " ; leb. 9 : 22 — " apart from shedding of blood there is 
no remission " ; Mat. 6 : 12— "debts"; Luke 13:4 — "offenders" (marg. "debtors"); Mat. 5:21 — "shall be in 
danger of [exposed to] the judgment" ; Rom. 3 : 19 — "that .... all the world may be brought under the 
judgment of God" ; 6 : 23 — "the wages of sin is death "= death in sin's desert; Eph. 2 : 3 — "by nature 
children of wrath " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 — "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf" ; 1 John 1 : 7, 8 — "the 
biood of Jesus, his Son. cleanseth us from all sin. [ Yet ] If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and 
the truth is not in us." 

Sin brings in its train not only depravity but guilt, not only macula but reatus. Script- 
ure sets forth the pollution of sin by its similes of "a cage of unclean birds" and of 
"wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores" ; by leprosy and Levitical uncleanness, under 
the old dispensation ; by death and the corruption of the grave, under both the old and 
the new. But Scripture sets forth the guilt of sin, with equal vividness, in the fear of 
Cain and in the remorse of Judas. The revulsion of God's holiness from sin, and its 
demand for satisfaction, are reflected in the shame and remorse of every awakened 
conscience. There is an instinctive feeling in the sinner's heart that sin will be punished, 
and ought to be punished. All great masters in literature have recognized it. The 
inextinguishable thirst for reparation constitutes the very essence of tragedy. Mar- 
guerite, in Goethe's Faust, fainting in the great cathedral under the solemn reverbera- 
tions of the Dies Irae ; Dimmesdale, in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, putting himself side 
by side with Hester Prynne, his victim, in her place of obloquy ; Bulwer's Eugene Aram, 
coming forward, though unsuspected, to confess the murder he had committed, all these 
are illustrations of the inner impulse that moves even a sinful soul to satisfy the claims 
of justice upon it. See A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 215, 216. 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAil's POSTERITY. 347 

Nor are such scenes confined to the pages of romance. In a recent trial at Syracuse, 
"Earl, the wife-murderer, thanked the jury that had convicted him ; declared the verdict 
just ; begged that no one would interfere to stay the course of justice ; said that the 
greatest blessing that could be conferred on him would be to let him suffer the penalty 
of his crime. In Plattsburg, at the close of another trial in which the accused was a lif e- 
convict who had struck down a fellow-convict with an axe, the jury, after being out 
two hours, came in to ask the Judge to explain the difference between murder in the 
first and second degree. Suddenly the prisoner rose and said : " This was not a murder 
in the second degree. It was a deliberate and premeditated murder. I know that I 
have done wrong, that I ought to confess the truth, and that I ought to be hanged." 
This left the jury nothing to do but render their verdict, and the Judge sentenced the 
murderer to be hanged, as he confessed he deserved to be. 

Such is the movement and demand of the enlightened conscience. The lack of con- 
viction that crime ought to be punished is one of the most certain signs of moral decay, 
in either the individual or the nation ( Ps. 97 : 10 — " Ye that love the Lord, hate evil " ; 149 : 6 — " Let the 
high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand " — to execute God's judgment 
upon iniquity). 

C. Guilt, moreover, as an objective result of sin, is not to be confounded 
with the subjective consciousness of guilt (Lev. 5 : 17). In the condemna- 
tion of conscience, God's condemnation partially and prophetically mani- 
fests itself (1 John 3 : 20). But guilt is primarily a relation to God, and 
only secondarily a relation to conscience. Progress in sin is marked by 
diminished sensitiveness of moral insight and feeling. As "the greatest of 
sins is to be conscious of none," so guilt may be great, just in proportion 
to the absence of consciousness of it (Ps. 19 : 12; 51 : 6; Eph. 4 : 18, 19 
— a-Tjly7]K6r£g). There is no evidence, however, that the voice of conscience 
can be completely or finally silenced. The time for repentance may pass, 
but not the time for remorse. Progress in holiness, on the other hand, is 
marked by increasing apprehension of the depth and extent of our sinful- 
ness, while with this apprehension is combined, in a normal Christian expe- 
rience, the assurance that the guilt of our sin has been taken, and taken 
away, by Christ (John 1 : 29). 

Lev. 5 : 17 — " And if any one sin, and do any of the things which the Lord hath commanded not to he done, though 
he knew it not, yet is he guilty, and shall hear his iniquity " ; i John 3 : 20 — " because if our heart condemn us, God 
is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things" ; Ps. 19 : 12 — ""Who can discern his errors? Clear thou me from 
hidden faults " ; 51 : 6 — " Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts : And in the hidden part thou shalt make me 
to know wisdom" ; Eph. 4 : 18, 19 — " darkened in their understanding .... being past feeling" ; John 1 : 29 — 
"Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away [marg. ' beareth ' ] the sin of the world." 

See, on the nature of guilt, Julius Muller, Doct. Sin, 1 : 193-367 ; Martensen, Christian 
Dogmatics, 203-309 ; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 346 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 
461-473; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, 121-148; ThornweLL Theology, 1 : 400-434. 

2. Degrees of guilt. 

The Scriptures recognize different degrees of guilt as attaching to differ- 
ent kinds of sin. The variety of sacrifices under the Mosaic law, and the 
variety of awards in the judgment, are to be explained upon this principle. 

Luke 12 : 47, 48 — "shall be beaten with many stripes .... shall be beaten with few stripes" ; Rom. 2 : 6 — "who 
will render to every man according to his works." See also John 19 : 11 — "he that delivered me unto thee hath 
greater sin" ; Heb. 2 : 2, 3 — if "every transgression .... received a just recompense of reward; how shall we 
escape, if we neglect so great salvation ? " 10 : 28, 29 — " a man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without com- 
passion on the word of two or three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who 
hath trodden under foot the Son of God ? " 

Casuistry, however, has drawn many distinctions which lack Scriptural 
foundation. Such is the distinction between venial sins and mortal sins in 
the Roman Catholic Church, — every sin unpardoned being mortal, and all 



348 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

sins being venial, since Christ has died for all. Nor is the common distinc- 
tion between sins of omission and sins of commission more valid, since the 
very omission is an act of commission. 

Mat. 25 : 45 — " Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least " ; James 4 : 17 — "To him therefore that knoweth to 
do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." John Ruskin: "The condemnation given from the 
Judgment Throne— most solemnly described— is for all the 'undones' and not the 
'dones.' People are perpetually afraid of doing wrong; but unless they are doing its 
reverse energetically, they do it all day long, and the degree does not matter." The 
Roman Catholic Church proceeds upon the supposition that she can determine the pre- 
cise malignity of every offence, and assign its proper penance at the confessional. 
Thorn well, Theology, 1 : 424-441, says that "all sins are venial but one — for there is a 
sin against the Holy Ghost," yet "not one is venial in itself — for the least proceeds 
from an apostate state and nature." We shall see, however, that the hindrance to par- 
don, in the case of the sin against the Holy Ghost, is subjective rather than objective. 

The following distinctions are indicated in Scripture as involving different 
degrees of guilt : 

A. Sin of nature and personal transgression. 

Sin of nature involves guilt, yet there is greater guilt when this sin 
of nature reasserts itself in personal transgression ; for, while this latter 
includes in itself the former, it also adds to the former a new element, 
namely, the conscious exercise of the individual and personal will, by virtue 
of which a new decision is made against God, special evil habit is induced, 
and the total condition of the soul is made more depraved. Although we 
have emphasized the guilt of inborn sin, because this truth is most contested, 
it is to be remembered that men reach a conviction of their native depravity 
only through a conviction of their personal transgressions. For this reason, 
by far the larger part of our preaching upon sin should consist in applica- 
tions of the law of God to the acts and dispositions of men's lives. 

Mat. 19 : 14— " to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven "= relative innocence of childhood ; 23 : 32 — 
"Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers "= personal transgression added to inherited deprav- 
ity. In preaching, we should first treat individual transgressions, and thence proceed to 
heart-sin, and race-sin. Man is not wholly a spontaneous development of inborn ten- 
dencies, a manifestation of original sin. Motives do not determine but they persuade the 
will, and every man is guilty of conscious personal transgressions which may, with the 
help of the Holy Spirit, be brought under the condemning judgment of conscience. 
Birks, Difficulties of Belief, 169-174—" Original sin does not do away -with the significance 
of personal transgression. Adam was pardoned; but some of his descendants are 
unpardonable. The second death is referred, in Scripture, to our own personal guilt." 

B. Sins of ignorance, and sins of knowledge. 

Here guilt is measured by the degree of light possessed, or in other words, 
by the opportunities of knowledge men have enjoyed, and the powers with 
which they have been naturally endowed. Genius and privilege increase 
responsibility. The heathen are guilty, but those to whom the oracles of 
God have been committed are more guilty than they. 

Mat. 10 : 15 — "more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city " ; 
luke 12 : 47, 48 — "that servant, -which knew his Lord's will .... shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that 
knew not .... shall be beaten with few stripes " ; 23:34 — " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do " 
= complete knowledge would put them beyond the reach of forgiveness. John 19 : 11 — " he 
that delivered me unto thee hath greater sin"; Acts 17: 30 — "The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked"; 
Rom. 1 : 32 — " who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they who practise such things are worthy of death, not only do 
the same, but also consent with them that practise them " ; 2 : 12 — " for as many as have sinned without law shall also 
perish without law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by law"; 1 Tim. 1 : 13, 15 — "L 
obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTERITY. 349 

C. Sins of infirmi ty, and sins of jDresumption. 

Here the guilt is measured by the energy of the evil will. Sin may be 
known to be sin, yet may be committed in haste or weakness. Though 
haste and weakness constitute a palliation of the offence which springs 
therefrom, yet they are themselves sins, as revealing an unbelieving and 
disordered heart. But of far greater guilt are those i^resumptuous. choices 
of evil in which not weakness, but strength of will, is manifest. 

Ps. 19 : 12, 13 — "Clear thou me from hidden faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins " ; Is. 5 ; 
18 — " Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope " = not led away 
insensibly by sin, but earnestly, perseveringly, and willfully working away at it ; Gal. 6 : 
1 — " overtaken in any trespass " ; 1 Tim. 5 : 24 — " Some men's sin are evident, going before unto judgment , and some 
men also they follow after "= some men's sins are so open, that they act as officers to bring" to 
justice those who commit them; whilst others require after-proof (An. Par. Bible). 
Luther represents one of the former class as saying- to himself : " Esto peccator, et 
pecca fortiter." On sins of passion and of reflection, see Bittinger, in Princeton Rev., 
18T3 : 219. 

D. Sin of incomplete, and sin of final, obduracy. 

Here the guilt is measured, not by the objective sufficiency or insuf- 
ficiency of divine grace, but by the degree of unreceptiveness into which sin 
.has brought the soul. As the only sin unto death which is described in 
Scripture is the sin against the Holy Ghost, we here consider the nature of 
that sin. 

Mat. 12 : 31 — " Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not 
be forgiven " ; 32 — "And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him , but whosoever 
shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come " ; 
Mark 3 : 29 — "whosoever shall blaspheme against the My Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal 
sin " ; 1 John 5 : 16, 17 — "If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him 
life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death : not concerning this do I say that he should make 
request All unrighteousness is sin : and there is a sin not unto death "; leb. 10 • 26 — " if we sin wilfully after that 
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expecta- 
tion of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." 

The sin against the Holy Ghost is not to be regarded simply as an isolated 
act, but also as the external symptom of a heart so radically and finally set 
against God that no power which God can consistently use will ever save 
it. This sin, therefore, can be only the culmination of a long course of 
self-hardening and self-depraving. He who has committed it must be 
either profoundly indifferent to his own condition, or actively and bitterly 
hostile to God ; so that anxiety or fear on account of one's condition are 
evidences that it has not been committed. The sin against the Holy Ghost 
cannot be forgiven, simply because the soul that has committed it has 
ceased to be receptive of divine influences, even when those influences are 
exerted in the utmost strength which God has seen fit to employ in his 
spiritual administration. 

The commission of this sin is marked by a loss of spiritual sight ; the blind fish of the 
Mammoth Cave left fight for darkness, and so in time lost their eyes. It is marked by a 
loss of religious sensibility ; the sensitive-plant loses its sensitiveness, in proportion to 
the frequency with which it is touched. It is marked by a loss of power to will the 
good; "the lava hardens after it has broken from the crater, and in that state cannot 
return to its source " ( Van Oosterzee ). The same writer also remarks ( Dogmatics, 2 : 
428 ) : " Herod Antipas, after earlier doubt and slavishness, reached such deadness as to 
be able to mock the Savior, at the mention of whose name he had not long before trem- 
bled." Julius Muller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 425—" It is not that divine grace is absolutely 



350 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

refused to any one who in true penitence asks forgiveness of this sin ; but he who com- 
mits it never fulfills the subjective conditions upon which forgiveness is possible, 
because the aggravation of sin to this ultimatum destroys in him all susceptibility of 
repentance. The way of return to God is closed against no one who does not close it 
against himself." Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual "World, 97-120, illustrates 
the downward progress of the sinner by the law of degeneration in the vegetable and 
animal world : pigeons, roses, strawberries, all tend to revert to the primitive and wild 
type. " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ? " ( Heb. 2:3). 

Dr. J. P. Thompson: "The unpardonable sin is the knowing, willful, persistent, con- 
temptuous, malignant spurning of divine truth and grace, as manifested to the soul by 
the convincing and illuminating power of the Holy Ghost." Dorner says that "there- 
fore this sin does not belong to Old Testament times, or to the mere revelation of law. 
It implies the full revelation of the grace in Christ, and the conscious rejection of it by 
a soul to which the Spirit has made it manifest " ( Acts 17 : 30 — " the times of ignorance, therefore, 
God everlooked" ; Rom. 3 : 25— "the passing over of the sins done aforetime" ). But was it not under the 
Old Testament that God said : " My Spirit shall not strive with man forever " ( Gen. 6:3), and " Ephraim 
is joined to idols; let him alone" (losea 4 : 17)? The sin against the Holy Ghost is a sin against 
grace, but it does not appear to be limited to New Testament times. 

It is still true that the unpardonable sin is a sin committed against the Holy Spirit 
rather than against Christ : Mat. 12 : 32 — "whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be 
forgiven him ; but whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
world, nor in that which is to come." Jesus warns the Jews against it, — he does not say they had 
already committed it. They would seem to have committed it when after Pentecost, 
they added to their rejection of Christ the rejection of the Holy Spirit's witness to 
Christ's resurrection. See Schaff , Sin against the Holy Ghost ; Lemme, Siinde wider den 
Heiligen Geist; Davis, in Bap. Rev., 1882 : 317-326; Nitzsch, Christian Doctrine, 283-289. 
On the general subject of kinds of sin and degrees of guilt, see Kahnis, Dogmatik* 
3 : 284, 298. 

III. Penalty. 

1. Idea of penalty. 

By penalty, we mean that pain or loss which is directly or indirectly 
inflicted by the Lawgiver, in vindication of his justice outraged by the 
violation of law. 

Turretin, 1 : 213— "Justice necessarily demands that all sin be punished, but it does 
not equally demand that it be punished in the very person that sinned, or in just such 
time and degree." So far as this statement of the great Federal theologian is intended 
to explain our guilt in Adam and our justification in Christ, we can assent to his words ; 
but we must add that the reason, in each case, why we suffer the penalty of Adam's sin, 
and Christ suffers the penalty of our sins, is not to be found in any covenant-relation, 
but rather in the fact that the sinner is one with Adam, and Christ is one with the 
believer,— in other words, not covenant-unity, but life-unity. The word 'penalty,' like 
'pain,' is derived from poena, ttoivf\, and it implies the correlative notion of desert. As 
under the divine government there can be no constructive guilt, so there can be no 
penalty inflicted by legal fiction. Christ's sufferings were penalty, not arbitrarily 
inflicted, nor yet borne to expiate personal guilt, but as the just due of the human nat- 
ure with which he had united himself, and a part of which he was. 

In this definition it is implied that : 

A. The natural consequences of transgression, although they constitute 
a part of the penalty of sin, do not exhaust that penalty. In all penalty 
there is a personal element — the holy wrath of the Lawgiver, — which nat- 
ural consequences but partially express. 

"We do not deny, but rather assert, that the natural consequences of transgression are 
a part of the penalty of sin. Sensual sins are punished, in the deterioration and corrup- 
tion of the body ; mental and spiritual sins, in the deterioration and corruption of the 
soul. Prov. 5 : 22 — " lis own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin " — 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTEKITY. 351 

as the hunter is caught in the toils which he has devised for the wild beast. Sin is 
self -detecting and self -tormenting. But this is only half the truth. Those who would 
confine all penalty to the reaction of natural laws are in danger of forgetting that God 
is not simply immanent in the universe, but is also transcendent, and that " to fall into the 
hands of the living God " ( leb. 10 : 31 ) is to fall into the hands, not simply of the law, but also of 
the Lawgiver. 

B. The object of penalty is not the reformation of the offender or the 
ensuring of social or governmental safety. These ends may be incidentally 
secured through its infliction, but the great end of penalty is the vindica- 
tion of the character of the Lawgiver. Penalty is essentially a necessary 
reaction of the divine holiness against sin. Inasmuch, however, as wrong 
views of the object of |3enalty have so important a bearing upon our future 
studies of doctrine, we make fuller mention of the two erroneous theories 
which have greatest currency. 

(a) Penalty is not essentially reformatory. — By this we mean that the 
reformation of the offender is not its primary design, — as penalty, it is not 
intended to reform. Penalty, in itself, proceeds not from the love and 
mercy of the Lawgiver, but from his justice. Whatever reforming influ- 
ences may in any given instance be connected with it are not parts of the 
penalty, but are mitigations of it, and they are added not in justice but in 
grace. If reformation follows the infliction of penalty, it is not the effect 
of the penalty, but the effect of certain benevolent agencies which have 
been provided to turn into a means of good what naturally would be to the 
offender only a source of harm. 

That the object of penalty is not reformation appears from Scripture, 
where punishment is often referred to God's justice, but never to God's 
love; from the intrinsic ill-desert of sin, to which penalty is correlative; 
from the fact that upon this theory punishment would not be just when the 
sinner was already reformed or could not be reformed, so that the greater 
the sin the less the punishment must be. 

Punishment is essentially different from chastisement. The latter proceeds from love 
( Jer. 10 : 24 — " correct me, but with judgment ; not in thine anger " ; leb. 12 : 6 — " whom the Lord loveth he chasten- 
eth" ). Punishment proceeds not from love but from justice— see Ez. 28 : 22 — "I shall have 
eiecuted judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her " ; 36 : 21, 22 — in judgment, "I do not this for your 
sake, but for my holy name " ; leb. 12 : 29 — " our God is a consuming fire " ; Rev. 15 : 1, 4 — " wrath of God ... . 
thou only art holy .... thy righteous acts have been made manifest" ; 16 : 5 — "Righteous art thou .... thou. 
Holy One, because thou didst thus judge " ; 19 : 2 — " true and righteous are his judgments ; for he hath judged the great 
harlot." So untrue is the saying of Sir Thomas More's Utopia: "The end of all punish- 
ment is the destruction of vice, and the saving of men." Luther : " God has two rods : 
one of mercy and goodness ; another of anger and fury." Chastisement is the former ; 
penalty the latter. 

If the reform-theory of penalty is correct, then to punish crime, without asking 
about reformation, makes the state the transgressor ; its punishments should be pro- 
portioned, not to the greatness of the crime, but to the sinner's state ; the death-penalty 
should be abolished, upon the ground that it will preclude all hope of reformation. 
But the same theory would abolish any final judgment, or eternal punishment ; for, 
when the soul becomes so wicked that there is no more hope of reform, there is no 
longer any justice in punishing it. The greater the sin, the less the punishment ; and 
Satan, the greatest sinner, should have no punishment at all. See Julius Miiller, Lehre 
von der Sunde, 1 : 334 ; Thornton, Old Fashioned Ethics, 70-73 ; Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 
2:238,239 (Syst. Doct., 3:134, 1&5); Robertson's Sermons, 4th Series, no. 18 (Harper's 
ed., 752 ) ; see also this Compendium, references on Holiness, A. ( d), page 129. 

(b) Penalty is not essentially deterrent and preventive. — By this we 
mean that its primary design is not to protect society, by deterring men 



352 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

from the commission of like offences. We grant that this end is often 
secured in connection with punishment, both in family and civil govern- 
ment and under the government of God. But we claim that this is a 
merely incidental result, which God's wisdom and goodness have connected 
with the infliction of penalty, — it cannot be the reason and ground for 
penalty itself. Some of the objections to the preceding theory apply also 
to this. But in addition to what has been said, we urge : 

Penalty cannot be primarily designed to secure social and governmental 
safety, for the reason that it is never right to punish the individual simply 
for the good of society. No punishment, moreover, will or can do good to 
others that is not just and right in itself. Punishment does good, only 
when the person punished deserves punishment ; and that desert of pun- 
ishment, and not the good effects that will follow it, must be the ground 
and reason why it is inflicted. The contrary theory would imply that the 
criminal might go free but for the effect of his punishment on others, and 
that man might rightly commit crime if only he were willing to bear the 
penalty. 

A certain English judge, in sentencing a criminal, said that he punished him, not for 
stealing sheep, but that sheep might not be stolen. But it is the greatest injustice to 
punish a man for the mere sake of example. Society cannot be benefited by such 
injustice. The theory can give no reason why one should be punished rather than 
another, nor why a second offence should be punished more heavily than the first. On 
this theory, moreover, if there were but one creature in the universe, and none existed 
beside himself to be affected by his suffering, he could not justly be punished, however 
great might be his sin. The only principle that can explain punishment is the principle 
of desert. See Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory, 2 : 348. 

"Crime is most prevented by the conviction that crime deserves punishment; the 
greatest deterrent agency is conscience." So in the government of God "there is no 
hint that future punishment works good to the lost or to the universe. The integrity 
of the redeemed is not to be maintained by subjecting the lost to a punishment they do 
not deserve. The wrong merits punishment, and God is bound to punish it, whether 
good comes of it or not. Sin is intrinsically ill-deserving. Impurity must be banished 
from God. God must vindicate himself, or cease to be holy" (see art. on the Philoso- 
phy of Punishment, by F. L. Patton, in Brit, and For. Evang. Rev., Jan., 1878 : 126-139). 

F. W. Robertson : " Does not the element of vengeance exist in all punishment, and 
does not the feeling exist, not as a sinful, but as an essential, part of human nature? 
If so, there must be wrath in God." Lord Bacon : " Revenge is a wild sort of justice." 
Stephens : " Criminal law provides legitimate satisfaction of the passions of revenge." 
Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 287. Per contra, see Bib. Sac, Apr., 1881 : 286-302 ; H. B. 
Smith, System of Theology, 46, 47; Chitty's ed. of Blackstone's Commentaries, 4:7; 
Wharton, Criminal Law, vol. 1, bk. 1, chap. 1. 

2. The actual 'penalty of sin. 

The one word in Scripture which designates the total penalty of sin is 
"death." Death, however, is twofold: 

A. Physical death, — or the separation of the soul from the body, 
including all those temporal evils and sufferings which result from dis- 
turbance of the original harmony between body and soul, and which are 
the working of death in us. That physical death is a part of the penalty 
of sin, appears: 

(a) From Scripture. 

This is the most obvious import of the threatening in Gen. 2 : 17 — "thou 
shalt surely die" ; cf. 3 : 19 — "unto dust shalt thou return." Allusions to 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN TO ADAM'S POSTERITY. 353 

-this threat in the O. T. confirm this interpretation : Num. 16 : 29 — "visited 
after the visitation of all men," where "tp2 = judicial visitation, or punish- 
ment; 27:3 (lxx.— 6t' d/iapriav avrov). The prayer of Moses in Ps. 90: 
7-9, 11, and the prayer of Hezekiah in Is. 38 : 17, 18, recognize plainly the 
penal nature of death. The same doctrine is taught in the N. T., as for 
example, John 8 : 44 ; Rom. 5 : 12, 14, 16, 17, where the judicial phrase- 
ology is to be noted (cf. 1:32) ; see 6 : 23 also. In 1 Pet. 4 : 6, physical 
death is spoken of as God's judgment against sin. In 1 Cor. 15 : 21, 22, 
the bodily resurrection of all believers, in Christ, is contrasted with the 
bodily death of all men, in Adam. Rom. 4 : 24, 25 ; 6 : 9, 10 ; 8:3, 10, 
11 ; Gal. 3 : 13, show that Christ submitted to physical death as the penalty 
of sin, and by his resurrection from the grave gave proof that the penalty 
of sin was exhausted and that humanity in him was justified. "As the 
resurrection of the body is a part of the redemption, so the death of the 
body is a part of the penalty. " 

Ps. 90 : 7, 9 — " We are consumed in thine anger . ... all our days are passed away in thy wrath " ; Is. 38 : 17, 18 — 
>' thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit ... . thou hast cast my sins behind thy back .... For the 
grave cannot praise thee" ; John 8 : 44 — "He [Satan] was a murderer from the beginning" ; 11 : 33 — Jesus 
"groaned in the spirit "= was moved with indignation at what sin had wrought ; Rom. 5 : 12, 14, 
16, 17 — " death through sin ... . death passed unto all men, for that all sinned .... death reigned .... even over 
them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression .... the judgment came of one [ trespass ] unto 
condemnation .... by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one " ; cf. the legal phraseology in 
1 : 32 — " who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they which practise such things are worthy of death." Rom. 6 : 23 — 
" the wages of sin is death "= death is sin's just due. 1 Pet. 4 : 6 — " that they might be judged according to 
men in the flesh "= that they might suffer physical death, which to men in general is the 
penalty of sin. 1 Cor. 15 : 21, 22 — "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive " ; Rom. 4 : 24, 
25 — " raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification " ; 
6 : 9, 10 — " Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more ; death no more hath dominion over him. For the death 
that he died, he died unto sin once : but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God " ; 8:3, 10, 11 — " God, sending his 
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh .... the body is dead because of sin" 
( = a corpse, on account of sin — Meyer ; so Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 291 ) ; "he that raised 
up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies" ; Gal. 3 : 13 — "Christ redeemed us from the curse 
of the law, having become a curse for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." 

( b ) From reason. 

The universal prevalence of suffering and death among rational creatures 
cannot be reconciled with the divine justice, except upon the supposition 
that it is a judicial infliction on account of a common sinfulness of nature 
belonging even to those who have not reached moral consciousness. 

The objection that death existed in the animal creation before the Fall 
may be answered by saying that, but for the fact of man's sin, it would not 
have existed. "We may believe that God arranged even the geologic history 
to correspond with the foreseen fact of human apostasy ( cf. Rom. 8 : 20-23 
— where the creation is said to have been made subject to vanity by reason 
of man's sin). 

On Rom. 8 : 20-23 —"the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will"— see Meyer's Com., and 
Bap. Quar., 1 : 143; also Gen. 3 : 17-19 — "cursed is the ground for thy sake." See also note on the 
Relation of Creation to the Holiness and Benevolence of God, and references, pages 
198, 199. As the vertebral structure of the first fish was an "anticipative consequence " 
of man, so the suffering and death of fish pursued and devoured by other fish were an 
" itnticipative consequence " of man's foreseen war with God and with himself. 

The translation of Enoch and Elijah, and of the saints that remain at 
Christ's second coming, seems intended to teach us that death is not a 
necessary law of organized being, and to show what would have happened 
23 



354 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

to Adam if he had been obedient. He was created a "natural," " earthly "" 
body, but might have attained a higher being, the "spiritual," "heavenly "* 
body, without the intervention of death. Sin, however, has turned the 
normal condition of things into the rare exception (c/. 1 Cor. 15 : 42-50). 
Since Christ endured death as the penalty of sin, death to the Christian 
becomes the gateway through which he enters into full communion with 
his Lord ( see references below ). 

Through physical death all Christians will pass, except those few who like Enoch and 
Elijah were translated, and those many who shall be alive at Christ's second coming. 
On 1 Cor. 15 : 51 — " "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all tie changed " — see Edward Irving, Works, 5 : 135. 
Nicoll, Life of Christ : "We have every one of us to face the last enemy, death. Ever 
since the world began, all who have entered it sooner or later have had this struggle, 
and the battle has always ended in one way. Two indeed escaped, but they did not 
escape by meeting and mastering their foe ; they escaped by being taken away from 
the battle." But this physical death, for the Christian, has been turned by Christ into a 
blessing. A pardoned prisoner may be still kept in prison, as the best possible benefit 
to an exhausted body; so the external fact of physical death may remain, although it 
has ceased to be penalty. 

John 14 : 3 — "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also" ; i Cor. 15 : 54-57 — "Death is swallowed up in victory .... death, where is thy sting? 
The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law" — %. e. the law's condemnation, its penal 
infliction ; 2 Cor. 5 : 1-9 — "For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a build- 
ing from God .... we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home 
with the Lord " ; Phil. 1 : 21, 23 — "to die is gain .... having the desire to depart and be with Christ ; for it is very far 
better." In Christ and his bearing the penalty of sin, the Christian has broken through 
the circle of natural race-connection, and is saved from corporate evil so far as it is 
punishment. The Christian may be chastised, but he is never punished : Rom. 8:1—" There 
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." 

The idea that punishment yet remains for the Christian is " the bridge to the papal 
doctrine of purgatorial fires." Browning's words, in The Ring and the Book, 2 : 60— 
"In His face is light, but in his shadow healing too," are applicable to God's fatherly 
chastenings, but not to his penal retributions. On Acts 7:60— "he fell asleep "— Arnot 
remarks : "When death becomes the property of the believer, it receives a new name, 
and is called sleep." Another has said : " Christ did not send, but came himself to save ; 
The ransom-price he did not lend, but gave ; Christ died, the shepherd for the sheep ; 
We only fall asleep." Per contra, see Kreibig, Versohnungslehre, 375, and Hengsten- 
berg, Ev. K.-Z., 1864 : 1065— "All suffering is punishment." 

B. Spiritual death, — or the separation of the soul from God, including 
all that pain of conscience, loss of peace, and sorrow of spirit, which result 
from disturbance of the normal relation between the soul and God. 

( a ) Although physical death is a part of the penalty of sin, it is by no 
means the chief part. The term ' death ' is frequently used in Scripture in a 
moral and spiritual sense, as denoting the absence of that which constitutes, 
the true life of the soul, namely, the presence and favor of God. 

Mat. 8 : 22 — " Follow me ; and leave the [ spiritually ] dead to bury their own [ physically ] dead " ; Luke 15 : 
32— "this thy brother was dead, and is alive again" ; John 5 : 24 — " he that heareth my word, and believeth him that 
sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life " ; 8 : 51 — "If a man 
keep my -word, he shall never see death " ; Rom. 8 : 13 — "if ye live after the flesh, ye must die ; but if by the Spirit ye 
put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live " ; Eph. 2 : 1 — " when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins" ; 
5 : 14 — "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead" ; 1 Tim. 5 : 6— "she that giveth herself to pleasure is 
dead while she liveth " ; James 5 : 20 — "he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from 
death " ; 1 John 3 : 14 — " he that loveth not abideth in death " ; Rev. 3 : 1 — " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and 
thou art dead." 

( b ) It cannot be doubted that the penalty denounced in the garden and 
fallen upon the race is primarily and mainly that death of the soul which 
consists in its separation from God. In this sense only, death was fully 
visited upon Adam in the day on which he ate the forbidden fruit ( Gen. 2 : 



THE SALVATION OF INFANTS. 355 

17). In this sense only, death is escaped by the Christian (John 11 : 26). 
For this reason, in the parallel between Adam and Christ (Eom. 5 : 12-21), 
the apostle passes from the thought of mere physical death in the early part 
of the passage to that of both physical and spiritual death at its close ( verse 
21 — "as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteous- 
ness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord " — where * ' eternal life " 
is more than endless physical existence, and "death" is more than death of 
the body). 

Gen. 2 : 17— "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" ; John 11 : 26 — "'whosoever liveth and 
believeth on me shall never die"; Rom. 5 : 12-21 — "justification of life ... . eternal life"; contrast these 
with " death reigned . . . . sin reigned in death." 

( c ) Eternal death may be regarded as the culmination and completion of 
spiritual death, and as essentially consisting in the correspondence of the 
outward condition with the inward state of the evil soul (Acts 1 : 25). It 
would seem to .be inaugurated by some peculiar repellent energy of the 
divine holiness (Mat. 25 : 41 ; 2 Thess. 1:9), and to involve positive retri- 
bution visited by a personal God upon both the body and the soul of the 
evil doer (Mat. 10 : 28 ; Heb. 10 : 31 ; Kev. 14 : 11). 

Acts 1 • 25 — " Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place " ; Mat. 25 : 41 — " Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels " ; 2 Thess. 1 : 9 — "who shall suffer punishment, even 
eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might " ; Mat. 10 : 28 — " fear him which is able 
to destroy both soul and body in hell " ; Heb. 10 : 31 — "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God " ; 
Rev. 14 : 11 — " the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and ever.' ' 

Kurtz, Religionslehre, 67—" So long- as God is holy, he must maintain the order of the 
world, and where this is destroyed, restore it. This however can happen in no other 
way than this : the injury by which the sinner has destroyed the order of the world falls 
back upon himself,— and this is penalty. Sin is the negation of the law. Penalty is the 
negation of that negation, that is, the ree'stablishment of the law. Sin is a thrust of the 
sinner against the law. Penalty is the adverse thrust of the elastic because living law, 
which encounters the sinner." 

On the general subject of the penalty of sin, see Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 1 : 245 sq. ; 
2 : 286-397 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 263-279 ; Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 
194-219 ; Krabbe, Lehre von der Siinde und vom Tode ; Weisse, in Studien und Kritiken, 
183(5 : 371 ; S. R. Mason, Truth Unfolded, 369-384 ; Bartlett, in New Englander, Oct., 1871 : 
677, 678. 



SECTION VII. — THE SALVATION OF INFANTS. 

The views which have been presented with regard to inborn depravity 
and the reaction of divine holiness against it suggest the question whether 
iufants dying before arriving at moral consciousness are saved, and if so, in 
what way. To this question we reply as follows : 

( a ) Infants are in a state of sin, need to be regenerated, and can be saved 

only through Christ. 

Job 14 : 4—" Who can bring a cleatf thing out of an unclean? not one" ; Ps. 51 : 5— "Behold, I was shapen in 
iniquity ; And in sin did my mother conceive me " ; John 3 : 6 — " That which is born of the flesh is flesh " ; Rom. 5 : 14 
—"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's 
transgression" ; Eph. 2 : 3 — "by nature children of wrath" ; 1 Cor. 7 : 14— "else were your children unclean" — 
clearly intimate the naturally impure state of infants; and Mat. 19:14— "Suffer the little 
children, and forbid them not, to come unto me"— is not only consistent with this doctrine, but 



356 ANTHROPOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. 

strongly confirms it ; for the meaning is : "forbid them not to come unto me"— whom they need 
as a Savior. " Coming to Christ " is always the coming of a sinner, to him who is the 
sacrifice for sin. 

( b ) Yet as compared with those who have personally transgressed, they 
are recognized as possessed of a relative innocence, and of a submissiveness 
and trustfulness, which may serve to illustrate the graces of Christian char- 
acter. 

Deut. 1 : 39 — "your little ones .... and your children, which this day have no knowledge of good and evil" ; 
Jonah 4 : 11 — " siiscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand " ; Rom. 9 : 
11 — "for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad" ; Mat. 18 : 3, 4 — "Except ye 
turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall 
humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." See Julius Muller, Doct. 
Sin, 2 : 265. 

(c) For this reason, they are the objects of special divine compassion and 
care, and through the grace of Christ are certain of salvation. 

Mat. 18 : 5, 6, 10, 14 —"whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me ; but whoso shall cause one 
of these little ones which believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about 
his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea ... . See that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I 
say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven .... Even so it 
is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish " ; 19:14 — " Suffer the little 
children, and forbid them not, to come unto me : for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven " — not God's king- 
dom of nature, but his kingdom of grace, the kingdom of saved sinners. On the 
passages in Matthew, see Commentaries of Bengel, De Wette, Lange; also Neander, 
Planting and Training ( ed. Robinson), 407 ; Hovey, Biblical Eschatology, 170, 171. 

Meyer refers these passages to spiritual infants only. So Dr. Kendrick, in S. S. Times : 
" To infants and children, as such, the language cannot apply. It must be taken figura- 
tively, and must refer to those qualities in childhood, its dependence, its trustfulness, 
its tender affection, its loving obedience, which are typical of the essential Christian 
graces .... If asked after the logic of our Savior's words — how he could assign, as a 
reason for allowing literal little children to be brought to him, that spiritual little chil- 
dren have a claim to the kingdom of heaven— I reply : the persons that thus, as a class, 
typify the subjects of God's spiritual kingdom cannot be in themselves objects of indif- 
ference to him, or be regarded otherwise than with intense interest . . . The class that 
in its very nature thus shadows forth the brightest features of Christian excellence 
must be subjects of God's special concern and care." 

To these remarks of Dr. Kendrick we would add, that Jesus' words seem to us to inti- 
mate more than special concern and care. While these words seem intended to exclude 
all idea that infants are saved by their natural holiness, or without application to them 
of the blessings of his atonement, they also seem to us to include infants among the 
number of those who have the right to these blessings ; in other words, Christ's concern 
and care go so far as to choose infants to eternal life, and to make them subjects of the 
kingdom of heaven. Cf. Mat. 18 : 14 — "it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these 
little ones should perish "= those whom Christ has received here, he will not reject hereafter. 
Of course this is said to infants, as infants. To those, therefore, who die before coming 
to moral consciousness, Christ's words assure salvation. Personal transgression, how- 
ever, involves the necessity, before death, of a personal repentance and faith, in order 
to salvation. 

(d) The descriptions of God's merciful provision as coextensive with 
the ruin of the Fall also lead us to believe that those who die in infancy 
receive salvation through Christ as certainly as they inherit sin from Adam. 

John 3 : 16 — " For God so loved the world " — includes infants. Rom. 5:14 — " death reigned from Adam until 
Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to 
come "= there is an application to infants of the life in Christ, as there was an application 
to them of the death in Adam ; 19-21 — "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made 
sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. And the law came in beside that 
the trespass might abound ; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly : that, as sin reigned in death, 
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord " = as without 
personal act of theirs infants inherited corruption from Adam, so without personal act 
of theirs salvation is provided for them in Christ. 



THE SALVATION OF INFANTS. 357 

(e) The condition of salvation for adults is personal faith. Infants are 
incapable of fulfilling this condition. Since Christ has died for all, we 
have reason to believe that provision is made for their reception of Christ 
in some other way. 

2 Cor. 5 : 15 — " he died for all " ; Mark 16 : 16 — " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that dis- 
believed, shall be condemned" (verses 9-20 are of canonical authority, though probably not 
written by Mark ). 

(/) At the final judgment, personal conduct is made the test of charac- 
ter. But infants are incapable of personal transgression. We have reason, 
therefore, to believe that they will be among the saved, since this rule of 
decision will not apply to them. 

Mat. 25 : 45, 46 — " Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away 
into eternal punishment" ; Rom. 2 : 5, 6 — "the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who 
will render to every man according to his works." 

(g) Since there is no evidence that children dying in infancy are regen- 
erated prior to death, either with or without the use of external means, it 
seems most probable that the work of regeneration may be performed by 
the Spirit in connection with the infant soul's first view of Christ in the 
other world. As the remains of natural depravity in the Christian are 
eradicated, not by death, but at death, through the sight of Christ and 
union with him, so the first moment of consciousness for the infant may be 
coincident with a view of Christ the Savior which accomplishes the entire 
sanctification of its nature. 

2 Cor. 3 : 18 — "But we all, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from 
glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" ; 1 John 3 : 2 — "We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall 
be like him ; for we shall see him as he is." If asked why more is not said upon this subject in 
Scripture, we reply : It is according to the analogy of God's general method to hide 
things that are not of immediate practical value. In some past ages, moreover, knowl- 
edge of the fact that all children dying in infancy are saved might have seemed to make 
infanticide a virtue. 

While, in the nature of things and by the express declarations of Script- 
ure, we are precluded from extending this doctrine of regeneration at 
death to any who have committed personal sins, we are nevertheless 
warranted in the conclusion that, certain and great as is the guilt of 
original sin, no human soul is eternally condemned solely for this sin of 
nature, but that, on the other hand, all who have not consciously and 
willfully transgressed are made partakers of Christ's salvation. 

The advocates of a second probation, on the other hand, should logically hold that 
infants in the next world are in a state of sin, and that at death they only enter upon a 
period of probation in which they may, or may not, accept Christ, — a doctrine much 
less comforting than that propounded above. See Prentiss, in Presb. Rev., July, 1883 : 
548-580— "Lyman Beecher and Charles Hodge first made current in this country the 
doctrine of the salvation of all who die in infancy. If this doctrine be accepted, then it 
follows : ( 1 ) that these partakers of original sin must be saved wholly through divine 
grace and power ; ( 2 ) that in the child unborn there is the promise and potency of 
complete spiritual manhood; (3) that salvation is possible entirely apart from the 
visible church and the means of grace ; (4) that to a full half of the race this life is not 
in any way a period of probation ; (5 ) that heathen may be saved who have never even 
heard of the gospel ; (6) that the providence of God includes in its scope both infants 
and heathen." See also Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1 : 26, 27 ; Ridgeley, Body of Divinity, 1 : 
422-425; Calvin, Institutes, II, i, 8 ; Westminster Larger Catechism, x, 3; Krauth, Infant 
Salvation in the Calvinistic System ; Candlish on Atonement, part ii, chap. 1 ; Geo. P. 
Fisher, in New Englander, Apr., 1868 : 338 ; J. F. Clarke, Truths and Errors of Ortho- 
doxy, 360. 



PART VI. 

SOTEEIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF SALTATION THROUGH 
THE WORK OF CHRIST AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



CHAPTER I. 
CHRISTOLOGY, OR THE REDEMPTION WROUGHT BY CHRIST. 



SECTION" I. HISTORICAL PREPARATION" FOR REDEMPTION. 

Since God had from eternity determined to redeem mankind, the history 
of the race from the time of the Fall to the coming of Christ was providen- 
tially arranged to r^repare the way for this redemption. This preparation 
was two-fold : 

I. Negative Preparation, — in the history of the heathen world. 

This showed ( 1 ) the true nature of sin, and the depth of spiritual igno- 
rance and of moral depravity to which the race, left to itself, must fall ; and 
(2) the powerlessness of human nature t<* preserve or regain an adequate 
knowledge of God, or to deliver itself from sin by philosophy or art. 

Why could not Eve have been the mother of the chosen seed, as she doubtless at the 
first supposed that she was? (Gen. 4:1 — "and she conceived and bare Cain [ i. e. ' gotten ', or 
' acquired ' ], and said, I have gotten a man, even Jehovah " ). Why was not the cross set up at the 
gates of Eden? Scripture intimates that a preparation was needful (Gal. 4 : 4— "but when 
the fulness of- the time came, God sent forth his Son" ). Of the two agencies made use of, we have 
called heathenism the negative preparation. But it was not wholly negative ; it was 
part] y positive also. " Justin Martyr spoke of a Adyos o-7repiu.aT<.*cd? among the heathen. 
Clement of Alexandria called Plato a Mwo% a.TTiKl£u>v — a Greek-speaking Moses. Notice 
the priestly attitude of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Pindar, Sophocles. The Bible 
recognizes Job, Balaam, Melchisedek, as instances of priesthood, or divine communi- 
cation, outside the bounds of the chosen people. Heathen religions either were not 
religions, or God had a part in them. Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, were at least 
reformers, raised up in God's providence. Gal. 4 : 3 classes Judaism with the ' rudiments of 
the world,' and Rom. 5 : 20 tells us that 'the law came in beside, 1 as a force cooperating with other 
human factors, primitive revelation, sin, etc." 

But the positive element in heathenism was slight. Her altars and sacrifices, her 
philosophy and art, roused cravings which she was powerless to satisfy. Her religious 
systems became sources of deeper corruption. There was no hope, and no progress. 
"The Sphynx's moveless calm symbolizes the monotony of Egyptian civilization." 
Classical nations became more despairing, as they became more cultivated. To the best 
minds, truth seemed impossible of attainment, and all hope of general well-being 
seemed a dream. The Jews were the only forward-looking people ; and all our modern 

358 



HISTORICAL PREPARATION FOR REDEMPTION. 359 

confidence in destiny and development comes from them. They, in their turn, drew 
their hopefulness solely from prophecy. Not their "genius for religion," but special 
Tevelation from God, made them what they were. 

Although God was in heathen history, yet so exceptional were the advantages of the 
Jews, that we can almost assent to the doctrine of the New Englander, Sept., 1883 : 576— 
" The Bible does not recognize other revelations. It speaks of the ' face of the covering that is 
cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations ' ( Is. 25 : 7 ) ; Acts 14 : 16, 17 — ' who in the generations 
gone by snffered all the nations to walk in their own ways. And yet he left not himself withont witness '= not an 
internal revelation in the hearts of sages, but an external revelation in nature, ' in that he 
did good, and gave yon from heaven rains and fruitfol seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.' The con- 
victions of heathen reformers with regard to divine inspiration were dim and intangi- 
ble, compared with the consciousness of prophets and apostles that God was speaking 
through them to his people." 

On heathenism a3 a preparation for Christ, see Tholuck, Nature and Moral Influence 
of Heathenism, in Bib. Repos., 1832 : 80, 246, 441 ; Dollinger, Gentile and Jew ; Pressense, 
Religions before Christ ; Max Miiller, Science of Religion, 1-128 ; Cocker, Christianity and 
Greek Philosophy ; Ackermann, Christian Element in Plato ; Farrar, Seekers after God ; 
Renan, on Rome and Christianity, in Hibbert Lectures for 1880. 

IT. Positive Preparation, — in the history of Israel. 

A single people was separated from all others, from the time of Abraham, 
and was educated in three great truths: (1) the majesty of God, in his 
unity, omnipotence, and holiness; (2) the sinfulness of man, and his moral 
helplessness ; (3) the certainty of a coming salvation. This education from 
the time of Moses was conducted by the use of three principal agencies : 

A. Law. — The Mosaic legislation, (a) by its theophanies and miracles, 
cultivated faith in a personal and almighty God and Judge ; ( b ) by its com- 
mands and threatenings, wakened the sense of sin ; ( c ) by its priestly and 
sacrificial system, inspired hope of some way of pardon and access to God. 

The education of the Jews was first of all an education by Law. In the history of the 
world, as in the history of the individual, law must precede gospel, John the Baptist 
must go before Christ, knowledge of sin must prepare a welcome entrance for know- 
ledge of a Savior. 

B. Prophecy. — This was of two kinds : (a) verbal, — beginning with the 
protevangelium in the garden, and extending to within four hundred years 
of the coming of Christ; (6) typical, — in persons, as Adam, Melchisedek, 
Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jonah ; and in acts, as Isaac's 
sacrifice, and Moses' lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. 

Christ was the reality, to which the types and ceremonies of Judaism pointed ; and 
these latter disappeared when Christ had come, just as the petals of the blossom drop 
away when the fruit appears. Many promises to the O. T. saints, which seemed to them 
promises of temporal blessing, were fulfilled in a better, because a more spiritual, way 
than they expected. Thus G od cultivated in them a boundless trust — a trust which was 
essentially the same thing with the faith of the new dispensation, because it was the 
absolute reliance of a consciously helpless sinner upon God's method of salvation, and 
so was implicitly, though not explicitly, a faith in Christ. 

The protevangelium (Gen. 3 : 15) said "it [this promised seed] shall bruise thy head." The 
"it" was rendered in some Latin manuscripts "ipsa." Hence Roman Catholic divines 
attributed the victory to the Virgin. Notice that Satan was cursed, but not Adam and 
Eve ; for they were candidates for restoration. The promise of the Messiah narrowed 
itself down as the race grew older, from Abraham to Judah, David, Bethlehem, and the 
Virgin. Prophecy spoke of "the sceptre" and of "the seventy weeks." Haggai and Malachi 
foretold that the Lord should suddenly come to the second temple. Christ was to be true 
man and true God ; prophet, priest, and king ; humbled and exalted. When prophecy 
had become complete, a brief interval elapsed, and then he, of whom Moses in the law, 
And the prophets, did write, actually came. 



360 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

C. Judgment. — Repeated divine chastisements for idolatry culminated 
in the overthrow of the kingdom, and the captivity of the Jews. The exile 
had two principal effects : (a) religious, — in giving monotheism firm root 
in the heart of the people, and in leading to the establishment of the syna- 
gogue-system, by which monotheism was thereafter preserved and propaga- 
ted; (&) civil, — in converting the Jews from an agricultural to a trading 
people, scattering them among all nations, and finally imbuing them with 
the spirit of Roman law and organization. 

Thus a people was made ready to receive the gospel and to propagate it 
throughout the world, at the very time when the world had become conscious 
of its needs, and, through its greatest philosophers and poets, was express- 
ing its longings for deliverance. 

The scattering of the Jews through all lands had prepared a monotheistic starting 
point for the gospel in every heathen city. Jewish synagogues had prepared places of 
assembly for the hearing of the gospel. The Greek language— the universal literary 
language of the world— had prepared a medium in which that gospel could be spoken. 
" Caesar had unified the Latin West, as Alexander the Greek East " ; and universal peace, 
together with Roman roads and Roman law, made it possible for that gospel, when once 
it had got a foothold, to spread itself to the ends of the earth. The first dawn of mis- 
sionary enterprise appears among the proselyting Jews before Christ's time. Christian- 
ity laid hold of this proselyting spirit, and sanctified it, to conquer the world to the faith 
of Christ. In all these preparations, we see many lines converging to one result, in a 
manner inexplicable, unless we take them as proofs of the wisdom and power of God 
preparing the way for the kingdom of his Son. 

On Judaism, as a preparation for Christ, see Dollinger, Gentile and Jew, 2 : 291-419 ; 
Martensen, Dogmatics, 224-236 ; Hengstenberg, Christology of the O. T. ; Smith, Proph- 
ecy a Preparation for Christ ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 458-485 ; Fairbairn, Typology ; 
MacWhorter, Jahveh Christ; Kurtz, Christliche Religionslehre, 114; Edwards, History 
of Redemption, in Works, 1 : 297-395 ; Walker, Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation ; 
Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 1 : 1-37 ; Luthardt, Fundamental 
Truths, 257-281; Schaff, Hist. Christian Ch., 1 : 32-49; Butler's Analogy, Bonn's ed., 228- 
238 ; Bushnell, Vicarious Sac, 63-66 ; Max Miiller, Science of Language, 2 : 443 ; Thoma- 
sius, Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 463-485 ; Fisher, Beginnings of Christianity, 47-73. 



SECTION II. — THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 

The redemption of mankind from sin was to be effected through a Medi- 
ator who should unite in himself both the human nature and the divine, in 
order that he might reconcile God to man and man to God. To facilitate- 
an understanding of the Scriptural doctrine under consideration, it will be 
desirable at the outset to present a brief 

I. Historical Survey of Views respecting the Person of Christ. 

1. The Ebionites (jr3N= 'poor' ; A. D. 107?) denied the reality of 
Christ's divine nature, and held him to be merely man, whether naturally or 
supernaturally conceived. This man, however, held a peculiar relation to 
God, in that, from the time of his baptism, an unmeasured fullness of the 
divine Spirit rested upon him. Ebionism was simply Judaism within the 
pale of the Christian church, and its denial of Christ's godhood was occa- 
sioned by the apparent incompatibility of this doctrine with monotheism. 



THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 361 

Ftirst ( Heb. Lexicon ) derives the name ' Ebionite ' from the word signifying ' poor ' ; 
see Is. 25 : 4 — " thou hast been a stronghold to the poor " ; Mat. 5:3 — " Blessed are the poor in spirit." It means 
"oppressed, pious souls." Epiphanius traces them hack to the Christians who took 
refuge, A. D. 66, at Pella, just before the destruction of Jerusalem. They lasted down 
to the fourth century. Dorner can assign no age for the formation of the sect, nor any 
historically ascertained person as its head. It was not Judaic Christianity, but only a 
fraction of this. There were two divisions of the Ebionites : 

( a ) The Nazarenes, who held to the supernatural birth of Christ, while they would 
not go to the length of admitting the preexisting hypostasis of the Son. They are said 
to have had the gospel of Matthew, in Hebrew. 

( b ) The Cerinthian Ebionites, who put the baptism of Christ in place of his supernat- 
ural birth, and made the ethical sonship the cause of the physical. It seemed to them 
a heathenish fable that the Son of God should be born of the Virgin. There was no 
personal union between the divine and human in Christ. Christ, as distinct from Jesus, 
was not a merely impersonal power descending upon Jesus, but a preexisting hypostasis 
above the world-creating powers. The Cerinthian Ebionites, who on the whole best 
represent the spirit of Ebionism, approximated to Pharisaic Judaism, and were hostile 
to the writings of Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews, in fact, is intended to counteract 
an Ebionitic tendency to overstrain law and to underrate Christ. In a complete view, 
however, should also be mentioned : 

( c ) The Gnostic Ebionism of the pseudo-Clementines, which in order to destroy the 
deity of Christ and save the pure monotheism, so-called, of primitive religion, gave up 
even the best part of the Old Testament. In all its forms, Ebionism conceives of God 
and man as external to each other. God could not become man. Christ was no more 
than a prophet or teacher, who, as the reward of his virtue, was from the time of his 
baptism specially endowed with the Spirit. After his death he was exalted to kingship. 
But that would not justify the worship which the church paid him. A merely creaturely 
mediator would separate us from God, instead of uniting us to him. See Dorner, Glau- 
benslehre, 2 : 305-307 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 201-204 ), and Hist. Doct. Person Christ, A. 1 : 187-217 ; 
Reuss, Hist. Christ. Theol., 1 : 100-107 ; Schaff, Ch. Hist., 1 : 212-215. 

2. The Docetce (coneu — 'to seem,' 'to appear'; A. D. 70-170), like most 
of the Gnostics in the second century and the Manichees in the third, denied 
the reality of Christ's human body. This view was the logical sequence of 
their assumption of the inherent evil of matter. If matter is evil and Christ 
was pure, then Christ's human body must have been merely phantasmal. 
Docetism was simply pagan philosophy introduced into the church. 

The Gnostic Basilides held to a real human Christ, with whom the divine vous became 
united at the baptism ; but the followers of Basilides became Docetae. To them, the 
body of Christ was merely a seeming one. There was no real life or death. Valentinus 
made the Mori, Christ, with a body purely pneumatic and worthy of himself, pass 
through the body of the Virgin, as water through a reed, taking up into itself nothing of 
the human nature through which he passed ; or as a ray of light through colored glass 
which only imparts to the light a portion of its own darkness. Christ's life was simply 
a theophany. The Patripassians and Sabellians, who are only sects of the Docetae, denied 
all real humanity to Christ. 

That Docetism appeared so early, shows that the impression Christ made was that of 
a superhuman being. Among many of the Gnostics, the philosophy which lay at the 
basis of their Docetism was a pantheistic apotheosis of the world. God did not need 
to become man, for man was essentially divine. This view, and the opposite error of 
Judaism, already mentioned, both showed their insufficiency by attempts to combine 
with each other, as in the Alexandrian philosophy. See Dorner, Hist. Doct. Person 
Christ, A. 1 : 218-252, and Glaubenslehre, 2 : 307-310 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 204-206) ; Neander, Ch. 
Hist., 1 . 387. 

3. The Avians (Arius, condemned at Nice, 325) denied the integrity of 
the divine nature in Christ. They regarded the Logos who united himself 
to humanity in Jesus Christ, not as possessed of absolute godhood, but as 
the first and highest of created beings. This view originated in a misinter- 
pretation of the Scriptural accounts of Christ's state of humiliation, and in 



362 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

mistaking temporary subordination for original and permanent inequality. 

Arianism is called by Dorner a reaction from Sabellianism. Sabellius had reduced the 
incarnation of Christ to a temporary phenomenon. Arius thought to lay stress on the 
hypostasis of the Son, and to give it fixity and substance. But, to his mind, the reality 
of Sonship seemed to require subordination to the Father. Origen had taught the subor- 
dination of the Son to the Father, in connection with his doctrine of eternal generation. 
Arius held to the subordination, and also to the generation, but this last, he declared, 
could not be eternal, but must be in time. See Dorner, Person Christ, A. 2 : 227-244, 
and Glaubenslehre, 2 : 307, 312, 313 (Syst. Doct,, 3 : 203, 207-210); Herzog, Encyclopadie, 
art. : Arianismus. 

4. The Apollinarians ( Apollinaris, condemned at Constantinople, 381) 
denied the integrity of Christ's human nature. According to this view, 
Christ had no human vovc or 7rvevfj.a, other than that which was furnished by 
the divine nature. Christ had only the human o<bfj.a and ipvxv ; the place 
of the human vovg or irvsvjua was filled by the divine Logos. Apollinarism 
is an attempt to construe the doctrine of Christ's person in the form3 of the 
Platonic trichotomy. 

Lest divinity should seem a foreign element, when added to this curtailed manhood, 
Apollinaris said that there was an eternal tendency to the human in the Logos himself ; 
that in God was the true manhood ; that the Logos is the eternal, archetypal man. But 
here is no becoming man — only a manifestation in flesh of what the Logos already was. 
So we have a Christ of great head and dwarfed body. Justin Martyr preceded Apolli- 
naris in this view. In opposing it, the church Fathers said that " what the Son of God has 
not taken to himself, he has not sanctified " — to 6.np6<Tkt]iTTov *al adepdnevrov. See Dorner, 
Jahrbuch f. d. Theol., 1 : 397-408— "The impossibility, on the Arian theory, of making 
two finite souls into one, finally led to the [Apollinarian] denial of any human soul in 
Christ " ; see also, Dorner, Person Christ, A. 2 : 352-399, and Glaubenslehre, 2 : 310 ( Syst. 
Doct., 3 : 206, 207) ; Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 1 : 394. 

5. The Nestorians (Nestorius, removed from the Patriarchate of Con- 
stantinople, 431 ) denied the real union between the divine and the human 
natures in Christ, making it rather a moral than an organic one. They 
refused therefore to attribute to the resultant unity the attributes of each 
nature, and regarded Christ as a man in very near relation to God. Thus 
they virtually held to two natures and two persons, instead of two natures 
in one person. 

Nestorius disliked the phrase: "Mary, mother of God." The Chalcedon statement 
asserted its truth, with the significant addition : " as to his humanity." Nestorius made 
Christ a peculiar temple of God. He believed in o-wa^eia, not eVwo-i?,— junction and 
indwelling, but not absolute union. He made too much of the analogy of the union of 
the believer with Christ, and separated as much as possible the divine and the human. 
The two natures were, in his view, aAAo? *ai aAAos, instead of being aAAo xai aAAo, which 
together constitute els — one personality. The union which he accepted was a moral 
union, which makes Christ simply God and man, instead of the God-man. 

John of Damascus compared the passion of Christ to the f eUing of a tree on which the 
sun shines. The axe fells the tree, but does no harm to the sunbeams. So the blows 
which struck Christ's humanity caused no harm to his deity ; while the flesh suffered, 
the deity remained impassible. This leaves, however, no divine efficacy of the human 
sufferings, and no personal union of the human with the divine. The error of Nestorius 
arose from a philosophic nominalism, which refused to conceive of nature without 
personality. He believed in nothing more than a local or moral union, like the marriage 
union, in which two become one ; or like the state, which is sometimes called a moral 
person, because having a unity composed of many persons. See Dorner, Person Christ, 
B. 1 : 53-79, and Glaubenslehre, 2 : 315, 316 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 211-213); Philippi, Glaubens- 
lehre, 4 : 210 ; Wilberf orce, Incarnation, 152-154/ 

6. The Eutychians (condemned at Chalcedon, 451 ) denied the distinction 
and coexistence of the two natures, and held to a mingling of both into one, 



THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 363 

-which constituted a tertium quid, or third nature. Since in this case the 
divine must overpower the human, it follows that the human was really 
absorbed into or transmuted into the divine, although the divine was not in 
all respects the same, after the union, that it was before. Hence the 
Eutychians were often called Monophysites, because they virtually reduced 
the two natures to one. 

They were an Alexandrian school, which included monks, of Constantinople and 
Egypt. They used the words o-vyxvo-is, /u.eTa/3oA.jj — confounding, transformation — to 
describe the union of the two natures in Christ. Humanity joined to deity was as a 
drop of honey mingled with the ocean. There was a change in either element, but as 
when a stone attracts the earth, or a meteorite the sun, or when a small boat pulls a 
ship, all the movement was virtually on the part of the smaller object. Humanity was 
so absorbed in deity, as to be altogether lost. The union was illustrated by electron, a 
metal compounded of silver and gold. A more modern illustration would be that of the 
chemical union of an acid and an alkali, to form a salt unlike either of the constituents. 

In effect this theory denied the human element, and, with this, the possibility of 
atonement, on the part of human nature, as well as of real union of man with God. 
Such a magical union of the two natures as Eutyches described is inconsistent with any 
real becoming man on the part of the Logos,— the manhood is well-nigh as illusory as 
upon the theory of the Docetae. See Dorner, Person Christ, B. 1 : 83-93, and Glaubens- 
lehre, 2 : 318, 319 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 214-216) ; G-uericke, Ch. History, 1 : 356-360. 

The foregoing survey would seem to show that history had exhausted the 
possibilities of heresy, and that the future denials of the doctrine of 
Christ's person must be, in essence, forms of the views already mentioned. 
All controversies with regard to the person of Christ must, of necessity, 
hinge upon one of three points : first, the reality of the two natures ; sec- 
ondly, the integrity of the two natures; thirdly, the union of the two 
natures in one person. Of these points, Ebionism and Docetism deny the 
reality of the natures ; Arianism and Apollinarism deny their integrity ; 
while Nestorianism and Eutychianism deny their proper union. In oppo- 
sition to all these errors, 

7. The Orthodox doctrine (promulgated at Chalcedon, 451) holds that 
in the one person Jesus Christ there are two natures, a human nature and a 
divine nature, each in its completeness and integrity, and that these two 
natures are organically and indissolubly united, yet so that no third nature 
is formed thereby. In brief, to use the antiquated dictum, orthodox doc- 
trine forbids us either to divide the person or to confound the natures. 

That this doctrine is Scriptural and rational, we have yet to show. We 
may most easily arrange our proofs by reducing the three points mentioned 
to two, namely : first, the reality and integrity of the two natures ; sec- 
ondly, the union of the two natures in one person. 

The formula of Chalcedon is negative, with the exception of its assertion of a evwo-t? 
uwo<7TaTi/c7j. It proceeds from the natures, and regards the result of the union to be the 
person. Each of the two natures is regarded as in movement toward the other. The 
symbol says nothing of an awnoaTaaCa of the human nature, nor does it say that the 
Logos furnishes the ego in the personality. John of Damascus, however, pushed for- 
ward to these conclusions, and his work, translated into Latin, was used by Peter 
Lombard, and determined the views of the Western church of the Middle Ages. 
Dorner regards this as having given rise to the Mariolatry, saint-invocation, and tran- 
substantiation of the Roman Catholic Church. See Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 4 : 189 sq.; 
Dorner, Person Christ, B. 1 : 93-U9, and Glaubenslehre, 2 : 320-328 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 216- 
223), in which last passage maybe found valuable matter with regard to the changing 

Uses Of the WOrds npoauiirov, vn6<rTa<Ti<;, ovcri'a, etc. 



364 SOTEEIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

H. The two Natures of Christ, — their Reality and Integrity. 

1. The Humanity of Christ. 

A. Its Reality. — This may be shown as follows. 

(a) He expressly called himself, and was called, "man." 

John 8 : 40 —"ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth " ; Acts 2 : 22 —"Jesus of Nazareth, a man- 
approved of God unto you " ; Rom. 5 : 15 — " the one man, Jesus Christ " ; 1 Cor. 15 : 21 — " by man came death, by man 
came also the resurrection of the dead" ; 1 Tim. 2 : 5 — "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ 
Jesus." Compare the genealogies in Mat. 1 : 1-17 and Luke 3 : 23-38, the former of which proves 
Jesus to be in the royal line, and the latter of which proves him to be in the natural 
line, of succession from David ; the former tracing back his lineage to Abraham, and 
the latter to Adam. Christ is therefore the son of David, and of the stock of Israel. 
Compare also the phrase " Son of man," e. g. in Mat. 20 : 28, which, however much it may mean 
in addition, certainly indicates the veritable humanity of Jesus. Compare, finally, the 
term "flesh" (= human nature), applied to him in John 1 : 14— "and the Word became flesh," and 
in 1 John 4 : 2 — "Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." 

(6) He possessed the essential elements of human nature as at present 
constituted — a material body and a rational soul. 

Mat. 26 : 38— "My soul is exceeding sorrowful" ; John 11 : 33— "he groaned in the spirit"; Mat. 26 : 26 — "this 
is my body " ; 28 — " this is my blood " ; Luke 24 : 39 — " a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having " ; 
Heb. 2 : 14 — "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the 
same" ; 1 John 1:1 — " That which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and 
our hands handled, concerning the Word of life" ; 4 : 2 — "Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in 
the flesh is of God." 

(c) He was moved by the instinctive principles, and he exercised the 
active powers, which belong to a normal and developed humanity (hunger, 
thirst, weariness, sleep, love, compassion, anger, anxiety, fear, groaning, 
weeping, prayer). 

Mat. 4 : 2— "he afterward hungered" ; John 19 : 28— "I thirst" ; 4 : 6— "Jesus therefore, being wearied with his 
journey, sat thus by the well" ; Mat. 8 : 24 — "the boat was covered with the waves: but he was asleep" ; Mark 
10 : 21 — " Jesus looking upon him loved him " ; Mat. 9 : 36 — " when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compas- 
sion for them ' ' ; Mark 3:5 — " looked round about on them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their heart " ; 
leb. 5 : 7 — "supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death " ; John 12 : 27 
—"Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour" ; 11 : 33 — "he groaned in the 
spirit"; 35— "Jesus wept"; Mat. 14: 23 — " he went up into the mountain apart to pray." 

(d) He was subject to the ordinary laws of human development, both in 
body and soul ( grew and waxed strong in spirit ; asked questions ; grew in 
wisdom and stature; learned obedience; suffered being tempted; was. 
made perfect through sufferings). 

Luke 2 : 40 — "the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom" ; 46 — "sitting in the midst of the doctors, 
both hearing them, and asking them questions " (here, at his twelfth year, he appears first to become 
fully conscious that he is the Sent of God, the Son of God; 49— "wist ye not that I must be in 
my Father's house?" fit. 'in the things of my Father') ; 52 — "advanced in wisdom and stature" ; Heb. 
5 : 8 — " learned obedience by the things which he suffered " ; 2 : 18 —"in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, 
he is able to succor them that are tempted " ; 10 — "it became him .... to make the author of their salvation perfect 
through sufferings." 

(c) He suffered and died (bloody sweat; gave up his spirit; pierced his 
side, and straightway there came out blood and water). 

Luke 22 : 44 — " being in an agony he prayed more earnestly.; and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood 
falling down upon the ground" ; John 19 : 30 — "he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit"; 34 — "one of the- 
soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water" — held by Stroud, 
Physical Cause of our Lord's Death, to be proof that Jesus died of a broken heart. 



THE TWO NATURES OF CHRIST. 365 

Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, 1 : 9-19 — "The Lord is said to have gro-vra in wisdom and 
:favor with God, not because it was so, but because he acted as if it were so. So he was 
exalted after death, as if this exaltation were on account of death." But we may reply : 
Resolve all signs of humanity into mere appearance, and you lose the divine nature as 
well as the human ; for God is truth and cannot act a lie. The babe, the child, even the 
man, in certain respects, was ignorant. Jesus, the boy, was not making' crosses, as in 
Overbeck's picture, but rather yokes and plows, as Justin Martyr relates — serving a 
real apprenticeship in Joseph's workshop : Mark 6 : 3— "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary ?'• 

See Holman Hunt's picture, "The Shadow of the Cross"— in which not Jesus, but 
only Mary, sees the shadow of the cross upon th» wall. He lived a life of faith, as well 
as of prayer (Heb. 12 : 2 — "Jesns the author [captain, prince] and perfecter of our faith") dependent 
upon Scripture, which was much of it, as Ps. 16 and 118, and Is. 49, 50, 61, written for him, 
as well as about him. See Park, Discourses, 297-327; Deutsch, Remains, 131— "The 
boldest transcendental flight of the Talmud is its saying: 'God prays.' " In Christ's 
humanity, united as it is to deity, we have the fact answering to this piece of Talmudic 
poetry. 

B. Its Integrity. — We here use the term ' integrity ' to signify, not merely 
completeness, but perfection. That which is perfect is, a fortiori, complete 
in all its parts. Christ's human nature was : 

(a) Supernaturally conceived. 

Luke 1 : 35 — "And Mary said unto the angel, low shall this be, seeing I know not a man ? And the angel answered 
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." The 
"seed of the woman" (Gen. 3 : 15) was one who had no earthly father. " Eve "= life, not only as 
being the source of physical life to the race, but also as bringing into the world him 
who was to be its spiritual life. Julius Miiller, Proof -texts, 29— Jesus Christ "had no 
earthly father ; his birth was a creative act of God, breaking through the chain of 
human generation." Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:447 (Syst. Doct., 3:345)— "The new 
science recognizes manifold methods of propagation, and that too even in one and the 
same species." 

( b ) Free, both from hereditary depravity, and from actual sin. 

Luke 1 : 35 — "Wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God" ; John 8 : 46 — 
"Which of you convicteth me of sin?" 14 : 30 — "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me "= 
not the slightest evil inclination upon which his temptations can lay hold ; Rom. 8 : 3— "in 
the likeness of sinful flesh "= in flesh, but without the sin which, in other men, clings to the 
flesh ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 — " him who knew no sin " ; leb. 4 : 15 — " in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin " ; 
7 : 26 — " holy, guileless, undeiled, separated from sinners "— by the fact of his immaculate conception ; 
9 : 14 — "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God" ; 1 Pet 1 : 19 — "precious blood, as of 
a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ" ; 2 : 22 — "who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in his mouth " ; 1 John 3 : 5, 7 — " in him is no sin ... . he is righteous." 

Julius Miiller, Proof -texts, 29— "Had Christ been only human nature, he could not 
have been without sin. But life can draw out of the putrescent clod materials for its 
own living. Divine life appropriates the human." Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 446 ( Syst. 
Doct., 3 : 344)— "What with us is regeneration, is with him the incarnation of God." 
In this origin of Jesus' sinlessness from his union with God, we see the absurdity, both 
doctrinally and practically, of speaking of an immaculate conception of the Virgin, 
and of making her sinlessness precede that of her Son. On the Roman Catholic doctrine 
of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, see H. B. Smith, System, 389-392. "Christ 
took human nature, in such a way that this nature, without sin, bore the consequences 
of sin." That portion of human nature which the Logos took into union with himself 
was, in the very instant and by the fact of his taking it, purged from all its inherent 
depravity. 

But if in Christ there was no sin, or tendency to sin, how could he be tempted ? Li 
the same way, we reply, that Adam was tempted. Christ was not omniscient : Mark 13 : 32 
—"of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Only 
at the close of the first temptation does Jesus recognize Satan as the adversary of souls : 
Mat 4 : 10 — " Get thee hence, Satan." Jesus could be tempted, not only because he was not omnis- 
cient, but also because he had the keenest susceptibility to all the forms of innocent 
•desire. To these desires temptation may appeal. Sin consists, not in these desires, but 
in the gratification of them out of God's order, and contrary to God's will. So Satan 
^appealed (Mat. 4 : 1-11) to the desire for food, for applause, for power; to " Ueberglaube, 



366 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

Aberglaube, Unglaube " (Kurtz) ; cf. Mat. 26 : 39; 27 : 42; 26 : 53. All temptation must be 
addressed either to desire or fear; so Christ "was in all points tempted, like as we are" (Heb. 
4 : 15 ). The first temptation, in the wilderness, was addressed to desire ; the second, in the 
garden, was addressed to fear. Satan, after the first, " departed from him for a season " ( Luke 4 : 13) ; 
but he returned, in Gethsemane— "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me" (John 
14 : 30) — if possible, to deter Jesus from his work, by rousing within him vast and ago- 
nizing- fears of the suffering and death that lay before him. Yet, in spite of both the- 
desire and the fear with which his holy soul was moved, he was "without sin" (Heb. 4 : 15). 
The tree on the edge of the precipice is fiercely blown by the winds : the strain upon the 
roots is tremendous, but the roots held. Even in Gethsemane and on Calvary, Christ 
never prays for forgiveness,— he only imparts it to others. See Ullman, Sinlessness of 
Jesus ; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 2 : 7-17, 126-136, esp. 135, 136 ; Schaff, Person 
of Christ, 51-72 ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 330-349. 

(c) Ideal human nature, — furnishing the moral pattern which man is 
progressively to realize. 

Psalm 8:4-8 — " thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. Thou madest 
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet"— a description of 
the ideal man, which finds its realization only in Christ. leb. 2 : 6-10— "But now we see not 
yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, 
because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor." 1 Cor. 15 : 45 — "The first .... Adam .... The 
last Adam"— implies that the second Adam realized the full concept of humanity, which 
f idled to be realized in the first Adam; so verse 49 — "as we have borne the image of the earthly 
[ man ], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly " [ man ]. 1 Cor. 3 : 18 — " the glory of the Lord " is the 
pattern, into whose likeness we are to be changed. Phil. 3 : 21 — " who shall fashion anew the body 
of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory " ; Col. 1 : 18 — " that in all things he might have 
the pre-eminence " ; 1 Pet. 2 : 21 — " suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps " ; 1 John 
3 : 3 — "every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 

The phrase "Son of man" (John 5 : 27; cf. Dan. 7 : 13, Com. of Pusey, in loco, and Westcott, 
in Bible Com. on John, 32-35) seems to intimate that Christ answers to the perfect idea 
of humanity, as it at first existed in the mind of God. Not that he was surpassingly 
beautiful in physical form ; for the only way to reconcile the seemingly conflicting inti- 
mations is to suppose that in all outward respects he took our average humanity— at 
one time appearing without form or comeliness (Is. 52 : 2), and aged before his time (John 
8 : 57—" Thou art not yet fifty years old " ), at another time revealing so much of his inward grace 
and glory that men were attracted and awed (Ps. 45 : 2— "Thou art fairer than the children of men" [ 
Luke 4 : 22 — "the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth " ; Mark 10 : 32— "Jesus was going before them: 
and they were amazed ; and they that followed were afraid " ; Mat. 17 : 1-8 — the account of the transfigu- 
ration ). Compare the Byzantine pictures of Christ with those of the Italian painters. 

But in all spiritual respects Christ was perfect. In him are united all the excellences 
of both the sexes, of all temperaments and nationalities and characters. He possesses, 
not simply passive innocence, but positive and absolute holiness, triumphant through 
temptation. He includes in himself all objects and reasons for affection and worship ; 
so that, in loving him, "love can never love too much." Christ's human nature, there- 
fore, and not human nature as it is in us, is the true basis of ethics and of theology. 
This absence of narrow individuality, this ideal, universal manhood, could not have been 
secured by merely natural laws of propagation,— it was secured by Christ's miraculous 
conception ; see Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 446 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 344 ). 

On Christ's ideal manhood, see F. W. Robertson, Sermon on the Glory of the Divine 
Son ; Wilberf orce, Incarnation, 22-99 ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 2 : 25 ; Moorhouse, Nature and 
Revelation, 37 ; Tennyson, Introduction to In Memoriam ; Farrar, Life of Christ, 1 : 148- 
154, and 2 : excursus iv ; Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 276-332 ; Thomas 
Hughes, The Manliness of Christ ; Hopkins, Scriptural Idea of Man, 121-145 ; Tyler, in 
Bib. Sac, 22 : 51, 620; Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 451 sq. 

(d) A human nature that found its personality only in union with the 
divine nature, — in other words, a human nature impersonal, in the sense 
that it had no personality separate from the divine nature, and prior to its 
union therewith. 

By the impersonality of Christ's human nature, we mean only that it had no person- 
ality before Christ took it, no personality before its union with the divine. It was a 
human nature whose consciousness and will were developed only in union with the 



THE TWO NATURES OF CHRIST. 367 

personality of the Logos. The Fathers therefore rejected the word apvnoa-Taa-ia, and 
substituted the word ewiroa-Taa-Ca, — they favored not impersonality but ■impersonality. 
In still plainer terms, the Logos did not take into union with himself an already devel- 
oped human person, such as James, Peter, or John, but human nature before it had 
become personal or was capable of receiving a name. It reached its personality only in 
union with his own divine nature. Therefore we see in Christ not two persons — a human 
person and a divine person— but one person, and that person possessed of a human 
nature as well as of a divine. For proof of this, see pages 368-380, esp. 376 ; also Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 2 : 289-308. 

(e) A human nature germinal, and capable of self -communication, — so 
constituting him the spiritual head and beginning of a new race. 

In Is. 9 : 6, Christ is called " Everlasting Father." In Is. 53 : 10, it is said that " he shall see his seed." 
In Rev. 22 : 16, he calls himself "the root" as well as "the offspring of David." See also John 5 : 21 — 
"the Son also quickeneth whom he will"; 15 :1 — "I am the true vine" — whose roots are planted in 
heaven, not on earth ; the vine-man, from whom as its stock the new life of humanity is 
to spring, and into whom the half -withered branches of the old humanity are to be 
grafted that they may have life divine. See Trench, Sermon on Christ, the True Vine, 
in Hulsean Lectures. John 17 : 2— "thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever thou hast given 
him, to them he should give eternal life"; 1 Cor. 15 : 45 — "the last Adam became a life-giving spirit" — here 
"spirit" =, not the Holy Spirit, nor Christ's divine nature, but "the ego of his total 
divine-human personality." 

Eph. 5 : 23 — " Christ also is the head of the church "= the head to which all the members are united, 
and from which they derive life and power ; Col. 1 : 18 — " who is the beginning, the first-born from 
the dead." Christ calls the disciples his "little children" (John 13 : 33) ; when he leaves them 
they are "orphans " (14 : 18, marg. ). " He presents himself as a Father of children, no less than 
as a brother" (20 : 17— "my brethren" ; cf. Heb. 2 : 11 — " brethren ", and 13— "Behold, I and the children 
which God hath given me " ; see Westcott, Com. on John 13 : 33 ). The new race is propagated after 
the analogy of the old ; the first Adam is the source of physical, the second Adam of 
spiritual, life ; the first Adam the source of corruption, the second of holiness. Hence 
John 12 : 24 — "if it die, it beareth much fruit" ; Mat. 10 : 37 and Luke 14 : 26 — "He that loveth father or mother 
more than me is not worthy of me "= none is worthy of me, who prefers his old natural ancestry 
to his new spiritual descent and relationship. Thus Christ is not simply the noblest 
embodiment of the old humanity, but also the fountain-head and beginning of a new 
humanity, the new source of life for the race. Cf. 1 Tim. 2 : 15 — "she shall be saved through the 
child-bearing" — which brought Christ into the world. See Wilberf orce, Incarnation, 227- 
241; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 638-664; Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:451 sq. (Syst. Doct., 
3:349s<?.). 

The passages here alluded to abundantly confute the Docetic denial of 
Christ's veritable human body, and the Apollinarian denial of Christ's ver- 
itable human soul. More than this, they establish the reality and integrity 
of Christ's human nature, as possessed of all the elements, faculties, and 
powers essential to humanity. 

2. The Deity of Christ 

The reality and integrity of Christ's divine nature have been sufficiently 
proved in a former chapter (see pages 145-150). We need only refer to the 
evidence there given, that, during his earthly ministry, Christ : 

( a ) Possessed a knowledge of his own deity. 

John 3 : 13 — " the Son of man, which is in heaven "—a passage which clearly indicates Christ's con- 
sciousness, at certain times in his earthly life at least, that he was not confined to earth, 
but was also in heaven [here, however, Westcott and Hort, with X and B, omit 6 w«/ kv 
r<Z ovpav<Z ; for advocacy of the common reading, see Broadus, in Hovey's Com. on John 
3 : 13]; 8 : 58— "Before Abraham was born, I am"— here Jesus declares that there is a respect in 
which the idea of birth and beginning does not apply to him, but in which he can apply 
to himself the name " I am " of the eternal God ; 14 : 9, 10 — " Have I been so long time with you, and 
dost thou not know me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; how sayest thou, Shew us the Father ? 
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? " 

( b ) Exercised divine attributes and prerogatives. 



368 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

John 2 : 24, 25 — "But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and because he needed not 
that any one should hear witness concerning man ; for he himself knew what was in man " ; 18 : 4 — " Jesus therefore, 
knowing all the things that were coming upon him, went forth " ; Mark 4 : 39 — "He awoke, and rebuked the wind, 
and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" ; Mat. 9 : 6 — "but that ye 
may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins ( then saith he to the sick of the palsy ), Arise, and 
take up thy bed, and go unto thy house " ; Mark 2 : 7 — " Why doth this man thus speak ? he blasphemeth : who can 
forgive sins but one, even God." 

But this is to say, in other words, that there were, in Christ, a knowledge 
and a power such as belong only to God. The passages cited furnish a 
refutation of both the Ebionite denial of the reality, and the Arian denial 
of the integrity, of the divine nature in Christ. 

Napoleon to Count Montholon ( Bertrand's Memoirs ) : " I think I understand somewhat 
of human nature, and I tell you all these [ heroes of antiquity ] were men, and I am a 
man ; but not one is like him : Jesus Christ was more than man." See other testimonies 
in Schaff, Person of Christ. Even Spinoza, Tract. Theol.-Pol., cap. 1 (vol. 1 : 383) says 
that " Christ communed with God, mind to mind .... this spiritual closeness is unique " 
( Martineau, Types, 1 : 254), and Channing speaks of Christ as more than a human being, 
— as having exhibited a spotless purity which is the highest distinction of heaven. 
F. W. Robertson has called attention to the fact that the phrase "Son of man" (John 5 : 27; 
c/. Dan. 7 : 13 ) itself implies that Christ was more than man ; it would have been an imper- 
tinence for him to have proclaimed himself Son of man, unless he had claimed to be 
something more ; could not every human being call himself the same ? When one takes 
this for his characteristic designation, as Jesus did, he implies that there is something 
strange in his being Son of man ; that this is not his original condition and dignity ; in 
other words, that he is also Son of God. 

It corroborates the argument from Scripture, to find that Christian experience instinct- 
ively recognizes Christ's Godhead, and that Christian history shows a new conception of 
the dignity of childhood and of womanhood, of the sacredness of human life, and of the 
value of a human soul,— all arising from the belief that, in Christ, the Godhead honored 
human nature by taking it into perpetual union with itself, by bearing its guilt and 
punishment, and by raising it up from the dishonors of the grave to the glory of heaven. 
We need both the humanity and the deity of Christ; the humanity,— for, as Michael 
Angelo's Last Judgment witnesses, the ages that neglect Christ's humanity must have 
some human advocate and Savior, and find a poor substitute for the ever-present Christ 
in Mariolatry, the invocation of the saints, and the ' real presence ' of the wafer and the 
mass ; the deity,— for, unless Christ is God, he cannot offer an infinite atonement for us, 
nor bring about a real union between our souls and the Father. Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 
2 : 325-327 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 221-223) — " Mary and the saints took Christ's place as interces- 
sors in heaven ; transubstantiation furnished a present Christ on earth." See also 
Shedd, Hist. Doctrine, 1 : 262, 351 ; Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 127, 207, 458 ; Thomasius, 
Christi Person und Werk, 1 : 61-64 ; Hovey, God with Us, 17-23 ; Bengel on John 10 : 30. On 
The Two Natures of Christ, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 201-212. 

III. The Union of the two Natures in one Person. 

Distinctly as the Scriptures represent Jesus Christ to have been possessed 
of a divine nature and of a human nature, each unaltered in essence and 
undivested of its normal attributes and powers, they with equal distinctness 
represent Jesus Christ as a single undivided personality in whom these two 
natures are vitally and inseparably united, so that he is properly, not God 
and man, but the God-man. The two natures are bound together, not by 
the moral tie of friendship, nor by the spiritual tie which links the believer 
to his Lord, but by a bond unique and inscrutable, which constitutes them 
one person with a single consciousness and will, — this consciousness and will 
including within their possible range both the human nature and the divine. 

1. Proof of this Union. 

{a) Christ uniformly speaks of himself, and is spoken of, as a single 
person. There is no interchange of I' and 'thou' between the human 



THE TWO tfATUKES Itf OifE PEKSON. 369 

and the divine natures, such as we find between the persons of the Trinity 
(John 17 : 23). Christ never uses the plural number in referring to him- 
self, unless it be in John 3 : 11 — "we speak that we do know," — and even 
here "we" is more probably used as inclusive of the disciples. 1 John 
4 : 2 — "is come in the flesh" — is supplemented by John 1 : 14 — "became 
flesh " ; and these texts together assure us that Christ so came in human 
nature as to make that nature an element in his single j)ersonality. 

John 17 : 23 — " I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one ; that the -world may know that thou 
• didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me " ; 3 : 11 — " "We speak that we do know, and bear witness of 
that we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness " ; 1 John 4 : 2 — " Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is 
come in the flesh is of God " ; John 1 : 14—" And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us " = lie so came in 
human nature that human nature and himself formed, not two persons, but one person. 

(*6) The attributes and powers of both natures are ascribed to the one 
Christ, and conversely the works and dignities of the one Christ are 
ascribed to either of the natures, in a way inexplicable, except upon the 
principle that these two natures are organically and indissolubly united in 
a single person ( examples of the former usage are Rom. 1 : 3 and 1 Pet. 
•3 : 18 ; of the latter, 1 Tim. 2 : 5 and Heb. 1 : 2, 3). Hence we can say, 
on the one hand, that the God-man existed before Abraham, yet was born 
in the reign of Augustus Caesar, and that Jesus Christ wept, was weary, 
suffered, died, yet is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever ; on the other 
hand, that a divine Savior redeemed us upon the cross, and that the human 
Christ is present with his people even to the end of the world ( Eph. 1 : 23 ; 
4 :10; Mat. 28 : 20). 

Rom. 1 : 3 — " his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh " ; 1 Pet. 3 : 18 — " Christ also suffered 
for sins once .... being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit" ; 1 Tim. 2:5 — "one Mediator also 
between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" ; Heb. 1 : 2, 3 — "his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things 
.... who being the effulgence of his glory .... when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand 
of the Majesty on high" ; Eph. 1 : 22, 23 — "put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over 
all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all " ; 4 : 10 — " he that descended is the 
same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things" ; Mat. 28 : 20 — "lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." 

(c) The constant Scriptural representations of the infinite value of 
Christ's atonement and of the union of the human race with God which has 
been secured in him are intelligible only when Christ is regarded, not as a 
man of God, but as the God-man, in whom the two natures are so united 
that what each does has the value of both. 

1 John 2:2—" he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world,"— as John 
In his gospel proves that Jesus is the Son of God, the Word, God, so in his first Epistle 
ho proves that the Son of God, the Word, God, has become man ; Eph. 2 : 16-18— "might recon- 
cile them both [ Jew and Gentile ] in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby ; and 
he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh : for through him we both have 
our access in one Spirit unto the Father" ; 21 : 22 — "in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth 
into a holy temple in the Lord ; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit " ; 2 Pet. 1 : 4 
— "that through these [promises] ye may become partakers of the divine nature." 

(d) It corroborates this view to remember that the universal Christian 
consciousness recognizes in Christ a single and undivided personality, and 
expresses this recognition in its services of song and prayer. 

The foregoing proof of the union of a perfect human nature and of a 

perfect divine nature in the single person of Jesus Christ sufiices to 

refute both the Nestorian separation of the natures and the Eutychian 

-confounding of them. Certain modern forms of stating the doctrine of 

24 



370 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

this union, however — forms of statement into which there enter some of 
the misconceptions already noticed — need a brief examination, before we 
proceed to our own attempt at elucidation. 

Dorner, G-laubenslehre, 2 : 403-411 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 300-308 )— " Three ideas are included 
in incarnation: (1) assumption of human nature on the part of the Logos (Heb. 2 : 14 — 
' partook of ... . flesh and blood ' ; 2 Cor. 5 : 19 — ' God was in Christ ' ; Col. 2:9 — 'in him dwelleth all the fulness of 
the Godhead bodily'); (2) new creation of the second Adam, by the Holy Ghost and power 
of the Highest ( Rom. 5:14 — ' Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come ' ; 1 Cor. 15 : 22 — 'as 
in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive ' ; 15 : 45 — ' The first man Adam became a living soul. The 
last Adam became a life-giving spirit ' ; Luke 1 : 35 — ' the My Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
Most High shall overshadow thee ' ; Mat. 1 : 20 — ' that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost ' ) ; ( 3 ) becom- 
ing flesh, without contraction of deity or humanity (1 Tim. 3 : 16 — 'who was manifested in the 
flesh' ; i John 4 : 2 — 'Jesus Christ is come in the flesh' ; John 6 : 41, 51 — 'I am the bread which came down from 
heaven .... I am the living bread ' ; 2 John 7 — ' Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh ' ; John 1:14 — ' the Word became 
flesh.' This last text cannot mean : The Logos ceased to be what he was, and began to be 
only man. Nor can it be a mere theophany, in human form. The reality of the human- 
ity is intimated, as well as the reality of the Logos." 

The Lutherans hold to a communion of the natures, as well as to an impartation of 
their properties : ( 1 ) genus idiomaticum = impartation of attributes of both natures 
to the one person ; ( 2 ) genus apotelesmaticum ( from anoTikeo-ixa, ' that which is finished 
or completed,' i. e. Jesus' work) = attributes of the one person imparted to each of the 
constituent natures. Hence Mary may be called " the mother of God," as the Chalcedon 
symbol declares, " as to his humanity," and what each nature did has the value of both ; 
(3) genus majestaticum = attributes of one nature imparted to the other, yet so that the 
divine nature imparts to the human, not the human to the divine. The Lutherans do 
not believe in a genus tapeinoticon, i. e., that the human elements communicated them- 
selves to the divine. The only communication of the human was to the person, not to 
the divine nature, of the God-man. Examples of this third genus majestaticum are 
found in John 3 : 13 — " no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man 
which is in heaven" [here, however, Westcott and Hort, with X and B, omit 6 Civ ev tw 
oupavw]; 5:27— "he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man." Of the 
explanation that this is the figure of speech called " allo&osis," Luther says: "Allceosis 
est larva quasdam diaboli, secundum cujus rationes ego certe nolim esse Christianus." 

The genus majestaticum is denied by the Reformed Church, on the ground that it does 
not permit a clear distinction of the natures. And this is one great difference between 
it and the Lutheran Church. So Hooker, in commenting upon the Son of man's 
"ascending up where he was before," says: "By the 'Son of man' must be meant the 
whole person of Christ, who, being man upon earth, filled heaven with his glorious 
presence ; but not according to that nature for which the title of man is given him." 
Eor the Lutheran view of this union and its results in the communion of natures, see 
Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, 11th ed., 195-197 ; Thomasius, Christ! Person und Werk, 2 : 24, 
25. For Reformed view, see Turretin, loc. 13, quaest. 8 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 387-397, 
407-418. 

2. Modern misrepresentations of this Union. 

A. Theory of an incomplete humanity. — Gess and Beecher hold that 
the immaterial part in Christ's humanity is only contracted and meta- 
morphosed deity. 

The advocates of this view maintain that the divine Logos reduced him- 
self to the condition and limits of human nature, and thus literally became 
a human soul. The theory differs from Apollinarism, in that it does not 
necessarily presuppose a trichotomous view of man's nature. While 
Apollinarism, however, denied the human origin only of Christ's irvevfia, 
this theory extends the denial to his entire immaterial being, — his body 
alone being derived from the Virgin. It is held, in slightly varying forms, 
by the Germans, Hofmann and Ebrard, as well as by Gess ; and Henry 
Ward Beecher was its chief representative in America. 

Gess holds that Christ gave up his eternal holiness and divine self -consciousness, to 
become man, so that he never during his earthly life thought, spoke, or wrought as God, 



THE TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON. 371 

but was at all times destitute of divine atributes. See Gess, Scripture Doctrine of the 
Person of Christ ; and synopsis of his view, by Reubelt, in Bib. Sac, 1870 : 1-32 ; Hof- 
niann, Schrif tbeweis, 1 : 234-241, and 2 : 20 ; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 2 : 144-151, and in Herzog, 
Encyclopadie, art. : Jesus Christ, der Gottmensch ; also Liebner, Christliche Dogmatik. 
Henry Ward Beecher, in his Life of Jesus the Christ, chap. 3, emphasizes the word 
"flesh," in John i : 14, and declares the passage to mean that the divine Spirit enveloped him- 
self in a human body, and in that condition was subject to the indispensable limitations 
of material laws. All these advocates of the view hold that Deity was dormant, or 
paralyzed, in Christ during his earthly life. Its essence is there, but not its efficiency at 
any time. 

Against this theory we urge the following objections : 

(a) It rests upon a false interpretation of the passage John 1 : 14 — 
6 loyoq oapt; eyivero. The word cap? here has its common New Testament 
meaning. It designates neither soul nor body alone, but human nature in 
its totality ( cf. John 3 : 6 — to ycyevvijfievov en r?jg aapKog adp^ eotlv ; Rom. 7 : 
18 — ovk uiK£i ev kfioi, tovt' ecrtv kv rift caput fiov, ayafiov). That hyevero does not 
imply a transmutation of the loyog into human nature, or into a human soul, 
is evident from eoicf/vuoev which follows — an allusion to the Shechinah of the 
Mosaic tabernacle ; and from the parallel passage 1 John 4:2 — h caput 
EAr/lvdo-a — where we are taught not only the oneness of Christ's person, 
but the distinctness of the constituent natures. 

John 1 : 14— "the Word became flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us, and we beheld his glory" ; 3 : 6 — 
"that which is born of the flesh is flesh" ; Rom. 7 : 18 — "in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" ; 1 John 
4 : 2 — "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." Since "flesh," in Scriptural usage, denotes human nature 
in its entirety, there is as little reason to infer from these passages a change of the 
Logos into a human body, as a change of the Logos into a human soul. 

(6) It contradicts the two great classes of Scripture passages already 
referred to, which assert on the one hand the divine knowledge and power 
of Christ and his consciousness of oneness with the Father, and on the 
other hand the completeness of his human nature and its derivation from 
the stock of Israel and the seed of Abraham (Mat. 1 : 1-16 ; Heb. 2 : 16). 
Thus it denies both the true humanity, and the true deity, of Christ. 

See the Scripture passages cited in proof of the Deity of Christ, pages 145-150. Gess 
himself acknowledges that, if the passages in which Jesus avers his divine knowledge 
and power and his consciousness of oneness with the Father refer to his earthly life, 
his theory is overthrown. "Apollinarism had a certain sort of grotesque grandeur, in 
giving to the human body and soul of Christ an infinite, divine nvevn-a. It maintained 
at least the divine side of Christ's person. But the theory before us denies both sides." 
While it so curtails deity that it is no proper deity, it takes away from humanity all 
that is valuable in humanity ; for a manhood that consists only in body is no proper 
manhood. Such manhood is like the "half-length" portrait which depicted only the 
lower half of the man. Mat. 1 : 1-16, the genealogy of Jesus, and Heb. 2 : 16— "taketh hold of the 
seed of Abraham "— intimate that Christ took all that belonged to human nature. 

( c ) It is inconsistent with the Scriptural representations of God's immu- 
tability, in maintaining that the Logos gives up the attributes of godhead, 
and his place and office as second person of the Trinity, in order to contract 
himself into the limits of humanity. Since attributes and substance are 
correlative terms, it is impossible to hold that the substance of God is in 
Christ, so long as he does not possess divine attributes. The only exit 
from this difficulty is through the pantheistic hypothesis that God and man 
are not two, but one, in essence. To pantheism, therefore, this theory 
actually tends. 



372 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

See Dorner, UnverUnderlichkeit Gottes, in Jahrbuch f iir deutsche Theologie, 1 : 361 ; 
2 : 440 ; 3 : 579 ; esp. 1 : 390-412—" Gess holds that, during the thirty- three years of Jesus' 
earthly life, the Trinity was altered ; the Father no more poured his fullness into the 
Son; the Son no more, with the Father, sent forth the Holy Spirit; the world was 
upheld and governed by Father and Spirit alone, without the mediation of the Son ; the 
Father ceased to beget the Son. He says the Father alone has aseity; he is the only 
Monas. The Trinity is a family, whose head is the Father, but whose number and con- 
dition is variable. To Gess, it is indifferent whether the Trinity consists of Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, or ( as during Jesus' life ) of only one. But this is a Trinity in which 
two members are accidental. A Trinity that can get along without one of its members 
is not the Scriptural Trinity. The Father depends on the Son, and the Spirit depends 
on the Son, as much as the Son depends on the Father. To take away the Son is to take 
away the Father and the Spirit. This giving up of the actuality of his attributes, even 
of his holiness, on the part of the Logos, is in order to make it possible for Christ to sin. 
But can we ascribe the possibility of sin to a being who is really God ? The reality of 
temptation requires us to postulate a veritable human soul." 

That the theory naturally tends to pantheism, can be seen in Goodwin, Christ and 
Humanity, who takes the ground that man and God are of the same essence. Beecher, 
too, says that man and God are of the same nature, and that man is to become divine. 
So Gess calls the human soul a spark of the divine flame. But we cannot believe either 
in a man changed to a God, or in a God changed to a man. In the one case God ceases 
to be God, in the other man ceases to be man. If God's Spirit constitutes Christ's human 
soul, and in like manner every other human soul also, then there is no difference between 
Christ and us but one of degree, and we may justify William Blake's blasphemous saying 
to Crabbe Robinson: "Jesus Christ is the only God, and so am I, and so are you." 

( d ) It is destructive of the whole Scriptural scheme of salvation, in that 
it renders impossible any experience of human nature on the part of the 
divine, — for when God becomes man he ceases to be God ; in that it renders 
impossible any sufficient atonement on the part of human nature, — for 
mere humanity, even though its essence be a contracted and dormant deity, 
is not capable of a suffering which shall have infinite value; in that it 
renders impossible any proper union of the human race with God in the 
person of Jesus Christ, — for where true deity and true humanity are both 
absent, there can be no union between the two. 

See Dorner, Jahrbuch f. d. Theologie, 1 : 390— "Upon this theory only an exhibitory 
atonement can be maintained. There is no real humanity that, in the strength of divin- 
ity, can bring a sacrifice to God. Not substitution, therefore, but obedience, on this 
view, reconciles us to God. Even if it is said that God's Spirit is the real soul in all men, 
this will not help the matter ; for we should then have to make an essential distinction 
between the indwelling of the Spirit in the unregenerate, the regenerate, and Christ, 
respectively. But in that case we lose the likeness between Christ's nature and our 
own,— Christ's being preexistent, and ours not. Without this pantheistic doctrine, 
Christ's xmlikeness to us is yet greater ; for he is really a wandering God, clothed in a 
human body, and cannot properly be called a human soul. We have then no middle- 
point between the body and the Godhead ; and in the state of exaltation, we have no 
manhood at all,— only the infinite Logos, in a glorified body as his garment." 

Isaac Watts's theory of a preexistent humanity in like manner implies that humanity 
is originally in deity ; it does not proceed from a human stock, but from a divine ; 
between the human and the divine there is no proper distinction ; hence there can be no 
proper redeeming of humanity ; see Bib. Sac, 1875 : 421. On the theory in general, see 
Hovey, God with Us, 62-£9; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2:430-440; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 
4 : 386-408 ; Biedermann, Christliche Dogmatik, 356-359 ; Bruce, Humiliation of Christ, 
187, 230. 

B. Theory of a gradual incarnation. — Dorner and Rothe hold that the 
union between the divine and the human natures is not completed by the 
incarnating act. 

The advocates of this view maintain that the union between the two 



THE TWO NATURES IN" ONE PERSON. 373 

natures is accomplished by a gradual communication of the fullness of the 
divine Logos to the man Christ Jesus. This communication is mediated by 
the human consciousness of Jesus. Before the human consciousness begins, 
the personality of the Logos is not yet divine-human. The personal union 
completes itself only gradually, as the human consciousness is sufficiently 
developed to appropriate the divine. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 660 (Syst. Doct., 4 : 125) — "In order that Christ might show 
his high-priestly love by suffering- and death, the different sides of his personality yet 
stood to one another in relative separableness. The divine-human union in him, accord- 
ingly, was before his death not yet completely actualized, although its completion was 
from the beginning divinely assured." 2 : 431 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 328) — "In spite of this 
becoming, inside of the Unio, the Logos is from the beginning united with Jesus in the 
deepest foundation of his being, and Jesus' life has ever been a divine-human one, in that 

a present receptivity for the Godhead has never remained without its satisfaction 

Even the unconscious humanity of the babe turns receptively to the Logos, as the plant 
turns toward the light. The initial union makes Christ already the God-man, but not in 
such a way as to prevent a subsequent becoming ; for surely he did become omniscient 
and incapable of death, as he was not at the beginning." 

2 : 464 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 363) — " The actual life of God, as the Logos, reaches beyond the 
beginnings of the divine-human life. For if the Unio is to complete itself by growth, 
the relation of impartation and reception must continue. In his personal consciousness, 
there was a distinction between duty and being. The will had to take up practically, and 
turn into action, each new revelation or perception of God's will on the part of intellect 
or conscience. He had to maintain, with his will, each revelation of his nature and 
work. In his twelfth year, he says : 'I must be about my Father's business.' To Satan's 
temptation : ' Art thou God's Son ? ' he must reply with an affirmation that suppresses 
all doubt, though he will not prove it by miracle. This moral growth, as it was the will 
of the Father, was his task. He hears from his Father, and obeys. In him, imperfect 
knowledge was never the same with false conception. In us, ignorance has error for its 
obverse side. But this was never the case with him, though he grew in knowledge unto 
the end." Dorner's view of the Person of Christ may be found in his Hist. Doct. Person 
Christ, 5 : 248-261 ; Glaubenslehre, 2 : 347-4T4 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 243-373 ). 

A summary of his views is also given in Princeton Rev., 1873 : 71-87 — Dorner illus- 
trates the relation between the humanity and the deity of Christ by the relation 
between God and man, in conscience, and in the witness of the Spirit. "So far as the 
human element was immature or incomplete, so far the Logos was not present. Knowl- 
edge advanced to unity with the Logos, and the human will afterwards confirmed the 
best and highest knowledge. A resignation of both the Logos and the human nature to 
the union is involved in the incarnation. The growth continues until the idea, and the 
reality, of divine humanity perfectly coincide. The assumption of unity was gradual, 
in the life of Christ. His exaltation began with the perfection of this development." 
Rothe's statement of the theory can be found in his Dogmatik, 2 : 49-182 ; and in Bib. 
Sac, 27 : 386. 

It is objectionable for the following reasons : 

(a) The Scripture plainly teaches that that which was born of Mary 
was as completely Son of God as Son of man ( Luke 1:35); and that in 
the incarnating act, and not at his resurrection, Jesus Christ became the 
God-man (Phil. 2:7). But this theory virtually teaches the birth of a 
man who subsequently and gradually became the God-man, by consciously 
appropriating the Logos to whom he sustained ethical relations — relations 
with regard to which the Scripture is entirely silent. 

In Luke i : 35 — "the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God" — and Phil. 2 : 7 — "emptied 
himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" — we have evidence that Christ 
was both Son of God and Son of man from the very beginning of his earthly life. 
But, according to Dorner, before there was any human consciousness, the personality 
of Jesus Christ was not divine-human. Dorner's radical error is that of mistaking an 
incomplete consciousness of the union for an incomplete union. 



374 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

( b ) Since consciousness and will belong to personality, as distinguished 
from nature, the hypothesis of a mutual, conscious, and voluntary appro- 
priation of divinity by humanity and of humanity by divinity, during the 
earthly life of Christ, is but a more subtle form of the Nestorian doctrine of 
a double personality. It follows, moreover, that as these two personalities 
do not become absolutely one until the resurrection, the death of the man 
Jesus Christ, to whom the Logos has not yet fully united himself, cannot 
possess an infinite atoning efficacy. 

Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 2 : 68-70, objects to Dorner's view, that it "leads 
us to a man who is in intimate communion with God,— a man of God, but not a man who 
is God." He maintains, against Dorner, that "the union between the divine and human 
in Christ exists before the consciousness of it." 193-195 — Dorner's view "makes each 
element, the divine and the human, long for the other, and reach its truth and reality 
only in the other. This, so far as the divine is concerned, is very like pantheism. Two 
willing personalities are presupposed, with ethical relation to each other,— two persons, 
at least at the first. Says Dorner: 4 So long as the manhood is yet unconscious, the 
person of the Logos is not yet the central ego of this man. At the beginning, the Logos 
does not impart himself, so far as he is person or self-consciousness. He keeps apart 
by himself, just in proportion as the manhood fails in power of perception.' At the 
beginning, then, this man is not yet the God-man ; the Logos only works in him, and 
on him. 'The unio personalis grows and completes itself ,— becomes ever more all- 
sided and complete. Till the resurrection, there is a relative separability still.' Thus 
Dorner. But the Scripture knows nothing of an ethical relation of the divine to 
the human in Christ's person. It knows only of one divine-human subject." See also 
Thomasius, 2 : 80-92. 

( c ) While this theory asserts a final complete union of God and man in 
Jesus Christ, it renders this union far more difficult to reason, by holding it 
to be a merging of two persons in one, rather than a union of two natures 
in one person. We have seen, moreover, that the Scripture gives no coun- 
tenance to the doctrine of a double personality during the earthly life of 
Christ. The God-man never says : "I and the Logos are one" ; "he that 
hath seen me hath seen the Logos" ; "the Logos is greater than I" ; "I go 
to the Logos." In the absence of all Scripture evidence in favor of this 
theory, we muse regard the rational and dogmatic arguments against it as 
conclusive. 

Liebner, in Jahrbuch f . d. Theologie, 3 : 349-366, urges, against Dorner, that there is no 
sign in Scripture of such communion between the two natures of Christ as exists 
between the three persons of the Trinity. Philippi also objects to Dorner's view: 
( 1 ) that it implies a pantheistic identity of essence in both God and man ; ( 2 ) that it 
makes the resurrection, not the birth, the time when the "Word became flesh ; ( 3 ) that 
it does not explain how two personalities can become one ; see Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 
4 : 364-380. The merging of two personalities in one seems at first sight to be made easier 
by the pantheistic assumption that God and man are essentially one ; and Dorner, though 
strenuously denying that he is a pantheist, is quoted as saying : " The unity of essence 
of God and man is the great discovery of this age." He doubtless thinks that he 
excludes pantheism by his earnest assertion of personality. But not only is one nature 
and two persons the direct opposite of the Scripture doctrine ; but it is difficult, upon 
the assumption of a single essence, to see how there can be any such thing as distinct 
personalities at all. See also Biedermann, Dogmatik, 351-353; Hodge, Syst. TheoL, 
2:428-430. 

3. The real nature of this Union. 

(a) Its great importance. — While the' Scriptures represent the j>erson 
of Christ as the crowning mystery of the Christian scheme (Matt. 11 : 27; 
Col. 1 : 27; 2:2; 1 Tim. 3 : 16), they also incite us to its study (John 



THE TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON. 375 

17 : 3 ; 20 : 27 ; Luke 24 : 39 ; Phil. 3 : 8, 10). This is the more needful, 
since Christ is not only the central point of Christianity, but is Christianity 
itself — the embodied reconciliation and union between man and God. The 
following remarks are offered, not as fully explaining, but only as in some 
respects relieving, the difficulties of the problem. 

Mat. 11 : 27 — " No one knoweth the Son, save the Father ; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." Here it seems to be intimated that the mystery of the 
nature of the Son is even greater than that of the Father. Shedd, Hist. Doct, 1 : 408: 
The Person of Christ is in some respects more baffling' to reason than the Trinity. Yet 
there is a profane neglect, as well as a profane curiosity : Col. 1 : 27 — "the riches of the glory of 
this mystery .... which is Christ in you the hope of glory " ; 2 : 2 — " the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are 
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden " ; 1 Tim. 3 : 16 — " great is the mystery of godliness ; he who was 
manifested in the flesh" — here the Vulgate, the Latin Fathers, and Buttmann make fj.va-rrtpi.ov 
the antecedent of 6s, the relative taking the natural gender of its antecedent, and 
fivar-qpiov referring to Christ ; Heb. 2 : 11 — "both he that sanctifleth and they that are sanctified are all of one 
[ not father, hut race ] " ( cf. Acts 17 : 26 — " he made of one every nation of men " ) — an allusion to 
the solidarity of the race and Christ's participation in all that belongs to us. 

John 17 : 3 —"this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even 
Jesus Christ" ; 20 : 27 — "Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my 
side : and be not faithless, but believing " ; luke 24 : 39 — " See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me 
and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me having " ; Phil. 3 : 8, 10 — " I count all things to be loss for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord .... that I may know him"; 1 John 1 : 1 — "that which we 
have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word, 
of life." 

The chief problems with regard to the person of Christ are : ( 1 ) one personality and 
two natures; (2) human nature without personality; (3) relation of the Logos to the 
humanity during the earthly life of Christ ; ( 4 ) relation of the humanity to the Logos 
during the heavenly life of Christ. Luther said that we should need "new tongues" 
before we could properly set forth this doctrine,— particularly, a new language with 
regard to the nature of man. Robert Browning, Death in the Desert: "I say, the 
acknowledgment of God in Christ, Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee All questions 
in the earth and out of it, And has so far advanced thee to be wise." On Browning as 
a Christian poet, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 531-535. 

( b ) Reason for mystery. — The union of the two natures in Christ's person 
is necessarily inscrutable, because there are no analogies to it in our exrjeri- 
ence. Attempts to illustrate it on the one hand from the union and yet 
the distinctness of soul and body, of iron and heat, and on the other hand 
from the union and yet the distinctness of Christ and the believer, of the 
divine Son and the Father, are one-sided and become utterly misleading, if 
they are regarded as furnishing a rationale of the union and not simply a 
means of repelling objection. The first two illustrations mentioned above 
lack the essential element of two natures to make them complete : soul and 
body are not two natures, but one, nor are iron and heat two substances. 
The last two illustrations mentioned above lack the element of single per- 
sonality : Christ and the believer are two persons, not one, even as the Son 
and the Father are not one persoD, but two. 

The two illustrations most commonly employed are the union of soul and body, and 
the union of the believer with Christ. Each of these illustrates one side of the great 
doctrine, but each must be complemented by the other. The former, taken by itself, 
would be Eutychian ; the latter, taken by itself, would be Nestorian. Like the doctrine 
of the Trinity, the Person of Christ is an absolutely unique fact, for which we can find 
no complete analogies. But neither do we know how soul and body are united. See 
Blunt, Diet. Doct. and Hist. Theol., art.: Hypostasis; Sartorius, Person and Work of 
Christ, 27-65; Wilberforce, Incarnation, 39-77; Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 281-3:54. 

{<■) Ground of possibility. — The possibility of the union of deity and 
humanity in one person is grounded in the original creation of man in 



376 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

the divine image. Man's kinship to God, in other words, his possession of 
a rational and spiritual nature, is the condition of incarnation. Brute-lif e is 
incapable of union with God. But human nature is capable of the divine, 
in the sense not only that it lives, moves, and has its being in God, but that 
God may unite himself indissolubly to it and endue it with divine powers, 
while yet it remains all the more truly human. Since the moral image of 
God in human nature has been lost by sin, Christ, the perfect image of 
God after which man was originally made, restores that lost image by 
uniting himself to humanity and filling it with his divine life and love. 

2 Pet. 1 : 4— "partakers of the divine nature." Creation and providence do not furnish the last 
limit of God's indwelling. Beyond these, there is the spiritual union between the belie ver 
and Christ, and even beyond this, there is the unity of God and man in the person of 
Jesus Christ. Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 283 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 180) — " Humanity in Christ 
is related to divinity, as woman to man in marriage. It is receptive, but it is exalted by 
receiving-. Christ is the offspring- of the [ marriage ] covenant between God and Israel." 

lb., 2 : 403-411 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 301-308 )— " The question is: How can Christ be both 
Creator and creature ? The Logos, as such, stands over against the creature as a distinct 
object. How can he become, and be, that which exists only as object of his activity 
and inworking ? Can the cause become its own effect '? The problem is solved, only by 
remembering that the divine and human, though distinct from each other, are not to be 
thought of as foreign to each other and mutually exclusive. The very thing that dis- 
tinguishes them binds them together. Their essential distinction is that God has aseity, 
while man has simply dependence. ' Deep calleth unto deep ' ( Ps. 42 : 7 ) — the deep of the divine 
riches, and the deep of human poverty, call to each other. God's infinite resources and 
man's infinite need, God's measureless supply and man's boundless receptivity, attract- 
each other, until they unite in him in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
The mutual attraction is of an ethical sort, but the divine love has ' first loved ' ( 1 John 4 : 19 ).. 

" The new second creation is therefore not merely, like the first creation, one that dis- 
tinguishes from God,— it is one that unites with God. Nature is distinct from God, yet 
God moves and works in nature. Much more does human nature find its only true real- 
ity, or realization, in union with God. God's uniting act does not violate or unmake it, 
but rather first causes it to be what, in God's idea, it was meant to be." Incarnation is 
therefore the very fulfillment of the idea of humanity. The supernatural assumption 
of humanity is the most natural of all things. Man is not a mere tangent to God, but 
an empty vessel to be filled from the infinite fountain. Natura humana in Christo capax 
divinae. See Talbot, in Bap. Quar., 186S : 129 ; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 270. 

(d) No double personality. — This possession of two natures does not 
involve a double personality in the God-man, for the reason that the Logos 
takes into union with himself, not an individual man with already devel- 
oped personality, but human nature which has had no separate existence 
before its union with the divine. Christ's human nature is impersonal, in 
the sense that it attains self-consciousness and self-determination only in the 
personality of the God-man. Here it is important to mark the distinction 
between nature and person. Nature is substance possessed in common ; 
the persons of the Trinity have one nature ; there is a common nature of 
mankind. Person is nature separately subsisting, with powers of con- 
sciousness and will. Since the human nature of Christ has not and never 
had a separate subsistence, it is impersonal, and in the God-man the Logos 
furnishes the principle of personality. It is equally important to observe 
that self-consciousness and self-determination do not belong to nature as 
such, but only to personality. For this reason, Christ has not two con- 
sciousnesses and two wills, but a single consciousness and a single will. 
This consciousness and will, moreover, is never simply human, but is always 
theanthropic — an activity of the one personality which unites in itself the 
human and the divine (Mark 13 : 32 ; Luke 22 : 42 J. 



THE TWO NATURES IK ONE PERSON. 377 

The theory of two consciousnesses and two wills, first elaborated by John of Damas- 
cus, was an unwarranted addition to the Orthodox doctrine propounded at Chalcedon. 
Although the view of John of Damascus was sanctioned by the Council of Constantino- 
ple (681), "this Council has never been regarded by the Greek Church as oecumenical, 
and its composition and spirit deprive its decisions of all value as indicating the true 
sense of Scripture " ; see Bruce, Humiliation of Christ, 90. Nature has consciousness 
and will, only as it is manifested in person. The one person has a single consciousness 
and will, which embraces within its scope at all times a human nature, and sometimes a 
divine. Notice that we do not say Christ's human nature had no will, but only that it 
had none before its union with the divine nature, and none separately from the one will 
which was made up of the human and the divine united ; versus Current Discussions in 
Theology, 5 : 283. 

Sartorius uses the illustration of two concentric circles : the one ego of personality 
in Christ is at the same time the centre of both circles, the human nature and the 
divine. Or, still better, illustrate by a smaller vessel of air inverted and sunk, sometimes 
below its centre, sometimes above, in a far larger vessel of water. See Mark 13 : 32 — "of 
that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son " ; Luke 22 : 42 — " Father, if thou 
be willing, remove this cup from me : nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." To say that, although in 
his capacity as man he was ignorant, yet at that same moment in his capacity as God he 
was omniscient, is to accuse Christ of unveracity. Whenever Christ spoke, it was not 
one of the natures that spoke, but the person in whom both natures were united. 

We subjoin various definitions of personality : Boethius, quoted in Dorner, Glaubens- 
lehre, 2:415 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 313 )— " Persona est animae rationalis individua substan- 
tia"; F. W. Robertson, Lect. on Gen., p. 3— "Personality = self -consciousness, will, 
character"; Porter, Human Intellect, 626 — " Personality = distinct subsistence, either 
actually or latently self-conscious and self -determining " ; Harris, Philos. Basis of 
Theism, 408 — " Person = being, conscious of self, subsisting in individuality and identity, 
and endowed with intuitive reason, rational sensibility, and free-will." Dr. E. G. Rob- 
inson defines "nature" as "that substratum or condition of being which determines 
the kind and attributes of the person, but which is clearly distinguishable from the 
person itself." For the theory of two consciousnesses and two wills, see Philippi, Glau- 
benslehre, 4 : 129, 234; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 2 : 314; Ridgeley, Body of Divinity, 1 : 476; 
Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 378-391 ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 289-308, esp. 328. Per contra, see 
Hovey, God with Us, 66 ; Schaff, Church Hist., 1 : 757, and 3 : 751 ; Calderwood, Moral 
Philosophy, 12-14 ; Wilberf orce, Incarnation, 148-169 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 512-518. 

(c) Effect upon the human. — The union of the divine and the human 
natures makes the latter possessed of the powers belonging to the former ; 
in other words, the attributes of the divine nature are imparted to the 
human without passing over into its essence, — so that the human Christ 
even on earth had power to be, to know, and to do, as God. That this 
power was latent, or was only rarely manifested, was the result of the self- 
chosen state of humiliation upon which the God-man had entered. In 
this state of humiliation, the communication of the contents of his divine 
nature to the human was mediated by the Holy Spirit. The God-man, in 
his servant-form, knew and taught and performed only what the Spirit per- 
mitted and directed (Mat. 3 : 16 ; John 3 : 34; Acts 1:2; 10 : 38 ; Heb. 
9 : 14). But when thus permitted, he knew, taught, and performed, not, 
like the prophets, by power communicated from without, but by virtue of 
his own inner divine energy (Mat. 17 : 2; Mark 5 : 41 ; Luke 5 : 20, 21; 
6:19; John 2 : 11, 24, 25; 3: 13; 20: 19). 

Kahnis, Dogmatik, 2nd ed., 2 : 77— "Human nature does not become divine, but (as 
Chemnitz has said ) only the medium of the divine ; as the moon has not a light of her 
own, but only shines in the light of the sun. So human nature may derivatively exer- 
cise divine attributes, because it is united to the divine in one person." 

Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 4 : 131 — " The union exalts the human, as light brightens the 
air, heat gives glow to the iron, spirit exalts the body, the Holy Spirit hallows the 
believer by union with his soul. Fire gives to iron its own properties of lighting and 
burning ; yet the iron does not become fire. Soul gives to body its life-energy ; yet the 
body does not become soul. The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer, but the believer 



378 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALTATION. 

does not become divine; for the divine principle is the determining' one. We do not 
speak of airy light, of iron heat, or of a bodily soul. So human nature possesses the 
divine only derivatively. In this sense it is our destiny to become 'partakers of the divine 
nature' (2 Pet. 1:4)." Even in his earthly life, when he wished to be, or more correctly, 
when the Spirit permitted, he was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, could walk 
the sea, or pass through closed doors. But, in his state of humiliation, he was subject 
to the Holy Spirit. 

In Mat 3 : 16, the anointing of the Spirit at his baptism was not the descent of a mate- 
rial dove ("as a dove"). The dove-like appearance was only the outward sign of the 
coming forth of the Holy Spirit from the depths of his being and pouring itself like a 
flood into his divine-human consciousness. John 3 : 34 — "for he giveth not the Spirit by measure" ; 
Acts 1 • 2— "after that he had given commandment through the Eoly Ghost unto the apostles " ; 10 • 38 — "Jesus of 
■Nazareth, how that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power . who went about doing good and healing all 
that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" ; Heb. 9 : 14 — "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 
Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God." 

When permitted by the Holy Spirit, he knew, taught, and wrought as God : Mat. 17 : 2 
— "he was transfigured before them" ; Mark 5 . 41 — "Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise" , Luke 5 : 20, 21 — "Man, thy 
sins are forgiven thee .... Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" Luke 6 • 19 — "power came forth from him, and 
healed them all " ; John 2 : 11 — " This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory " ; 24, 
25 — "he knew all men .... he himself knew what was in man" , 3 • 13 — "the Son of man, which is in heaven" 
L here, however, Westcott and Hort, with X and B, omit 6 civ Zv t<3 ovpavoj,— for advocacy 
of the common reading, see Broadus, in Hovey's Com., on John 3-13]; 20 • 19— "when the 
doors were shut .... Jesus came and stood in the midst." 

Christ is the " servant of Jehovah " ( Is. 42 : 1-7 ; 49 : 1-12 ; 52 : 13 ; 53 : 11 ) and the meaning of jtgu? 
(Acts 3 : 13, 26; 4 ; 27, 30) is not "child" or "Son"; it is "servant," as in the Revised Version. 
But, in the state of exaltation, Christ is the "Lord of the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3 . 18 — Meyer), giving 
the Spirit ( John 16 • 7 — " I will send him unto you " ), present in the Spirit (John 14 • 18 — "I come unto 
you" ; Mat. 28 : 20 — "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world " ), and working through the 
Spirit (1 Cor. 15 : 45 — "The last Adam became a life-giving spirit" ; 2 Cor. 3 • 17 — "Now the Lord is the Spirit" ). 
On Christ's relation to the Holy Spirit, see John Owen, Works, 282-297 ; Robins, in Bib. 
Sac, Oct., 1874 : 615 ; Wilberforce, Incarnation, 208-241. 

(/) Effect upon the divine. — This communion of the natures was such 
that, although the divine nature in itself is incapable of ignorance, weak- 
ness, temptation, suffering, or death, the one person Jesus Christ was capa- 
ble of these by virtue of the union of the divine nature with a human nature 
in him. As the human Savior can exercise divine attributes, not in virtue 
of his humanity alone, but derivatively, by virtue of his possession of a 
divine nature, so the divine Savior can suffer and be ignorant as man, not 
in his divine nature, but derivatively, by virtue of his possession of a human 
nature. We may illustrate this from the connection between body and 
soul. The soul suffers pain from its union with the body, of which apart 
from the body it would be incapable. So the God-man, although in his 
divine nature impassible, was capable, through his union with humanity, of 
absolutely infinite suffering. 

Just as my soul could never suffer the pains of fire if it were only soul, but can suffer 
those pains in union with the body, so the otherwise impassible God can suffer mortal 
pangs through his umon with humanity, which he never could suffer if he had not 
joined himself to my nature. The union between the humanity and the deity is so close, 
that deity itself is brought under the curse and penalty of the law. Because Christ was 
God, did he pass unscorched through the fires of Gethsemane and Calvary ? Rather let 
us say, because Christ was God, he underwent a suffering that was absolutely infinite. 
Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 4 : 300 sq. ; Lawrence, in Bib. Sac, 24 : 41 ; Schoberlein, in Jahr- 
buch fur deutsche Theologie, 1871 : 459-501. 

{g) Necessity of the union. — The union of two natures in one person 
is necessary to constitute Jesus Christ a proper mediator between man and 
God. His two-fold nature gives him fellowship with both parties, since it 
involves an equal dignity with God, and at the same time a perfect sympa- 
thy with man (Heb. 2 : 17, 18; 4 : 15, 16). This two-fold nature, moreover, 



THE TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON. 379 

enables Tn'm to present to both God and man proper terms of reconcilia- 
tion : being man, he can make atonement for man ; being God, his atone- 
ment has infinite value ; while both his divinity and his humanity combine 
to move the hearts of offenders and constrain them to submission and love 
(1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 7:25). 

Heb. 2 : 17, 18 — "Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become 
a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in 
that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted" ; 4 : 15, 16 — "For we have 
not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but one that hath been in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we 
may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need " ; 1 Tim. 2 : 5 — "One God, one mediator also between 
God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus " ; Heb. 7 : 25 — "Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that 
draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." 

Because Christ is man, he can make atonement for man and can sympathize with man. 
Because Christ is God, his atonement has infinite value, and the union which he effects 
with God is complete. A merely human Savior could never reconcile or reunite us to 
God. But a divine-human Savior meets all our needs. See Wilberforce, Incarnation, 
170-208. 

(h) The union eternal. — The union of humanity with deity in the person 
of Christ is indissoluble and eternal. Unlike the avatars of the East, the 
incarnation was a permanent assumption of human nature by the second 
person of the Trinity. In the ascension of Christ, glorified humanity has 
attained the throne of the universe. By his Spirit, this same divine-human 
Savior is omnipresent to secure the progress of his kingdom. The final 
subjection of the Son to the Father, alluded to in 1 Cor. 15 : 28, cannot 
be other than the complete return of the Son to his original relation to 
the Father ; since, according to John 17:5, Christ is again to possess the 
glory which he had with the Father before the world was ( cf. Heb. 1:8; 
7:24, 25). 

1 Cor. 15 : 28 — " And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to 
him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all ' ' ; John 17 : 5 — " Father, glorify thou me with 
thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" ; Heb. 1 : 8— "of the Son he saith, Thy 
throne, God, is for ever and ever" ; 7 : 24 — "he, because he abideth forever, hath his priesthood unchangeable." 
Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 281-283 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 177-179), holds that there is a present 
and relative distinction between the Son's will, as Mediator, and that of the Father ( Mat. 
26 : 39 — " not as I will, but as thou wilt " ) — a distinction which shall cease when Christ becomes 
Judge ( John 16 : 26 — " In that day ye shall ask in my name : and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father 
for you " ). If Christ's reign ceased, he would be inferior to the saints, who are themselves 
to reign. But they are to reign only in and with Christ, their head. 

The best illustration of the possible meaning- of Christ's giving up the kingdom is 
found in the Governor of the East India Company giving up his authority to the Queen 
and merging it in that of the home government, he himself, however, at the same time 
becoming Secretary of State for India. So Christ will give up his vicegerency, but not 
his mediatorship. Now he reigns by delegated authority ; then he will reign in union 
with the Father. 

Melancthon : " Christ will finish his work as Mediator, and then will reign as God, 
Immediately revealing to us the Deity." Quenstedt, quoted in Schmid, Dogmatik, 293, 
thinks the giving up of the kingdom will be only an exchange of outward administra- 
tion for inward, — not a surrender of all power and authority, but only of one mode of 
exercising it. Hanna, on Resurrection, lect. 4— "It is not a giving up of his mediatorial 
authority,— that throne is to endure forever,— but it is a simple public recognition of 
the fact that God is all in all, that Christ is God's medium of accomplishing all." An. 
Par. Bible, on 1 Cor. 15 : 28— "Not his mediatorial relation to his own people shall be given 
up ; much less his personal relation to the Godhead, as the divine Word ; but only his 
mediatorial relation to the world at large." See also Edwards, Observations on the 
Trinity, 85 sq. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 402 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 297-299)— "We are not to imagine incar- 
nations of Christ in the angel- world, or in other spheres. This would make incarnation 



380 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

only the change of a garment, a passing theophany ; and Christ's relation to humanity 
would he merely an external one." On the general subject of this union, see Herzog, 
Encyclopadie, art. : Christologie ; Barrows, in Bib. Sac, 10 : 765; 26 : 83; also, Bib. Sac, 
17 : 535; John Owen, Person of Christ, in Works, 1 : 323; Hooker, Eccl. Polity, book v, 
chap. 51-56 ; Boyce, in Bap. Quar., 1870 : 385; Shedd, Hist. Doct., 1 : 403 sq. ; Hovey, God 
with Us, 61-88 ; Plumptre, Christ and Christendom, appendix. 



SECTION III. — THE TWO STATES OF CHRIST. 

I. The State of Humiliation. 

1. The nature of this humiliation. 

We may dismiss, as unworthy of serious notice, the views that it consisted 
essentially either in the union of the Logos with human nature, — for this 
union with human nature continues in the state of exaltation ; or in the 
outward trials and privations of Christ's human life, — for this view casts 
reproach upon poverty, and ignores the power of the soul to rise superior 
to its outward circumstances. 

"We may devote more attention to the 

A. Theory of Thomasius, Delitzsch, and Crosby, that the humiliation 
consisted in the surrender of the relative divine attributes. 

This theory holds that the Logos, although retaining his divine self-con- 
sciousness and his immanent attributes of holiness, love, and truth, surren- 
dered his relative attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, 
in order to take to himself veritable human nature. According to this 
view, there are, indeed, two natures in Christ, but neither of these natures 
is infinite. Thomasius and Delitzsch are the chief advocates of this theory 
in Germany. Dr. Howard Crosby has maintained a similar view in America. 

The theory of Thomasius, Delitzsch, and Crosby has been, though improperly, called 
the theory of the Kenosis (from eKeVwo-ev — "emptied himself" — in Phil. 2:7), and its advocates 
are often called Kenotic theologians. There is a Kenosis of the Logos, but it is of a 
different sort from that which this theory supposes. For statements of this theory, see 
Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 2 : 233-255, 542-550 ; Delitzsch, Biblische Psychologie, 
323-333 ; Howard Crosby, in Bap. Quar., 1870 : 350-363 — a discourse subsequently published 
in a separate volume, with the title : The True Humanity of Christ, and reviewed by 
Shedd, in Presb. Rev., April, 1881 : 429-431. Crosby emphasizes the word " became," in John 1 : 
14 — " and the Word became flesh "— and gives the word " flesh " the sense of " man," or " human." 
Crosby, then, should logically deny, though he does not deny, that Christ's body was 
derived from the Virgin. 

We object to this view that : 

(a) It contradicts the Scriptures already referred to, in which Christ 
asserts his divine knowledge and power. Divinity, it is said, can give up 
its world-functions, for it existed without these before creation. But to 
give up divine attributes is to give up the substance of Godhead. Nor is it 
a sufficient reply to say that only the relative attributes are given up, 
while the immanent attributes, which chiefly characterize the Godhead, are 



THE STATE OF HUMILIATION". 381 

retained ; for the immanent necessarily involve the relative, as the greater 
involve the less. 

Liebner, Jahrbuch f. d. Theol., 3 : 349-356 —"Is the Logos here ? But wherein does he 
show his presence, that it may be known?" Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, Hth ed., 317, 
note. 

( b ) Since the Logos, in uniting himself to a human soul, reduces him- 
self to the condition and limitations of a human soul, the theory is virtually 
a theory of the coexistence of two human souls in Christ. But the union 
of two finite souls is more difficult to explain than the union of a finite and 
an infinite, — since there can be in the former case no intelligent guidance 
and control of the human element by the divine. 

Dorner, Jahrbucb f. d. Theol., 1 : 397-408— "The impossibility of making two finite 
souls into one finally drove Arianism to the denial of any human soul in Christ" 
(Apollinarism.) This statement of Dorner, which we have already quoted in our 
account of Apollinarism, illustrates the similar impossibility, upon the theory oi 
Thomasius, of constructing out of two finite souls the person of Christ. See also 
Koyey, God with Us, 68. 

( c ) This theory fails to secure its end, that of making comprehensible 
the human development of Jesus, — for even though divested of the relative 
attributes of Godhood, the Logos still retains his divine self -consciousness, 
together with his immanent attributes of holiness, love, and truth. This is 
as difficult to reconcile with a purely natural human development as the 
possession of the relative divine attributes would be. The theory logically 
leads to a further denial of the possession of any divine attributes, or of 
any divine consciousness at all, on the part of Christ, and merges itself in 
the view of Gess and Beecher, that the Godhead of the Logos is actually 
transformed into a human soul. 

Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3 : 343 — " The old theology conceived of Christ as in full and 
unbroken use of the divine self-consciousness, the divine attributes, and the divine 
world-functions, from the conception until death. Though Jesus, as foetus, child, boy, 
was not almighty and omnipresent according to his human nature, yet he was so, as to 
his divine nature, which constituted one ego with his human. Thomasius, however, 
declared that the Logos gave up his relative attributes, during his sojourn in flesh. 
Dorner's objection to this, on the ground of the divine unchangeableness, overshoots 
the mark, because it makes any becoming impossible. 

"But some things in Thomasius' doctrine are still difficult: 1st, divinity can cer- 
tainly give up its world-functions, for it has existed without these before the world 
was. In the nature of an absolute personality, however, lies an absolute knowing, 
willing, feeling, which it cannot give up. Hence Phil. 2 : 6-11 speaks of a giving-up of 
divine glory* but not of a giving-up of divine attributes or nature. 2nd, little is gained 
by such an assumption of the giving up of relative attributes, since the Logos, even 
while divested of a part of his attributes, still has full possession of his divine self -con- 
sciousness, which must make a purely human development no less difficult. 3rd, the 
expressions of divine self-consciousness, the works of divine power, the words of 
divine wisdom, prove that Jesus was in possession of his divine self -consciousness and 
attributes. 

"The essential thing which the Kenotics aim at, however, stands fast ; namely, that 
the divine personality of the Logos divested itself of its glory ( John 17 : 5 ), riches ( 2 Cor. 
8:6), divine form ( Phil. 2:6). This divesting is the becoming man. The humiliation, 
then, was a giving-up of the wse, not of the possession, of the divine nature and attri- 
butes. That man can thus give up self-consciousness and powers, we see every day in 
sleep. But man does not, thereby, cease to be man. So we maintain that the Logos, 
when he became man, did not divest himself of his divine person and nature, which was 
impossible; but only divested himself of the use and exercise of these — these being 
latent to him — in order to unfold themselves to use in the measure to which his human 



382 SOTEKIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTKIKE OF SALVATION. 

nature developed itself — a use which found its completion in the condition of exalta- 
tion." This statement of Kahnis, although approaching- correctness, is still neither quite 
correct nor quite complete. 

B. Theory that the humiliation consisted in the surrender of the inde- 
pendent exercise of the divine attributes. 

This theory, which we regard as the most satisfactory of all, may be more 
fully set forth as follows. The humiliation, as the Scriptures seem to 
show, consisted : 

( a ) In that act of the preexistent Logos by which he gave up his divine 
glory with the Father, in order to take a servant form. In this act, he 
resigned not the possession, nor yet entirely the use, but rather the inde- 
pendent exercise, of the divine attributes. 

John 17 : 5 — " glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was " ; Phil. 
2 : 6, 7 — "who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but 
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men " ; 2 Cor. 8 : 9 — " For ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty 
might become rich." Pompilia, in Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book : " Now I see 
how God is likest God in being born." 

( b ) In the submission of the Logos to the control of the Holy Spirit and 
the limitations of his Messianic mission, in his communication of the divine 
fullness to the human nature which he had taken into union with himself. 

Acts 1:2 — Jesus, " after that he had given commandment through the Holy Ghost unto the apostles whom he had 
chosen " ; 10 : 38 — " Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power " ; leb. 9 : 14 _ 
— "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God." A minor may 
have a great estate left to him, yet may have only such use of it as his guardian permits. 

( c ) In the continuous surrender, on the part of the God-man, so far as 
his human nature was concerned, of the exercise of those divine powers 
with which it was endowed by virtue of its union with the divine, and in 
the voluntary acceptance, which followed upon this, of temptation, suffer- 
ing, and death. 

Mat. 26 : 53— " Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even now send me more than twelve 
legions of angels " ; John 10 : 17, 18 — " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take 
it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power 
to take it again" ; Phil. 2 : 8 — "and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even 
unto death, yea, the death of the cross." Cf. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice: "Such music is 
there in immortal souls, That while this muddy vesture of decay Doth close it in, wc 
cannot see it." 

Each of these elements of the doctrine has its own Scriptural support. 
We must therefore regard the humiliation of Christ, not as consisting in a 
single act, but as involving a continuous self-renunciation, which began 
with the Kenosis of the Logos in becoming man, and which culminated in. 
the self -subjection of the God-man to the death of the cross. 

Our doctrine of Christ's humiliation will be better understood, if we put it midway 
between two pairs of erroneous views, making it the third of five. The list would be as 
follows: (1) Gess: The Logos gave up all divine attributes; (2) Thomasius: The 
Logos gave up relative attributes only ; (3) True View : The Logos gave up the inde- 
pendent exercise of divine attributes; (4) Old Orthodoxy: Christ gave up the use of 
divine attributes ; (5) Anselm: Christ acted as if he did not possess divine attributes. 
The full exposition of the classical passage with reference to the humiliation, namely, 
Phil. 2 : 5-9, we give below, under the next paragraph, page 384. 

2. The stages of Christ's humiliation. 

We may distinguish : (a) That act of the preincarnate Logos by which, 
in becoming man, he gave up the independent exercise of the divine attri- 



THE STATE OF HUMILIATION. 383 

butes. ( b ) His submission to the common laws which, regulate the origin 
of souls from a preexisting sinful stock, in taking his human nature from 
the Virgin — a human nature which only the miraculous conception rendered 
pure, (e) His subjection to the limitations involved in a human growth 
and development, — reaching the consciousness of his sonship at his twelfth 
year, and working no miracles till after the baptism. ( d ) The subordina- 
tion of himself, in state, knowledge, teaching, and acts, to the control of 
the Holy Spirit, — so living, not independently, but as a servant, (e) His 
subjection, as connected with a sinful race, to temptation and suffering, and 
finally to the death which constituted the penalty of the law. 

Peter Lombard asked whether God could know more than he was aware of? It is 
only another way of putting- the question whether, during- the earthly life of Christ, the 
Logos existed outside of the flesh of Jesus. We must answer in the affirmative. Other- 
wise the number of the persons in the Trinity would be variable, and the universe could 
do "without him who is ever "upholding all things by the word of his power " (let. i : 3 ), and in whom 
"all things consist" (Col. 1 : 17). Let us recall the nature of God's omnipresence (see pages 
132, 133 ). Omnipresence is nothing less than the presence of the whole of God in every 
place. From this it follows, that the whole Christ can be present in every believer as 
fully as if that believer were the only one to receive of his fullness, and that the whole 
Logos can be united to and be present in the man Christ Jesus, while at the same time 
he fills and governs the universe. By virtue of this omnipresence, therefore, the whole 
Logos can suffer on earth, while yet the whole Logos reigns in heaven. The Logos out- 
side of Christ has the perpetual consciousness of his Godhead, while yet the Logos, as 
united to humanity in Christ, is subject to ignorance, weakness, and death. Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 1 : 153— "Jehovah, though present in the form of the burning bush, was 
at the same time omnipresent also " ; 2 : 265-284, esp. 282—" Because the sun is shining 
in and through a cloud, it does not follow that it cannot at the same time be shining 
through the remainder of universal space, unobstructed by any vapor whatever." 

How the independent exercise of the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and 
omnipresence can be surrendered, even for a time, would be inconceivable, if we were 
regarding the Logos as he is in himself, seated upon the throne of the universe. The 
matter is somewhat easier, when we remember that it was not the Logos per se, but 
rather the God-man, Jesus Christ, in whom the Logos submitted to this humiliation. 
South, Sermons, 2 : 9—" Be the fountain never so full, yet if it communicate itself by a 
little pipe, the stream can be but small and inconsiderable, and equal to the measure 
of its conveyance." Sartorius, Person and "Work of Christ, 39—" The human eye, when 
open, sees heaven and earth ; but when shut, it sees little or nothing. Yet its inherent 
capacity does not change. So divinity does not change its nature, when it drops the 
curtain of humanity before the eyes of the God-man.' ' 

The divine in Christ, during most of his earthly life, is latent, or only now and then 
present to his consciousness, or manifested to others. Illustrate from second childhood, 
where the mind itself exists, but is not capable of use ; or from first childhood, where 
even a Xewton or a Humboldt, if brought back to earth and made to occupy an infant 
body and brain, would develop as an infant, with infantile powers. There is more in 
memory than we can at this moment recall, — memory is greater than recollection. 
There is more of us at all times than we know, — only the sudden emergency reveals the 
largeness of our resources of mind and heart and will. The new nature, in the regen- 
erate, is greater than it appears : " Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest 
what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him" ( 1 John 3:2). So in Christ 
there was an ocean-like fullness of resource, of which only now and then the Spirit 
permitted the consciousness and the exercise. 

"Without denying ( with Dorner ) the completeness, even from the moment of the con- 
ception, of the union between the deity and the humanity, we may still say with Kahnis : 
"The human nature of Christ, according to the measure of its development, appropri- 
ates more and more to its conscious use the latent fullness of the divine nature." So we 
take the middle ground between two opposite extremes. On the one hand, the Kenosis 
was not the extinction of the Logos. Nor, on the other hand, did Christ hunger and 
sleep by miracle,— this is Docetism. "We must not minimize Christ's humiliation, for this 
was his glory. There was no limit to his descent, except that arising from his sinless- 
ness. His humiliation was not merely the giving-up of the appearance of Godhead. 
Baird, Elohim Revealed, 585— "Should any one aim to celebrate the condescension of 



384 SOTERIOLOGY, OK THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

the emperor Charles the Fifth, by dwelling- on the fact that he laid aside the robes of 
royalty and assumed the style of a subject, and altogether ignore the more important 
matter that he actually became a private person, it would be very weak and absurd." 
Inasmuch, however, as the passage Phil. 2 : 6-8 is the chief basis and support of the 
doctrine of Christ's humiliation, we here subjoin a more detailed examination of it. 

Exposition of Philippians, 2 : 5-9. The passage reads : " Who, existing in the form of God, 
counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, 
being made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even 
unto death, yea, the death of the cross.' ' 

The subject of the sentence is at first ( verses 6, 7 ) Christ Jesus, regarded as the preexist- 
ent Logos; subsequently (verse 8), this 'same Christ Jesus, regarded as incarnate. This 
change in the subject is indicated by the contrast between mop<£>? &e°v ( verse 6 ) and pop^v 
SovAov ( verse 7 ), as well as by the participles Aa/3uSv and yevonevos ( verse 7 ) and evpe&eis ( verse 8 ). 
It is asserted, then, that the preexisting Logos, "although subsisting in the form of God, 
did not regard his equality with God as a thing to be forcibly retained, but emptied 
himself by taking the form of a servant, ( that is, ) by being made in the likeness of men. 
And being found in outward condition as a man, he (the incarnate Son of God, yet 
further) humbled himself, by becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross" (verse 8). 

Here notice that what the Logos divested himself of, in becoming man, is not the sub- 
stance of his Godhead, but the "form of God" in which this substance was manifested. 
This "form of God" can be only that independent exercise of the powers and prerogatives 
of Deity which constitutes his "equality with God." This he surrenders, in the act of "taking 
the form of a servant"— or becoming subordinate, as man. ( Here other Scriptures complete 
the view, by their representations of the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit in the 
earthly life of Christ.) The phrases "made in the likeness of men" and "found in fashion as a man" 
are used to intimate, not that Jesus Christ was not really man, but that he was God 
as well as man, and therefore free from the sin which clings to man ( cf. Rom. 8 : 3 — iv 
6ju.oiuS/a<xti o-apKbs ap-aprtas — Meyer ). Finally, this one person, now God and man united, 
submits himself, consciously and voluntarily, to the humiliation of an ignominious 
death. 

See Lightfoot, on Phil. 2 : 8—" Christ divested himself, not of his divine nature, for that 
was impossible, but of the glories and prerogatives of Deity. This he did by taking the 
form of a servant." Evans, in Presb. Rev., 1883 : 287—" Two stages in Christ's humilia- 
tion, each represented by a finite verb defining the central act of the particular stage, 
accompanied by two modal participles. 1st stage indicated in v. 7. Its central act is : 
' he emptied himself.' Its two modalities are : ( 1 ) ' taking the form of servant ' ; ( 2 ) ' being made in the 
likeness of men.' Here we have the humiliation of the Ken osis,— that by which Christ 
became man. 2nd stage, indicated in v. 8. Its central act is : 'he humbled himself.' Its two 
modalities are : ( 1 ) 'being found in fashion as a man' ; ( 2) 'becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of 
the cross.' Here we have the humiliation of his obedience and death,— that by which, in 
humanity, he became a sacrifice for our sins." 

Meyer refers Eph. 5 : 31 exclusively to Christ and the church, making the completed 
union future, however, i. e., at the time of the Parousia. "For this cause shall a man leave his 
father and mother "=" in the incarnation, Christ leaves father and mother (his seat at the 
right hand of God), and cleaves to his wife (the church), and then the two (the 
descended Christ and the church ) become one flesh ( one ethical person, as the married 
pair become one by physical union). The Fathers, however (Jerome, Theodoret, 
Chrysostom ), referred it to the incarnation." On the interpretation of Phil. 2 : 6-11, see 
Conim. of Neander, Meyer, Lange, Ellicott. 

On the general subject of the Kenosis of the Logos, see Bruce, Humiliation of Christ ; 
Robins, in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1874 : 615 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 4 : 138-150, 386-475 ; Pope, 
Person of Christ, 23 ; Bodemeyer, Lehre von der Elenosis ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 610-625. 
On the question whether Christ would have become man, had there been no sin, see 
Julius Muller, Dogmat. Abhandlungen, 66-126 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 512-526, 543-558. 

n. The State of Exaltation. 

1. The nature of this exaltation. 

It consisted essentially in : ( a ) A resumption, on the part of the Logos, 
of his independent exercise of divine attributes. ( b ) The withdrawal, on 
the part of the Logos, of all limitations in his communication of the divine 



THE STATE OF EXALTATION. 385 

fullness to the human nature of Christ. ( c ) The corresponding exercise, on 
the part of the human nature, of those powers which belonged to it by 
virtue of its union with the divine. 

The eighth Psalm, with its account of the glory of human nature, is at present ful- 
filled only in Christ (see leb. 2:8 — "but we behold .... Jesus" ). leb. 2 : 7 — jjAaTTioo-as avrbv 
Ppaxv ti nap ayye\ovs — may be translated, as in the margin of the Rev. Vers.: "Thou madest 
him for a little while lower thau the angels." Christ's human body was not necessarily subject 
to death ; only by outward compulsion or voluntary surrender could he die. Hence 
resurrection was a natural necessity (Acts 2:24— "whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of 
death : because it was not possible that he should be holden of it " ; 31 — " neither was he left in Hades, nor did his 
flesh see corruption" ). This exaltation, which then affected humanity only in its head, is to 
be the experience also of the members. Our bodies also are to be delivered from the 
bondage of corruption, and we are to sit with Christ upon his throne. 

2. The stages of Christ's exaltation. 

(a) The quickening and resurrection. 

Both Lutherans and Romanists distinguish between these two, making 
the former precede, and the latter follow, Christ's ' ' preaching to the spirits 
in prison. " These views rest upon a misinterpretation of 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20. 
Lutherans teach that Christ descended into hell, to proclaim his triumph to 
evil spirits. But this is to give enqpvijev the unusual sense of proclaiming 
his triumph, instead of his gospel. Romanists teach that Christ entered 
the underworld to preach to Old Testament saints, that they might be 
saved. But the passage speaks only of the disobedient ; it cannot be 
pressed into the support of a sacramental theory of the salvation of Old 
Testament believers. The passage does not assert a descent of Christ into 
the world of spirits, but only a work of the preincarnate Logos in offering 
salvation, through Noah, to the world then about to perish. 

Calvin taught that Christ descended into the underworld and suffered the pains of the 
lost. But not all Calvinists hold with him here ; see Princeton Essays, 1 : 153. Meyer, 
on Rom. 10 : 7, regards the question — " who shall descend into the abyss ? ( that is, to bring up Christ from the 
dead)"— as an allusion to, and so indirectly a proof -text for, Christ's descent into the 
underworld. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 662 ( Syst. Doct., 4 : 127 ), thinks " Christ's descent into Hades 
marks a new era of his pneumatic life, in which he shows himself free from the limita- 
tions of time and space." He rejects " Luther's notion of a merely triumphal progress 
and proclamation of Christ. Before Christ," he says, "there was no abode peopled by 
the damned. The descent was an application of the benefit of the atonement ( implied 
in K-qpvaaeiv). The work was prophetic, not high-priestly nor kingly. Going- to the 
spirits in prison is spoken of as a spontaneous act, not one of physical necessity. No 
power of Hades led him over into Hades. Deliverance from the limitations of a mortal 
body is already an indication of a higher stage of existence. Christ's soul is bodiless 
for a time — «■ j/eO/xa only — as the departed were. 

" The ceasing of this preaching is neither recorded, nor reasonably to be supposed, 
— indeed the ancient church supposed it carried on through the apostles. It expresses 
the universal significance of Christ for former generations and for the entire kingdom 
of the dead. No physical power is a limit to him. The g-ates of hell, or Hades, shall not 
prevail over or against him. The intermediate state is one of blessedness for him, and 
he can admit the penitent thief into it. Even those who were not laid hold of by 
Christ's historic manifestation in this earthly life still must, and may, be brought into 
relation with him, in order to be able to accept or to reject him. And thus the univer- 
sal relation of Christ to humanity and the absoluteness of the Christian religion are 
confirmed." So Dorner, for substance. 

All this versus Strauss, who thought that the dying- of vast masses of men, before and 
after Christ, who had not been brought into relation to Christ, proves that the Christian 
religion is not necessary to salvation, because not universal. For advocacy of Christ's 
25 



386 SOTEKIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

preaching to the dead, see also Jahrbuch fur d. Theol., 23 : 177-328 ; W. W. Patton, inNV 
Eng., July, 1883 : 460-478 ; John Miller, Problems suggested by the Bible, part 1 : 93-98; 
part 3 : 38 ; Plumptre, The Spirits in Prison ; Kendrick, in Bap. Rev., Apl., 1888. 

For the opposite view, see "No Preaching to the Dead," in Princeton Rev., March, 
1875 : 197; 1878 : 451-491; Hovey, in Bap. Quar., 4 : 486 sq., and Bib. Eschatalogy, 97-107; 
Love, Christ's Preaching to the Spirits in Prison ; Cowles, in Bib. Sac, 1875 : 401 ; Hodge, 
Syst. Theol., 2 : 616-623 ; Salmond, in Popular Commentary ; and Johnstone, Com., in 
loco. So Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Bishop Pearson. See also E. D. Morris, Is 
There Salvation After Death? and Wright, Relation of Death to Probation, 33-38— "If 
Christ preached to spirits in Hades, it may have been to demonstrate the hopelessness of 
adding in the other world to the privileges enjoyed in this. "We do not read that it had 
any favorable effect upon the hearers. If men will not hear Moses and the Prophets, 
then they will not hear one risen from the dead. ' To-day thou shalt be with me in 
Paradise ' was not comforting, if Christ was going that day to the realm of lost spirits. 
The antediluvians, however, were specially favored with Noah's preaching, and were 
specially wicked." 

For full statement of the view presented in the text, that the preaching referred to 
was the preaching of Christ as preexisting Logos to the spirits, now in prison, when 
once they were disobedient in the days of Noah, see Bartlett, in New Englander, Oct., 
1872 : 601 sq., and in Bib. Sac, Apr., 1883 : 333^373. Before giving the substance of Bart- 
lett's exposition, we transcribe in full the passage in question, 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20 — "Because Christ 
also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God ; being put to death in the 
flesh, but quickened in the spirit ; in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were 
disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah." 

Bartlett expounds as follows: " 'In which' [ 7rvevjuaTi, divine nature] 'he went and preached to 
the spirits in prison when once they disobeyed.' anei8ri<Ta<riv is circumstantial aorist, indicating the 
time of the preaching as a definite past. It is an anarthous dative, as in Luke 8 : 27 ; Mat. 8 : 
23 ; Acts 15 : 25 ; 22 : 17. It is an appositive, or predicative, participle. [ That the aorist par- 
ticiple does not necessarily describe an action preliminary to that of the principal verb, 
appears from its use in verse 18 ( davarcad-eis ), in 1 Thess. 1 : 6 ( Sei-dnevoi), and in Col. 2 : 11, 13.] 
The connection of thought is : Peter exhorts his readers to endure suffering bravely, 
because Christ did so,— in his lower nature being put to death, in his higher nature endur- 
ing the opposition of sinners before the flood. Sinners of that time only are mentioned, 
because this permits an introduction of the subsequent reference to baptism. Cf. Gen. 
6:3; 1 Pet. 1 : 10, 11 ; 2 Pet. 2 : 4, 5." 

( b ) The ascension and sitting at the right hand of God. 

As the resurrection proclaimed Christ to men as the perfected and glori- 
fied man, the conqueror of sin and lord of death, the ascension proclaimed 
him to the universe as the reinstated God, the possessor of universal 
dominion, the omnipresent object of worship and hearer of prayer. Dextra 
Dei ubique est. 

Mat. 28 : 18, 20 — " All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth .... lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world "; Mark 16 : 19 — " So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received 
up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God "; Acts 7 : 55 — "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked 
up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God "; 2 Cor. 13 : 4— "he 
was crucified through weakness, yet heliveth through the power of God "; Eph. 1 : 22, 23 — "he put all things in sub- 
jection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
fllleth all in all "; 4 : 10 — " He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might 
fill all things." Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 4 : 184-189 — " Before the resurrection, Christ was 
the God-mem; since the resurrection, he is the God-man .... He ate with his disciples, 
not to show the quality, but the reality, of his human body." Nicoll, Life of Christ : " It 
was hard for Elijah to ascend" — it required chariot and horses of fire — "but it was 
easier for Christ to ascend than to descend,"— there was a gravitation upwards. 

We are compelled here to consider the problem of the relation of the humanity to the 
Logos in the state of exaltation. The Lutherans maintain the ubiquity of Christ's 
human body, and they make it the basis of their doctrine of the sacraments. Dorner, 
Glaubenslehre, 2 : 674-676 ( Syst. Doct., 4:138-142), holds to "a presence, not simply of 
the Logos, but of the whole God-man, with all his people, but not necessarily likewise a 
similar presence in the world ; in other words, his presence is morally conditioned by 
men's receptivity." The old theologians said that Christ is not in heaven, quasi carcere. 
Calvin, Institutes, 2:15— he is " incarnate, but not incarcerated." He has gone into 



THE OFFICES OF CHRIST. 387 

heaven, the place of spirits, and he manifests himself there ; but he has also gone far 
above all heavens, that he may fill all things. He is with his people alway. All power 
is given into his hand. The church is the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So the 
Acts of the Apostles speak constantly of the Son of man, of the man Jesus as God, ever 
present, the object of worship, seated at the right hand of God, having all the powers 
and prerogatives of Deity. See Westcott, Bible Com., on John 20 : 22 — " he breathed on them and 
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost"— "The characteristic effect of the Paschal gift was 
shown in the new faith by which the disciples were gathered into a living society ; the 
characteristic effect of the Pentecostal gift was shown in the exercise of supremacy 
potentially universal." 

Who and what is this Christ, who is present with his people when they pray ? It is not 
enough to say, He is simply the Holy Spirit ; for the Holy Spirit is the " Spirit of Christ " ( Rom. 
8:9), and in having the Holy Spirit we have Christ himself (John 16 : 7— "I will send him [the 
Comforter] unto you"; 14 : 18— "I come unto you" ). The Christ, who is thus present with us 
when we pray, is not simply the Logos, or the divine nature of Christ,— his humanity 
being separated from the divinity and being localized in heaven. This would be incon- 
sistent with his promise "Lo, I am with you," in which the "I" that spoke was not simply 
Deity, but Deity and humanity inseparably united ; and it would deny the real and 
indissoluble union of the two natures. The elder brother and sympathizing Savior who 
is with us when we pray is man, as well as God. This manhood is therefore ubiquitous 
by virtue of its union with the Godhead. 

But this is not to say that Christ's human body is everywhere present. It would seem 
that body must exist in spatial relations, and be confined to place. We do not know that 
this is so with regard to soul. Heaven would seem to be a place, because Christ's body 
is there ; and a spiritual body is not a body which is spirit, but a body which is suited to 
the uses of the spirit. But even though Christ may manifest himself, in a glorified 
human body, only in heaven, his human soul, by virtue of its union with the divine 
nature, can at the same moment be with all his scattered people over the whole earth. 
As, in the days of his flesh, his humanity was confined to place, while as to his Deity he 
could speak of the Son of man which is in heaven, so now, although his human body may 
be confined to place, his human soul is ubiquitous. Humanity can exist without body ; 
for during the three days in the sepulchre, Christ's body was on earth, but his soul was 
in the other world ; and in like manner there is, during the intermediate state, a separa- 
tion of the soul and the body of believers. But humanity cannot exist without soul ; 
and if the human Savior is with us, then his humanity, at least so far as respects its 
immaterial part, must be everywhere present. Per contra, see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 
326, 327. Since Christ's human nature has derivatively become possessed of divine attri- 
butes, there is no validity in the notion of a progressiveness in that nature, now that it 
has ascended to the right hand of God. See Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 4 : 131 ; Van Ooster- 
zee, Dogmatics, 558, 576. 



SECTION" IV. — THE OFFICES OF CHRIST. 

The Scriptures represent Christ's offices as three in number, — prophetic, 
priestly, and kingly. Although these terms are derived from concrete 
human relations, they express perfectly distinct ideas. The prophet, the 
priest, and the king, of the Old Testament, were detached but designed 
prefigurations of him who should combine all these various activities in 
himself, and should furnish the ideal reality, of which they were the imper- 
fect symbols. 

1 Cor. 1 : 30 — " of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanc- 
tification and redemption." Here "wisdom" seems to indicate the prophetic, "righteousness" (or 
"justification " ) the priestly, and " sanctification and redemption " the kingly work of Christ. Deno- 
van : "Three offices are necessary. Christ must be a prophet, to save us from the igno- 
rance of sin ; a priest, to save us from its guilt; a king, to save us from its dominion in 
our flesh. Our faith cannot have firm basis in any one of these alone, any more than a 
stool can stand on less than three legs." See Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 583-586 ; Archer 
Butler, Sermons, 1 : 314. 



388 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

I. The Prophetic Office of Christ. 

1. The nature of Christ's prophetic work. 

(a) Here we must avoid the narrow interpretation which would make the 
prophet a mere foreteller of future events. He was rather an inspired 
interpreter or revealer of the divine will, a medium of communication 
between God and men ( Tcpo^rriq — not foreteller, but forteller, or forth- 
teller. Cf. Gen. 20:7, — of Abraham; Ps. 105:15, — of the patriarchs; 
Mat. 11 : 9,— of John the Baptist ; 1 Cor. 12 : 28, Eph. 2 : 20, and 3:5,— 
of N. T. expounders of Scripture). 

Gen. 20 : 7— "restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet"— spoken of Abraham; Ps. 105 : 15 — "Touch 
not mine anointed ones, And do my prophets no harm"— spoken of the patriarchs; Mat. 11 : 9 — "But 
wherefore went ye out? to see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet" — spoken of 
John the Baptist, from whom we have no recorded predictions, and whose pointing to 
Jesus as the " Lamb of God " (John 1 : 29 ) was apparently but an echo of Isaiah 53. 1 Cor. 12 : 28— 
"first apostles, secondly prophets" Eph. 2 : 20 — "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" ; 3 : 5 — 
"revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit"— all these latter texts speaking of New 
Testament expounders of Scripture. 

Any organ of divine revelation, or medium of divine communication, is a prophet. 
"Hence," says Philippi, "the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are called 
l prophetce priores," 1 or 'the earlier prophets.' Bernard's Respice, Aspice, Prospice 
describes the work of the prophet ; for the prophet might see and might disclose things 
in the past, things in the present, or things in the future. Daniel was a prophet, in 
telling Nebuchadnezzar what his dream had been, as well as in telling its interpretation 
( Dan. 2 : 28, 36 ). The woman of Samaria rightly called Christ a prophet, when he told 
her all things that ever she did (John 4 : 29)." On the work of the prophet, see Stanley, 
Jewish Church, 1 : 491. 

(6) The prophet commonly united three methods of fulfilling his office, 
— those of teaching, predicting, and miracle-working. In all these respects, 
Jesus Christ did the work of a prophet (Deut. 18 : 15; cf. Acts 3 : 22; 
Mat. 13:57; Luke 13:33; John 6:14). He taught (Mat. 5-7), he 
uttered predictions (Mat. 24 and 25), he wrought miracles (Mat. 8 and 9), 
while in his person, his life, his work, and his death, he revealed the Father 
(John 8: 26; 14:9; 17:8). 

Deut. 18 : 15 — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like 
unto me ; unto him shall ye hearken " ; cf. Acts 3 : 22— where this prophecy is said to be fulfilled in 
Christ. Jesus calls himself a prophet in Mat. 13 : 57 — " A prophet is not without honor, save in his own 
country, and in his own house" ; Luke 13 : 33 — "Howbeit I must go on my way to-day and to-morrow and the day 
following : for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." He was called a prophet : John 6 : 14 — 
" When therefore the people saw the sign which he did, they said, This is of a truth the prophet that cometh into the 
world." John 8 : 26 — " the things which I heard from him [ the Father ], these speak I unto the world " ; 14 : 9 — 
"he that hath seen me hath seen the Father " ; 17 : 8 — " the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them." 

Denovan : " Christ teaches us by his word, his Spirit, his example." Christ's miracles 
were mainly miracles of healing. " Only sickness is contagious with us. But Christ 
was an example of perfect health, and his health was contagious. By its overflow, he 
healed others. Only a ' touch ' ( Mat. 9 : 21 ) was necessary." 

2. The stages of Christ's prophetic work. 

These are four, namely : 

(a) The preparatory work of the Logos, in enlightening mankind before 
the time of Christ's advent in the flesh. — All preliminary religious knowl- 
edge, whether within or without the bounds of the chosen people, is from 
Christ, the revealer of God. 



THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 389 

Christ's prophetic work began before he came in the flesh. John i : 9— u There was the true 
light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world" = all the natural light of con- 
science, science, philosophy, art, civilization, is the light of Christ. Tennyson: "Our 
little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be ; They are but broken 
lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they." leb. 12 : 24, 26— "See that ye refuse 
not him that speaketh .... whose voice then [ at Sinai ] shook the earth : hut now he hath promised, saying, Yet 
once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven " ; Luke 11 : 49 — " Therefore said the wisdom 
of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles " ; cf. Mat 23 : 34 —"behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise 
men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify " — which shows that Jesus was referring 
to his own teachings, as well as to those of the earlier prophets. 

(6) The earthly ministry of Christ incarnate. — In his earthly ministry, 
Christ showed himself the prophet par excellence. While he submitted, 
like the Old Testament prophets, to the direction of the Holy Spirit, unlike 
them, he found the sources of all knowledge and power within himself. 
The word of God did not come to him, — he was himself the Word. 

Luke 6 : 19 — " And all the multitude sought to touch him : for power came forth from him, and healed them all " ; 
John 2 : 11 — " This beginning of his signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory " ; 8 : 38, 58 — "I 
speak of the things which I have seen with my Father .... Before Abraham was born, I am " ; cf. Jer. 2 : 1 — "the 
word of the Lord came to me" : John 1 : 1 — "In the beginning was the Word." Mat. 26 : 53 — "twelve legions 
of angels " ; John 10 : 18 — of his life : " I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again " ; 34 —"Is 
it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came .... 
say ye of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of 
God?" Martensen, Dogmatics, 295-301, says of Jesus' teaching that "its source was not 
inspiration, but incarnation." Jesus was not inspired,— he was the Inspirer. Therefore 
he is the true "Master of those who know." His disciples act in his name ; he acts in 
his own name. 

( e ) The guidance and teaching of his church on earth, since his ascen- 
sion. — Christ's prophetic activity is continued through the preaching of 
his apostles and ministers, and by the enlightening influences of his Holy 
Spirit (John 16 : 12-14; Acts 1:1). The apostles unfolded the germs of 
doctrine put into their hands by Christ. The church is, in a derivative 
sense, a prophetic institution, established to teach the world by its preach- 
ing and its ordinances. But Christians are prophets, only as being pro- 
cl aimers of Christ's teaching (Num. 11 : 29 ; Joel 2 : 28). 

John 16 : 12-14— "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth .... He shall glorify me ; for he shall take of mine and 
shall declare it unto you" ; Acts 1 : 1— "The former treatise I made, Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began 
both to do and to teach" = Christ's prophetic work was only begun, during his earthly min- 
istry ; it is continued since his ascension. The inspiration of the apostles, the illumina- 
tion of all preachers and Christians to understand and to unfold the meaning of the 
word they wrote, the conviction of sinners, and the sanctification of believers,— all these 
are parts of Christ's prophetic work, performed through the Holy Spirit. 

By virtue of their union with Christ and participation in Christ's Spirit, all Christians 
are made in a secondary sense prophets. Num. 11 : 29— "Would God that all the Lord's people were 
prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them " ; Joel 2 : 28 — "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: 
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." All modern prophecy that is true, however, is 
but the republication of Christ's message — the proclamation and expounding of truth 
already revealed in Scripture. " All so-called new prophecy, from Montanus to Swe- 
denborg, proves its own falsity by its lack of attesting miracles." 

(d) Christ's final revelation of the Father to his saints in glory ( John 
16 : 25; 17 : 24, 26; cf. Is. 64 : 4; 1 Cor. 13 : 12).— Thus Christ's pro- 
phetic work will be an endless one, as the Father whom he reveals is 
infinite. 

John 16 : 25 — "the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of 
the Father " ; 17 : 24 — " I desire that where I am, they also may be with me ; that they may behold my glory, which 



390 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

thou hast given me " ; 26 —"I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." The revelation of 
his own glory will be the revelation of the Father, in the Son. Is. 64 : 4 — " For from of old men 
have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth 
for him" ; 1 Cor. 13 : 12 — "now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then 
shall I know fully, even as also I was fully known." 

See, on the whole subject of Christ's prophetic office, Philippi, Glaubenslehre, iv, 2: 
24-27; Bruce, Humiliation of Christ, 320-330; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 366-370. 

II. The Priestly Office of Christ. 

The priest was a person divinely appointed to transact with God on 
man's behalf. He fulfilled his office, first by offering sacrifice, and sec- 
ondly by making intercession. In both these respects Christ is priest 
(Heb. 7 : 24^28). 

1. Christ's Sacrificial Work, or the Doctrine of the Atonement. 

The Scriptures teach that Christ obeyed and suffered in our stead, to 
satisfy an immanent demand of the divine holiness, and thus remove an 
obstacle in the divine mind to the pardon and restoration of the guilty. 
This statement may be expanded as follows : 

(a) The holiness of God (or his justice, which is transitive holiness) 
requires the punishment of sin. Sin is intrinsically ill-deserving, and God's 
justice is as much bound to punish sin, as sin is bound to be punished. 

(6) The love of God, which desires the salvation of the sinner, can 
secure this end only by satisfying the holiness of which penalty is the 
necessary expression. 

(c) This satisfaction can be rendered only by one who unites with a 
human nature responsible to law, yet personally pure, that same divine 
holiness that needs to be satisfied ; in other words, the satisfaction must be 
by a substitution as respects man, and by a self- oblation as respects God. 

(d) Christ, the God-man, meets this demand of God's holiness, and ful- 
fills this impulse of God's love, by voluntarily enduring the penalty of the 
law, as our substitute, and, in virtue of his divine nature, undergoing death 
without being destroyed by it. 

(e) Having thus satisfied the claims of justice against humanity, by 
bearing the physical and spiritual death which is the penalty of sin, Christ 
has removed all obstacles to the pardon of sinners which exist in the mind 
of God, apart from their own subjective impenitence and rebellion. 

(/) Being in himself the embodied reconciliation and union of man and 
God, Christ offers the salvation he has wrought to all who will ratify his 
work and accept him as their Savior ; and for all such, his atonement is a 
complete deliverance from the penalty of sin, and a security for their 
gradual emancipation from its power. 

A. Scripture Methods of Eepresenting the Atonement. 

We may classify the Scripture representations according as they conform 
to moral, commercial, legal, or sacrificial analogies. 

(a) Moral. — The atonement is described as 

A provision originating in God's love, and manifesting this love to the 
universe. 



THE PRIESTLY OFFICE OF CHRIST. 391 

John 3 : 16— "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" ; Rom. 5 : 8— "God commendeth his 
own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" ; John 4 : 9 — "Herein was the love of God 
.manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 

An example of disinterested love, to secure our deliverance from selfish- 
ness. — i n these latter passages, Christ's death is referred to as a source 
of moral stimulus to men. 

Luke 9 : 22-24 — "The Son of man must suffer ... . and be killed ... If any man would come after me, let him 
.... take up his cross daily, and follow me ... . Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it" ; 
2 Cor. 5 : 15 — "he died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves" ; Gal. 1 : 4 — "gave him- 
self for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil world" ; Eph. 5 : 25-27 — "Christ also loved the 
church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it" ; Col. 1 : 21, 22 — "reconciled in the body of his flesh 
through death, to present you holy" ; Titus 2 : 14 — "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify" ; 1 Pet. 2 : 21-24 — "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: 
who did no sin ... . who his own self bore our sins in his own body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, 
might live unto righteousness." 

(6) Commercial. — The atonement is described as 

A ransom, paid to free us from the bondage of sin (note in these 
passages the use of av-l, the preposition of price, bargain, exchange). — In 
these passages, Christ's death is represented as the price of our deliverance 
from sin and death. 

Mat. 20 : 28, and Mark 10 : 45 — "to give his life a ransom for many " — Kvrpov avrl nok\&v. 1 Tim. 2:6 — 
"who gave himself a ransom for all" — dvrikvrpov. dvrl ( "for," in the sense of "instead of") is 
never confounded with vnep ( "for," in the sense of "in behalf of," "for the benefit of"). 
avrl is the preposition of price, bargain, exchange ; and this signification is traceable in 
every passage where it occurs in the N. T. See Mat. 2 : 22 — " Archelaus was reigning over Judea in 
the room of [ avrl ] his father Herod " ; Luke 11 : 11 — " shall his son ask .... a fish, and he for [a vtC] a fish give 
him a serpent ? ' ' Heb. 12:2 — " Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for [ ami — as the price of ] 
the joy that was set before him endured the cross " ; 16 — " Esau, who for [ avri = in exchange for ] one mess of 
meat sold his own birthright." See also Mat. 16 : 26 — "what shall a man give in exchange for (amdWayfxa) 
his life " = how shall he buy it back, when once he has lost it? 

Meyer, on Mat. 20 : 28 — " to give his life a ransom for many " — " The tyvxn is conceived of as kvrpov, 
a ransom, for, through the shedding of the blood, it becomes the n^i? (price) of redemp- 
tion." See also 1 Cor. 6 : 20 ; 7 : 23 — " ye were bought with a price " ; and 2 Pet. 2:1—" denying even the 
Master that bought them." The word "redemption," indeed, means simply "repurchase," or 
" the state of being repurchased " — i. c, delivered by the payment of a price. Rev. 5:9 — 
"thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe." "Winer, N. T. Grammar, 
358 — "In Greek, avrl is the preposition of price." Buttmann, N. T. Grammar, 321— "In 
the signification of the preposition ini (instead of, for), no deviation occurs from ordi- 
nary usage." See Grimm's Wilke, Lexicon Graeco-Lat. : "ivi-i, in vicem, anstatt"; 
Thayer, Lexicon N. T. — "ami, of that for which anything is given, received, endured; 
.... of the price of sale ( or purchase ) Mat. 20 : 28 " ; also Cremer, N. T. Lex., on 

avrd Way fia. 

(c) Legal. — The atonement is described as 

An act of obedience to the law which sinners had violated. 

Gal. 4:4 — " born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law " ; Mat. 
3 : 15 — " thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" — Christ's baptism prefigured his death, and 
was a consecration to death ; c/. Mark 10 : 38 — " Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be bap- 
tized with the baptism that I am baptized with? " Luke 12 : 50 — "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am 
I straitened till it be accomplished ! " Mat. 26 : 39 — "0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me : 
nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt" ; 5 : 17— "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I 
came not to destroy, but to fulfil"; Phil. 2 : 8— "becoming obedient even unto death" ; Rom. 5 : 19— "through the 
obedience of one shall the many be made righteous " ; 10 : 4 — " Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every 
one that believeth." 

A penalty, borne in order to rescue the guilty. 

Rom. 4 : 25 — " who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification" ; 8 : 3 — "God, sending 
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned s ; .n in the flesh " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 — " Him who knew no 
sin he made to be sin on our behalf" — here "sin" = a sinner, an accursed one ( Meyer) ; Gal. 1 : 4 — 



392 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

" gave himself for our sins " ; 3 : 13 — " Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us : for 
it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" ; cf. Deut. 21 : 23 — "he that is hanged is accursed of God." 
Eeb.9:28 — " Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many " ; cf. Lev. 5 : 17 — "if any one sin .... 
yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity " ; Num. 14 : 34 — "for every day a year, shall bear your iniquities, even 
forty years " ; Lam. 5 : 7 — " Our fathers have sinned, and are not ; And we have borne their iniquities." 

An exhibition of God's righteousness, necessary to the vindication of his 
procedure in the pardon and restoration of sinners. — In these passages the 
death of Christ is represented as demanded by God's law and government. 

Rom. 3 : 25, 26 — "whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to shew his righteousness, 
because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God " ; cf. leb. 9 : 15 — "a death having 
taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant." 

(d) Sacrificial. — The atonement is described as 

A work of priestly mediation, which reconciles God to men. — Notice 
here that the term * reconciliation ' has its usual sense of removing enmity, 
not from the offending, but from the offended party. 

Eeb. 9 : 11, 12 — " Christ having come a high priest .... nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through 
his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption" ; Rom. 5 : 10 —"while 
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son" ; 2 Cor. 5 : 18, 19— "all things are of God, 
who reconciled us to himself through Christ .... God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning 
unto them their trespasses" ; Eph. 2 : 16 — "might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having 
slain the enmity thereby"; cf. 12, 13, 19 — "strangers from the covenants of the promise .... far off .... no 
more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" ; Col. 1 : 20 — 
"through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross." 

On all these passages, see Meyer, who shows the meaning of the apostle to be, that 
"we were 'enemies,' not actively, as hostile to God, but passively, as those with whom God 
was angry." The epistle to the Romans begins with the revelation of wrath against 
Gentile and Jew alike (Rom. 1 : 18 ). "While we were enemies" (Rom. 5: 10)=" when God was 
hostile to us." " Reconciliation " is therefore the removal of God's wrath toward man. 
Meyer, on this last passage, says that Christ's death does not remove man's wrath 
toward God [this is not the work of Christ, but of the Holy Spirit]. The offender 
reconciles the person offended, not himself. 

Cf. Num. 25 : 13, where Phinehas, by slaying Zimri, is said to have "made atonement for the chil- 
dren of Israel." Surely, the " atonement " here cannot be a reconciliation of Israel. The action 
terminates, not on the subject, but on the object— God. So, 1 Sam. 29 : 4— "wherewith should 
this fellow reconcile himself unto his Lord? should it not be with the heads of these men?" Mat. 5 : 23, 24— "If 
therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother [i. e., remove his enmity, not 
thine own ], and then come and offer thy gift." See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 387-398. 

A sin-offering, presented on behalf of transgressors. 

John 1 : 29— "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" — here alptav means to 
take away by taking or bearing ; to take, and so take away. It is an allusion to the sin- 
offering of Isaiah 53 : 7-12—" when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin .... as a lamb that is led to the 
slaughter .... the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Mat. 26 : 28— "this is the blood of the covenant, 
which is shed for many unto remission of sins " ; cf. Ps. 50 : 5 — " made a covenant with me by sacrifice." 1 John 1 : 
7 — "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" =not sanctiflcation, but justification ; 
1 Cor. 5 : 7— "our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ" ; cf. Deut. 16 : 2-6— "thou shalt sacrifice the pass- 
over unto the Lord thy God." Eph. 5 : 2— "gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a 
sweet smell " ; leb. 9 : 14 — " the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto 
God" ; 22, 26 — "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission .... now once in the end of the ages hath he 
been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" ; 1 Pet. i : 18, 19— "redeemed .... with precious blood, 
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." 

A propitiation, which satisfies the demands of violated holiness. 

Rom. 3 : 25, 26 — " whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood .... that he might himself be 
just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." A full and critical exposition of this passage 
will be found under the Ethical theory of the Atonement, pages 410, 411. Here it is suffi- 
cient to say that it shows : (1) that Christ's death is a propitiatory sacrifice; (2) that 



THE INSTITUTION OF SACRIFICE. 393 

its first and main effect is upon God; (3) that the particular attribute in God which 
demands the atonement is his justice, or holiness; (4) that the satisfaction of this 
holiness is the necessary condition of God's justifying- the believer. 

Compare Luke 18 : 13, marg. — "God be merciful uato me the sinner" ; lit. : "God be propitiated toward me 
the sinner "—by the sacrifice, whose smoke was ascending- before the publican, even while 
he prayed. leb. 2 : 17— "a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for 
the sins of the people " ; 1 John 2 : 2— "and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the 
whole world " ; 4 : 10 —"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro- 
pitiation for our sins"; cf. Gen. 32 : 20, lxx. — "I will appease [ i^iKia-ofiai, 'propitiate'] him with the 
present that goeth before me " ; Prov. 16 : 14, lxx. — " The wrath of a king is as messengers of death ; but a wise man 
will pacify it " [ i^ikda-erat, * propitiate it ' ]. 

A substitution, of Christ's obedience and sufferings for ours. — These 
passages, taken together, show that Christ's death is demanded by God's 
attribute of justice, or holiness, if sinners are to be saved. 

Luke 22 : 37 — "he was reckoned with transgressors" ; cf. Lev. 16 : 21 — "and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon 
the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel .... he shall put them upon 
the head of the goat .... and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land " ; Is. 53 : 5, 6 — 
"he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him ; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own 
way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." John 10 : 11 — "the good shepherd layeth down his life 
for the sheep" ; Rom. 5 : 6-8 — "while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for 
a righteous man will one die : for perad venture for the good man some one would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us " ; 1 Pet. 3 : 18 — " Christ also suffered 
for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." 

To these texts we must add all those mentioned under (b) above, in which Christ's 
death is described as a ransom. Besides Meyer's comment, there quoted, on Mat. 20 : 28 — 
"to give his life a ransom for many," \vrpov avrl noWkv — Meyer also says: " avri denotes substi- 
tution. That which is given as a ransom takes the place of, is given instead of, those 
who are to be set free in consideration thereof, avrC can only be understood in the sense 
of substitution in the act of which the ransom is presented as an equivalent, to secure 
the deliverance of those on whose behalf the ransom is paid, — a view which is only con- 
firmed by the fact that, in other parts of the N. T., this ransom is usually spoken of as an 
expiatory sacrifice. That which they [ those for whom the ransom is paid ] are redeemed 
from, is the eternal anu>\eia in which, as having the wrath of God abiding upon them, 
they would remain imprisoned, as in a state of hopeless bondage, unless the guilt of their 
sins were expiated." 

Cremer, N. T. Lex., says that " in both the N. T. texts, Mat. 16 : 26 and Mark 8 : 37, the word 
avTaWayixa, like kvrpov, is akin to the conception of atonement ; cf. Is. 43 : 3, 4 ; 49 : 8 ; Amos 
5 : 12. This is a confirmation of the fact that satisfaction and substitution essentially 
belong to the idea of atonement." Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 515 ( Syst. Doct., 3 : 414 ) — 
" Mat. 20 : 28 contains the thought of a substitution. While the whole world is not of equal 
worth with the soul, and could not purchase it, Christ's death and work are so valuable, 
that they can serve as a ransom." 

On the Scripture proofs, see Crawford, Atonement, 1 : 1-193; Dale, Atonement, 65-256; 
Philippi, Glaubenslehre, rv, 2:243-342; Smeaton, Our Lord's and the Apostles' Doc- 
trine of Atonement. 

An examination of the passages referred to shows that, while the forms 
in which the atoning work of Christ is described are in part derived from 
moral, commercial, and legal relations, the prevailing language is that of 
sacrifice. A correct view of the atonement must therefore be grounded 
upon a proper interpretation of the institution of sacrifice, especially as 
found in the Mosaic system. 

B. The Institution of Sacrifice, especially as found in the Mosaic system. 

(a) We may dismiss as untenable, on the one hand, the theory that sac- 
rifice is essentially the presentation of a gift ( Hofmann, Baring-Gould ) or a 
feast (Spencer) to the Deity ; and on the other hand the theory that sacrifice 
is a symbol of renewed fellowship (Keil), or of the grateful offering to God 



394 SOTEEIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

of the whole life and being of the worshiper (Bahr). Neither of these 
theories can explain the fact that the sacrifice is a bloody offering, involving 
the suffering and death of the victim, and brought, not by the simply grate- 
ful, but by the conscience-stricken soul. 

For the views of sacrifice here mentioned, see Hof mann, Schrif tbeweis, n, 1 : 214-294 ; 
Baring-Gould, Origin and Devel. of Relig. Belief, 368-390 ; Spencer, De Legibus Hebrse- 
orum ; Keil, Bib. Archaologie, sec. 43, 47 ; Bahr, Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus, 2 : 196, 
269 ; also, synopsis of Bahr's view, in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1870 : 593 ; Jan., 1871 : 171. Per contra, 
see Crawford, Atonement, 228-240 ; Lange, Introd. to Com. on Exodus, 38 — " The heathen 
change God's symbols into myths ( rationalism ), as the Jews change God's sacrifices into 
meritorious service ( ritualism)." 

( b ) The true import of the sacrifice, as is abundantly evident from both 
heathen and Jewish sources, embraced two elements, — first, that of satis- 
faction to offended Deity, or propitiation offered to violated holiness ; and 
secondly, that of substitution of suffering and death on the part of the inno- 
cent, for the deserved punishment of the guilty. Combining these two 
ideas, we have as the total import of the sacrifice : satisfaction by substitu- 
tion. The bloody sacrifice among the heathen expressed the consciousness 
that sin involved guilt ; that guilt exposed man to the righteous wrath of 
God ; that without expiation of that guilt, there was no forgiveness. 

Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 170, quotes from Nagelsbach, Nachhomerische 
Theologie, 338 sq. — "The essence of punishment is retribution ( Vergeltung ), and retri- 
bution is a fundamental law of the world-order. In retribution lies the atoning power 
of punishment. This consciousness that the nature of sin demands retribution, in other 
words, this certainty that there is in Deity a righteousness that punishes sin, taken in 
connection with the consciousness of personal transgression, awakens the longing for 
atonement,"— which is expressed in the sacrifice of a slaughtered beast. The Greeks 
recognized representative expiation, not only in the sacrifice of beasts, but in human 
sacrifices. See examples in Tyler, Theol. Gk. Poets, 196, 197, 245-253; see also Virgil, 
iEneid, 5:815— "Unum pro multis dabitur caput"; Ovid, Fasti, vi— 'Cor pro corde, 
precor ; pro fibris sumite fibras. Hanc animam vobis pro meliore danius." 

Stahl, Christliche Philosophic, 146—" Every unperverted conscience declares the eternal 
law of righteousness that punishment shall follow inevitably on sin. In the moral realm, 
there is another way of satisfying righteousness — that of atonement. This differs from 
punishment in its effect, that is, reconciliation,— the moral authority asserting itself, not 
by the destruction of the offender, but by taking him up into itself and uniting itself to 
him. But the offender cannot offer his own sacrifice,— that nmst be done by the priest." 
In the Prometheus Bound, of ^schylus, Hermes says to Prometheus : " Hope not for 
an end to such oppression, until a god appears as thy substitute in torment, ready to 
descend for thee into the unillumined realm of Hades and the dark abyss of Tartarus." 
And this is done by Chiron, the wisest and most just of the Centaurs, the son of Chronos, 
sacrificing himself for Prometheus, while Hercules kills the eagle at his breast and so 
delivers him from torment. This legend of ^schylus is almost a prediction of the true 
Redeemer. 

( c ) In considering the exact purport and efficacy of the Mosaic sacrifices, 
we must distinguish between their theocratical, and their spiritual, offices. 
They were, on the one hand, the appointed means whereby the offender 
could be restored to the outward place and privileges, as member of the 
theocracy, which he had forfeited by neglect or transgression ; and they 
accomplished this purpose irrespectively of the temper and spirit with which 
they were offered. On the other hand, they were symbolic of the vicarious 
sufferings and death of Christ, and obtained forgiveness and acceptance 
with God, only as they were offered in true penitence, and with faith in 
God's method of salvation. 

Heb. 9 : 13, 14—" For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, 
sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh : how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered 



THE INSTITUTION OF SACRIFICE. 395 

himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ? " 10 : 3, 4 — " But 
in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and 
goats should take away sins." Christ's death also, like the O. T. sacrifices, works temporal 
benefit even to those who have no faith ; see pages 431, 433. 

(d) Thus the Old Testament sacrifices, when rightly offered, involved a 
consciousness of sin on the part of the worshiper, the bringing of a victim 
to atone for the sin, the laying of the hand of the offerer upon the victim's 
head, the confession of sin by the offerer, the slaying of the beast, the 
sprinkling or pouring-out of the blood upon the altar, and the consequent 
forgiveness of the sin and acceptance of the worshiper. The sin-offering 
and the scape-goat of the great day of atonement symbolized yet more dis- 
tinctly the two elementary ideas of sacrifice, namely, satisfaction and substi- 
tution, together with the consequent removal of guilt from those on whose 
behalf the sacrifice was offered. 

Lev. 1 : 4 — " And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering ; and it shall be accepted for him, to 
make atonement for him " ; 4 : 20 — " Thus shall he do with the bullock ; as he did with the bullock of the sin-offering, 
so shall he do with this: and the priest shall make atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven; " so 31 and 35 — "and 
the priest shall make atonement as touching his sin that he hath sinned, and he shall be forgiven " ; so 5 : 10, 16 ; 
6 : 7. Lev. 17 : 11 — "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make 
atonement for your souls : for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life." 

The patriarchal sacrifices were sin-offerings, as the sacrifice of Job for his friends wit- 
nesses : Job 42 : 7, 9 — " My wrath is kindled against thee [ Eliphaz ] . . . . therefore, take unto you seven bul- 
locks .... and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering" ; c/. 33 : 24— "Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, 
Deliver him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom " ; 1 : 5 — Job offered burnt-offerings for 
his sons, for he said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and renounced God in their hearts " ; Gen. 8 : 20 — 
Noah " offered burnt-offerings on the altar" ; 21 —"and the Lord smelled the sweet savor ; and the Lord said in his 
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." 

That vicarious suffering is intended in all these sacrifices, is plain from Lev. 16 : 1-34 —the 
account of the sin-offering and the scape-goat of the great day of atonement, the full 
meaning of which we give below; also from Gen. 22 : 13 — "Abraham went and took the ram, and 
offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son " ; Ex. 32 : 30-32 — where Moses says : " Ye have sinned 
a great sin : and now I will go up unto the Lord ; peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin. And Moses 
returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, 
if thou wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou has written." See also 
Deut. 21 : 1-9 — the expiation of an uncertain murder, by the sacrifice of a heifer,— where 
Oehler, O. T. Theology, 1 : 389, says : " Evidently the punishment of death incurred by the 
manslayer is executed symbolically upon the heifer. " In Is. 53 : 1-12 — " All we like sheep have gone 
astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all ... . stripes 
.... offering for sin " — the ideas of both satisfaction and substitution are still more plain. 

Wallace, Representative Responsibility: "The animals offered in sacrifice must be 
animals brought into direct relation to man, subject to him, his property. They could 
not be spoils of the chase. They must bear the mark and impress of humanity. Upon 
the sacrifice human hands must be laid— the hands of the offerer and the hands of the 
priest. The offering is the substitute of the offerer. The priest is the substitute of the 
offerer. The priest and the sacrifice were one symbol. [ Hence, in the new dispensation, 
the priest and the sacrifice are one — both are found in Christ.] The high priest must 
enter the holy of holies with his own finger dipped in blood : the blood must be in con- 
tact with his own person, — another indication of the identification of the two. Life is 
nourished and sustained by life. All life lower than man may be sacrificed for the good 
of man. The blood must be spilled on the ground. 'In the blood is the life.' The life is 
reserved by God. It is given for man, but not to him. Life for life is the law of the 
creation. So the life of Christ, also, for our life.— Adam was originally priest of the 
family and of the race. Rut he lost his representative character by the one act of 
disobedience, and his redemption was that of the individual, not that of the race. The 
race ceased to have a representative. The subjects of the divine government were 
henceforth to be, not the natural offspring of Adam as such, but the redeemed. That 
the body and the blood are both required, indicates the demand that the death should 
be by a violence that sheds blood. The sacrifices showed forth, not Christ himself [ his 
character, his life], but Christ's death." 

The following is a tentative scheme of the Jewish Sacrifices. The general reason 
for sacrifice is expressed in Lev. 17:11 (quoted above). I. For Uie individual: 1. The 



396 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

sin-offering = sacrifice to expiate sins of ignorance (thoughtlessness and plausible 
temptation) : Lev. 4 : 14, 20, 31. 2. The trespass-offering = sacrifice to expiate sins of omis- 
sion : Lev. 5 : 5, 6. 3. The burnt-offering = sacrifice to expiate general sinfulness : Lev. 1 : 3 
(the offering of Mary, Luke 2 : 24). II. For the family: The Passover: Ex. 12 : 27. III. For 
the people : 1. The daily morning and evening sacrifice : Ex. 29 : 38-46. 2. The offering of 
the great day of atonement : Lev. 16 : 6-10. In this last, two victims were employed, one 
to represent the means— death, and the other to represent the result— forgiveness. 
One victim could not represent both the atonement— by shedding of blood, and the 
justification— by putting away sin. 

On the Jewish sacrifices, see Fairbairn, Typology, 1 : 209-223 ; Wiinsche, Die Leiden des 
Messias; Jukes, O. T. Sacrifices; Smeaton, Apostle's Doctrine of Atonement, 25-53; 
Kurtz, Sacrificial Worship of O. T., 120 ; Bible Com., 1 : 502-508, and Introd. to Leviticus; 
Candlish on Atonement, 123-142; "Weber, Vom Zorne Gottes, 161-180. On passages in 
Leviticus, see Com. of Knobel, in Exeg. Handb. d. Alt. Test. 

( e ) It is not essential to this view to maintain that a formal divine insti- 
tution of the rite of sacrifice, at man's expulsion from Eden, can be proved 
from Scripture. Like the family and the state, sacrifice may, without such 
formal inculcation, jDossess divine sanction, and be ordained of God. The 
well-nigh universal prevalence of sacrifice, however, together with the fact 
that its nature, as a bloody offering, seems to preclude man's own invention 
of it, combines with certain Scripture intimations to favor the view that it 
was a primitive divine appointment. From the time of Moses, there can 
be no question as to its divine authority. 

Compare the origin of prayer and worship, for which we find no formal divine injunc- 
tions at the beginnings of history. leb. 11 : 4 — "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice 
than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his 
gifts" —here it may be argued that since Abel's faith was not presumption, it must have 
had some injunction and promise of God to base itself upon. Gen. 4 : 3, 4 — " Cain brought of 
the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat 
thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." 

It has been urged, in corroboration of this view, that the previous existence of sacri- 
fice is intimated in Gen. 3 : 21 — " And the Lord God made for Adam, and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed 
them." Since the killing of animals for food was not permitted until long afterwards 
( Gen. 9 : 3 — to Noah : " Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you " ), the inference has been 
drawn, that the skins with which God clothed our first parents were the skins of 
animals slain for sacrifice,— this clothing furnishing a type of the righteousness of 
Christ which secures our restoration to God's favor, as the death of the victims 
furnished a type of the suffering of Christ which secures for us remission of punish- 
ment. We must regard this, however, as a pleasing and possibly correct hypothesis, 
rather than as a demonstrated truth of Scripture. Since the unper verted instincts of 
human nature are an expression of God's will, Abel's faith may have consisted in 
trusting these, rather than the promptings of selfishness and self -righteousness. The 
death of animals in sacrifice, like the death of Christ which it signified, was only the 
hastening of what belonged to them because of their connection with human sin. 
Faith recognized this connection. On the divine appointment of sacrifice, see Park, in 
Bib. Sac, Jan., 1876 : 102-132. 

On Gen. 4 : 3, 4, see C. H. M.— " The entire difference between Cain and Abel lay, not in 
their natures, but in their sacrifices. Cain brought to God the sin-stained fruit of a 
cursed earth. Here was no recognition of the fact that he was a sinner, condemned to 
death. All his toil could not satisfy God's holiness, or remove the penalty. But Abel 
recognized his sin, condemnation, helplessness, death, and brought the bloody sacrifice— 
the sacrifice of another— the sacrifice provided by God, to meet the claims of God. He 
found a substitute, and he presented it in faith — the faith that looks away from self to 
Christ, or God's appointed way of salvation. The difference was not in their persons, 
but in their gifts. Of Abel it is said, that God 'bore witness in respect of his gifts ' (Heb. 11 : 4 ). To 
Cain it is said, if thou doest well ( nxx.: bpdus npoo-eveyKTqs — 'if thou offerest correctly ' ) shalt thou not be 
accepted?' But Cain desired to get away from God and from God's way, and to lose 
himself in the world. This is ' the way of Cain ' ( Jude 11 )." Per contra, see Crawford, Atone- 
ment, 259— "Both in Levitical and patriarchal times, we have no formal institution of 
sacrifice, but the regulation of sacrifice already existing. But Abel's faith may have 
had respect, not to a revelation with regard to sacrificial worship, but with regard to 



SOCINIAN THEOEY OF THE ATONEMENT. 397 

the promised Redeemer ; and his sacrifice may have expressed that faith. If so, God's 
acceptance of it gave a divine warrant to future sacrifices. It was not will-worship, 
because it was not substituted for some other worship which God had previously insti- 
tuted. It is not necessary to suppose that God gave an express command. Abel may 
have been moved by some inward divine monition. Thus Adam said to Eve, ' This is now 
bone of my bones ....'( Gen. 2 : 23 ), before any divine command of marriage. No fruits were 
presented during the patriarchal dispensation. Heathen sacrifices were corruptions of 
primitive sacrifice." Von Lasaulx, Die Suhnopfer der Griechen und Komer, und ihr 
Verhaltniss zu dem einen auf Golgotha, 1 — "The first word of the original man was 
probably a prayer, the first action of fallen man a sacrifice." 

(/) The New Testament assumes and presupposes the Old Testament 
doctrine of sacrifice. The sacrificial language in which its descriptions of 
Christ's work are clothed cannot be explained as an accommodation to 
Jewish methods of thought, since this terminology was in large part in com- 
mon use among the heathen, and Paul used it more than any other of the 
apostles in dealing with the Gentiles. To deny to it its Old Testament 
meaning, when used by New Testament writers to describe the work of 
Christ, is to deny any proper inspiration both in the Mosaic appointment of 
sacrifices and in the apostolic interpretations of them. We must therefore 
maintain, as the result of a simple induction of Scripture facts, that the 
death of Christ is a vicarious offering, provided by God's love for the pur- 
pose of satisfying an internal demand of the divine holiness, and of remov- 
ing an obstacle in the divine mind to the renewal and pardon of sinners. 

" The epistle of James makes no allusion to sacrifice. But he would not have failed to 
allude to it, if he had held the moral view of the atonement ; for it would then have been 
an obvious help to his argument against merely formal service. Christ protested against 
washing hands and keeping Sabbath days. If sacrifice had been a piece of human f or- 
mality, how indignantly would he have inveighed against it ! But instead of this he 
received from John the Baptist, without rebuke, the words: 'Behold the Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world.' " 

For denial that Christ's death is to be interpreted by heathen or Jewish sacrifices, see 
Maurice on Sac, 154— "The heathen signification of words, when applied to a Christian 
use, must be not merely modified, but inverted" ; Jowett, Epistles of St. Paul, 3 : 479— 
" The heathen and Jewish sacrifices rather show us what the sacrifice of Christ was not, 
than what it was." Bushnell and Young do not doubt the expiatory nature of heathen 
sacrifices. But the main terms which the N. T. uses to describe Christ's sacrifice are 
borrowed from the Greek sacrificial ritual, e. g. Sva-Ca, npocr<f>opa, iA.ao-/u.6s, ayidfa, xatfaipw, 
iAaa/co/aai. To deny that these terms, when applied to Christ, imply expiation and sub- 
stitution, is to deny the inspiration of those who used them. See Cave, Scripture Doc- 
trine of Sacrifice ; art. on Sacrifice, in Smith's Bible Dictionary. 

C. Theories of the Atonement. 

1st. The Socinian, or Example Theory of the Atonement. 

This theory holds that subjective sinfulness is the sole barrier between 
man and God. Not God, but only man, needs to be reconciled. The only 
method of reconciliation is to better man's moral condition. This can be 
effected by man's own will, through repentance and reformation. The death 
of Christ is but the death of a noble martyr. He redeems us, only as his 
human example of faithfulness to truth and duty has a powerful influence 
upon our moral improvement. This fact the apostles, either consciously or 
unconsciously, clothed in the language of the Greek and Jewish sacrifices. 
This theory was fully elaborated by Lselius Socinus and Faustus Socinus 
of Poland, in the 16th century. Its modern advocates are found in the 
Unitarian body. 



398 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

The Socinian theory may be found stated, and advocated, in Bibliotheca Fratrum Polo- 
norum, 1 : 566-600 ; Martineau, Studies of Christianity, 83-176 ; J. F. Clarke, Orthodoxy, 
Its Truths and Errors, 235-265; Ellis, TJnitarianism and Orthodoxy; Sheldon, Sin and 
Redemption, 146-210. The text which at first sight most seems to favor this view is 1 Pet. 
2 : 21— "Christ ako suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps." But see under 
(6) below, page 399. 

To this theory we make the following objections : 

{a) It is based upon false philosophical principles, — as, for example, that 
will is merely the faculty of volitions ; that the foundation of virtue is in 
utility ; that law is an expression of arbitrary will ; that penalty is a means 
of reforming the offender ; that righteousness, in either God or man, is only 
a manifestation of benevolence. 

If the will is simply the faculty of volitions, and not also the fundamental determina- 
tion of the being to an ultimate end, then man can, by a single volition, effect his own 
reformation and reconciliation to God. If the foundation of virtue is in utility, then 
there is nothing in the divine being that prevents pardon,— the good of the creature, and 
not the demands of God's holiness, being the reason for Christ's suffering. If law is an 
expression of arbitrary will, instead of being a transcript of the divine nature, it may 
at any time be dispensed with, and the sinner may be pardoned on mere repentance. If 
penalty is merely a means of reforming the offender, then sin does not involve objective 
guilt, or obligation to suffer, and sin may be forgiven, at any moment, to all who forsake 
it,— indeed, must be forgiven, since punishment is out of place when the sinner is 
reformed. If righteousness is only a form or manifestation of benevolence, then God 
can show his benevolence as easily through pardon as through penalty, and Christ's 
death is only intended to attract us toward the good by the force of a noble example. 

( b ) It is a natural outgrowth from the Pelagian view of sin, and logically 
necessitates a curtailment or surrender of every other characteristic doctrine 
of Christianity — inspiration, sin, the deity of Christ, justification, regene- 
ration, and eternal retribution. 

The Socinian theory requires a surrender of the doctrine of inspiration ; for the idea 
of vicarious and expiatory sacrifice is woven into the very warp and woof of the Old 
and New Testaments. It requires an abandonment of the Scripture doctrine of sin ; for 
in it all idea of sin as perversion of nature rendering the sinner unable to save himself, 
and as objective guilt demanding satisfaction to the divine holiness, is denied. It 
requires us to give up the deity of Christ ; for if sin is a slight evil, and man can save 
himself from its penalty and power, then there is no longer need of either an infinite 
suffering or an infinite Savior, and a human Christ is as good as a divine. It requires us 
to give up the Scripture doctrine of justification, as God's act of declaring the sinner 
just in the eye of the law, solely on account of the righteousness and death of Christ 
to whom he is united by faith ; for the Socinian theory cannot permit the counting to a 
man of any other righteousness than his own. It requires a denial of the doctrine of 
regeneration ; for this is no longer the work of God, but the work of the sinner ; it is no 
longer a change of the affections below consciousness, but a self -reforming volition of 
the sinner himself. It requires a denial of eternal retribution ; for this is no longer 
appropriate to finite transgression of arbitrary law, and to superficial sinning that does 
not involve nature. 

(c) It contradicts the Scripture teachings, that sin involves objective 
guilt as well as subjective defilement ; that the holiness of God must punish 
sin ; that the atonement was a bearing of the punishment of sin for men ; 
and that this vicarious bearing of punishment was necessary, on the part of 
God, to make possible the showing of favor to the guilty. 

The Scriptures do not make the main object of the atonement to be man's subjective 
moral improvement. It is to God that the sacrifice is offered, and the object of it is to 
satisfy the divine holiness, and to remove from the divine mind an obstacle to the show- 
ing of favor to the guilty. It was something external to man, and his happiness or 
virtue, that required that Christ should suffer. What Emerson has said of the martyr 



SOCIXIAX THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. 399 

is yet more true of Christ : " Though love repine, and reason chafe, There conies a voice 
without reply, 'T is man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die." The 
truth for which Christ died was truth internal to the nature of God ; not simply truth 
externalized and published among- men. "What the truth of God required, that Christ 
rendered— full satisfaction to violated justice. "Jesus paid it all" ; and no obedience 
or righteousness of ours can be added to his work, as a ground of our salvation. 

(d) It furnishes no proper explanation of the sufferings and death of 
Christ. The unmartyrlike anguish cannot be accounted for, and the for- 
saking by the Father cannot be justified, upon the hypothesis that Christ 
died as a mere witness to truth. If Christ's sufferings were not propitia- 
tory, they neither furnish us with a perfect example, nor constitute a mani- 
festation of the love of God. 

Compare Jesus' feeling, in view of death, with that of Paul: "having the desire to depart " 
f Phil. 1 : 23 ). Jesus was filled with anguish : " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, 
save me from this hour" (John 12: 27). If Christ was simply a martyr, then he is not a perfect 
example ; for many a martyr has shown greater courage in prospect of death, and in 
the final agony has been able to say that the fire that consumed him was "a bed of 
roses." Gethsemane, with its mental anguish, is apparently recorded in order to indi- 
cate that Christ's sufferings even on the cross were not mainly physical sufferings. 

Stroud, in his Physical Cause of our Lord's Death, has made it probable that Jesus 
died of a broken heart, and that this alone explains John 19 : 34 — " one of the soldiers with a spear 
pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water" — i. e., the heart had already been 
ruptured by grief. That grief was grief at the forsaking of the Father (Mat. 27 : 46— "My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me " ), and the resulting death shows that that forsaking was 
no imaginary one. Did God make the holiest man of all to be the greatest sufferer of 
all the ages ? This heart broken by the forsaking of the Father means more than mar- 
tyrdom. If Christ's death is not propitiatory, it fills me with terror and despair ; for 
it presents me not only with a very imperfect example in Christ, but with a proof of 
measureless injustice on the part of God. Luke 23 : 28 — " weep not for me, but weep for yourselves "= 
Jesus rejects all pity that forgets his suffering for others. 

(e) The influence of Christ's example is neither declared in Scripture, 
nor found in Christian experience, to be the chief result secured by his 
death. Mere example is but a new preaching of the law, which repels and 
condemns. The cross has power to lead men to holiness, only as it first 
shows a satisfaction made for their sins. Accordingly, most of the passages 
which represent Christ as an example also contain references to his propi- 
tiatory work. 

There is no virtue in simply setting an example. Christ did nothing, simply for the 
sake of example. Even his baptism was the symbol of his propitiatory death ; see pages 
415, 416, 528, 529. The apostle's exhoi'tation is not " abstain from all appearance of evil " 
(1 Thess. 5 : 22, A. Vers. ), but "abstain from every f(yrm of evil" (Rev. Vers. ). Christ's death is 
the payment of a real debt due to God ; and the convicted sinner needs first to see the 
debt which he owes to the divine justice paid by Christ, before he can think hopefully of 
reforming his life. The hymns of the church: "I lay my sins on Jesus," and "Not all 
the blood of beasts," represent the view of Christ's sufferings which Christians have 
derived from the Scriptures. When the sinner sees that the mortgage is cancelled, that 
the penalty has been borne, he can devote himself freely to the service of his Redeemer. 
Rev. 12 : 11— "they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb "= as Christ overcame Satan 
by his propitiatory sacrifice, so we overcome by appropriating to ourselves Christ's 
atonement and his Spirit ; c/. 1 John 5 : 4 — " this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." 
The very text upon which Socinians most rely, when it is taken in connection with the 
context, proves their theory to be a misrepresentation of Scripture. 1 Pet. 2 : 21 — " Christ 
also suffered for you, leaving you an eiample, that ye should follow his steps"— is succeeded by verse 24 —"who 
his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteous- 
ness; by whose stripes ye were healed"— the latter words being a direct quotation from Isaiah's 
description of the substitutionary sufferings of the Messiah ( Is. 53 : 5 ). 

(/) This theory contradicts the whole tenor of the New Testament, in 
making the life, and not the death, of Christ the most significant and impor- 



400 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

tant feature of his work. The constant allusions to the death of Christ as 
the source of our salvation, as well as the symbolism of the ordinances, 
cannot be explained upon a theory which regards Christ as a mere example, 
and considers his sufferings as incidents, rather than essentials, of his work. 

Dr. H. B. Hackett frequently called attention to the fact that the recording in the 
gospels of only three years of Jesus' life, and the prominence given in the record to the 
closing- scenes of that life, are evidence that not his life, but his death, was the great 
work of our Lord. Christ's death, and not his life, is the central truth of Christianity. 
The cross is par excellence the Christian symbol. In both the ordinances — in Baptism 
as well as in the Lord's Supper— it is the death of Christ that is primarily set forth. 
Neither Christ's example, nor his teaching, reveals God as does his death. It is the 
death of Christ that links together all Christian doctrines. The mark of Christ's blood is 
upon them all, as the scarlet thread running through every cord and rope of the British 
navy gives sign that it is the property of the crown. 

On the Socinian doctrine of the Atonement, see Crawford, Atonement, 279-296; Shedd, 
History of Doctrine, 2 : 376-386 ; Doctrines of the Early Socinians, in Princeton Essays, 
1 : 194-211 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, iv, 2 : 156-180 ; Fock, Socinianismus. 

2nd. The Bushnellian, or Moral-influence Theory of the Atonement. 

This holds, like the Socinian, that there is no principle of the divine 
nature which is propitiated by Christ's death ; but that this death is a mani- 
festation of the love of God, suffering in and with the sins of his creatures. 
Christ's atonement, therefore, is the merely natural consequence of his 
taking human nature upon him ; and is a suffering, not of penalty in man's 
stead, but of the combined woes and griefs which the living of a human life 
involves. This atonement has effect, not to satisfy divine justice, but so to 
reveal divine love as to soften human hearts and lead them to repentance ; 
in other words, Christ's sufferings were necessary, not in order to remove 
an obstacle to the pardon of sinners which exists in the mind of God, but 
in order to convince sinners that there exists no such obstacle. This theory, 
for substance, has been advocated by Bushnell, in America ; by Kobertson, 
Maurice, Campbell, and Young, in Great Britain; and by Bitschl, in 
Germany. 

Origen and Abelard are earlier representatives of this view. It may be found stated 
in Bushnell's Vicarious Sacrifice. Bushnell's later work, Forgiveness and Law, contains 
a modification of his earlier doctrine, to which he was driven by the criticisms upon his 
Vicarious Sacrifice. In the later work, he acknowledges what he had so strenuously 
denied in the earlier, namely, that Christ's death has effect upon God as well as upon 
man, and that God cannot forgive without thus "making cost to himself." Even in 
Forgiveness and Law, however, there is no recognition of the true principle and ground 
of the Atonement in God's punitive holiness. Since the original form of BushnelFs 
doctrine is the only one which has met with wide acceptance, we direct our objections 
mainly to this. 

F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 1 : 163-178, holds that Christ's sufferings were the necessary 
result of the position in which he had placed himself of conflict or collision with the 
evil that is in the world. He came in contact with the whirling wheel, and was crushed 
by it; he planted his heel upon the cockatrice's den, and was pierced by its fang. 
Maurice, on Sacrifice, 209, and Theol. Essays, 141, 228, regards Christ's sufferings as an 
illustration, given by the ideal man, of the self-sacrifice due to God from the humanity 
of which he is the root and head, all men being redeemed in him, irrespective of their 
faith, and needing only to have brought to them the news of this redemption. 

Campbell, Atonement, 129-191, quotes from Edwards, to show that infinite justice 
might be satisfied in either one of two ways : ( 1 ) by an infinite punishment ; ( 2 ) by 
an adequate repentance. This last, which Edwards passed by as impracticable, Camp- 
bell declares to have been the real atonement offered by Christ, who stands as the great 
Penitent, confessing the sins of the world. For objections to this view, see page 402. 
Young, Life and Light of Men, 283-313, holds a view essentially the same with Robert- 



BUSHXELLIAX THEORY OF THE ATOXEMEXT. 401 

son's. Christ's death is the necessary result of his collision with evil, and his sufferings 
extirpate sin, simply by manifesting God's self-sacrificing love. Kitschl, Rechtf ertigung 
und Versohnung, is the most recent and learned representative of this general view in 
Germany. For statement and criticism of these forms of the Moral-influence theory, 
see Crawford, Atonement, 297-366. 

To this theory we object as follows : 

( a ) While it embraces a valuable element of truth, namely, the moral 
influence upon men of the sufferings of the God-man, it is false by defect, 
in that it substitutes a subordinate effect of the atonement for its chief aim, 
and yet unfairly appropriates the name 'vicarious,' which belongs only to 
the latter. Suffering with the sinner is by no means suffering in his stead. 

Dale, Atonement, 137, illustrates BushnelTs view by the loyal wife, who suffers exile 
or imprisonment with her husband ; by the philanthropist, who suffers the privations 
and hardships of a savage people, whom he can civilize only by enduring the miseries 
from which he would rescue them ; by the Moravian missionary, who enters for life the 
lepers' enclosure, that he may convert its inmates. So Pot win says that suffering and 
death are the cost of the atonement, not the atonement itself. 

But we reply that such sufferings as these do not make Christ's sacrifice vicarious. 
The word 'vicarious ' (from rue, vicis) implies substitution, which this theory denies. 
The vicar of a parish is not necessarily one who performs service with, and in sympathy 
with, the rector.— he is rather one who stands in the rector's place. A vice-president is 
one who acts in place of the president ; ' A. B., appointed consul, vice C. D., resigned,' 
implies that A. B. is now to serve in the stead of C. D. If Christ is a ' vicarious sacrifice,' 
then he makes atonement toGod in the place and stead of sinners. Christ's suffering in 
and with sinners, though it is a most important and affecting fact, is not the suffering 
in their stead in which the atonement consists. Though it may be in part the medium 
through which Christ was enabled to endure God's wrath against sin, it is not to be 
confounded with the reason why God lays this suffering upon him ; nor should it blind 
us to the fact that this reason is his standing in the sinner's place to answer for sin to 
the retributive holiness of God. 

(6) It rests upon false philosophical principles, — as, that righteousness 
is identical with benevolence, instead of conditioning it ; that God is sub- 
ject to an eternal law of love, instead of being himself the source of all law ; 
that the aim of penalty is the reformation of the offender. 

Hovey, God with Us, 181-271, has given one of the best replies to BushnelL He shows 
that if God is subject to an eternal law of love, then God is necessarily a Savior ; that he 
must have created man as soon as he could ; that he makes men holy as fast as possi- 
ble; that he does all the good he can ; that he is no better than he should be. But this 
is to deny the transcendence of God, and reduce omnipotence to a mere nature-power. 
The conception of God as subject to law imperils God's self-sufficiency and freedom. 
For Bushnell's statements with regard to the identity of righteousness and love, and for 
criticisms upon them, see our treatment of the attribute of Holiness, page 129, note ( d ). 

(c) It contradicts the plain teachings of Scripture, that the atonement is 
necessary, not simply to reveal God's love, but to satisfy his justice ; that 
Christ's sufferings are propitiatory and penal ; and that the human con- 
science needs to be propitiated by Christ's sacrifice, before it can feel the 
moral influence of his sufferings. 

That the atonement is primarily an offering to God, and not to the sinner, appears 
from Eph. 5 : 2— "gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God" ; Heb. 9 : 14 — "offered himself without 
blemish unto God." Conscience, the reflection of God's holiness, can be propitiated only by 
propitiating holiness itself. Mere love and sympathy are maudlin, and powerless to 
move, unless there is a background of righteousness. Spear : " An appeal to man, with- 
out anything back of it to emphasize and enforce the appeal, will never touch the 
heart. The mere appearance of an atonement has no moral influence." Crawford, 
Atonement, 358-367—'* Instead of delivering us from penalty, in order to deliver us from 
Sin, this theory makes Christ to deliver us from sin, in order that he may deliver us 
26 



402 SOTERIOLOGY, Oft THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

from penalty. But this reverses the order of Scripture. And Dr. Bushnell concedes, in 
the end, that the moral view of the atonement is morally powerless; and that the 
objective view he condemns is, after all, indispensable to the salvation of sinners." 

(d) It can be maintained, only by wresting from their obvious meaning 
those passages of Scripture which speak of Christ as suffering for our sins ; 
which represent his blood as accomplishing something for us in heaven, 
when presented there by our intercessor ; which declare forgiveness to be a 
remitting of past offences upon the ground of Christ's death ; and which 
describe justification as a pronouncing, not a making, just. 

We have seen that the forms in which the Scriptures describe Christ's death are 
mainly drawn from sacrifice. Notice Bushnell's acknowledgment that these "altar- 
forms " are the most vivid and effective methods of presenting Christ's work, and that 
the preacher cannot dispense with them. Why he should not dispense with them, if 
the meaning has gone out of them, is not so clear. 

In his later work, entitled Forgiveness and Law, Bushnell appears to recognize this 
inconsistency, and represents God as affected by the atonement, after all; in other 
words, the atonement has an objective as well as a subjective influence. God can 
forgive, only by " making cost to himself." He "works down his resentment, by 
suffering for us." This verges toward the true view, but it does not recognize the 
demand of divine holiness for satisfaction ; and it attributes passion, weakness, and 
imperfection to God. Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 591 (Syst. Doct., 4 : 59, 69), objects to 
this modified Moral-influence theory, that the love that can do good to an enemy is 
already forgiving love ; so that the benefit to the enemy cannot be, as Bushnell sup- 
poses, a condition of the forgiveness. 

To Campbell's view, that Christ is the great Penitent, and that his atonement consists 
essentially in his confessing the sins of the world, we reply, that no confession or peni- 
tence is possible without responsibility. If Christ had no substitutionary office, the 
ordering of his sufferings on the part of God was manifest injustice. Such sufferings, 
moreover, are impossible upon grounds of mere sympathy. The Scripture explains 
them by declaring that he bore our curse, and became a ransom in our place. There 
was more therefore in the sufferings of Christ than " a perfect Amen in humanity to 
the judgment of God on the sin of man." Not Phinehas's zeal for God, but his execu- 
tion of judgment, made an atonement (Ps. 106:30 — "executed judgment" — :lxx. : e£iAa<ra.To, 
"made propitiation") and turned away the wrath of God. Observe here the contrast 
between the priestly atonement of Aaron, who stood between the living and the dead, 
and the judicial atonement of Phinehas, who executed righteous judgment, and so 
turned away wrath. In neither case did mere confession suffice to take away sin. On 
Campbell's view see further, on page 414. 

Bushnell regards Mat. 8 : 17 — "Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases" — as indicating the 
nature of his atoning work. The meaning then would be, that, he sympathized so 
fully with all human ills that he made them his own. Hovey, however, has given a 
more complete and correct explanation. The words mean rather : " His deep sympathy 
with these effects of sin so moved him, that it typified his final bearing of the sins them- 
selves, or constituted a preliminary and partial endurance of the suffering which was to 
expiate the sins of men." 

( e ) This theory would confine the influence of the atonement to those 
who have heard of it, — thus excluding patriarchs and heathen. But the 
Scriptures represent Christ as being the Savior of all men, in the sense of 
securing them grace, which, but for his atoning work, could never have 
been bestowed consistently with the divine holiness. 

Hovey: "The manward influence of the atonement is far more extensive than the 
moral influence of it." Christ is Advocate, not with the sinner, but with the Father. 
While the Spirit's work has moral influence over the hearts of men, the Son secures, 
through the presentation of his blood, in heaven, the pardon which can come only from 

God ( 1 John 2 : 1 —"we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for 
our sins"). Hence 1 : 9— "If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and righteous [faithful to his 
promise and righteous to Christ ] to forgive us our sins." Hence the publican does not first 
pray for change of heart, but for mercy upon the ground of sacrifice ( Luke 18 : 13, Rev 
Vers. — "God, be merciful to me a sinnei," but literally : "God be propitiated toward me the sinner" ). See 



GROTIAN THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. 403 

Balfour, in Brit, and For. Ev. Rev., Apr., 1884 : 230-254 ; Martin, Atonement, 216-237 ; 
Theol. Eclectic, 4 : 364-409. 

3rd. The Grotian, or Governmental Theory of the Atonement. 

This theory holds that the atonement is a satisfaction, not to any internal 
principle of the divine nature, but to the necessities of government. God's 
government of the universe cannot be maintained, nor can the divine law 
preserve its authority over its subjects, unless the pardon of offenders is 
accompanied by some exhibition of the high estimate which God sets upon 
his law, and the heinous guilt of violating it. Such an exhibition of divine 
regard for the law is furnished in the sufferings and death of Christ. Christ 
does not suffer the precise penalty of the law, but God graciously accepts 
his suffering as a substitute for the penalty. This bearing of substituted 
suffering on the part of Christ gives the divine law such hold upon the 
consciences and hearts of men, that God can pardon the guilty upon their 
repentance, without detriment to the interests of his government. The 
author of this theory was Hugo Grotius, the Dutch jurist and theologian 
(1583-1645). The theory is characteristic of the New England theology, 
and is generally held by those who accept the New School view of sin. 

Grotius, the jurist, conceived of law as a mere matter of political expediency— a 
device to secure practical governmental results. The text most frequently quoted in 
Support of the theory, is Is. 42 : 21 — "It pleased the Lord, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and 
make it honorable." Strangely enough, the explanation is added: "even when its demands 
are unfulfilled." Park : " Christ satisfied the law, by making it desirable and consistent 
for God not to come up to the demands of the law. Christ suffers a divine chastisement 
in consequence of our sins. Christ was cursed for Adam's sin, just as the heavens and 
the earth were cursed for Adam's sin, — that is, he bore pains and sufferings on account 
of it." 

Grotius used the word acceptilatio, by which he meant God's sovereign provision of a 
suffering which was not itself penalt y, but which he had determined to accept as a sub- 
stitute for penalty. Here we have a virtual denial that there is anything in God's 
nature that requires Christ to suffer ; for if penalty may be remitted in part, it may be 
remitted in whole, and the reason why Christ suffers at all is to be found, not in any 
demand of God's holiness, but solely in the beneficial influence of these sufferings iipon 
man ; so that in principle this theory is allied to the Example theory and the Moral- 
influence theory, already mentioned. 

Notice the difference between holding to a substitute for penalty, as Grotius did, and 
holding to an equivalent substituted penalty, as the Scriptures do. Grotius's own state- 
ment of his view may be found in his Defensio Fidei Catholicae de Satisfactione (Works, 
4 : 297-338 ). More modern statements of it are those of Wardlaw, in his Systematic The- 
ology, 2 : 358-395, and of Albert Barnes, on the Atonement. The history of New England 
thought upon the subject is given in Discourses and Treatises on the Atonement, edited 
by Prof. Park, of Andover. President Woolsey : "Christ's suffering was due to a deep 
mid awful sense of responsibility, a conception of the supreme importance to man of 
his standing firm at this crisis. He bore, not the wrath of God, but suffering, as the 
only way of redemption so far as men's own feeling of sin was concerned, and so far as 
the government of God was concerned." This unites the Governmental and the Moral- 
influence theories. 

To this theory we urge the following objections : 

( a ) While it contains a valuable element of truth, namely, that the suffer- 
ings and death of Christ secure the interests of God's government, it is 
false by defect, in substituting for the chief aim of the atonement one 
which is only subordinate and incidental. 

In our discussion of Penalty ( pages 351, 352), we have seen that the object of punish- 
ment is not primarily the security of government. It is not right to punish a man for 
the benefit of society. Ill-desert must go before punishment, or the punishment can 



404 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

have no beneficial effect on society. No punishment can work good to society, that is 
not just and right„in itself. 

(6) It rests upon false philosophical principles, — as, that utility is the 
ground of moral obligation ; that law is an expression of the will, rather than 
of the nature, of God ; that the aim of penalty is to deter from the com- 
mission of offences ; and that righteousness is resolvable into benevolence. 

Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 573-581 ; 3 : 188, 189—" For God to take that as satisfaction which 
is not really such, is to say that there is no truth in anything. God may take a part 
for the whole, error for truth, wrong for right. The theory really denies the necessity 
for the work of Christ. If every created thing offered to God is worth just so much as 
God accepts it for, then the blood of bulls and goats might take away sins, and Christ 
is dead in vain." Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 570, 571 ( Syst. Doct., 4 : 38-40 ) —"Acceptilatio 
implies that nothing is good and right in itself. God is indifferent to good or evil. 
Man is bound by authority and force alone. There is no necessity of punishment or 
atonement. The doctrine of indulgences and of supererogation logically follows." 

(c) It ignores and virtually denies that immanent holiness of God of 
which the law with its threatened penalties, and the human conscience with 
its demand for punishment, are only finite reflections. There is something 
back of government; if the atonement satisfies government, it must be by 
satisfying that justice of God of which government is an expression. 

No deeply convicted sinner feels that his controversy is with government. Undone 
and polluted, he feels himself in antagonism to the purity of a personal God. Govern- 
ment is not greater than God, but less. What satisfies God must satisfy government. 
Hence the sinner prays : "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned " ( Ps. 51 : 4 ) ; " God be propitiated toward 
me the sinner " ( literal translation of Luke 18 : 13 ),— propitiated through God's own appointed 
sacrifice whose smoke is ascending in his behalf even while he prays. 

( d ) It makes that to be an exhibition of justice which is not an exercise 
of justice ; the atonement being, according to this theory, not an execution 
of law, but an exhibition of regard for law, which will make it safe to par- 
don the violators of law. Such a merely scenic representation can inspire 
respect for law, only so long as the essential unreality of it is unsuspected. 

To teach that sin will be punished, there must be punishment. Potwin: "How the 
exhibition of what sin deserves, but does not get, can satisfy justice, is hard to see." 
The Socinian view of Christ as an example of virtue is more intelligible than the 
Grotian view of Christ as an example of chastisement. 

(e) The intensity of Christ's sufferings in the garden and on the cross 
is inexplicable upon the theory that the atonement was a histrionic exhibi- 
tion of God's regard for his government, and can be explained only upon 
the view that Christ actually endured the wrath of God against human sin. 

Christ refused the "wine mingled with myrrh" (Mark 15 : 23), that he might to the last have 
full possession of his powers and speak no words but words of truth and soberness. 
His cry of agony: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Mat. 27 : 46), was not an ejacula- 
tion of thoughtless or delirious suffering. It expressed the deepest meaning of the 
crucifixion. The darkening of the heavens was only the outward symbol of the hiding 
of the countenance of God from him who was "made to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 5 : 21 ). In 
the case of Christ, above that of all others, finis coronat, and dying words are undying 
words. " The tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony ; When words 
are scarce they 're seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their words 
in pain." Versus Park, Discourses, 328-355. 

(/) The actual power of the atonement over the human conscience and 
heart is due, not to its exhibiting God's regard for law, but to its exhibiting 
an actual execution of law, and an actual satisfaction of violated holiness 
made by Christ in the sinner's stead. 



IRVINGIAN THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. 405 

Matthew Henry : " Nothing can satisfy an offended conscience but that which satisfied 
an offended God." C. J. Baldwin : " The lake spread out has no moving power ; it turns 
the mill-wheel only when contracted into the narrow stream and pouring over the falL 
So the wide love of God moves men, only when it is concentrated into the sacrifice of 
the cross." 

(g) The theory contradicts all those passages of Scripture which repre- 
sent the atonement as necessary ; as propitiating God himself ; as being a 
revelation of God's righteousness ; as being an execution of the penalty of 
the law ; as making salvation a matter of debt to the believer, on the ground 
of what Christ has done ; as actually purging our sins, instead of making 
that purging possible ; as not simply assuring the sinner that God may now 
pardon him on account of what Christ has done, but that Christ has actually 
wrought out a complete salvation, and will bestow it upon all who come to 
him. 

John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, chapter vi — " Upon that place stood a Cross, and a 
little below, in the bottom, a Sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian 
came up with the Cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his 
back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the Sep- 
ulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome, 
and said with a merry heart, He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death. 
Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder ; for it was very surprising to him that the 
sight of the Cross should thus ease him of his burden." 

John Bunyan 's story is truer to Christian experience than is the Governmental theory. 
The sinner finds peace, not by coming to God with a distant respect to Christ, but by 
coming directly to the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1 : 29). Christ's 
words to every such sinner are simply: "Come unto me" (Mat. 11 : 28). Upon the ground of 
what Christ has done, salvation is a matter of debt to the believer. 1 John 1 : 9 — " If we 
confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins " — faithful to his promise, and righteous 
to Christ. The Governmental theory, on the other hand, tends to discourage the sin- 
ner's direct access to Christ, and to render the way to conscious acceptance with God 
more circuitous and less certain. For criticism of the Grotian theory, see Shedd, Hist. 
Doctrine, 2:347-369; Crawford, Atonement, 367; Cunningham, Hist. Theol., 2:355; 
Princeton Essays, 1 : 259-292 ; Essay on Atonement, by Abp. Thomson, in Aids to Faith ; 
Mcnvaine, Wisdom of Holy Scripture, 194-196 ; S. H. Tyng, Christian Pastor. 

4th. The Irvingian Theory, or Theory of Gradually Extirpated De- 
pravity. 

This holds that, in his incarnation, Christ took human nature as it was in 
Adam, not before the fall but after the fall, — human nature, therefore, with 
its inborn corruption and predisposition to moral evil ; that, notwithstand- 
ing the possession of this tainted and depraved nature, Christ, through the 
power of the Holy Spirit, or of his divine nature, not only kept his human 
nature from manifesting itself in any actual or personal sin, but gradually 
purified it, through straggle and suffering, until in his death he completely 
extirpated its original depravity, and reunited it to God. This subjective 
purification of human nature in the person of Jesus Christ constitutes his 
atonement, and men are saved, not by any objective propitiation, but only by 
becoming through faith partakers of Christ's new humanity. This theory 
was elaborated by Edward Irving, of London (1792-1834), and it has been 
held, in substance, by Menken and Dippel in Germany. 

Irving was in this preceded by Felix of Urgella, in Spain ( + 818 ), whom Alcuin opposed. 
Felix said that the Logos united with human nature, without sanctifying it beforehand. 
Edward Irving, in his early life colleague of Dr. Chalmers, at Glasgow, was in his later 
years a preacher, in London, of the National Church of Scotland. For his own state- 
ment of his view of the Atonement, see his Collected Works, 5 : 9-398. See also Life of 
Irving, by Mrs. Oliphant ; Menken, Schrif ten, 3 : 279-404 ; 6 : 351 xq. ; Guericke, in Studien 



406 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

und Kritiken, 1843 : Heft 2 ; David Brown, in Expositor, Oct., 1887 : 264 sg., and letter of 
Irving to Marcus Dods, in British Weekly, Men. 25, 1887. For other references, see 
Hagenbach, Hist.Doet., 2 : 496-498. 

Irving's followers differ in their representation of his views. Says Miller, Hist, and 
Doct. of Irvingism, 1 : 85—" If indeed we made Christ a sinner, then indeed all creeds are 
at an end and we are worthy to die the death of blasphemers .... The miraculous con- 
ception depriveth him of human personality, and it also depriveth him of original sin 
and guilt needing to be atoned for by another, but it doth not deprive him of the sub- 
stance of sinful flesh and blood,— that is, flesh and blood the same with the flesh and 
blood of his brethren." 2 : 14— Freer says : " So that, despite it was fallen flesh he had 
assumed, he was, through the Eternal Spirit, born into the world ' the Holy Thing V 11-15, 
282-305— "TJnf alien humanity needed not redemption, therefore Jesus did not take it. 
He took fallen humanity, but purged it in the act of taking it. The nature of which he 
took part was sinful in the lump, but in his person most holy." 

So, says an Irvingian tract, " Being part of the very nature that had incurred the pen- 
alty of sin, though in his person never having committed or even thought it, part of 
the common humanity could suffer that penalty, and did so suffer, to make atonement 
for that nature, though he who took it knew no sin." Dr. Curry, quoted in McClintock 
and Strong, Encyclopaedia, 4:663, 664— "The Godhead came into vital union with 
humanity fallen and under the law. The last thought carried, to Irving's realistic 
mode of thinking, the notion of Christ's participation in the fallen character of human- 
ity, which he designated by terms that implied a real sinfulness in Christ. He attempted 
to get rid of the odiousness of that idea, by saying that this was overborne, and at length 
wholly expelled, by the indwelling Godhead." 

We must regard the later expounders of Irvingian doctrine as having softened down, 
if they have not wholly expunged, its most characteristic feature, as the following quo- 
tation from Irving's own words will show : Works, 5 : 115— "That Christ took our fallen 
nature, is most manifest, because there was no other in existence to take." 123 — " The 
human nature is thoroughly fallen ; the mere apprehension of it by the Son doth not 
make it holy." 128 — " His soul did mourn and grieve and pray to God continually, that 
it might be delivered from the mortality, corruption, and temptation which it felt in its 
fleshly tabernacle." 152— "These sufferings came not by imputation merely, but by 
actual participation of the sinful and cursed thing." Irving frequently quoted Heb. 2 : 10 
— "make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." 

Irving's followers deny Christ's sinfulness, only by assuming that inborn infirmity and 
congenital tendencies to evil are not sin,— in other words, that not native depravity, but 
only actual transgression, is to be denominated sin. Irving, in our judgment, was 
rightly charged with asserting the sinfulness of Christ's human nature, and it was upon 
this charge that he was deposed from the mi n istry by the Presbytery in Scotland. 

To this theory we offer the following objections : 

(a) "While it embraces an important element of truth, namely, the fact 
of a new humanity in Christ of which all believers become partakers, it is 
chargeable with serious error in denying the objective atonement which 
makes the subjective application possible. 

Bruce, in his Humiliation of Christ, calls this a theory of " redemption by sample." It 
is a purely subjective atonement which Irving has in mind. Deliverance from sin, in 
order to deliverance from penalty, is an exact reversal of the Scripture order. 

(b) It rests upon false fundamental principles, — as, that law is identical 
with the natural order of the universe, and as such, is an exhaustive expres- 
sion of the will and nature of God ; that sin is merely a power of moral evil 
within the soul, instead of also involving an objective guilt and desert of 
punishment; that penalty is the mere reaction of law against the trans- 
gressor, instead of being also the revelation of a personal wrath against 
sin ; that the evil taint of human nature can be extirpated by suffering its 
natural consequences, — penalty in this way reforming the transgressor. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:463 (Syst. Doct., 3:361, 362)— "On Irving's theory, evil 
inclinations are not sinful. Sinfulness belongs only to evil acts. The loose connection 
between the Logos and humanity savors of Nestorianism. It is the work of the person 



ANSELMIC THEORY OF THE ATO^EME^T. 407 

to rid itself of something- in the humanity which does not render it really sinful. If 
Jesus' sinfulness of nature did not render his person sinful, this must be true of us,— 
which is a Pelagian element, revealed also in the denial that for our redemption we need 
Christ as an atoning sacrifice. It is not necessary to a complete incarnation for Christ 
to take a sinful nature, unless sin is essential to human nature. In Irving's view, the 
death of Christ's body works the regeneration of his sinful nature. But this is to make 
sin a merely physical thing, and the body the only part of man needing redemption." 
Penalty would thus become a reformer, and death a Savior. 

( c ) It contradicts the express and implicit representations of Scripture, 
with regard to Christ's freedom from all taint of hereditary dej)ravity ; mis- 
represents his life as a growing consciousness of the underlying corruption 
of his human nature, which culminated at Gethsemane and Calvary; and 
denies the truth of his own statements, when it declares that he must have 
died on account of his own depravity, even though none were to be saved 
thereby. 

Nicoll, Life of Christ, 183— "All others, as they grow in holiness, grow in their sense of 
sin. But when Christ is forsaken of the Father, he asks ' Why ? ' well knowing that the 
reason is not in his sin. He never makes confession of sin. In his longest prayer, the 
preface is an assertion of righteousness : ' I glorified thee ' ( John 17 : 4 ). His last utterance 
from the cross is a quotation from Ps. 31 : 5 — 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit' (Luke 23 : 
46), but he does not add, as the Psalm does, 'thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth,' for he 
needed no redemption, being himself the Redeemer." 

( d ) It makes the active obedience of Christ, and the subjective purifica- 
tion of his human nature, to be the chief features of his work, while the 
Scriptures make his death and passive bearing of penalty the centre of all, 
and ever regard him as one who is personally pure and who vicariously 
bears the punishment of the guilty. 

In Irving's theory there is no imputation, or representation, or substitution. His only 
idea of sacrifice is that sin itself shall be sacrificed, or annihilated. The many subjective 
theories of the atonement show that the offence of the cross has not ceased ( Gal. 5 : 11 — 
"then hath the stumbling-block of the cross been done away" ). Christ crucified is still a stumbling- 
block to modern speculation. Yet it is, as of old, "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1 : 16; 
c/. 1 Cor. 1 : 23, 24 — " we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto Gentiles foolishness ; but 
unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God " ). 

(e) It necessitates the surrender of the doctrine of justification as a 
merely declaratory act of God ; and requires such a view of the divine holi- 
ness, expressed only through the order of nature, as can be maintained only 
upon principles of pantheism. 

Thomas Aquinas inquired whether Christ was slain by himself, or by another. The 
question suggests a larger one — whether God has constituted other forces than his own, 
personal and impersonal, in the universe, over against which he stands in his transcend- 
ence ; or whether all his activity is merged in, and identical with, the activity of the 
creature. The theory of a merely subjective atonement is more consistent with the 
latter view than with the former. For criticism of Irvingian doctrine, see Studien und 
Kritiken, 1845 : 319; 1877 : a54-374; Princeton Rev., April, 1863 : 207; Christian Rev., 28: 
234 sq. ; Ullmann, Sinlessness of Christ, 219-232. 

5th. The Anselmic, or Commercial Theory of the Atonement. 

This theory holds that sin is a violation of the divine honor or majesty, 
and, as committed against an infinite being, deserves an infinite punishment ; 
that the majesty of God requires him to execute punishment, while the love 
of God pleads for the sparing of the guilty ; that this conflict of divine 
attributes is eternally reconciled by the voluntary sacrifice of the God-man, 



408 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

who bears in virtue of the dignity of his person the intensively infinite 
punishment of sin, which must otherwise have been suffered extensively 
and eternally by sinners; that this suffering of the God-man presents to 
the divine majesty an exact equivalent for the deserved sufferings of the 
elect; and that, as the result of this satisfaction of the divine claims, the 
elect sinners are pardoned and regenerated. This view was first broached 
by Anselm of Canterbury ( 1033-1109 ) as a substitute for the earlier patris- 
tic view that Christ's death was a ransom paid to Satan, to deliver sinners 
from his power. It is held by many Scotch theologians, and, in this country, 
by the Princeton School. 

The old patristic theory, which the Anselmic view superseded, has been called the 
Military theory of the Atonement. Satan, as a captor in war, had a right to his captives, 
which could be bought off only by ransom. It was Justin Martyr who first propounded 
this view that Christ paid a ransom to Satan. Gregory of Nyssa added that Christ's 
humanity was the bait with which Satan was attracted to the hidden hook of Christ's 
deity, and so was caught by artifice. Peter Lombard, Sent., 3:19— "What did the 
Redeemer to our captor ? He held out to him his cross as a mouse-trap ; in it he set, as 
a bait, his blood." Even Luther compares Satan to the crocodile which swallows the 
ichneumon, only to find that the little animal eats its insides out. 

These metaphors show this, at least, that no age of the church has believed in a merely 
subjective atonement. Nor was this relation to Satan the only aspect in which the 
atonement was regarded even by the early church. So early as the fourth century, we 
find a great church Father maintaining that the death of Christ was required by the 
truth and goodness of God. See Crippen, History of Christian Doctrine, 129— "Atha- 
nasius (325-373) held that the death of Christ was the payment of a debt due to God. 
His argument is briefly this : God, having threatened death as the punishment of sin, 
would be untrue if he did not fulfill his threatening. But it would be equally unworthy 
of the divine goodness to permit rational beings, to whom he had imparted his own 
Spirit, to incur this death in consequence of an imposition practiced on them by the 
devil. Seeing then that no tiling but death could solve this dilemma, the Word, who 
could not die, assumed a mortal body, and, offering his human nature a sacrifice for all, 
fulfilled the law by his death." Gregory Nazianzen (390 ) "retained the figure of a ran- 
som, but, clearly perceiving that the analogy was incomplete, he explained the death 
of Christ as an expedient to reconcile the divine attributes." 

But, although many theologians had recognized a relation of atonement to God, none 
before Anselm had given any clear account of the nature of this relation. Anselm's 
acute, brief, and beautiful treatise entitled "Cur Deus Homo " constitutes the greatest 
single contribution to the discussion of this doctrine. He shows that "whatever man 

owes, he owes to God, not to the devil He who does not yield due honor to God, 

withholds from him what is his, and dishonors him ; and this is sin It is necessary 

that either the stolen honor be restored, or that punishment follow." Man, because of 
original sin, cannot make satisfaction for the dishonor done to God,—" a sinner cannot 
justify a sinner." Neither could an angel make this satisfaction. None can make it 
but God. "If then none can make it but God, and none owes it but man, it must needs 
be wrought out by God, made man." The God-man, to make satisfaction for the sins 
of all mankind, must " give to God, of his own, something that is more valuable than all 
that is under God." Such a gift of infinite value was his death. The reward of his 
sacrifice turns to the advantage of man, and thus the justice and love of God are 
reconciled. 

The foregoing synopsis is mainly taken from Crippen, Hist. Christ. Doct., 134, 135. 
The Cur Deus Homo of Anselm is translated in Bib. Sac, 11 : 729 ; 12 : 52. A synopsis of 
it is given in Lichtenberger's Encyclopedic des Sciences Religieuses, vol. 1, art. : Anselm. 
The treatises on the Atonement by Symington, Candlish, Martin, Smeaton, in Great 
Britain, advocate for substance the view of Anselm, as indeed it was held by Calvin 
before them. In America, the theory is represented by Nathanael Emmons, A. A. Alex- 
ander, and Charles Hodge ( Syst. Theol., 2 : 470-540 ). 

To this theory we make the following objections : 

O) While it contains a valuable element of truth, in its representation 



ETHICAL THEORY OF THE ATOHTEMENT. 409 

of the atonement as satisfying a principle of the divine nature, it conceives 
of this principle in too formal and external a manner, — making the idea of 
the divine honor or majesty more prominent than that of the divine holiness, 
in which the divine honor and majesty are grounded. 

The theory has been called the "Criminal theory" of the Atonement, as the old 
patristic theory of a ransom paid to Satan has been called the "Military theory." It 
had its origin in a time when exaggerated ideas prevailed respecting the authority of 
popes and emperors, and when dishonor done to their majesty ( crimen Ioesce majcstatis) 
was the highest offence known to law. See article by Cramer, in Studien und Elritiken, 
1880 : 7, on Wurzeln des Anselm'schen Satisfactionsbegriffes. 

( b ) In its eagerness to maintain the atoning efficacy of Christ's passive 
obedience, the active obedience, quite as clearly expressed in Scripture, is 
well-nigh lost sight of. 

Neither Christ's active obedience alone, nor Christ's obedient passion alone, can save 
us. As we shall see in our examination of the doctrine of Justification ( pages 474-476 ), 
the latter was needed as the ground upon which our penalty could be remitted ; the 
former as the ground upon which we might be admitted to the divine favor. 

(c) It allows disproportionate weight to those passages of Scripture 
which represent the atonement under commercial analogies, as the pay- 
ment of a debt or ransom, to the exclusion of those which describe it 
as an ethical fact, whose value is to be estimated not quantitatively, but 
qualitatively. 

Milton, Paradise Lost, 3 : 209-212—" Die he, or justice must, Unless for him some other, 
able and as willing, Pay the rigid satisfaction, death for death." The main text relied 
upon by the advocates of the Commercial theory is Mat. 20 : 28 — "give his life a ransom for many." 

(d ) It represents the atonement as having reference only to the elect, 
and ignores the Scripture declarations that Christ died for all 

Ansel m, like Augustine, limited the atonement to the elect. Yet Leo the Great, in 
4*31, had affirmed that "so precious is the shedding of Christ's blood for the unjust, that 
if the whole universe of captives would believe in the Redeemer, no chain of the devil 
could hold them " ( Crippen, 132). 

( e ) It is defective in holding to a merely external transfer of the merit 
of Christ's work, while it does not clearly state the internal ground of that 
transfer, in the union of the believer with Christ. 

This needed supplement, namely, the doctrine of the Union of the Believer with 
Christ, was furnished by Thomas Aquinas, Summa, pars 3, quaes. 8. The Anselmic 
theory is Romanist in its tendency, as the theory next to be mentioned is Protestant in 
its tendency. For criticisms on Anselm's view, see Thomasius, Christi Person und 
Werk, m, 2 : 230-241 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, iv, 2 : 70 tq. ; Baur, Dogmengeschichte, 
2 : 416, sq. ; Shedd, Hist. Doct,, 2 : 273-286; Dale, Atonement, 279-292 ; Mcllvaine, Wisdom 
of Holy Scripture, 196-199 ; Kreibig, Versohnungslehre, 176-178. 

6th. The Ethical Theory of the Atonement. 

In propounding what we conceive to be the true theory of the atone- 
ment, it seems desirable to divide our treatment into two parts. Xo theory 
can be satisfactory which does not furnish a solution of two problems : 
1. What did the atonement accomplish? or, in other words, what was the 
object of Christ's death ? The answer to this question must be a descrip- 
tion of the atonement in its relation to holiness in God. 2. What were the 
means used? or, in other words, how could Christ justly die ? The answer 



410 SOTERIOLOGY. OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

to this question must be a description of the atonement as arising from 
Christ's relation to humanity. We take up these two parts of the subject 
in order. 

Edwards, Works, 1 : 609, says that two things make Christ's sufferings a satisfaction 
for human guilt : ( 1 ) their equality or equivalence to the punishment that the sinner 
deserves ; ( 2 ) the union between him and them, or the propriety of his being accepted, 
in suffering, as the representative of the sinner. Christ bore God's wrath: (1) by the 
sight of sin and punishment; (2) by enduring the effects of wrath ordered by God. 
See also Edwards, Sermon on the Satisfaction of Christ. These statements of Edwards 
suggest the two points of view from which we regard the atonement ; but they come 
short of the Scriptural declarations, in that they do not distinctly assert Christ's endur- 
ance of penalty itself. Thus they leave the way open for the New School theories of 
the atonement, propounded by the successors of Edwards. 

First, — the Atonement as related to Holiness in God. 

The Ethical theory holds that the necessity of the atonement is grounded 
in the holiness of God, of which conscience in man is a finite reflection. 
There is an ethical principle in the divine nature, which demands that sin 
shall be punished. Aside from its results, sin is essentially ill-deserving. 
As we who are made in God's image mark our growth in purity by the 
increasing quickness with which we detect impurity, and by the increasing 
hatred which we feel toward it, so infinite purity is a consuming fire to all 
iniquity. As there is an ethical demand in our natures that not only others' 
wickedness, but our own wickedness, be visited with punishment, and a keen 
conscience cannot rest till it has made satisfaction to justice for its mis- 
deeds, so there is an ethical demand of God's nature that penalty follow sin. 

Punishment is the constitutional reaction of God's being against moral 
evil — the self-assertion of infinite holiness against its antagonist and would- 
be destroyer. In God this demand is devoid of all passion, and is con- 
sistent with infinite benevolence. It is a demand that cannot be evaded, 
since the holiness from which it springs is unchanging. The atonement is 
therefore a satisfaction of the ethical demand of the divine nature, by the 
substitution of Christ's penal sufferings for the punishment of the guilty. 

This substitution is unknown to mere law, and above and beyond the 
powers of law. It is an operation of grace. Grace, however, does not 
violate or suspend law, but takes it up into itself and fulfills it. The right- 
eousness of law is maintained, in that the source of all law, the judge and 
punisher, himself voluntarily submits to bear the penalty, and bears it in 
the human nature that has sinned. 

Thus the atonement answers the ethical demand of the divine nature that 
sin be punished if the offender is to go free. The interests of the divine 
government are secured as a first subordinate result of this satisfaction to 
God himself, of whose nature the government is an expression ; while, as a 
second subordinate result, provision is made for the needs of human nature, 
— on the one hand the need of an objective satisfaction to its ethical 
demand of punishment for sin, and on the other the need of a manifes- 
tation of divine love and mercy that will affect the heart and move it to 
repentance. 

The great classical passage with reference to the atonement is Rom. 3 : 25, 26 ( Rev. Vers. ) 

— " whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by his blood, to shew his righteousness, because of the pass- 
ing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God ; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present 



ETHICAL THEORY OF THE ATOKEMEKT. 411 

season : that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." Or, somewhat more 
freely translated, the passage would read : — " whom God hath set forth in his blood as a propitiatory 
sacrifice, through faith, to show forth his righteousness on account of the pretermission of past offences in the forbearance 
of God ; to declare his righteousness in the time now present, so that he may be just and yet may justify him who 
believeth in Jesus." 

Exposition or Rom. 3 : 25, 36.— These verses are an expanded statement of the subject 
of the epistle — the revelation of the "righteousness of God" ( = the righteousness which God 
provides and which God accepts ) — which had been mentioned in 1 : 17, but which now 
has new light thrown upon it by the demonstration, in 1 : 18 — 3 : 20, that both Gentiles 
and Jews are under condemnation, and are alike shut up for salvation to some other 
method than that of works. We subjoin the substance of Meyer's comments upon this 



" Verse 25. ' God has set forth Christ as an effectual propitiatory offering, through faith, by means of his blood,' i. e., 
in that he caused him to shed his blood, ev t<3 avrov alp-an. belongs to irpoe&ero, not to 
TTt'cTTecos. The purpose of this setting forth in his blood is eis evSeigtv 1% Sucaioo-vvris avrov, 
' for the display of his [ judicial and punitive ] righteousness,' which received its satisfaction in the 
death of Christ as a propitiatory offering, and was thereby practically demonstrated and 
exhibited. ' On account of the passing-by of sins that had previously taken place,' i. e., because he had 
allowed the pre-Christian sins to go without punishment, whereby his righteousness 
had been lost sight of and obscured, and had come to need an ev<$ei£is, or exhibition to 
men. Omittance is not acquittance. ndpeo-Ls, passing-by, is intermediate between par- 
don and punishment. ' In virtue of the forbearance of God ' expresses the motive of the -rrapeo-is. 

" Verse 26. ei? to elvai is not epexegetical of e£? evSei^iv, but presents the teleology of the 
iAao-T/jpioz/, the final aim of the whole affirmation from bv npoe&ero to Kaipw — namely, 
first, God's being just, and secondly, his appearing just in consequence of this. Justus 
et justificans, instead of Justus et condemnans, this is the summum paradoxon evangeli- 
cum. Of this revelation of righteousness, not through condemnation, but through 
atonement, grace is the determining ground." 

We repeat what was said on pages 392, 393, with regard to the teaching of the passage, 
namely, that it shows : ( 1 ) that Christ's death is a propitiatory sacrifice ; ( 2 ) that its 
first and main effect is upon God; (3) that the particular attribute in God which 
demands the atonement is his justice, or holiness; (4) that the satisfaction of this 
holiness is the necessary condition of God's justifying the believer. It is only incident- 
ally and subordinately that the atonement is a necessity to man ; Paul speaks of it here 
mainly as a necessity to God. Christ suffers, indeed, that God may appear righteous ; 
but behind the appearance lies the reality ; the main object of Christ's suffering is that 
God may be righteous, while he pardons the believing sinner ; in other words, the ground 
of the atonement is something internal to God himself. See leb. 2 : 10 — it " became ' ' God to 
make Christ suffer; cf. Zech. 6 : 8 — "they that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the 
north country "= the judgments inflicted on Babylon have satisfied my justice. 

Charnock : " He who once ' quenched the violence of fire ' for those Hebrew children, has also 
quenched the fires of God's anger against the sinner, hotter than furnace heated seven 
times." The same God who is a God of holiness, and who in virtue of his holiness must 
punish human sin, is also a God of mercy, and in virtue of his mercy himself bears the 
punishment of human sin. Dorner, Gesch. Prot. Theologie, 93 — "Christ is not only 
mediator between God and man, but between the just God and the merciful God "— cf. 
Ps. 85 : 10 — " Mercy and truth are met together ; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other." " Conscience 
demands vicariousness, for conscience declares that a gratuitous pardon would not be 
just" ; see Knight, Colloquia Peripatetica, 88. 

Simon, in Expositor, 6 : 321-334 ( for substance) — " As in prayer we ask God to energize 
us and enable us to obey his law, and he answers by entering our hearts and obeying 
in us and for us ; as we pray for strength in affliction, and find him helping us by putting 
his Spirit into us, and suffering in us and for us ; so in atonement, Christ, the manifested 
God, obeys and suffers in our stead. Even the moral theory implies substitution also. 
God in us obeys his own law and bears the sorrows that sin has caused. Why can he not, 
in human nature, also endure the penalty of sin ? The possibility of this cannot be con- 
sistently denied by any who believe in divine help granted in answer to prayer. The 
doctrine of the atonement and the doctrine of prayer stand or fall together." 

See, on the whole subject, Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 272-324, Philosophy of History, 
65-69, and Dogmatic Theology, 2 : 401-463 ; Magee, Atonement and Sacrifice, 27, 53, 
253 ; Edwards's Works, 4 : 140 sq. ; Weber, Vom Zorne Gottes, 214-334 ; Owen, on Divine 
Justice, in Works, 10 : 500-512 ; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, rv, 2 : 27-114 ; Hopkins, Works, 1 : 
319-563 ; Schoberlein, in Studien und Kritiken, 1845 : 267-318, and 1847 : 7-70, also in Herzog, 
Encyclopiidie, art. : Versohnung ; Jahrbuch f . d. Theol., 3 : 713, and 8 : 213 ; MacdonneR, 



412 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

Atonement, 115-214; Luthardt, Saving Truths, 114-138; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 605-637; 
Lawrence, in Bib. Sac, 20 : 332-339 ; Kreibig, Versohnungslehre ; Waffle, in Bap. Rev.* 
1882 : 263-286 ; Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 641-662 (Syst. Doct., 4 : 107-124). 

Secondly, — the Atonement as related to Humanity in Christ. 

The Ethical theory of the atonement holds that Christ stands in such 
relation to humanity, that what God's holiness demands Christ is under 
obligation to pay, longs to pay, inevitably does pay, and pays so fully, in 
virtue of his twofold nature, that every claim of justice is satisfied, and the 
sinner who accepts what Christ has done in his behalf is saved. 

We have seen how God can justly demand satisfaction ; we now show 
how Christ can justly make it ; or, in other words, how the innocent can 
justly suffer for the guilty. The solution of the problem lies in Christ's 
union with humanity. The first result of that union is obligation to suffer 
for men ; since, being one with the race, Christ had a share in the responsi- 
bility of the race to the law and the justice of God — a responsibility not 
destroyed by his purification in the womb of the Virgin. In virtue of the 
organic unity of the race, each member of the race since Adam has been 
born into the same state into which Adam fell. The consequences of 
Adam's sin, both to himself and to his posterity, are : ( 1 ) depravity, or the 
corruption of human nature ; ( 2 ) guilt, or obligation to make satisfaction 
for sin to the divine holiness ; ( 3 ) penalty, or actual endurance of loss or 
suffering visited by that holiness upon the guilty. 

If Christ had been born into the world by ordinary generation, he too 
would have had depravity, guilt, penalty. But he was not so born. In the 
womb of the Virgin, the human nature which he took was purged from its 
depravity. But this purging away of depravity did not take away guilt, or 
penalty. There was still left the just exposure to the penalty of violated law. 
Although Christ's nature was purified, his obligation to suffer yet remained. 
He might have declined to join himself to humanity, and then he need not 
have suffered. He might have sundered his connection with the race, and 
then he need not have suffered. But once born of the Virgin, once possessed 
of the human nature that was under the curse, he was bound to suffer. The 
whole mass and weight of God's displeasure against the race fell on him,, 
when once he became a member of the race. 

Notice, however, that this guilt which Christ took upon himself by his 
union with humanity was : (1) not the guilt of personal sin — such guilt 
as belongs to every adult member of the race ; ( 2 ) not even the guilt of 
inherited depravity — such guilt as belongs to infants, and to those who have 
not come to moral consciousness ; but (3) solely the guilt of Adam's sin, 
which belongs, prior to personal transgression, and apart from inherited 
depravity, to every member of the race who has derived his life from Adam. 
This original sin and inherited guilt, but without the depravity that ordina- 
rily accompanies them, Christ takes, and so takes away. He can justly bear 
penalty, because he inherits guilt. And since this guilt is not his personal 
guilt, but the guilt of that one sin in which "all sinned" — the guilt of the 
common transgression of the race in Adam, the guilt of the root-sin from 
which all other sins have sprung — he who is personally pure can vicariously 
bear the penalty due to the sin of all. 



ETHICAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. 413 

If it be asked whether this is not simply a suffering for his own sin, or 
rather for his own share of the sin of the race, we reply that his own share 
in the sin of the race is not the sole reason why he suffers ; it furnishes 
only the subjective reason and ground for the proper laying upon him of 
the sin of all. His participation in the guilt of the race is the link of con- 
nection between his personal innocence and the bearing of the sins of the 
world. As in the imputation of Adam's sin to us there is a real union 
between us and Adam, and as in the imputation of Christ's righteousness 
to us there is a real union between us and Christ, so in the imputation of 
our sins to Christ there is a real union between Christ and humanity, which 
delivers that imputation from the charge of being a merely arbitrary and 
formal one, and explains both Christ's longing to suffer and the actual suf- 
fering which he endured. 

Our treatment is intended to meet the chief modern objection to the atonement. 
Greg, Creed of Christendom, 243, speaks of "the strangely inconsistent doctrine that God 
is so just that he could not let sin go unpunished, yet so unjust that he could punish it 
in the person of the innocent .... It is for orthodox dialectics to explain how the divine 
justice can be impugned by pardoning the guilty, and yet vindicated by punishing the 
innocent " ( quoted in Lias, Atonement, 16 ). In order to meet this difficulty, the follow- 
ing accounts of Christ's identification with humanity have been given : 

1. That of Isaac Watts (see Bib. Sac, 1875 : 421 ). This holds that the humanity of 
Christ, both in body and soul, preexisted before the incarnation, and was manifested to 
the patriarchs. We reply that Christ's human nature is declared to be derived from the 
Virgin. 

2. That of R. W. Dale ( Atonement, 265-440 ). This holds that Christ is responsible for 
human sin because, as the Upholder and Life of all, he is naturally one with all men, and 
is spiritually one with all believers ( Acts 17 : 28 — "in him we live, and move, and have our being" ; Col. 
1 : 17 — " in Mm all things consist " ; John 14 : 20 — " I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you " ). We reply 
that this upholding can make Christ responsible for sin only upon the pantheistic 
assumption that it involves his cooperation with sin. If Christ's bearing our sins, 
moreover, is to be explained by the union of the believer with Christ, the effect is made 
to explain the cause, and Christ could have died only for the elect (see a review of Dale, 
in Brit. Quar. Rev., Apr., 1876 : 221-225). 

3. That of Edward Irving. Christ has a corrupted nature, an inborn infirmity and 
depravity, which he gradually overcomes. But the Scriptures, on the contrary, assert 
his holiness and separateness from sinners. ( See references, on pages 405-407.) 

4. That of John Miller ( Was Christ in Adam? in Questions Awakened by the Bible). 
Christ, as to his human nature, although created pure, was yet, as one of Adam's pos- 
terity, conceived of as a sinner in Adam. To him attached " the guilt of the act in which 
all men stood together in a federal relation .... He was decreed to be guilty for the 
sins of all mankind." Although there is a truth contained in this statement, it is 
vitiated by Miller's federalism and creatianism. Arbitrary imputation and legal fiction 
do not help us here. We need such an actual union of Christ with humanity, and such a 
derivation of the substance of his being, by natural generation from Adam, as will make 
him not simply the constructive heir, but the natural heir, of the guilt of the race. We 
come, therefore, to what we regard as the true view, namely : 

5. That the humanity of Christ was not a new creation, but was derived from Adam, 
through Mary his mother ; so that Christ, so far as his humanity was concerned, was in 
Adam just as we were, and had the same race-responsibility with ourselves. As Adam's 
descendant, he was responsible for Adam's sin, like every other member of the race ; 
the chief difference being, that while we inherit from Adam both guilt and depravity, 
he whom the Holy Spirit purified, inherited not the depravity, but only the guilt. Christ 
took to himself, not sin (depravity), but the consequences of sin. In him there was 
abolition of sin, without abolition of obligation to suffer for sin ; while in the believer, 
there is abolition of obligation to suffer, without abolition of sin itself. 

The justice of Christ's sufferings has been imperfectly illustrated by the obligation of 
the silent partner of a business firm to pay debts of the firm which he did not personally 
contract ; or by the obligation of the husband to pay the debts of his wife ; or by the 
obligation of a purchasing country to assume the debts of the province which it pur- 



414 SOTERIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

chases ( Wm. Ashmore ). There have been men who have spent the strength of a life- 
time in clearing off the indebtedness of an insolvent father, long since deceased. They 
recognized an organic unity of the family, which morally, if not legally, made their 
father's liabilities their own. So, it is said, Christ recognized the organic unity of the 
race, and saw that, having become one of that sinning race, he had involved himself in 
all its liabilities, even to the suffering of death, the great penalty of sin. 

The fault of all the analogies just mentioned is that they are purely commercial. A 
transference of pecuniary obligation is easier to understand than a transference of 
criminal liability. I cannot justly bear another's penalty, unless I can in some way 
share his guilt. The theory we advocate shows how such a sharing of our guilt on the 
part of Christ was possible. All believers in substitution hold that Christ bore our guilt : 
" My soul looks back to see The burdens thou didst bear When hanging on the accursed 
tree, And hopes her guilt was there." But we claim that, by virtue of Christ's union 
with humanity, that guilt was not only an imputed, but also an imparted, guilt. 

With Christ's obligation to suffer, there were connected two other, though minor, 
results of his assumption of humanity: first, the longing to suffer; and secondly, the 
inevitableness of his suffering. He felt the longing to suffer which perfect love to God 
must feel, in view of the demands upon the race, of that holiness of God which he loved 
more than he loved the race itself ; which perfect love to man must feel, in view of the 
fact that bearing the penalty of man's sin was the only way to save him. Hence we see 
Christ pressing forward to the cross with such majestic determination that the disciples 
were amazed and afraid (Mark 10 : 32). Hence we hear him saying : " With desire have I desired 
to eat this passover" (Luke 22 : 15) ; "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be 
accomplished ! " ( Luke 12 : 50 ). 

Here is the truth in Campbell's theory of the atonement. Christ is the great Penitent 
before God, making confession of the sin of the race, which others of that race could 
neither see nor feel. But the view we present is a larger and completer one than that 
of Campbell, in that it makes this confession and reparation obligatory upon Christ, as 
Campbell's view does not, and recognizes the penal nature of Christ's sufferings, which 
Campbell's view denies. Lias, Atonement, 79— "The head of a clan, himself intensely 
loyal to his king, finds that his clan have been involved in rebellion. The more intense 
and perfect his loyalty, the more thorough his nobleness of heart and affection for his 
people, the more inexcusable and flagrant the rebellion of those for whom he pleads,— 
the more acute would be his agony, as their representative and head. Nothing would 
be more true to human nature, in the best sense of those words, than that the conflict 
between loyalty to his king and affection for his vassals should induce him to offer his 
life for theirs, to ask that the punishment they deserved should be inflicted on him." 

The second minor consequence of Christ's assumption of humanity was, that, being 
such as he was, he could not help suffering ; in other words, the obligatory and the 
desired were also the inevitable. Since he was a being of perfect purity, contact with the 
sin of the race, of which he was a member, necessarily involved an actual suffering, of 
an intenser kind than we can conceive. Sin is self -isolating, but love and righteousness 
have in them the instinct of human unity. In Christ all the nerves and sensibilities of 
humanity met. He was the only healthy member of the race. When life returns to a 
frozen limb, there is pain. So Christ, as the only sensitive member of a benumbed and 
stupefied humanity, felt all the pangs of shame and suffering which rightfully belonged 
to sinners ; but which they could not feel, simply because of the depth of their depravity. 
Because Christ was pure, yet had united himself to a sinful and guilty race, therefore 
" it must needs be that Christ should suffer " (A. V. ), or, "it behoved the Christ to suffer " (Rev. Vers., Acts 
17:3); see also John 3 : 14 — "so must the Son of man be lifted up"="The Incarnation, under the 
actual circumstances of humanity, carried with it the necessity of the passion " ( West- 
cott, in Bib. Com., in loco). 

Compare John Woolman's Journal, 4, 5— " O Lord, my God, the amazing horrors of 
darkness were gathered about me, and covered me all over, and I saw no way to go 
forth ; I felt the depth and extent of the misery of my fellow creatures, separated from 
the divine harmony, and it was greater than I could bear, and I was crushed down under 
it ; I lifted up my head, I stretched out my arm, but there was none to help me ; I looked 
round about, and was amazed. In the depths of misery, I remembered that thou art 
omnipotent and that I had called thee Father." He had vision of a "dull, gloomy 
mass," darkening half the heavens, and he was told that it was " human beings, in as 
great misery as they could be and live ; and he was mixed with them, and henceforth he 
might not consider himself a distinct and separate being." 

This suffering in and with the sins of men, which Dr. Bushnell emphasized so strongly, 



ETHICAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. 415 

though it is not, as he thought, the principal element, is notwithstanding an indispensa- 
ble element in the atonement of Christ. Suffering in and with the sinner is one way, 
though not the only way, in which Christ is enabled to bear the wrath of God which 
constitutes the real penalty of sin. 

Exposition of 2 Cor. 5 : 21.— It remains for us to adduce the Scriptural proof of this 
natural assumption of human guilt by Christ. We find it in 2 Cor. 5 : 21 — "Him who knew no 
sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him." "Righteousness" here 
cannot mean subjective purity, for then "made to be sin" would mean that God made 
Christ to be subjectively depraved. As Christ was not made unholy, the meaning 
cannot be that we are made holy persons in him. Meyer calls attention to this parallel 
between " righteousness " and " sin " : — " That we might become the righteousness of God in him " = that we 
might become justified persons. Correspondingly, "made to be sin on our behalf" must = made 
to be a condemned person. So, in Gal. 3 : 13, "haTing become a curse for us "= having become a 
cursed person. "lim who knew no sin' ' = Christ had no experience of sin — this was the 
necessary postulate of his work of atonement. "Made sin for us," therefore, is the abstract 
for the concrete, and = made a sinner, in the sense that the penalty of sin fell upon him. 
So Meyer, for substance. 

We must, however, regard this interpretation of Meyer's as coming short of the full 
meaning of the apostle. As justification is not simply remission of actual punishment, 
but is also deliverance from the obligation to suffer punishment,— in other words, as 
"righteousness" in the text = persons delivered from the guilt as well as from the penalty 
of sin,— so the contrasted term "sin," in the text, = a person not only actually punished, 
but also under obligation to suffer punishment;— in other words, Christ is "made sin," not 
only in the sense of being put under penalty, but also in the sense of being put under 
guilt. ( Cf. Symington, Atonement, 17.) 

In a note to the last edition of Meyer, this is substantially granted. "It is to be 
noted," he says, "that ap-apriav, like /cardpa in Gal. 3 : 13. necessarily includes in itself the 
notion of guilt." Meyer adds, however: "The guilt of which Christ appears as bearer 
was not his own ( m'? yvovra. afxapriav ) ; hence the guilt of men was transferred to him ; 
consequently the justification of men is imputative." Here the implication that the 
guilt which Christ bears is his simply by imputation seems to us contrary to the analogy 
of faith. As Adam's sin is ours only because we are actually one with Adam, and as 
Christ's righteousness is imputed to us only as we are actually united to Christ, so our 
sins are imputed to Christ only as Christ is actually one with the race. He was " made sin " 
by being made one with the sinners ; he took our guilt by taking our nature. He who 
"knew no sin" came to be "sin for us" by being born of a sinful stock; by inheritance the 
common guilt of the race became his. Guilt was not simply imputed to Christ it was 
imparted also. 

Melancthon : " Christ was made sin for us, not only in respect to punishment, but 
primarily by being chargeable with guilt also (culpce et reat us) " — quoted by Thoma- 
sius, Christi Person und Werk, 3 : 95, 102, 103, 107 ; also 1 : 3C7, 314 sq. Thomasius says that 
"'Christ bore the guilt of the race by imputation ; but as in the case of the imputation 
of Adam's sin to us, imputation of our sins to Christ presupposes a real relationship. 
Christ appropriated our sin. He sank himself into our guilt." Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 
2 : 442 (Syst. Doct., 3 : 350, 351), agrees with Thomasius, that "Christ entered into Our 
natural mortality, which for us is a penal condition, and into the state of collective 
guilt, so far as it is an evil, a burden to be borne ; not that he had personal guilt, but 
rather that he entered into our guilt-laden common life, not as a stranger, but as one 
actually belonging to it — put under its law, according to the will of the Father and of 
his own love." 

When, and how, did Christ take this guilt and this penalty upon him ? With regard to 
penalty, we have no difficulty in answering that, as his whole life of suffering was pro- 
pitiatory, so penalty rested upon him from the very beginning of his life. This penalty 
was inherited, and was the consequence of Christ's taking human nature ( Gal. 4:4, 5 
—"born of a woman, born under the law"). But penalty and guilt are correlates; if Christ 
inherited penalty, it must have been because he inherited guilt. This subjection to the 
common guilt of the race was intimated in Jesus' circumcision ( Luke 2 : 21 ) ; in his ritual 
purification (Luke 2 : 22— "their purification " — i. e. the purification of Mary and the babe ; see 
Lange, Life of Christ ; Commentaries of Alford, Webster, and Wilkinson ; and An. Pat 
Bible ) ; in his legal redemption ( Luke 2 : 23, 24 ; cf. Ex. 13 : 2, 13 ) ; and in his baptism ( Mat. 3 : 15 
— " thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness " ). The baptized person went down into the water, 
as one laden with sin and guilt, in order that this sin and guilt might be buried forever, 
and that he might rise from the typical grave to a new and holy fife. (Ebrard: 
" Baptism = death." ) So Christ's submission to John's baptism of repentance was not 



416 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

only a consecration to death, but also a recognition and confession of his implication in 
that guilt of the race for which death was the appointed and inevitable penalty ( cf. Mat 
10 : 38; Luke 12 : 50 ; Mat. 26 : 39) ; and, as his baptism was a prefiguration of his death, we 
may learn from his baptism something with regard to the meaning of his death. 

As one who had had guilt, Christ was "justified in the spirit " (1 Tim. 3 : 16 ) ; and this justifica- 
tion appears to have taken place after he " was manifested in the flesh " ( 1 Tim. 3 : 16), and when 
"he was raised for our justification" (Rom. 4 : 25). Compare Rom. 1 : 4— "declared to be the Son of God with 
power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead" ; 6 : 7-10 — "he that hath died is justified 
from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him ; knowing that Christ being raised 
from the dead dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once : 
but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God " —here all Christians are conceived of as ideally justi- 
fied in the justification of Christ, when Christ died for our sins and rose again. 8:3 — 
"God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh " — here Meyer 
says: "The sending does not precede the condemnation; but the condemnation is 
effected in and with the sending." John 16 : 10 — " of righteousness, because I go to the Father " 19 : 30 
—"It is finished." On 1 Tim. 3 : 16, see the Commentary of Bengel. 

If it be asked whether Jesus, then, before his death, was an unjustified person, we 
answer that, while personally pure and well-pleasing to God ( Mat. 3 : 17), he himself was 
conscious of a race-responsibility and a race-guilt which must be atoned for ( John 12 : 27 
— "Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto 
this hour " ) ; and that guilty human nature in him endured at the last the separation from 
God which constitutes the essence of death, sin's penalty (Mat. 27 : 46— "My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me " ). We must remember that, as even the believer must " be judged according 
to men in the flesh" 1 Pet. 4:6), that is, must suffer the death which to unbelievers is the 
penalty of sin, although he "live according to God in the Spirit," so Christ, in order that we might 
be delivered from both guilt and penalty, was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit" 
(3 : 18) ; — in other words, as Christ was man, the penalty due to human guilt belonged to 
him to bear ; but, as he was God, he could exhaust that penalty, and could be a proper 
substitute for others. 

If it be asked whether he, who from the moment of the conception "sanctified himself" 
(John 17 : 19), did not from that moment also justify himself, we reply that although, 
through the retroactive efficacy of his atonement and upon the ground of it, human 
nature in him was purged of its depravity from the moment that he took that nature ; 
and although, upon the ground of that atonement, believers before his advent were 
both sanctified and justified ; yet his own justification could not have proceeded upon 
the ground of his atonement, and also his atonement have proceeded upon the ground 
of his justification. This would be a vicious circle ; somewhere we must have a begin- 
ning. That beginning was in the cross, where guilt was first purged (Heb. 1 : 3 — "when he 
had made purification of sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high " ; Mat. 27 : 42 — "He saved others ; 
himself he cannot save " cf. Rev. 13 : 8 — " the Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world ' ' ). 

If it be said that guilt and depravity are practically inseparable, and that, if Christ 
had guilt, he must have had depravity also, we reply that in civil law we distinguish 
between them,— the conversion of a murderer would not remove his obligation to suffer 
upon the gallows ; and we reply further, that in justification we distinguish between 
them,— depravity still remaining, though guilt is removed. So we may say that Christ 
takes guilt without depravity, in order that we may have depravity without guilt. See 
page 346 ; also Bohl, Incarnation des gottlichen Wortes ; Pope, Higher Catechism, 118 ; 
A. H. Strong, on the Necessity of the Atonement, in Philosophy and Religion, 213-219. 
Per contra, see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 59 note, 82. 

In favor of the Substitutionary or Ethical view of the atonement we may 
urge the following considerations : 

(a) It rests upon correct philosophical principles with regard to the 
nature of will, law, sin, penalty, righteousness. 

This theory holds that there are permanent states, as well as transient acts, of the 
will ; and that the will is not simply the faculty of volitions, but also the fundamental 
determination of the being to an ultimate end. It regards law as having its basis, not in 
arbitrary will or in governmental expediency, but rather in the nature of God, and as 
being a necessary transcript of God's holiness. It considers sin to consist not simply in 
acts, but in permanent evil states of the affections and will. It makes the object of 
penalty to be, not the reformation of the offender, or the prevention of evil doing, but 
the vindication of justice, outraged by violation of law. It teaches that righteousness 



ETHICAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. 417 

Is not benevolence or a form of benevolence, but a distinct and separate attribute of 
the divine nature which demands that sin should be visited with punishment, apart from 
any consideration of the useful results that will flow therefrom. 

( b ) It combines in itself all the valuable elements in the theories before 
mentioned, while it avoids their inconsistencies, by showing the deeper 
principle upon which each of these elements is based. 

The Ethical theory admits the indispensableness of Christ's example, advocated by the 
Socinian theory ; the moral influence of his suffering-, urged by the Bushnellian theory; 
the securing of the safety of government, insisted on by the Grotian theory ; the par- 
ticipation of the believer in Christ's new humanity, taught by the Irvingian theory; 
the satisfaction to God's majesty for the elect, made so much of by the Anselmic theory. 
But the Ethical theory claims that all these other theories require, as a presupposition 
for their effective working, that ethical satisfaction to the holiness of God which is 
rendered in guilty human nature by the Son of God who took that nature to redeem it. 

(c) It most fully meets the requirements of Scripture, by holding that 
the necessity of the atonement is absolute, since it rests upon the demands 
of immanent holiness, the fundamental attribute of God. 

lets 17 : 3 — "it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead" — lit. : "it was necessary for the 
Christ to suffer " ; Luke 24 : 26 — " Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory ? "— lit. : 
" Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things." It is not enough to say that Christ 
must suffer in order that the prophecies might be fulfilled. Why was it prophesied that 
he should suffer ? Why did God purpose that he should suffer ? The ultimate necessity 
is a necessity in the nature of God. 

(d) It shows most satisfactorily how the demands of holiness are met; 
namely, by the propitiatory offering of one who is personally pure, but who 
by union with the human race has inherited its guilt and penalty. 

" Quo non ascendamV— whither shall I not rise? exclaimed the greatest minister of 
modern kings, in a moment of intoxication. "Whither shall I not stoop?" says the 
Lord Jesus. King Humbert, during the scourge of cholera in Italy: "In Castelmare 
they make merry ; in Naples they die : I go to Naples." 

(e) It furnishes the only proper explanation of the sacrificial language 
of the New Testament, and of the sacrificial rites of the Old, considered as 
jjrophetic of Christ's atoning work. 

(/) It alone gives proper place to the death of Christ as the central 
feature of his work, — set forth in the ordinances, and of chief power in 
Christian experience. 

(g) It gives us the only means of understanding the sufferings of Christ in 
the garden and on the cross, or of reconciling them with the divine justice. 

Kreibig, Versohnungslehre : " Man has a guilt that demands the punitive sufferings 
of a mediator. Christ shows a suffering that cannot be justified except by reference to 
some other guilt than his own. Combine these two facts, and you have the problem of 
the atonement solved." 

(h) As no other theory does, this view satisfies the ethical demand of 
human nature ; pacifies the convicted conscience ; assures the sinner that 
he may find instant salvation in Christ ; and so makes possible a new life of 
holiness, while at the same time it furnishes the highest incentives to such 
a life. 

Shedd: "The offended party (1) permits a substitution; (2) provides a substitute; 
(3) substitutes himself." George Eliot: "Justice is like the kingdom of God ; it is not 
without us, as a fact ; it is 4 within us,' as a great yearning." But it is both without and 
within, and the inward is only the reflection of the outward ; the subjective demands of 
conscience only reflect the objective demands of holiness. 
27 



418 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OE SALVATION. 

And yet, while this view of the atonement exalts the holiness of God, it surpasses 
every other view in its moving exhibition of God's love— a love that is not satisfied 
with suffering in and with the sinner, or with making that suffering a demonstration 
of God's regard for law ; but a love that sinks itself into the sinner's guilt and bears 
his penalty,— comes down so low as to make itself one with him in all but his depravity, 
—makes every sacrifice but the sacrifice of God's holiness— a sacrifice which God could 
not make, without ceasing to be God; see 1 John 4 : 10— "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 

D. Objections to the Ethical Theory of the Atonement. 

On the general subject of these objections, Philippi, Glaubenslehre, rv, 2 : 156-180, 
remarks: (1) that it rests with God alone to say whether he will pardon sin, and in 
what way he will pardon it; (2) that human instincts are a very unsafe standard by 
which to judge the procedure of the Governor of the universe ; and ( 3 ) that one plain 
declaration of God, with regard to the plan of salvation, proves the fallacy and error of 
all reasonings against it. We must correct our watches and clocks by astronomic 
standards. 

(a) That a God who does not pardon sin without atonement must lack 
either omnipotence or love. — We answer, on the one hand, that God's 
omnipotence is the revelation of his nature, and not a matter of arbitrary 
will ; and, on the other hand, that God's love is ever exercised consistently 
with his fundamental attribute of holiness, so that while holiness demands 
the sacrifice, love provides it. Mercy is shown, not by trampling upon the 
claims of justice, but by vicariously satisfying them. 

Because man does not need to avenge personal wrongs, it does not follow that God 
must not. In fact, such avenging is forbidden to us upon the ground that it belongs 
to God ; Rom. 12 : 19 — " Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance 
belongeth unto me ; I will recompense, saith the Lord." But there are limits even to our passing over 
of offences. Even the father must sometimes chastise ; and although this chastisement 
is not properly punishment, it becomes punishment, when the father becomes a teacher 
or a governor. Then, other than personal interests come in. " Because a father can 
forgive without atonement, it does not follow that the state can do the same " ( Shedd ). 
But God is more than Father, more than Teacher, more than Governor. In him, per- 
son and right are identical. For him to let sin go unpunished is to approve of it ; which 
is the same as a denial of holiness. 

Whatever pardon is granted, then, must be pardon through punishment. Mere repent- 
ance never expiates crime, even under civil government. The truly penitent man never 
feels that his repentance constitutes a ground of acceptance ; the more he repents, the 
more he recognizes his need of reparation and expiation. Hence God meets the demand 
of man's conscience, as well as of his own holiness, when he provides a substituted pun- 
ishment. God shows his love by meeting the demands of holiness, and by meeting them 
with the sacrifice of himself. See Mozley on Predestination, 390. 

( b ) That satisfaction and forgiveness are mutually exclusive. — We answer 
that, since it is not a third party, but the Judge himself, who makes satisfac- 
tion to his own violated holiness, forgiveness is still optional, and may be 
offered upon terms agreeable to himself. Christ's sacrifice is not a pecun- 
iary, but a penal, satisfaction. The objection is valid against the merely 
commercial view of the atonement, not against the ethical view of it. 

Forgiveness is something beyond the mere taking away of penalty. When a man 
bears the penalty of his crime, has the community no right to be indignant with him ? 
There is a distinction between pecuniary and penal satisfaction. Pecuniary satisfaction 
has respect only to the thing due ; penal satisfaction has respect also to the person of 
the offender. If pardon is a matter of justice in God's government, it is so only as 
respects Christ. To the recipient it is only mercy. " Faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins " 
(1 John 1 : 9) = faithful to his promise, and righteous to Christ. Neither the atonement, 
nor the promise, gives the offender any personal claim. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE ETHICAL THEORY. 419 

Philemon must forgive Onesimus the pecuniary debt, when Paul pays it ; not so with 
the personal injury Onesimus has done to Philemon ; there is no forgiveness of this, 
until Onesimus repents and asks pardon. An amnesty may be offered to all, but upon 
conditions. Instance Amos Lawrence's offering to the forger the forged paper he had 
bought up, upon condition that he would confess himself bankrupt, and put all his 
affairs into the hands of his benefactor. So the fact that Christ has paid our debts does 
not preclude his offering to us the benefit of what he has done, upon condition of our 
repentance and faith. The equivalent is not furnished by man, but by God. God may 
therefore offer the results of it upon his own terms. Did then the entire race fairly pay 
its penalty when one suffered, just as all incurred the penalty when one sinned ? Yes,— 
all who receive their fife from each— Adam on the one hand, and Christ on the other. 
See under Union with Christ, page 444 ; see also Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 295 note, 
321, and Dogm. Theol., 2 : 383-389; Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 614, 615 (Syst. Doct., 4 : 82, 
83 ). Versus Current Discussions in Theology, 5 : 281. 

( c ) That there can be no real propitiation, since the judge and the sacrifice 
are one. — We answer that this objection ignores the existence of personal 
relations within the divine nature, and the fact that the God-man is distin- 
guishable from God. The satisfaction is grounded in the distinction of 
persons in the Godhead ; while the love in which it originates belongs to 
the unity of the divine essence. 

The satisfaction is not rendered to a part of the Godhead, for the whole Godhead is in 
the Father, in a certain manner ; as omnipresence = totus in omni parte. So the offering 
is perfect, because the whole Godhead is also in Christ (2 Cor. 5 : 19—" God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto himself" ). 

(d) That the suffering of the innocent for the guilty is not an execution 
of justice, but an act of manifest injustice. — We answer, that this is true only 
upon the supposition that the Son bears the penalty of our sins, not volun- 
tarily, but compulsorily ; or upon the supposition that one who is personally 
innocent can in no way become involved in the guilt and penalty of others, — 
both of them hypotheses contrary to Scripture and to fact. 

The mystery of the atonement lies in the fact of unmerited sufferings on the part of 
Christ. Over against this stands the corresponding mystery of unmerited pardon to 
believers. We have attempted to show that, while Christ was personally innocent, he 
was so involved with others in the consequences of the Fall, that the guilt and penalty 
of the race belonged to him to bear. When we discuss the doctrine of Justification, we 
shall see that, by a similar union of the believer with Christ, Christ's justification becomes 
ours ; see pages 477-479,— cf. 444, 445. 

( e ) That there can be no transfer of punishment or merit, since these are 
personal. — We answer that the idea of representation and suretyship is 
common in human society and government ; and that such representation 
and suretyship are inevitable, wherever there is community of life between 
the innocent and the guilty. When Christ took our nature, he could not 
do otherwise than take our responsibilities also. 

Christ became responsible for the humanity with which he was organically one. Both 
poets and historians have recognized the propriety of one member of a house, or a race, 
answering for another. Antigone expiates the crimes of her house. Quintius Curtius 
holds himself ready to die for his nation. Louis XVI has been called a "sacrificial 
lamb," offered up for the crimes of his race. So Christ's sacrifice is of benefit to the 
whole family of man, because he is one with that family. But here is the limitation, also. 
It does not extend to angels, because he took not on him the nature of angels ( Heb. 2 : 16 
•—"For verily not of the angels doth he take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham " ). 

(/) That remorse, as a part of the penalty of sin, could not have been 
suffered by Christ. — We answer, on the oue hand, that it may not be essen- 
tial to the idea of penalty that Christ should have borne the identical 
pangs which the lost would have endured ; and, on the other hand, that we 



420 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

do not know how completely a perfectly holy being, possessed of super- 
human knowledge and love, might have felt even the pangs of remorse for 
the condition of that humanity of which he was the central conscience and 
heart. 

Instance the lawyer, mourning the fall of a star of his profession ; the woman, filled 
with shame by the degradation of one of her own sex ; the father, anguished by his 
daughter's waywardness ; the Christian, crushed by the sins of the church and the world. 
The self -isolating spirit cannot conceive how perfectly love and holiness can make their 
own the sin of the race of which they are a part. 

(g) That the sufferings of Christ, as finite in time, do not constitute a 
satisfaction to the infinite demands of the law. — We answer that the infinite 
dignity of the sufferer constitutes his sufferings a full equivalent, in the eye 
of infinite justice. Substitution excludes identity of suffering ; it does not 
exclude equivalence. Since justice aims its penalties not so much at the 
person as at the sin, it may admit equivalent suffering, when this is endured 
in the very nature that has sinned. 

The sufferings of a dog, and of a man, have different values. Death is the wages of sin ; 
and Christ, in suffering death, suffered our penalty. Eternity of suffering is unessential 
to the idea of penalty. A finite being cannot exhaust an infinite curse ; but an infinite 
being can exhaust it, in a few brief hours. Shedd, Discourses and Essays, 307 —"A golden 
eagle is worth a thousand copper cents. The penalty paid by Christ is strictly and liter- 
ally equivalent to that which the sinner would have borne, although it is not identical. 
The vicarious bearing of it excludes the latter. 1 ' 

The atonement is a unique fact, only partially illustrated by debt and penalty. Yet 
the terms 'purchase ' and 'ransom' are Scriptural, and mean simply that the justice of 
God punishes sin as it deserves ; and that, having determined what is deserved, God 
cannot change. See Owen, quoted in Campbell on Atonement, 58, 59. Christ's sacrifice, 
since it is absolutely infinite, can have nothing added to it. If Christ's sacrifice satisfies 
the Judge of all, it may well satisfy us. 

{h) That if Christ's passive obedience made satisfaction to the divine 
justice, then his active obedience was superfluous. — We answer that the 
active obedience and the passive obedience are inseparable. The latter is 
essential to the former ; and both are needed to secure for the sinner, on the 
one hand, pardon, and, on the other hand, that which goes beyond pardon, 
namely, restoration to the divine favor. The objection holds only against 
a superficial and external view of the atonement. 

For more full exposition of this point, see under Justification, pages 474-476 ; and also, 
Owen, in Works, 5 : 175-204. 

(i) That the doctrine is immoral in its practical tendencies, since Christ's 
obedience takes the place of ours, and renders ours unnecessary. — We answer 
that the objection ignores not only the method by which the benefits of the 
atonement are appropriated, namely, repentance and faith, but also the 
regenerating and sanctifying power bestowed upon all who believe. Faith 
in the atonement does not induce license, but "works by love" (Gal. 5:6) 
and "cleanses the heart" (Acts 15 : 9). 

Water is of little use to a thirsty man, if he will not drink. The faith which accepts 
Christ ratifies all that Christ has done, and takes Christ as a new principle of life. Paul 
bids Philemon receive Onesimus as himself,— not the old Onesimus, but a new Onesimus 
into whom the spirit of Paul has entered ( Philemon 17 ). So God receives us as new crea- 
tures in Christ. 

(J) That if the atonement requires faith as its complement, then it does 
not in itself furnish a complete satisfaction to God's justice. — We answer 
that faith is not the ground of our acceptance with God, as the atonement 



EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT. 421 

is, and so is not a work at all ; faith is only the medium of appropriation. 
We are saved not by faith, or on account of faith, but only through faith. 
It is not faith, but the atonement which faith accepts, that satisfies the 
justice of God. 

Illustrate by the amnesty granted to a city, upon conditions to be accepted by each 
inhabitant. The acceptance is not the ground upon which the amnesty is granted ; it is 
the medium through which the benefits of the amnesty are enjoyed. With regard to 
the difficulties connected with the atonement, we may say, in conclusion, with Bishop 
Butler: "If the Scripture has, as surely it has, left this matter of the satisfaction of 
Christ mysterious, left somewhat in it unrevealed, all conjectures about it must be, if 
not evidently absurd, yet at least uncertain. Nor has any one reason to complain for 
want of further information, unless he can show his claim to it." While we cannot say 
with President Stearns : " Christ's work removed the hindrances in the eternal justice 
of the universe to the pardon of the sinner, but how we cannot tell "—cannot say this, 
because we believe the main outlines of the plan of salvation to be revealed in Scripture 
— yet we grant that many questions yet remain unsolved. But, as bread nourishes 
even those who know nothing of its chemical constituents, or of the method of its 
digestion and assimilation, so the atonement of Christ saves those who accept it, even 
though they do not know liow it saves them. " One of the Roman emperors commanded 
his fleet to bring from Alexandria sand for the arena, although his people at Rome were 
visited with famine. But a certain shipmaster declared that whatever the emperor 
commanded, his ship should bring wheat. So, whatever sand others may bring to starv- 
ing human souls, let us bring to them the wheat of the gospel — the substitutionary 
atonement of Jesus Christ." For answers to objections, see Phihppi, Glaubenslehre, rv, 
2 : 156-180; Crawford, Atonement, 383-468; Hodge, Syst. Theol.,2 : 527-543; Baird, Elohim 
Revealed, 623 sq. ; Wm. Thomson, The Atoning Work of Christ; Hopkins, Works, 1 : 321. 

E. The Extent of the Atonement. 

The Scriptures represent the atonement as having been made for all men, 
and as sufficient for the salvation of all. Not the atonement therefore is 
limited, but the application of the atonement through the work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Upon this principle of a universal atonement, but a special application 
of it to the elect, we must interpret such passages as Eph. 1 : 4, 7 ; 2 Tim. 
1:9, 10; John 17 : 9, 20, 24 — asserting a special efficacy of the atonement 
in the case of the elect ; and also such passages as 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 John 
2 : 2 ; 1 Tim. 2:6; 4 : 10 ; Tit. 2 : 11 — asserting that the death of Christ 
is for all. 

Passages asserting special efficacy of the atonement, in the case of the elect, are the 
following : Eph. 1 : 4 — " chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without 
blemish before him in love" ; 7 — "in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our tres- 
passes, according to the riches of his grace " ; 2 Tim. 1 : 9, 10 — God " who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, 
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before 
times eternal, but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death, and 
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" ; John 17 : 9 — "I pray for them : I pray not for the world, 
but for those whom thou hast given me" ; 20 — "neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me 
through their word" ; 24 — "Father, that which thou hast given me, I desire that, where I am, they also may be with 
me ; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." 

Passages asserting that the death of Christ is for all are the following : 2 Pet. 2 : 1 — 
"false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them" ; 1 John 
2:2 — "and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world " ; 1 Tim. 2:6 — 
Christ Jesus " who gave himself a ransom for all " ; 4 : 10 — " the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially 
of them that believe" ; Tit. 2 : 11 — "For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men." Rom 3 : 22 
(A.V. ) — "unto all and upon all them that believe "— has sometimes been interpreted as meaning 
"unto all men, and upon all believers" ( eis = destination ; mi — extent ). But the Rev. 
"Vers, omits the words "and upon all," and Meyer, who retains the words, remarks that 
Tou? 7ri<rTevovTa? belongs to jravTa? in both instances. 

If it be asked in what sense Christ is the Savior of all men, we reply : 



422 SOTEEIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

(a) That the atonement of Christ secures for all men a delay in the 
execution of the sentence against sin, and a space for repentance, together 
with a continuance of the common blessings of life which have been for- 
feited by transgression. 

If strict justice had been executed, the race would have been cut off at the first sin. 
That man lives after sinning-, is due wholly to the Cross. There is a pretermission, or 

"passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God" (Rom. 3 : 25), the justification of which 
is found only in the sacrifice of Calvary. This "passing over," however, is limited in its 
duration : see Acts 17 : 30, 31 — " The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked ; but now he commandeth men 
that they should all everywhere repent : inasmuch as he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in 
righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained." 

(6) That the atonement of Christ has made objective provision for the 
salvation of all, by removing from the divine mind every obstacle to the 
pardon and restoration of sinners, except their willful opposition to God and 
refusal to turn to him. 

Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 604— "On God's side, all is now taken away which could 
make a separation,— unless any should themselves choose to remain separated from 
him." The gospel message is not : God will forgive if you return ; but rather : God has 
shown mercy ; only believe, and it is your portion in Christ. 

( c ) That the atonement of Christ has procured for all men the powerful 
incentives to repentance presented in the Cross, and the combined agency 
of the Christian church and of the Holy Spirit, by which these incentives 
are brought to bear upon them. 

Just as much sun and rain would be needed, if only one farmer on earth were to be 
benefited. Christ would not need to suffer more, if all were to be saved. His sufferings, 
as we have seen, were not the payment of a pecuniary debt. Having endured the pen- 
alty of the sinner, justice permits the sinner's discharge, but does not require it, except 
as the fulfillment of a promise to his substitute, and then only upon the appointed con- 
dition of repentance and faith. The atonement is unlimited,— the whole human race 
might be saved through it ; the application of the atonement is limited,— only those who 
repent and believe are actually saved by it. 

Christ is specially the Savior of those who believe, in that he exerts a 
special power of his Spirit to procure their acceptance of his salvation. 
This is not, however, a part of his work of atonement ; it is the application 
of the atonement, and as such is hereafter to be considered. 

Among those who hold to a limited atonement is Owen. Campbell quotes him as 
saying : " Christ did not die for all the sins of all men ; for if this were so, why are not 
all freed from the punishment of all their sins ? You will say, ' Because of their unbe- 
lief,— they will not believe.' But this unbelief is a sin, and Christ was punished for it. 
Why then does this, more than other sins, hinder them from partaking of the fruits of 
his death?" 

So also Turretin, loc. 4, quags. 10 and 17 ; Symington, Atonement, 184-334 ; Candlish on 
the Atonement; Cunningham, Hist. Theol., 2 : 323-370; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 464-489. 
For the view presented in the text, see Andrew Fuller, Works, 2 : 373, 374 ; 689-098 ; 706-709 ; 
Wardlaw, Syst. Theol., 2 : 485-549 ; Jenkyn, Extent of the Atonement ; E. P. Griffin, Extent 
of the Atonement ; Woods, Works, 2 : 490-521 ; Richards, Lect. on Theology, 302-327. 

2. Christ's Intercessory Work. 

The Priesthood of Christ does not cease with his work of atonement, but 
continues forever. In the presence of God he fulfills the second office of 
the priest, namely that of intercession. ■ 

Heb. 7 : 23-25 — "priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from continuing: but he, because 
he abideth forever, hath his priesthood unchangeable. Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw 
near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." C. H. M. on Ei. 17 : 12—" The 



Christ's work of intercession. 423 

hands of our great Intercessor never hang down, as Moses 1 did, nor does he need any- 
one to hold them up. The same rod of God's power which was used by Moses to smite 
the rock (Atonement) was in Moses' hand on the hill (Intercession)." 

A. Nature of Christ's Intercession. — This is not to be conceived of 
either as an external and vocal petitioning, nor as a mere figure of speech 
for the natural and continuous influence of his sacrifice ; but rather as a 
special activity of Christ in securing, upon the ground of that sacrifice, 
whatever of blessing comes to men, whether that blessing be temporal or 
spiritual. 

1 John 2 : 1 — " if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous " ; Rom. 8 : 34 — " It 
is Jesus Christ that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh 
intercession for ns " — here Meyer seems to favor the meaning of external and vocal petition- 
ing, as of the glorified God-man : leb. 7 : 25 — "ever liveth to make intercession for them." On the 
ground of this effectual intercession he can pronounce the true sacerdotal benediction; 
and all the benedictions of his ministers and apostles are but fruits and emblems of this 
( see the Aaronic benediction in Num. 6 : 24-26, and the apostolic benedictions in 1 Cor. 1 : 3 
and 2 Cor. 13:14). 

B. Objects of Christ's Intercession. — We may distinguish (a) that 
general intercession which secures to all men certain temporal benefits of 
his atoning work, and (6) that special intercession which secures the 
divine acceptance of the persons of believers and the divine bestowment of 
all gifts needful for their salvation. 

(a) General intercession for all men : Is. 53 : 12—" he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for 
the transgressors" ; Luke 23 : 34 — "And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" — a 
beginning of his priestly intercession, even while he was being nailed to the cross. 

(o) Special intercession for his saints: Mat 18 : 19, 20— "if two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" ; Luke 22 : 32 — "Simon, Simon, behold, 
Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail not" ; 
John 14 : 16 — "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter" ; 17 : 9 — "I pray for them: I pray 
not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me " ; Acts 2 : 33 — " Being therefore by the right hand of God 
exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth this which ye see and 
hear " ; Eph. 1 : 6 — " the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved " ; 2 : 18 — " through him 
we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father " ; 3 : 12 — "in whom we have boldness and access in confidence 
through our faith in him " ; Heb. 2 : 17, 18 — " "Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his breth- 
ren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the 
sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted " ; 
4 : 15, 16 — " For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but one that hath 
been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of 
grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need " ; 1 Pet. 2 : 5 — "a holy priesthood, 
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" ; Rev. 5 : 6 — "And I saw in the midst of the 
throne .... a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven 
Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth " ; 7 : 16, 17 — " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither 
shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat ; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, 
and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life : and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." 

C. Relation of Christ's Intercession to that of the Holy Ghost. — The 
Holy Spirit is an advocate within us, teaching us how to pray as we 
ought; Christ is an advocate in heaven, securing from the Father the 
answer of our prayers. Thus the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit 
are complements to each other, and parts of one whole. 

John 14 : 26— " But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you 
all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you " ; Rom. 8 : 26 — " And in like manner the Spirit also 
helpeth our infirmity : for we know not how to pray as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered " ; 27— "and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, 
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." 



424 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

The intercession of the Holy Spirit may be illustrated by the work of the mother, who- 
teaches her child to pray by putting words into his mouth or by suggesting subjects for 
prayer. " The whole Trinity is present in the Christian's closet ; the Father hears ; the 
Son advocates his cause at the Father's right hand ; the Holy Spirit intercedes in the 
heart of the believer." Therefore " When God inclines the heart to pray, He hath an 
ear to hear." The impulse to prayer, within our hearts, is evidence that Christ is 
urging our claims in heaven. 

D. Relation of Christ's Intercession to that of saints. — All true inter- 
cession is either directly or indirectly the intercession of Christ. Christians 
are organs of Christ's Spirit. To suppose Christ in us to offer prayer to 
one of his saints, instead of directly to the Father, is to blaspheme Christ, 
and utterly misconceive the nature of prayer. 

Saints, by virtue of their union with Christ, the great high priest, are themselves 
constituted intercessors ; and as the high priest of old bore upon his bosom the breast- 
plate engraven with the names of the tribes of Israel ( Ex. 28 : 9-12 ), so the Christian is to 
bear upon his heart in prayer before God the interests of his family, the church, and 
the world ( 1 Tim. 2 : 1 — " I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, 
be made for all men"). See Symington on Intercession, in Atonement and Intercession, 
256-303. 

; III. The Kingly Office of Christ. 

This is to be distinguished from the sovereignty which Christ originally 
possessed in virtue of his divine nature. Christ's Kingship is the sover- 
eignty of the divine-human Redeemer, which belonged to him of right 
from the moment of his birth, but which was fully exercised only from the 
time of his entrance upon the state of exaltation. By virtue of this kingly 
office, Christ rules all things in heaven and earth, for the glory of God and 
the execution of God's purpose of salvation. 

( a ) "With respect to the universe at large, Christ's kingdom is a king- 
dom of power ; he upholds, governs, and judges the world. 

Ps. 2:6-8 — "I have set my king .... Thou art my Son ... . uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession " ; 
8 r 6— "madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet" ; c/. 
leb. 2 : 8, 9 — "we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold .... Jesus .... crowned with glory 
and honor " ; Mat. 25 : 31, 32 — " When the Son of man shall come in his glory .... then shall he sit on the throne of 
his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations" ; 28 : 18— "All authority hath been given unto me in 
heaven and on earth" ; Heb. 1 : 3 — "upholding all things by the word of his power" ; Rev. 19 : 15, 16 — "smite the 
nations .... rule them with a rod of iron .... King of kings, and Lord of lords." 

Julius Muller, Proof -texts, 34, says incorrectly, as we think, that " the regnum natures 
of the old theology is unsupported,— there are only the regnum gratice and the regnum 
gloria}." A. J. Gordon: "Christ is now creation's sceptre-bearer, as he was once crea- 
tion's burden-bearer." 

( b ) "With respect to his militant church, it is a kingdom of grace ; he 
founds, legislates for, administers, defends, and augments his church on 
earth. 

luke 2 : 11— "born to you .... a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" ; 19 : 38 — "Blessed is the King that cometh 
in the name of the Lord " ; John 18 : 36, 37 — " My kingdom is not of this world .... Thou sayest it, for I am a king 
.... Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice " ; Eph. 1 : 22—" he put all things in subjection under his feet, 
and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all " ; 
leb. 1 : 8 — "of the Son he saith, Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever." 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 677 ( Syst. Doct., 4 : 143, 143) — " All great men can be said to 
have an after-influence (JSfachwirkung) after their death, but only of Christ can it be 
said that he has an after-activity (Fortwirkung). The sending of the Spirit is part of 
Christ's work as King." P. S. Moxom, Bap. Quar. Rev., Jan., 1886 : 25-36 — " Preeminence 
of Christ, as source of the church's being ; ground of the church's unity ; source of 
the church's law ; mould of the church's life." A. J. Gordon : " As the church endures 



THE KINGLY OFFICE OF CHRIST. 425 

hardness and humiliation as united to him who was on the cross, so she should exhibit 
something of supernatural energy as united with him who is on the throne." Luther : 
M We tell our Lord God, that if he will have his church, he must look after it himself. 
We cannot sustain it, and, if we could, we should become the proudest asses under 
heaven." 

( c ) With respect to his church triumphant, it is a kingdom of glory ; he 
rewards his redeemed people with the full revelation of himself, upon the 
completion of his kingdom in the resurrection and the judgment. 

John 17 : 24 — " Father, that which thou has given me, I desire that, where I am, they also may he with me, that 
they may behold my glory" ; 1 Pet. 3 : 21, 22 — "Jesus Christ; who is ou the right hand of God, having gone into 
heaven ; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him " ; 2 Pet. 1 : 11 — " thus shall be richly supplied 
unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." See Andrew Murray, 
With Christ in the School of Prayer, preface, vi — " Rev. 1:6—' made us to be a kingdom, to be priests 
unto his God and Father.' Both in the king and the priest, the chief thing is power, influence, 
blessing. In the king, it is the power coming downward ; in the priest, it is the power 
rising upward, prevailing with God. As in Christ, so in us, the kingly power is founded 
on the priestly : leb. 7 : 25 — ' able to save to the uttermost, .... seeing he ever liveth to make intercession ' . " 

Luther : " Now Christ reigns, not in visible, public manner, but through the word, 
just as we see the sun through a cloud. We see the light, but not the sun itself. But 
when the clouds are gone, then we see at the same time both light and sun." We may 
close our consideration of Christ's Kingship with two practical remarks : 1. We never 
can think too much of the cross, but we may think too little of the throne. 2. We can 
not have Christ as our Prophet or our Priest, unless we take him also as our King. On 
Christ's Kingship, see Philippi, Glaubenslehre, rv, 2 : 342-351 ; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 
586 sq. ; Garbett, Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King, 2 : 243-438; J. M. Mason, Sermon 
on Mes si ah's Throne, in Works, 3 : 241-275. 






CHAPTEE II. 



THE RECONCILIATION OF MAN TO GOD, OR THE 

APPLICATION OF REDEMPTION THROUGH 

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



SECTION" I. — THE APPLICATION OF CHRIST'S REDEMPTION" 
IN ITS PREPARATION. 

(a) In this Section we treat of Election and Calling; Section Second 
being devoted to the Application of Christ's Redemption in its Actual 
Beginning, — namely, in Union with Christ, Regeneration, Conversion, and 
Justification; while Section Third has for its subject the Application of 
Christ's Redemption in its Continuation, — namely, in Sanctification and 
Perseverance. 

The arrangement of topics, in the treatment of the reconciliation of man to God, is 
taken from Julius Miiller, Proof -texts, 35. " Revelation to us aims to bring about revela- 
tion in us. In any being absolutely perfect, God's intercourse -with us by faculty, and 
by direct teaching, would absolutely coalesce, and the former be just as much God's 
voice as the latter" (Hutton, Essays). 

( 6 ) In treating Election and Calling as applications of Christ's redemp- 
tion, we imply that they are, in God's decree, logically subsequent to that 
redemption. In this we hold the Sublapsarian view, as distinguished from 
the Supralapsarianism of Beza and other hyper-Calvinists, which regarded 
the decree of individual salvation as preceding, in the order of thought, the 
decree to permit the Fall. In this latter scheme, the order of decrees is as 
follows: 1. the decree to save certain, and to reprobate others; 2. the 
decree to create both those who are to be saved and those who are to be 
reprobated ; 3. the decree to permit both the former and the latter to fall ; 
4. the decree to provide salvation only for the former, that is, for the elect. 

Richards, Theology, 303-307, shows that Calvin, while in his early work, the Institutes, 
he avoided definite statements of his position with regard to the extent of the atone- 
ment, yet in his latter works, the Commentaries, acceded to the theory of universal 
atonement. Supralapsarianism is therefore hyper-Calvinistic, rather than Calvinistic. 
Sublapsarianism was adopted by the Synod of Dort ( 1618, 1619 ). By Supralapsarian is 
meant that form of doctrine which holds the decree of individual salvation as preceding 
the decree to permit the Fall ; Sublapsarian designates that form of doctrine which holds 
that the decree of individual salvation is subsequent to the decree to permit the Fall. 

( c ) But the Scriptures teach that men as sinners, and not men irrespec- 
tive of their sins, are the objects of God's saving grace in Christ (John 15 : 
19; Rom. 11 : 5, 7; Eph. 1 : 4-6; 1 Pet. 1:2). Condemnation, moreover, 

426 



ELECTION". 427 

is an act, not of sovereignty, but of justice, and is grounded in the guilt of 
the condemned (Rom. 2 : 6-11 ; 2 Thess. 1 : 5-10). The true order of the 
decrees is therefore as follows : 1. the decree to create ; 2. the decree to 
permit the Fall ; 3. the decree to provide a salvation in Christ sufficient for 
the needs of all ; 4. the decree to secure the actual acceptance of this sal- 
vation on the part of some, — or, in other words, the decree of Election. 

That saving' grace presupposes the Fall, and that men as sinners are the objects of it, 
appears from John 15 : 19— "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of 
the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" ; Rom. 11 : 5-7— "Even so then at the 
present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. But if it is by grace, it is no more of works • 
otherwise grace is no more grace. What then ? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not ; but the election 
obtained it, and the rest were hardened." Eph, 1 : 4-6 — "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love : having foreordained us unto adoption as sons 
through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which 
he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" ; 1 Pet 1 : 2 — elect, "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 
in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus : Grace to you and peace be multiplied." 

That condemnation is not an act of sovereignty, but of justice, appears from Rom. 2 : 
6-9— " who will render to every man according to his works .... wrath and indignation .... upon every soul of 
man that worketh evil " ; 2 Thess. 1 : 6-9 — "a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you 
.... rendering vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall 
suffer punishment." Particular persons are elected, not to have Christ die for them, but to 
have special influences of the Spirit bestowed upon them. 

(d) Those Sublapsarians who hold to the Anselmic view of a limited 
Atonement, make the decrees 3. and 4., just mentioned, exchange places, — 
the decree of election thus preceding the decree to provide redemption. 
The Scriptural reasons for preferring the order here given have been 
already indicated in our treatment of the Extent of the Atonement (pages 
421, 422). 

When '3.' and l 4.' thus change places, k 3.' should be made to read: "The decree to 
provide in Christ a salvation sufficient for the elect " ; and ' 4.' should read : " The decree 
that a certain number should be saved,— or, in other words, the decree of Election." 
Sublapsarianism of the first sort may be found in Turretin, loc. 4, quaes. 9 ; Cunning- 
ham, Hist. TheoL, 416-439. 

I. Election. 

Election is that eternal act of God, by which in his sovereign pleasure, 
and on account of no foreseen merit in them, he chooses certain out of the 
number of sinful men to be the recipients of the special grace of his Spirit, 
and so to be made voluntary jjartakers of Christ's salvation. 

1. Proof of the Doctrine of Election. 
A. From Scripture. 

We here adopt the words of Dr. Hovey : ' ' The Scriptures forbid us to 
find the reasons for election in the moral action of man before the new 
birth, and refer us merely to the sovereign will and mercy of God ; that is, 
they teach the doctrine of personal election." Before advancing to the 
proof of the doctrine itself, we may claim Scriptural warrant for three pre- 
liminary statements (which we also quote from Dr. Hovey), namely: 

First, that "God has a sovereign right to bestow more grace upon one 
subject than upon another, — grace being unmerited favor to sinners." 

Mat 20 : 12-15 — "These last have spent but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us ... . Friend, I do 
thee no wrong .... Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? " Rom. 9 : 20, 21 — " Shall the thing 



428 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

formed say to Mm that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus ? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from 
the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" 

Secondly, that "God has been pleased to exercise this right in dealing 
with men." 

Ps. 147 : 20 — " He hath not dealt so with any nation : And as for his judgments, they have not known them " ; Rom. 

3 : 1, 2 — " What advantage then hath the Jew ? or what is the profit of circumcision ? Much every way : first of all, 
that they were intrusted with the oracles of God" ; John 15 : 16 — "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed 
you, that ye should go and bear fruit " ; Acts 9 : 15 — " he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gen- 
tiles and kings, and the children of Israel." 

Thirdly, that " God has some other reason than that of saving as many as 

possible for the way in which he distributes his grace." 

Mat. 11 : 21 — Tyre and Sidon " would have repented," if they had had the grace bestowed upon 
Chorazin and Bethsaida ; Rom. 9 : 22-25 — " What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power 
known, endured with much long suffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction : and that he might make known the 
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory ? " 

The Scripture passages which directly or indirectly support the doctrine 
of a particular election of individual men to salvation may be arranged as 
follows : 

( a ) Direct statements of God's purpose to save certain individuals : 

Acts 13 : 48 — "as many as were ordained ( Tera-yjueW ) to eternal life believed" — here Whedon trans- 
lates: "disposed unto eternal life," referring to /ca.T7)pTio>i.eVa, in verse 23, where "fitted" = 
"fitted themselves." The only instance, however, where Tdero-w is used in a middle sense 
is in 1 Cor. 16 : 15 — " set themselves " ; but there the object, eaurous, is expressed. Here we must 
compare Rom. 13 : 1 — "the powers that be are ordained ( rerayixevat ) of God " ; see also Acts 10 : 42 — " this 
is he which is ordained ( ajpia-fxevo^ ) of God to be the Judge of quick and dead." 

Rom. 9 : 11-16 — "for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose 
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth .... I will have mercy on whom I have 
mercy .... So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy " ; Eph. 1 : 4, 5, 
9, 11— "chose us in him before the foundation of the world [not because we were, or were to be, holy, 
but ], that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love : having foreordained us unto adoption as sons 
through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will . ... the mystery of his will, according to 
his good pleasure .... in whom we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him 
who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will " ; Col. 3 : 12 — " God's elect " ; 2 Thess. 2 : 13 — " God chose 
you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 

( (. ) In connection with the declaration of God's foreknowledge of these 
persons, or choice to make them objects of his special attention and care : 

Rom. 8 : 27-30 — " called according to his purpose. ■ For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to 
the image of his Son" ; 1 Pet. 1 : 1, 2 — "elect .... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification 
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." On the passage in Romans, Shedd, 
in his Commentary, remarks that "foreknew," in the Hebraistic use, " is more than simple 
prescience, and something more also than simply ' to fix the eye upon,' or to ' select. ' It 
is this latter, but with the additional notion of a benignant and kindly feeling toward 
the object." 

That the word "know," in Scripture, frequently means not merely to "apprehend intel- 
lectually," but to "regard with favor," to "make an object of care," is evident from 
Gen. 18 : 19 — " I have known him, to the end that he : lay command his children and his household after him, that they 
may keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment " ; Ps. 1 : 6 — " For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : 
But the way of the wicked shall perish " ; Amos 3 : 2 — " You only have I known of all the families of the earth " • Rom. 
7 : 15 — " For that which I do I know not " ; 1 Cor. 8 : 3 — " if any man loveth God, the same is known by bin " ; Gal. 

4 ■ 9 — "now that ye have come to know God, cr rather, to be known of God" ; 1 Thess. 5 : 12— "we beseech you, 
brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them 
exceeding highly in love for their work's sake." So the word "foreknow " % Rom. 11 : 2 — " God did not cast 
off his people whom he foreknew " ; 1 Pet. 1 : 20 — Christ, " who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the 
world." 

In Rom. 8 : 28-30, quoted above, " foreknew "= elected — that is, made certain individuals, in 
the future, the objects of his love and care ; "foreordained" describes God's designation of 



ELECTION. 429 

these same individuals to receive the special gift of salvation. In other words, " fore- 
knowledge" is of persons; " f oreordination " is of blessings to be bestowed upon 
them. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., appendix to book v, (vol. 2 : 751 ) — " ' whom he did foreknow' 
( know before as his own, with determination to be forever merciful to them ) ' he also 
predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son' — predestinated, not to opportunity of confor- 
mation, but to conformation itself." So, for substance, Calvin, Riickert, DeWette, 
Stuart, Jowett, Vaughan. On 1 Pet. 1 : 1, 2, see Com. of Plumptre. The Arminian inter- 
pretation of "whom he foreknew " (Rom. 8 : 29) would require the phrase "as conformed to the 
image of his Son " to be conjoined with it. Paul, however, makes conformity to Christ 
to be the result, not the foreseen condition, of God's f oreordination ; see Commentaries 
of Hodge and Lange. 

(c) With assertions that this choice is matter of grace, or unmerited 
favor, bestowed in eternity past : 

Eph. 1 : 5-8 — " foreordained according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, 

which he freely bestowed on ns in the Beloved according to the riches of his grace " ; 2:8 — "by grace have ye 

been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God " — here " and that " ( neuter tovto, 
verse 8) refers, not to "faith" but to "salvation." But faith is elsewhere represented 
as having its source in God,— see page 430, (k). 2 Tim. 1 : 9 — "his own purpose and grace, which 
•was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal." 

(c?) That the Father has given certain persons to the Son, to be his 
peculiar possession : 

John 6 : 37 —"All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me " ; 17 : 2 — " that whatsoever thou hast given 
him, to them he should give eternal life " ; 6 — " I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the 
world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me " ; 9 — "I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast 
given me"; Eph. 1 : 14— "unto the redemption of God's own possession"; 1 Pet. 2 : 9— "a people for God's own 



( e ) That the fact of believers being united thus to Christ is due wholly 
to God : 

John 6 : 44 — "No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him" ; 10 : 26 — "ye believe not, 
because ye are not of my sheep" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 30 — "of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus "= your being, as 
Christians, in union with Christ, is due wholly to God. 

(/) That those who are written in the Lamb's book of life, and they 
only, shall be saved : 

Phil. 4 : 3— "the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life" ; Rev. 20 : 15 — "And if any 
was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire " ; 21 : 27— "there shall in no wise enter 
into it anything unclean .... but only they which are written in the Lamb's book of life "= God's decrees of 
-electing grace in Christ. 

( g ) That these are allotted, as disciples, to certain of God's servants . 

Acts 17 : 4 — (literally )—" some of them were persuaded, and were allotted [by God] to Paul and Silas" 
— as disciples (so Meyer and Grimm) ; 18 : 9, 10— "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 
for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee : for I have much people in this city." 

( h ) Are made the recipients of a special call of God : 

Rom. 8 : 28, 30 — "called according to his purpose .... whom he foreordained, them he also called" ; 9 : 23, 24 — 
■ vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also 
from the Gentiles" ; 11 : 29— "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 24-28— "unto 
them that are called .... Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God ... . For behold your calling, brethren, 
.... the things that are despised did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught the 
things that are : that no flesh should glory before God " ; Gal. 1 : 15, 16—" when it was the good pleasure of God, who 
separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me" ; c/. James 
2 : 23— "and he [Abraham] was called [to be] the friend of God." 

(i) Are born into God's kingdom, not by virtue of man's will, but of 
God's will : 

John 1 : 13 — "born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " ; James 1 : 18 — "Of 
his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth." 






430 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

(j ) Keceiving repentance, as the gift of God : 

Acts 5 : 31 — "Him did God exalt with Ms right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and 
remission of sins" ; 11 : 18 — "Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance nnto life" ; 2 Tim. 2 : 25 — "cor- 
recting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth." 

( h ) Faith, as the gift of God : 

John 6 : 65 — "No man can come unto me, except it he given unto him of the Father" ; Acts 15 : 8, 9 — "God . . . . 
giving them the My Ghost .... cleansing their hearts by faith " ; Rom. 12 : 3 — " according as God hath dealt to each 
man a measure of faith" ; 1 Cor. 12 : 9— "to another faith, in the same Spirit" ; Gal. 5 : 22— "the fruit of the Spirit 
is ... . faith " ; Phil. 2 : 13 — In all faith, " it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good 
pleasure " ; Eph. 6 : 23—" Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
( Cf. Mark 11 : 22 — ex^re irLanv ©eoO = the faith which God demands and which God gives? — 
like Si/caioo-vvij ©eov, Rom. 10:3 — see page 473; Acts 3: 16 — ^ tti'o-tis r\ Sl' avrov = faith which 
Christ gave? Gal. 2 : 20 — ev niarei fa» T7? rov uiov toC ©eoO = the faith which Christ has and 
gives?) 

( I ) Holiness and good works, as the gift of God : 

Eph. 1 : 4 — "chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy" ; 2 : 9, 10 — "not of works, 
that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore pre- 
pared that we should walk in them"; 1 Pet. 1 : 2— elect "unto obedience." On Scripture testimony, 
see Hovey, Manual of Theol. and Ethics, 258-361. 

These passages furnish an abundant and conclusive refutation, on the 
one hand, of the Lutheran view that election is simply God's determina- 
tion from eternity to provide an objective salvation for universal humanity ; 
and, on the other hand, of the Arminian view that election is God's deter- 
mination from eternity to save certain individuals upon the ground of their 
foreseen faith. 

B. From Reason. 

( a ) What God does he has eternally purposed to do. Since he bestows 
special regenerating grace on some, he must have eternally purposed to 
bestow it, — in other words, must have chosen them to eternal life. Thus the 
doctrine of election is only a special application of the doctrine of decrees. 

The New Haven views are essentially Arminian. See Eitch, on Predestination and 
Election, in Christian Spectator, 3 : 622— "God's foreknowledge of what would he the 
results of his present works of grace preceded in the order of nature the purpose to 
pursue those works, and presented the grounds of that purpose. Whom he foreknew— 
as the people who would be gained to his kingdom by his present works of grace, in 
which result lay the whole objective motive for undertaking those works — he did also, 
by resolving on those works, predestinate." Here God is very erroneously said to fore- 
knmv what is as yet included in a merely possible plan. As we have seen in our discussion 
of Decrees (pages 173-175), there can be no .foreknowledge, unless there is something 
fixed, in the future, to be foreknown ; and this fixity can be due only to God's predeter- 
mination. So, in the present case, election must precede prescience. 

The New Haven views are also given in N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 373-444 ; for 
criticism upon them, see Tyler, Letters on New Haven Theology, 172-180. If God desired 
the salvation of Judas as much as of Peter, how was Peter elected in distinction from 
Judas? To the question, "Who made thee to differ? " the answer must be, " Not God, 
but my own will." See Finney, in Bib. Sac, 1877 : 711— "God must have foreknown 
whom he could wisely save, prior in the order of nature to his determining to save them. 
But his knowing who would be saved, must have been, in the order of nature, subsequent 
to his election or determination to save them, and dependent upon that determination." 

( b ) This purpose cannot be conditioned upon any merit or faith of those 
who are chosen, since there is no such merit, — faith itself being God's gift 
and foreordained by him. Since man's faith is foreseen only as the result 



ELECTION. 431 

of God's work of grace, election proceeds rather upon foreseen unbelief. 
Faith, as the effect of election, cannot at the same time be the cause of 
election. 

There is an analogy between prayer and its answer, on the one hand, and faith and 
salvation on the other. God has decreed answer in connection with prayer, and salva- 
tion in connection with faith. But he does not change his mind when men pray, or when 
they believe. As he fulfills his purpose by inspiring true prayer, so he fulfills his purpose 
by giving faith. Augustine : " He chooses us, not because we believe, but that we may 
believe : lest we should say that we first ch03e him" (John 15 : 16— "Ye did not choose me, but I 
chose you " ; Rom. 9 : 21 — " from the same lump " ; 16 — " not of him that willeth " ). 

Here see the valuable discussion of Wardlaw, Systematic Theol., 2 : 485-549—" Election 
and salvation on the ground of works foreseen are not different in principle from 
election and salvation on the ground of works performed." Cf. Prov. 21 : 1 — " The king's heart 
is in the hand of the Lord as the water-courses ; le turneth it whithersoever he will ' ' — as easily as the rivulets 
of the eastern fields are turned by the slightest motion of the hand or the foot of the 
husbandman ; Ps. 110 : 3 — " Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power." 

( c ) The depravity of the human will is such that, without this decree to 
bestow special divine influences upon some, all, without exception, would 
have rejected Christ's salvation after it was offered to them ; and so all, with- 
out exception, must have perished. Election, therefore, may be viewed as a 
necessary consequence of God's decree to provide an objective redemption, 
if that redemption is to have any subjective result in human salvation. 

Before the prodigal son seeks the father, the father must first seek him,— a truth 
brought out in the preceding parables of the lost money and the lost sheep (Luke 15). 
Without election, all are lost. Newman Smyth, Orthodox Theology of To-day, 56 — 
" The worst doctrine of election, to-day, is taught by our natural science. The scientific 
doctrine of natural selection is the doctrine of election, robbed of all hope, and without 
a single touch of human pity in it." 

Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 335—" Suppose the deistic view be true : God created men and 
left them ; surely no man could complain of the results. But now suppose God, fore- 
seeing these very results of creation, should create. Would it make any difference, if 
God's purpose, as to the f uturition of such a world, should precede it ? Augustine sup- 
poses that God did purpose such a world as the deist supposes, with two exceptions : 
(1) he interposes to restrain evil; (2) he intervenes, by providence, by Christ, and by 
the Holy Spirit, to save some from destruction." Election is simply God's determination 
that the sufferings of Christ shall not be in vain ; that all men shall not be lost ; that some 
shall be led to accept Christ ; that to this end special influences of his Spirit shall be given. 

2. Objections to the Doctrine of Election. 

(a) It is unjust to those who are not included in this purpose of salvation. 
— Answer : Election deals, not simply with creatures, but with sinful, guilty, 
and condemned creatures. That any should be saved, is matter of pure 
grace, and those who are not included in this purpose of salvation suffer 
only the due reward of their deeds. There is, therefore, no injustice in 
God's election. We may better praise God that he saves any, than charge 
him with injustice because he saves so few. 

God can say to all men, saved or unsaved, " Friend, I do thee no wrong .... Is it not lawful for me 
to do what I will with mine own ? " ( Mat. 20 : 13, 15 ). The question is not whether a father will treat 
his children alike, but whether a sovereign must treat condemned rebels alike. It is 
not true that, because the Governor pardons one convict from the penitentiary, he must 
therefore pardon all. When he pardons one, no injury is done to those who are left. 
But, in God's government, there is still less reason for objection ; for God offers pardon 
to all. Nothing prevents men from being pardoned but their unwillingness to accept 
pardon. Election is simply God's determination to make certain persons willing to 
accept it. Because justice cannot save all, shall it therefore save none V 

Augustine, De Predest. Sanct., 8— "Why does not God teach all? Because it is in 



432 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

mercy that he teaches all whom he does teach, while it is in judgment that he does not 
teach those whom he does not teach." In his Manual of Theology and Ethics, 260, Hovey 
remarks that Rom. 9 : 20 — "who art thou that repliest against God? " — teaches, not that might makes 
right, but that God is morally entitled to glorify either his righteousness or his mercy in 
disposing of a guilty race. 

( b ) It represents God as partial in his dealings and a respecter of persons. 
— Answer : Since there is nothing in men that determines God's choice of 
one rather than another, the objection is invalid. It would equally apply 
to God's selection of certain nations, as Israel, and certain individuals, as 
Cyrus, to be recipients of special temporal gifts. If God is not to be regarded 
as partial in not providing a salvation for fallen angels, he cannot be regarded 
as partial in not providing regenerating influences of his Spirit for the whole 
race of fallen men. 

Ps. 44 : 3 — " For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them ; But 
thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, Because thou hadst a favor unto them" ; Is. 45 : 1, 4, 5 
— " Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him .... For 
Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name .... I have surnamed thee, though thou 
hast not known me " ; Luke 4 : 25-27 — " There were many widows in Israel .... and unto none of them was Elijah 
sent, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And there were many lepers in 
Israel .... and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian" ; 1 Cor. 4 : 7 — "For who maketh thee to 
differ ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? but if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou 
hadst not received it?" 2 Pet. 2 : 4 — "God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell" ; Heb. 
2 : 16 — "For verily not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth help to the seed of Abraham." 

Is God partial, in choosing Israel, Cyrus, Naaman ? Is God partial, in bestowing upon 
some of his servants special ministerial gifts ? Is God partial, in not providing a salva- 
tion for fallen angels ? In God's providence, one man is born in a Christian land, the 
son of a noble family, is endowed with beauty of person, splendid talents, exalted 
opportunities, immense wealth. Another is born at the Five Points, or among the 
Hottentots, amid the degradation and depravity of actual, or practical, heathenism. 
We feel that it is irreverent to complain of God's dealings in providence. What right 
have sinners to complain of God's dealings in the distribution of his grace? Hovey: 
" We have no reason to think that God treats all moral beings alike. We should be glad 
to hear that other races are treated better than we." 

(c) It represents God as arbitrary. — Answer : It represents God, not as 
arbitrary, but as exercising the free choice of a wise and sovereign will, in 
ways and for reasons which are inscrutable to us. To deny the possibility 
of such choice is to deny God's personality. To deny that God has reasons 
for his choice is to deny his wisdom. The doctrine of election finds these 
reasons, not in men, but in God. 

When a regiment is decimated for insubordination, the fact that every tenth man is 
"chosen for death is for reasons ; but the reasons are not in the men. In one case, the 
reason for God's choice seems revealed : 1 Tim. 1 : 16 — " howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that 
in me as chief might Jesus Christ shew forth all his longsuffering, for an ensanple of them which should thereafter 
believe on him unto eternal life "—here Paul indicates that the reason why God chose him was 
that he was so great a sinner : verse 15 — " Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am 
chief." Hovey remarks that "the uses to which God can put men, as vessels of grace, 
may determine his selection of them." But since the naturally weak are saved, as well 
as the naturally strong, we cannot draw any general conclusion, or discern any general 
rule, in God's dealings, unless it be this, that in election God seeks to illustrate the 
greatness and the variety of his grace, — the reasons lying, therefore, not in men, but in 
God. We must remember that God's sovereignty is the sovereignty of God — the infl- 
' nitely wise, holy and loving God, in whose hands the destinies of men can be left more 
safely than in the hands of the wisest, most just, and most kind of his creatures. 

(d) It tends to immorality, by representing men's salvation as independ- 
ent of their own obedience. — Answer: The objection ignores the fact that 
the salvation of believers is ordained only in connection with their regener- 



ELECTION". 433 

ation and sanctification, as means ; and that the certainty of final triumph 

is the strongest incentive to strenuous conflict with sin. 

Plutarch: "God is the brave man's hope, and not the coward's excuse." The pur- 
poses of God are an anchor to the storm-tossed spirit. But a ship needs engine, as well 
as anchor. God does not elect to save any without repentance and faith. Some hold 
the doctrine of election, hut the doctrine of election does not hold them. Such should 
ponder 1 Pet. 1 : 2, in which Christians are said to he elect, " in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obe- 
dience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 

(e) It inspires pride in those who think themselves elect. — Answer: 
This is possible only in the case of those who pervert the doctrine. On 
the contrary, its proper influence is to humble men. Those who exalt 
themselves above others, upon the ground that they are special favorites of 
God, have reason to question their election. 

In the novel, there was great effectiveness in the lover's plea to the object of his 
affection, that he had loved since he had first set his eyes upon her in her childhood. 
But God's love for us is of longer standing than that. It dates back to a time before 
we were born,— aye, even to eternity past. It is a love which was fastened upon us, 
although God knew the worst of us. It is unchanging, because founded upon his infi- 
nite and eternal love to Christ. Jer. 31 : 3 — " The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved 
thee with an everlasting love : therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee " ; Rom. 8 : 31-39 — "If God is for 
us, who is against us? ... . Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And the answer is, that 
nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This eternal 
love subdues and humbles : Ps. 115 : 1 —"Not unto us, Lord, not unto us But unto thy name give glory, For 
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." 

(/) It discourages effort for the salvation of the impenitent, whether on 
their own part or on the part of others. — Answer : Since it is a secret 
decree, it cannot hinder or discourage such effort. On the other hand, it is 
a ground of encouragement, and so a stimulus to effort; for, without 
election, it is certain that all would be lost (c/. Acts 18 : 10). While it 
humbles the sinner, so that he is willing to cry for mercy, it encourages 
him also by showing him that some will be saved, and ( since election and 
faith are inseparably connected) that he will be saved, if he will only 
believe. While it makes the Christian feel entirely dependent on God's 
power, in his efforts for the impenitent, it leads him to say with Paul that 
he "endures all things for the elects' sake, that they may attain the salva- 
tion that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Tim. 2 : 10). 

God's decree that Paul's ship's company should be saved ( Acts 27 : 24 ) did not obviate 
the necessity of their abiding in the ship ( verse 31 ). In marriage, man's election does not 
exclude woman's; so God's election does not exclude man's. There is just as much 
need of effort as if there were no election. Hence the question for the sinner is not, 
"Am I one of the elect ? " but rather, " What shall I do to be saved ? " Milton represents 
the spirits of hell as debating foreknowledge and f ree will, in wandering mazes lost. 

No man is saved until he ceases to debate, and begins to act. And yet no man will 
thus begin to act, unless God's Spirit moves him. The Lord encouraged Paul by saying 
to him : " I have much people in this city " ( Acts 18 : 10 ) — people whom I will bring in through thy 
word. " Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon." If God does not regenerate, 
there is no hope of success in preaching : " God stands powerless before the majesty of 
man's lordly will. Sinners have the glory of their own salvation. To pray God to con- 
vert a man is absurd. God elects the man, because he foresees that the man will elect 
himself" (see S. R. Mason, Truth Unfolded, 298-307). The doctrine of election does 
indeed cut off the hopes of those who place confidence in themselves ; but it is best that 
such hopes should be destroyed, and that in place of them should be put a hope in the 
sovereign grace of God. The doctrine of election does teach man's absolute depend- 
ence upon God, and the impossibility of any disappointment or disarrangement of the 
28 



434 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

divine plans arising from the disobedience of the sinner, and it humbles human pride 
until it is willing to take the place of a suppliant for mercy. 

Rowland Hill was criticised for preaching election and yet exhorting sinners to repent, 
and was told that he should preach only to the elect. He replied that, if his critic would 
put a chalk-mark on all the elect, he would preach only to them. But this is not the 
whole truth. We are not only ignorant who God's elect are, but we are set to preach to 
both elect and non-elect (Ex. 2 : 7— "thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or 
whether they will forbear " ), with the certainty that to the former our preaching will make a. 
higher heaven, to the latter a deeper hell (2 Cor. 2 : 15, 16— "For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto 
God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish ; to the one a savor from death unto death ; to the other a savor 
from life unto life " ; c/. Luke 2 : 34 — " this child is set for the falling, and rising up of many in Israel " = for the 
falling of some, and for the rising up of others ). 

(g) The decree of election implies a decree of reprobation. — Answer: 
The decree of reprobation is not a positive decree, like that of election, but 
a permissive decree to leave the sinner to his self -chosen rebellion and its 
natural consequences of punishment. 

Election and sovereignty are only sources of good. Election is not a decree to 
destroy,— it is a decree only to save. When we elect a President, we do not need to hold 
a second election to determine that the remaining millions shall be non-Presidents. It 
is needless to apply contrivance or force. Sinners, like water, if simply let alone, will 
run down hill to ruin. The decree of reprobation is simply a decree to do nothing— a 
decree to leave the sinner to himself. The natural result of this judicial forsaking, on 
the part of God, is the hardening and destruction of the sinner. But it must not be for- 
gotten that this hardening and destruction are not due to any positive efficiency of God, 
—they are a self -hardening and a self-destruction,— and God's judicial forsaking is only 
the just penalty of the sinner's guilty rejection of offered mercy. 

See losea 11 : 8— "low shall I give thee up, Bphraim? .... my heart is turned within me, my compassions are 
kindled together" ; 4 : 17 — "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone" ; Rom. 9 : 22, 23 — "What if God, willing to 
show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruc- 
tion : and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory " 
—here notice that "which he afore prepared" declares a positive divine efficiency, in the case 
of the vessels of mercy, while "fitted unto destruction" intimates no such positive agency of 
God,— the vessels of wrath fitted themselves for destruction; 2 Tim. 2 : 20 — "vessels . . . 
some unto honor, and some unto dishonor" ; 1 Pet. 2 : 8— "they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto 
also they were appointed " ; Jude 4 — " who were of old set forth [ ' written of beforehand '—Am. Rev. ] unto this 
condemnation." 

On the general subject of Election, see Mozley, Predestination; Payne, Divine Sover- 
eignty; Ridgeley, Works, 1 : 261-324, esp. 322; Edwards, Works, 2 : 527 sq. ; Van Ooster- 
zee, Dogmatics, 446-458 ; Martensen, Dogmatics, 362-382 ; and especially Wardlaw, Sys- 
tematic Theology, 485-549; H. B. Smith, Syst. of Christian Theology, 502-514. 



II. Calling. 

Calling is that act of God by which men are invited to accept, by faith, 
the salvation provided by Christ. — The Scriptures distinguish between: 

(a) The general, or external, call to all men through God's providence, 
word, and Spirit. 

Is. 45 : 22 — " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else " ; 55 : 6. 
— "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; call ye upon him while he is near" ; 65 : 12 — "when I called, ye did 
not answer ; when I spake, ye did not hear ; but ye did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I 
delighted not " ; Ez. 33 : 11 — " As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the 
wicked turn from his way and live ; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, house of Israel?" 
Mat. 11 : 28— "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" ; 22 : 3— "sent forth 
his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come" ; Mark 16 : 15 — "Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation" ; John 12 : 32— "And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto myself" — draw, not drag ; Rev. 3 : 20— "Behold, I stand at the door and knock:, 
if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 



CALLING. 435 

(6) The special, efficacious call of the Holy Spirit to the elect. 

Lake 14 : 23 — " Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled " ; 
Rom. 1 : 6, 7 — "to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father 
and the Lord Jesus Christ" ; 8 : 30 — "whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also 
justified" ; 11 : 29 — "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 24— "Rut we preach 
Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness ; but unto them that are called, both Jews 
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God" ; 26 —"For behold your calling, brethren, how that not 
many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called" ; Phil. 3 : 14 — "I press on toward the goal, 
unto the prize of the high [marg. 'upward' ] calling of God, in Christ Jesus" ; Eph. 1 : 18— "that ye know what is 
the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" ; i Thess. 2 : 12 — "to the end that 
ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you unto his own kingdom and glory" ; 2 Thess. 2 : 14 — "whereunto he 
called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" ; 2 Tim. 1 : 9 — "who saved us, 
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was 
given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal" ; Heb. 3 : 1 —"holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling" ; 2 Pet. 
1 : 10 — " Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure." 

Two questions only need special consideration : 
A. Is God's general call sincere ? 

This is denied, upon the ground that such sincerity is incompatible, first, 
with the inability of the sinner to obey ; and secondly, with the design of 
God to bestow only upon the elect the special grace without which they 
will not obey. 

( a ) To the first objection we reply that, since this inability is not a physi- 
cal but a moral inability, consisting simply in the settled perversity of an 
evil will, there can be no insincerity in offering salvation to all, especially 
when the offer is in itself a proper motive to obedience. 

God's call to all men to repent and to believe the gospel is no more insincere than his 
command to all men to love him with all the heart. There is no obstacle in the way of 
men's obedience to the gospel, that does not exist to prevent their obedience to the law. 
If it is proper to publish the commands of the law, it is proper to publish the invitations 
of the gospel. A human being may be perfectly sincere in giving an invitation which 
he knows will be refused. He may desire to have the invitation accepted, while yet he 
may, for certain reasons of justice or personal dignity, be unwilling to put forth special 
efforts, aside from the invitation itself, to secure the acceptance of it on the part of those 
to whom it is offered. So God's desires that certain men should be saved may not be 
accompanied by his will to exert special influences to save them. 

These desires were meant by the phrase "revealed will" in the old theologians; his 
purpose to bestow special grace, by the phrase "secret will." It is of the former that 
Paul speaks, in 1 Tim. 2 : 4— "who would have all men to be saved." Here we have, not the active 
owcu, but the passive o-w0iji/ai. The meaning is, not that God purposes to save all men, 
but that he desires all men to be saved through repenting and believing the gospel. 
Hence God's revealed will, or desire, that all men should be saved, is perfectly consistent 
with his secret will, or purpose, to bestow special grace only upon a certain number 
(see, on 1 Tim. 2 : 4, Fairbairn's Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles). 

The sincerity of God's call is shown, not only in the fact that the only obstacle to com- 
pliance, on the sinner's part, is the sinner's own evil will, but also in the fact that God 
has, at infinite cost, made a complete external provision, upon the ground of which "ha 
that will" may "come" and "take the water of life freely" ( Rev. 22 : 17) ; so that God can truly say: 
"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? " ( Is. 5 : 4 ). Broadus, Com. on 
Mat. 6 : 10— "Thy will be done"— distinguishes between God's will of purpose, of desire, and of 
command. See also Studien und Kritiken, 1887 : 7 sq. 

(b) To the second, we reply that the objection, if true, would equally 

hold against God's foreknowledge. The sincerity of God's general call is 

no more inconsistent with his determination that some shall be permitted 

to reject it, than it is with his foreknowledge that some will reject it. 

Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2 : 643— "Predestination concerns only the purpose of God to 



436 SOTEKIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

render effectual, in particular cases, a call addressed to all. A general amnesty, on 
certain conditions, may be offered by a sovereign to rebellious subjects, although he 
knows that through pride or malice many will refuse to accept it ; and even though, 
for wise reasons, he should determine not to constrain their assent, supposing that such 
influence over their minds were within his power. It is evident, from the nature of the 
call, that it has nothing to do with the secret purpose of God to grant his effectual grace 

to some, and not to others According to the Augustinian scheme, the non-elect 

have all the advantages and opportunities of securing their salvation, which, according 

to any other scheme, are granted to mankind indiscriminately God designed, in 

its adoption, to save his own people, but he consistently offers its benefits to all who are 
willing to receive them." See also H. B. Smith, System of Christian Theology, 515-521. 

B. Is God's special call irresistible ? 

We prefer to say that this special call is efficacious, — that is, that it infal- 
libly accomplishes its purpose of leading the sinner to the acceptance of 
salvation. This implies two things : 

( a ) That the operation of God is not an outward constraint upon the 
human will, but that it accords with the laws of our mental constitution. 
We reject the term 'irresistible,' as implying a coercion and compulsion 
which is foreign to the nature of God's working in the soul. 

Ps. 110 : 3 — "Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power: In the beauties of holiness, from the 
womb of the morning, Thou hast the dew of thy youth"— i. e., youthful recruits to thy standard, as 
numberless and as bright as the drops of morning dew ; Phil. 2 : 12, 13— "Work out your own 
salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure " 
— i. e., the result of God's working is our own working. The Lutheran Formula of Con- 
cord properly condemns the view that, before, in, and after conversion, the will only 
resists the Holy Ghost ; for this, it declares, is the very nature of conversion, that out 
of non- willing, God makes willing, persons (E. C, 60, 581, 582, 673). 

( b ) That the operation of God is the originating cause of that new dis- 
position of the affections, and that new activity of the will, by which the 
sinner accepts Christ. The cause is not in the response of the will to the 
presentation of motives by God, nor in any mere cooperation of the will of 
man with the will of God, but is an almighty act of God in the will of man, 
by which its freedom to choose God as its end is restored and rightly exer- 
cised (John 1 : 12, 13). For further discussion of the subject, see, in the 
next section, the remarks on Regeneration, with which this efficacious call 
is identical (pages 450-454). 

John 1 : 12, 13— "But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them 
that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
God's saving grace and effectual calling are irresistible, not in the sense that they are 
never resisted, but in the sense that they are never successfully resisted. See Andrew 
Fuller, Works, 2 : 373, 513, and 3 : 807 ; GUI, Body of Divinity, 2 : 121-130; Robert Hall, 
Works, 3 : 75. 



SECTION" II. — THE APPLICATION OF CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 
IN ITS ACTUAL BEGINNING. 

Under this head we treat of Union with Christ, Eegeneration, Conversion 
( embracing Repentance and Faith ), and Justification. Much confusion and 
error have arisen from conceiving these as occurring in chronological order. 
The order is logical, not chronological. As it is only "in Christ " that man 



APPLICATION OF CHRIST'S REDEMPTION". 437 

is "a new creature " ( 2 Cor. 5 : 17) or is ''justified " (Acts 13 : 39), union 
with Christ logically precedes both regeneration and justification ; and yet, 
chronologically, the moment of our union with Christ is also the moment 
when we are regenerated and justified. So, too, regeneration and conver- 
sion are but the divine and human sides or aspects of the same fact, although 
regeneration has logical precedence, and man turns only as God turns him. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 694 (Syst. Doct., 4 : 159), gives at this point an account of 
the work of the Holy Spirit in general. The Holy Spirit's Work, he says, presupposes 
the historical work of Christ, and prepares the way for Christ's return. '* As the Holy 
Spirit is the principle of union between the Father and the Son, so he is the principle of 
union between God and man Only through the Holy Spirit does Christ secure for him- 
self those who will love him as distinct and free personalities." Regeneration and con- 
version are not chronologically separate. Which of the spokes of a wheel starts first? 
The ray of light and the ray of heat enter at the same moment. Sensation and percep- 
tion are not separated in time, although the former is the cause of the latter. 

" Suppose a non-elastic tube extending across the Atlantic. Suppose that the tube is 
completely filled with an incompressible fluid. Then there would be no interval of time 
between the impulse given to the fluid at this end of the tube, and the effect upon the 
fluid at the other end." See Hazard, Causation and Freedom in Willing, 33-38, who argues 
that cause and effect are always simultaneous; else, in the intervening time, there 
would be a cause that had no effect ; that is, a cause that caused nothing ; that is, a cause 
that was not a cause. " A potential cause may exist for an unlimited period without 
producing any effect, and of course may precede its effect by any length of time. But 
actual, effective cause being the exercise of a sufficient power, its effect cannot be 
delayed ; for, in that case, there would be the exercise of a sufficient power to produce 
the effect, without producing it,— involving the absurdity of its being both sufficient and 
insufficient at the same time. 

" A difficulty may here be suggested in regard to the flow or progress of events in 
time, if they are all simultaneous with their causes. This difficulty cannot arise as to 
intelligent effort ; for, in regard to it, periods of non-action may continually intervene ; 
but if there are series of events and material phenomena, each of which is in turn effect 
and cause, it may be difficult to see how any time could elapse between the first and 

the last of the series If, however, as I suppose, these series of events, or material 

changes, are always effected through the medium of motion, it need not trouble us, for 
there is precisely the same difficulty in regard to our conception of the motion of matter 
from point to point, there being no space or length between any two consecutive points, 
and yet the body in motion gets from one end of a long line to the other, and in this case 

this difficulty just neutralizes the other So, even if we cannot conceive how 

motion involves the idea of time, we may perceive that, if it does so, it may be a means 
of conveying events, which depend upon it, through time also." 

Martineau, Study, 1 : 148-150— "Simultaneity does not exclude duration,"— since each 
cause has duration and each effect has duration also. Bowne, Metaphysics, 106 — " In 
the system, the complete ground of an event never lies in any one thing, but only in a 
complex of things. If a single thing were the sufficient ground of an effect, the effect 
would coexist with the thing, and all effects would be instantaneously given. Hence all 
events in the system must be viewed as the result of the interaction of two or more 
things." 

See A. A. Hodge, on the Ordo Salutis, in Princeton Rev., March, 1878 : 304-331. Union 
with Christ, says Dr. Hodge, " is effected by the Holy Ghost in effectual calling. Of this 
calling the parts are two : ( a ) the offering of Christ to the sinner, externally by the 
gospel, and internally by the illumination of the Holy Ghost; (to) the reception of 
Christ, which on our part is both passive and active. The passive reception is that 
whereby a spiritual principle is ingenerated into the human will, whence issues the active 
reception, which is an act of faith with which repentance is always conjoined. The com- 
munion of benefits which results from this union involves : ( a ) a change of state or 
relation, called justification ; and ( h ) a change of subjective moral character, commenced 
in regeneration and completed through sanctification." See also Dr. Hodge's Popular 
Lectures on Theological Themes, 340, and Outlines of Theology, 333-429. 

H. B. Smith, however, in his System of Christian Theology, is more clear in the putting 
of Union with Christ before Regeneration. On page 502, he begins his treatment of the 
Application of Redemption with the title: "The Union between Christ and the indi- 
vidual believer as effected by the Holy Spirit. This embraces the subjects of Justifica- 



438 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

tion, Regeneration, and Sanctification, with the underlying topic which comes first to be 
considered, Election." He therefore treats Union with Christ (531-539) before Regene- 
ration ( 553-569 ). He says Calvin defines regeneration as coming to us by participation 
in Christ, and apparently agrees with this view ( 559). 

" This union [ with Christ ] is at the ground of regeneration and justification " (534). 
" The great difference of theological systems comes out here. Since Christianity is re- 
demption through Christ, our mode of conceiving that will determine the character of 
our whole theological system " ( 536 ). " The union with Christ is mediated by his Spirit, 
whence we are both renewed and justified. The great fact of objective Christianity is 
incarnation in order to atonement ; the great fact of subjective Christianity is union 
with Christ, whereby we receive the atonement" (537). We may add that this union 
with Christ, in view of which God elects and to which God calls the sinner, is begun in 
regeneration, completed in conversion, declared in justification, and proved in sanctifi- 
cation and perseverance. 

I. Union with Christ. 

The Scriptures declare that, through the operation of God, there is consti- 
tuted a union of the soul with Christ different in kind from God's natural 
and providential concursus with all spirits, as well as from all unions of 
mere association or sympathy, moral likeness, or moral influence, — a union 
of life, in which the human spirit, while then most truly possessing its own 
individuality and personal distinctness, is interpenetrated and energized by 
the Spirit of Christ, is made inscrutably but indissolubly one with him, and 
so becomes a member and partaker of that regenerated, believing, and 
justified humanity of which he is the head. 

Union with Christ is not union with a system of doctrine, nor with external religious 
influences, nor with an organized church, nor with an ideal man,— but rather, with a 
personal, risen, living, omnipresent Lord (J. W. A. Stewart). Dr. J. W. Alexander well 
calls this doctrine of the Union of the Believer with Christ " the central truth of all 
theology and of all religion." Yet it receives little of formal recognition, either in 
dogmatic treatises or in common religious experience. Quenstedt, 886-912, has devoted 
a section to it ; A. A. Hodge gives to it a chapter, in his Outlines of Theology, 369 sq., to 
which we are indebted for valuable suggestions ; H. B. Smith treats of it, not however 
as a separate topic, but under the head of Justification ( System, 531-539). 

The majority of printed systems of doctrine, however, contain no chapter or section 
on Union with Christ, and the majority of Christians much more frequently think of 
Christ as a Savior outside of them, than as a Savior who dwells within. This compara- 
tive neglect of the doctrine is doubtless a reaction from the exaggerations of a false 
mysticism. But there is great need of rescuing the doctrine from neglect. For this we 
rely wholly upon Scripture. Doctrines which reason can neither discover nor prove 
need large support from the Bible. It is a mark of divine wisdom that the doctrine of 
the Trinity, for example, is so inwoven with the whole fabric of the New Testament, 
that the rejection of the former is the virtual rejection of the latter. The doctrine of 
Union with Christ, in like manner, is taught so variously and abundantly, that to deny 
it is to deny inspiration itself. See Kahnis, Luth. Dogmatik, 3 : 447-450. 

1. Scripture Representations of this Union. 

A. Figurative teaching. It is illustrated : 

( a ) From the union of a building and its foundation. 

Eph. 2 : 20-22— "being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief 
corner stone ; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord ; in whom 
ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit ' ' ; Col. 2:7—" builded up in him "— grounded in 
Christ as our foundation ; 1 Pet. 2 : 4, 5— "unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but 
with God elect, precious, ye also, as spiritual stones, are built up a spiritual house "—each living stone in the 
Christian temple is kept in proper relation to every other, and is made to do its part in 
furnishing a habitation for God, only by being built upon and permanently connected 
with Christ, the chief corner stone. Cf. Ps. 118 : 22— "The stone which the builders rejected is become 
the head of the corner" ; Is. 28 : 16— "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner 
stone of sure foundation : he that believeth shall not make haste." 



UNION WITH CHRIST. 439 

( 6 ) From the union between husband and wife. 

Rom. 7:4 — "ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, 
even to him that was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God " — here union with Christ 
is illustrated by the indissoluble bond that connects husband and wife, and makes them 
legally and organically one ; 2 Cor. 11 : 2 — " I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy : for I espoused you 
to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ " ; Eph. 5 : 31, 32 — "For this cause shall a man 
leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife ; and the twain shall become one flesh. This mystery is great ; 
but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church" — Meyer refers verse 31 wholly to Christ, and says 
that Christ leaves father and mother (the right hand of God) and is joined to the 
church as his wife, the two constituting thenceforth one moral person. He makes 
the union future, however, — "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother" — the consum- 
mation is at Christ's second coming. But the Fathers, as Chrysostom, Theodoret, and 
Jerome, referred it more properly to the incarnation. 

Rev. 19 : 7 — "the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" ; 22 : 17 — "And the Spirit 
and the bride say, Come" ; cf. Is. 54 : 5 — "For thy Maker is thine husband" ; Jer. 3 : 20 — "Surely as a wife 
treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel, saith the Lord" ; 
Hos. 2 : 2-5 — " For their mother hath played the harlot " — departure from God is adultery ; the Song of 
Solomon, as Jewish interpreters have always maintained, is an allegorical poem describing, 
under the figure of marriage, the union between Jehovah and his people : Paul only 
adopts the Old Testament figure, and applies it more precisely to the union of God with 
the church in Jesus Christ. 

( c ) From the union between the vine and its branches. 

John 15 : 1-10 — " I am the vine, ye are the branches : He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much 
fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing"— as God's natural life is in the vine, that it may give 
life to its natural branches, so God's spiritual life is in the vine, Christ, that he may give 
life to his spiritual branches. The roots of this new vine are planted in heaven, not on 
earth ; and into it the half -withered branches of the old humanity are* to be grafted, 
that they may have life divine. Tet our Lord does not say "I am the root." The 
branch is not something outside, which has to get nourishment out of the root,— it is 
rather a part of the vine. Rom. 6:5 — "if we have become united with him [ <tv h<}>vtoi — 'grown 
together'— used of the man and horse in the Centaur, Xen., Cyrop., 4 : 3 : 18], by the like- 
ness of his death we shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection" ; 11 : 24 — "thou wast cut out of that which is 
by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree" ; Col. 2 : 6, 7 — "As therefore 
ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and builded up in him"— not only grounded in 
Christ as our foundation, but thrusting down roots into him as the deep, rich, all-sus- 
taining soil. This union with Christ is consistent with individuality : for the graft 
brings forth fruit after its kind, though modified by the tree into which it is grafted. 

(d) From the union between the members and the head of the body. 

1 Cor. 6 : 15, 19 — "Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? .... Know ye not that your body is a 
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God ? " 12 : 12 — " For as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body ; so also is Christ "— here Christ is identi- 
fied with the church of which he is the head; Eph. 1 : 22, 23— "he put all things in subjection under 
his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in 
all"— as the members of the human body are united to the head, the source of their 
activity and the power that controls their movements, so all believers are members of 
an invisible body whose head is Christ. Shall we tie a string round the finger to keep 
for it its own blood ? No, for all the blood of the body is needed to nourish one finger. 
So Christ is "head over all things to [for the benefit of] the church" (Tyler, Theol. Greek 
Poets, preface, ii ). " The church is the fullness ( irK^pu/xa ) of Christ ; as it was not good 
for the first man, Adam, to be alone, no more was it good for the second man, Christ" 
(C. H. M.). Eph. 4 : 15, 16 — "grow up in all things into him, which is the head, even Christ; from whom all the 
body .... maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love " ; 5 : 29, 30 — " for no man ever hated 
his own flesh ; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church because we are members of his body." 

(e) From the union of the race with the source of its life in Adam. 

Rom. 5 : 12, 21 — " as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin ... . that as sin reigned 
in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord " ; 1 Cor. 15 : 
22, 45, 49 — "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive .... The first man Adam became a living 
soul. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit ... as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly " — as the whole race is one with the first man Adam, in whom it fell and 
from whom it has derived a corrupted and guilty nature, so the whole race of believers 



44:0 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

constitutes a new and restored humanity, whose justified and purified nature is derived 
from Christ, the second Adam. Cf. Gen. 2 : 23 —"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh . she 
shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man " — here C. H. M. remarks that, as man is first 
created and then woman is viewed in and formed out of him, so it is with Christ and the 
church. "We are members of Christ's body, because in Christ we have the principle 
of our origin ; from him our life arose, just as the life of Eve was derived from Adam. 
.... The church is Christ's helpmeet, formed out of Christ in his deep sleep of death, as 
Eve out of Adam .... The church will be nearest to Christ, as Eve was to Adam." 
Because Christ is the source of all spiritual life for his people, he is called, in Is. 9 : 6, "Ever- 
lasting Father," and it is said, in Is. 53 : 10, that " he shall see his seed " ( see page 367). 

B. Direct statements. 

{a) The believer is said to be in Christ. 

Lest we should regard the figures mentioned above as merely Oriental metaphors, the 
fact of the believer's union with Christ is asserted in the most direct and prosaic man- 
ner. John 14 : 20 — "ye in me" ; Rom. 6 : 11— "alive unto God in Christ Jesus" ; 8 : 1— "no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 17 — " if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature ' ' ; Eph. 1:4 — " chose 
us in him before the foundation of the world" ; 2 : 13— "now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh 
in the blood of Christ." Thus the believer is said to be "in Christ," as the element or atmosphere 
which surrounds him with its perpetual presence and which constitutes his vital breath ; 
in fact, this phrase "in Christ," always meaning "in union with Christ," is the very key to 
Paul's epistles, and to the whole New Testament. 

( b ) Christ is said to be in the believer. 

John 14 : 20 — "I in you" ; Rom. 8 : 9 — "ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 
dwell in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his "— that this Spirit of Christ is 
Christ himself, is shown from verse 10 — " And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the 
Spirit is life because of righteousness " ; Gal. 2 : 20 — " I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I that live, 
but Christ liveth in me" — here Christ is said to be in the believer, and so to live his life 
within the believer, that the latter can point to this as the dominating fact of his 
experience,— it is not so much he that lives, as it is Christ that lives in him. 

( c ) The Father and the Son dwell in the believer. 

John 14 : 23 — " If a man love me, he will keep my word : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
and make our abode with him" ; cf. 10 — "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the 
words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works"— the Father 
and the Son dwell in the believer ; for where the Son is, there always the Father must 
be also. If the union between the believer and Christ in John 14 : 23 is to be interpreted as 
one of mere moral influence, then the union of Christ and the Father in John 14 : 10 must 
also be interpreted as a union of mere moral influence. Eph. 3 : 17— "that Christ may dwell in 
your hearts through faith " 1 John 4 : 16 — " he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him." 

(d) The believer has life by partaking of Christ, as Christ has life by 
partaking of the Father. 

John 6 : 53, 56, 57— "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves 
. . . . He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him .... As the living Father sent me, 
and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth me shall live because of me "—the believer has life by par- 
taking of Christ in a way that may not inappropriately be compared with Christ's having 
life by partaking of the Father. 1 Cor. 10 : 16, 17—" The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a com- 
munion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ ? " — here it 
is intimated that the Lord's Supper sets forth, in the language of symbol, the soul's 
actual participation in the fife of Christ; and the margin properly translates the word 
KOLvuivia, not " communion," but " participation." Cf. 1 John 1:3—" our fellowship ( koivoivLo. ) is with 
the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 

(e) All believers are one in Christ. 

John 17 : 21-23— "that they all may be one ; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be 
in us : that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto 
them ; that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one " — 
all believers are one in Christ, to whom they are severally and collectively united, as 
Christ himself is one with God. 



UNIO^T WITH CHRIST. 441 

(/) The believer is made partaker of the divine nature. 

2 Pet. 1 : 4 — " that through these [ promises ] ye may become partakers of the divine nature " — not by having 
the essence of your humanity changed into the essence of divinity, but by having Christ 
the divine Savior continually dwelling within, and indissolubly joined to, your human 
souls. 

(g) The believer is made one spirit with the Lord. 

1 Cor. 6 : 17— "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit "— human nature is so interpenetrated and 
energized by the divine, that the two move and act as one ; cf. 19 — " know ye not that your body 
is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God ? " Rom. 8 : 26 — "the Spirit also helpeth our 
infirmity : for we know not how to pray as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings 
which cannot be uttered"— the Spirit is so near to us, and so one with us, that our prayer is 
called his, or rather, his prayer becomes ours. Weiss, in his Life of Jesus, says that, in 
the view of Scripture, human greatness does not consist in a man's producing every- 
thing in a natural way out of himself, but in possessing perfect receptivity for God's 
greatest gift. Therefore God's Son receives the Spirit without measure ; and we may 
add that the believer in like manner receives Christ. 

2. Nature of this Union. 

We have here to do not only with a fact of life, but with a unique rela- 
tion between the finite and the infinite. Our descriptions must therefore 
be inadequate. Yet in many respects we know what this union is not ; in 
certain respects we can positively characterize it. 

It should not surprise us if we find it far more difficult to give a scientific definition 
of this union, than to determine the fact of its existence. It is a fact of life with which 
we have to deal ; and the secret of life, even in its lowest forms, no philosopher has ever 
yet discovered. The tiniest flower witnesses to two facts : first, that of its own relative 
independence, as an individual organism ; and secondly, that of its ultimate dependence 
upon a life and power not its own. So every human soul has its proper powers of intel- 
lect, affection, and will ; yet it lives, moves, and has its being in God ( Acts 17 : 21 ). 

Starting out from the truth of God's omnipresence, it might seem as if God's indwell- 
ing in the granite boulder was the last limit of his union with the finite. But we see 
the divine intelligence and goodness drawing nearer to us, by successive stages, in vege- 
table life, in the animal creation, and in the moral nature of man. And yet there are 
two stages beyond all these : first, in Christ's union with the believer ; and secondly, in 
God's union with Christ. If this union of God with the believer be only one of several 
approximations of God to his finite creation, the fact that it is, equally with the others, 
not wholly comprehensible to reason, should not blind us either to its truth or to its 
importance. 

A. Negatively. — It is not : 

(a) A merely natural union, like that of God with all human spirits, — as 
held by rationalists. 

In our physical life we are conscious of another life within us which is not subject to 
our wills : the heart beats involuntarily, whether we sleep or wake. But in our spiritual 
life we are still more conscious of a life within our life. Even the heathen said : "Est 
Deus in nobis ; agitante calescimus illo," and the Egyptians held to the identification of 
the departed with Osiris ( Renouf , Hibbert Lectures, 185 ). But Paul urges us to work 
out our salvation, upon the very ground that "it is God that worketh " in us, " both to will and to 
work, for his good pleasure " ( Phil. 2 : 12, 13 ). This life of God in the soul is the life of Christ. 

(6) A merely moral union, or union of love and sympathy, like that 
between teacher and scholar, friend and friend, — as held by Socinians and 
Arminians. 

There is a moral union between different souls: 1 Sam. 18 : 1— "the soul of Jonathan was knit 
with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul "— here the Vulgate has : "Anima Jona- 
thae agglutinata Davidi." Aristotle calls friends "one soul." So in a higher sense, in 



442 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

Acts 4 : 32, the early believers are said to have been " of one heart and soul." But in John 17 : 21, 26, 
Christ's union with his people is distinguished from any mere union of love and sympa- 
thy : " that they may all be one ; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us ... . 
That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them, and I in them." Jesus' aim, in the whole of his 
last discourse, is to show that no mere union of love and sympathy will be sufficient : 
"apart from me," he says, "ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). That his disciples may be vitally 
joined to himself, is therefore the subject of his last prayer. 

Dorner says well, that Arminianism ( and with this doctrine Roman Catholics and 
the advocates of New School views substantially agree ) makes man a mere tangent to 
the circle of the divine nature. It has no idea of the interpenetration of the one by the 
other. But the Lutheran Formula of Concord says much more correctly : " Damnamus 
sententiam quod non Deus ipse, sed dona Dei duntaxat, in credentibus habitent." 

( c ) A union of essence, which destroys the distinct personality and sub- 
sistence of either Christ or the human spirit, — as held by many of the 
mystics. 

Many of the mystics, as Schwenkfeld, Weigel, Sebastian Frank, held to an essential 
union between Christ and the believer. One of Weigel's followers, therefore, could say 
to another : " I am Christ Jesus, the living Word of God ; I have redeemed thee by my 
sinless sufferings." We are ever to remember that the indwelling of Christ only puts 
the believer more completely in possession of himself, and makes him more conscious 
of his own personality and power. Union with Christ must be taken in connection 
with the other truth of the personality and activity of the Christian; otherwise it 
tends to pantheism. Martineau, Study, 2 : 190—" In nature it is God's immanent life, in 
morals it is God's transcendent life, with which we commune." 

William Lincoln : " The only way for the believer, if he wants to go rightly, is to 
remember that truth is always two-sided. If there is any truth that the Holy Spirit 
has specially pressed upon your heart, if you do not want to push it to the extreme, 
ask what is the counter-truth, and lean a little of your weight upon that ; otherwise, if 
you bear so very much on one side of the truth, there is a danger of pushing it into a 
heresy. Heresy means selected truth ; it does not mean error ; heresy and error are 
very different things. Heresy is truth, but truth pushed into undue importance, to the 
disparagement of the truth upon the other side." 

(d) A union mediated and conditioned by participation of the sacra- 
ments of the church, — as held by Romanists, Lutherans, and High-Church 
Episcopalians. 

Perhaps the most pernicious misinterpretation of the nature of this union is that 
which conceives of it as a physical and material one, and which rears upon this basis the 
fabric of a sacramental and external Christianity. It is sufficient here to say that this 
union cannot be mediated by sacraments, since sacraments presuppose it as already 
existing ; both Baptism and the Lord's Supper are destined only for believers. Only 
faith receives and retains Christ ; and faith is the act of the soul grasping what is purely 
invisible and supersensible : not the act of the body, submitting to Baptism or partaking 
of the Supper. 

B. Positively. — It is : 

(a) An organic union, — in which we become members of Christ and 
partakers of his humanity. 

Kant defines an organism, as that whose parts are reciprocally means and end. The 
body is an organism ; since the limbs exist for the heart, and the heart for the limbs. So 
each member of Christ's body lives for him who is the head ; and Christ the head equally 
lives for his members : Eph. 5 : 29, 30 — " no man ever hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, 
even as Christ also the church ; because we are members of his body." 

(6) A vital union, — in which Christ's life becomes the dominating prin- 
ciple within us. 

This union is a vital one, in distinction from any union of mere juxtaposition or 
external influence. Christ does not work upon us from without, as one separated from 



UNION WITH CHEIST. 443 

us, but from within, as the very heart from which the life-blood of our spirits flows. 
See Gal. 2 : 20 — "it is no longer I that live, bnt Christ liveth in me ; and that life -which I now live in the flesh I live 
in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me" ; Col. 3 : 3, 4— "For ye 
died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also -with 
him be manifested in glory." Christ's life is not corrupted by the corruption of his members, 
any more than the ray of light is defiled by the filth with which it comes in contact. 
We may be unconscious of this union with Christ, as we often are of the circulation of 
the blood, yet it may be the very source and condition of our life. 

(c) A spiritual union, — that is, a union whose source and author is the 
Holy Spirit. 

By a spiritual union we mean a union not of body but of spirit,— a union, therefore, 
which only the Holy Spirit originates and maintains. Rom. 8 : 9, 10— "ye are not in the flesh, but 
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none 
of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." The 
indwelling of Christ involves a continual exercise of efficient power. In Eph. 3 : 16, 17, 
"strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man" is immediately followed by "that Christ 
may dwell in your hearts through faith." 

(d) An indissoluble union, — that is, a union which, consistently with 
Christ's promise and grace, can never be dissolved. 

Mat. 28 : 20 — "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world " ; John 10 : 28 — "they shall never perish 
and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" ; Rom. 8 : 35, 39 — "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 
.... nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord " ; 1 Thess. 4 : 14, 17 —"them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him .... 
Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: 
and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 

Christ's omnipresence makes it possible for him to be united to, and to be present in, 
each believer, as perfectly and fully as if that believer were the only one to receive 
Christ's fullness. As Christ's omnipresence makes the whole Christ present in every 
place, each believer has the whole Christ with him, as his source of strength, purity, 
Jife ; so that each may say : Christ gives all his time and wisdom and care to me. Such 
a union as this lacks every element of instability. Once formed, the union is indis- 
soluble. 

Since there is now an unchangeable and divine element in us, our salvation depends 
no longer upon our unstable wills, but upon Christ's purpose and power. By temporary 
declension from duty, or by our causeless unbelief , we may banish Christ to the barest 
and most remote room of the soul's house ; but he does not suffer us wholly to exclude 
him; and when we are willing to unbar the doors, he is still there, ready to fill the 
whole mansion with his light and love. 

(e) An inscrutable union, — mystical, however, only in the sense of sur- 
passing in its intimacy and value any other union of souls which we know. 

This union is inscrutable, indeed ; but it is not mystical, in the sense of being unintel- 
ligible to the Christian or beyond the reach of his experience. If we call it mystical at 
all, it should be only because, in the intimacy of its communion and in the transforming 
power of its influence, it surpasses any other union of souls that we know, and so 
cannot be fully described or understood by earthly analogies. Eph. 5 : 32— "This mystery is 
great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church" ; Col. 1 : 27 — "the riches of the glory of this mystery 
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." 

See Diman, Theistic Argument, 380— "As physical science has brought us to the con- 
clusion that back of all the phenomena of the material universe there lies an invisible 
universe of forces, and that these forces may ultimately be reduced to one all-pervad- 
ing force in which the unity of the physical universe consists ; and as philosophy has 
advanced the rational conjecture that this ultimate all-pervading force is simply will- 
force ; so the great Teacher holds up to us the spiritual universe as pervaded by one 
omnipotent life — a life which was revealed in him as its highest manifestation, but 
which is shared by all who by faith become partakers of his nature. He was Son of 
God : they too had power to become sons of God. The incarnation is wholly within 
the natural course and tendency of things. It was prepared for, it came, in the fullness 
of times. Christ's life is not something sporadic and individual, having its source in 
the personal conviction of each disciple ; it implies a real connection with Christ, the 
head. Behind all nature there is one force; behind all varieties of Christian life and 



444 SOTERIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

character there is one spiritual power. All nature is not inert matter,— it is pervaded 
by a living presence. So all the body of believers live by virtue of the all-working 
Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost." 

A. H. Strong, in Examiner, 1880: "Such is the nature of union with Christ,— such I 
mean, is the nature of every believer's union with Christ. For, whether he knows it or 
not, every Christian has entered into just such a partnership as this. It is this and this 
only which constitutes him a Christian, and which makes possible a Christian church. 
We may, indeed, be thus united to Christ, without being fully conscious of the real 
nature of our relation to him. We may actually possess the kernel, while as yet we 
have regard only to the shell ; we may seem to ourselves to be united to Christ only 
by an external bond, while after all it is an inward and spiritual bond that makes us 
his. God often reveals to the Christian the mystery of the gospel, which is Christ in 
him the hope of glory, at the very time that he is seeking only some nearer access to a 
Redeemer outside of him. Trying to find a union of cooperation or of sympathy, he is 
amazed to learn that there is already established a union with Christ more glorious and 
blessed, namely, a union of life ; and so, like the miners in the Rocky Mountains, while 
he is looking only for silver, he finds gold. Christ and the believer have the same life. 
They are not separate persons linked together by some temporary bond of friendship,— 
they are united by a tie as close and indissoluble as if the same blood ran in their veins. 
Yet the Christian may never have suspected how intimate a union he has with his 
Savior ; and the first understanding of this truth may be the gateway through which he 
passes into a holier and happier stage of the Christian life." 

On the nature of this union, see H. B. Smith, System of Christian Theology, 531-539 ; 
Baird, Elohim Revealed, 601 ; Wilberforce, Incarnation, 208-272, and New Birth of Man's 
Nature, 1-30. Per contra, see Park, Discourses, 117-136. 

3. Consequences of this Union as respects the Believer. 

We have seen that Christ's union with humanity, at the incarnation, 
involved him in all the legal liabilities of the race to which he united him- 
self, and enabled him so to assume the penalty of its sin as to make for all 
men a full satisfaction to the divine justice, and to remove all external 
obstacles to man's return to God. An internal obstacle, however, still 
remains — the evil affections and will, and the consequent guilt, of the 
individual soul. This last obstacle also Christ removes, in the case of all 
his people, by uniting himself to them in a closer and more perfect manner 
than that in which he is united to humanity at large. As Christ's union 
with the race secures the objective reconciliation of the race to God, so 
Christ's union with believers secures the subjective reconciliation of 
believers to God. 

In Baird, Elohim Revealed, 607-610, in Owen, on Justification, chap. 8, in Boston, 
Covenant of Grace, chap. 2, and in Dale, Atonement, 265-440, the union of the believer 
with Christ is made to explain the bearing of our sins by Christ. As we have seen in 
our discussion of the Atonement, however (page 413), this explains the cause by the 
effect, and implies that Christ died only for the elect ( see review of Dale, in Brit. Quar. 
Rev., Apr., 1876 : 221-225). It is not the union of Christ with the believer, but the union 
of Christ with humanity at large, that explains his taking upon him human guilt and 
penalty. 

The consequences of union with Christ may be summarily stated as 
follows : 

(a) Union with Christ involves a change in the dominant affection of 
the soul. Christ's entrance into the soul makes it a new creature, in the 
sense that the ruling disposition, which before was sinful, now becomes 
holy. This change we call Regeneration.. 

Rom. 8 : 2— "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death " ; 2 Cor. 
5 : 17— "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" ( marg.— " there is a new creation" ) ; Gal. 1 : 15, 16— "it was 
the good pleasure of God ... . to reveal his Son in me " ; Eph. 2 : 10 — "For we are his workmanship, created in 
Christ Jesus for good works." As we derive our old nature from the first man Adam, by birth* 



UKION WITH CHRIST. 445 

so we derive a new nature from the second man Christ, by the new birth. Union with 
Christ is the true "transfusion of blood." "The death-struck sinner, like the wan, 
anaemic, dying- invalid, is saved by having- poured into his veins the healthier blood of 
Christ ' ' ( Drumm ond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World ). God regenerates the soul by uniting 
it to Jesus Christ. 

( b ) Union with Christ involves a new exercise of the soul's powers in 
repentance and faith ; faith, indeed, is the act of the soul by which, under 
the operation of God, Christ is received. This new exercise of the soul's 
powers we call Conversion (Bepentance and Faith). It is the obverse or 
human side of Eegeneration. 

Eph. 3 : 17 — " that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith " ; 2 Tim. 3 : 15 — " the sacred writings which are 
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Faith is the soul's laying hold 
of Christ as its only source of life, pardon, and salvation. And so we see what true 
religion is. It is not a moral life ; it is not a determination to be religious ; it is not 
faith, if by faith we mean an external trust that somehow Christ will save us ; it is 
nothing less than the life of the soul in God, through Christ his Son. To Christ then we 
are to look for the origin, continuance, and increase of our faith (Luke 17 : 5 — "said unto the 
Lord, Increase our faith"). Our faith is but a part of "his fulness" of which "we all received, and 
grace for grace " ( John 1 : 16 ). 

( c ) Union with Christ gives to the believer the legal standing and rights 
of Christ. As Christ's union with the race involves atonement, so the 
believer's union with Christ involves Justification. The believer is entitled 
to take for his own all that Christ is, and all that Christ has done ; and this 
because he has within him that new life of humanity which suffered in 
Christ's death and rose from the grave in Christ's resurrection, — in other 
words, because he is virtually one person with his Redeemer. In Christ 
the believer is prophet, priest, and king. 

Acts 13 : 39 — "by him [lit.: 'in him'=in union with him] every one that believeth is justified" ; Rom. 6: 
7, 8 — " he that hath died is justified from sin . ... we died with Christ " ; 7:4 — " dead to the law through the body of 
Christ " ; 8 : 1 — " no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus " ; 17 — " heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ " -, 

1 Cor. 1 : 30 — " But of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness [justi- 
fication] " ; 3 : 21, 23— "all things are yours, and ye are Christ's" ; 6 : 11 — "ye were justified in the name of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God" ; 2 Cor. 5 : 14 — "we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all 
died " ; 21 — " lim who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness [ justi- 
fication ] of God in him "= God's justified persons, in union with Christ ( see page 415). 

Gal. 2 : 20 — " I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me " ; Eph. 1 : 4, 
6— "chose us in him .... to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" ; 

2 : 5, 6 — " even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ .... made us to sit with 
him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus" ; Phil. 3 : 9— "that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a 
righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness 
which is from God by faith " ; 2 Tim. 2 : 11 — " Faithful is the saying : For if we died with him, we shall also live with 
him." Prophet : Luke 12 : 12 — "the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say " ; 1 John 
2 : 20— "ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Priest : 1 Pet. 2 : 5— "a holy priest- 
hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ " ; Rev. 20 : 6 — " they shall be priests of God 
and of Christ" ; 1 Pet. 2 : 9 — "a royal priesthood." King : Rev. 3 : 21— "He that overcometh, I will give to him 
to sit down with me in my throne " ; 5:10—" madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests." The con- 
nection of justification and union with Christ delivers the former from the charge of 
being a mechanical and arbitrary procedure. As Jonathan Edwards has said : " The 
justification of the believer is no other than his being admitted to communion in, or 
participation of, this head and surety of all believers" (see page 479). 

(d) Union with Christ secures to the believer the continuously trans- 
forming, assimilating power of Christ's life, — first, for the soul; secondly, 
for the body, — consecrating it in the present, and in the future raising it 
up in the likeness of Christ's glorified body. This continuous influence, 
so far as it is exerted in the present life, we call Sanctifieation, the human 
side or aspect of which is Perseverance. 

For the soul: John 1:16— "of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace" — successive and 



446 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

increasing measures of grace, corresponding- to the soul's successive and increasing 
needs ; Rom. 8 : 10 — "if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteous- 
ness " ; 1 Cor. 15 : 45 — " The last Adam became a life-giving spirit " ; Phil. 2 : 5 — " Have this mind in you, which "was 
also in Christ Jesus" ; i John 3 : 2 —"if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him." " Can Christ let the 
believer fall out of his hands ? No, for the believer is his hands." 

For the body : 1 Cor. 6 : 17-20 — " he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit .... know ye not that your 
body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you .... glorify God therefore in your body " ; 1 Thess. 5 : 23 — "And 
the God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " ; Rom. 8 : 11 — " shall quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth 
in you " ; 1 Cor. 15 : 49 — "as we have borne the image of the earthy [man], we shall also bear the image of the 
heavenly [man] " ; Phil. 3 : 20, 21 — "For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Savior, the 
Lord Jesus Christ : who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his 
glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself." 

Is there a physical miracle wrought for the drunkard in his regeneration? Mr. 
Moody says, Yes ; Mr. Gough says, No. We prefer to say that the change is a spiritual 
one ; but that the "expulsive power of a new affection " indirectly affects the body, so 
that old appetites sometimes disappear in a moment ; and that often, in the course of 
years, great changes take place even in the believer's body. " Christ in the soul fashions 
the germinal man into his own likeness, — this is the embryology of the new life. The 
cardinal error in religious life is the attempt to live without proper environment " ( see 
Drummond, Natural Law in Spiritual World, 253-284). Human life from Adam does 
not stand the test,— only divine-human life in Christ can secure us from falling. This 
is the work of Christ, now that he has ascended and taken to himself his power, namely, 
to give his life more and more fully to the church, until it shall grow up in all things 
into him, the Head, and shall fitly express his glory to the world. 

(e) Union with Christ brings about a fellowship of Christ with the 
believer, — Christ takes part in all the labors, temptations, and sufferings of 
his people ; a fellowship of the believer with Christ, — so that Christ's whole 
experience on earth is in some measure reproduced in him ; a fellowship of 
all believers with one another, — furnishing a basis for the spiritual unity 
of Christ's people on earth, and for the eternal communion of heaven. The 
doctrine of Union with Christ is therefore the indispensable preparation for 
Eeclesiology, and for Eschatology, 

Fellowship of Christ with the believer : Phil. 4 : 13 — " I can do all things in him that strengthened 
me" ; Heb. 4 : 15 — "For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" ; cf. Is. 
63 : 9 — " In all their afiliction he was afflicted." 

Of the believer with Christ: Phil. 3 : 10 — "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and 
the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death" ; Col. 1 : 24— "fill up on my part that which is 
lacking of the afflictions of Christ, in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church " ; 1 Pet. 4 : 13 — " partakers of 
Christ's sufferings." The Christian reproduces Christ's life in miniature, and, in a true sense, 
lives it over again. Only upon the principle of union with Christ can we explain how 
the Christian instinctively applies to himself the prophecies and promises which origi- 
nally and primarily were uttered with reference to Christ : " thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; 
Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption " ( Ps. 16 : 10, 11 ). This fellowship is the ground of 
the promises made to believing prayer: John 14 : 13 — "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I 
do " ; Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco : " The meaning of the phrase ['in my name '] is, ' as being 
one with me even as I am revealed to you.' Its two correlatives are 'in me' and the 
Pauline 'in Christ'." "All things are yours" (1 Cor. 3 : 21), because Christ is universal King, and 
all believers are exalted to fellowship with him. 

Of all believers with one another: John 17 : 21— "that they may all be one" ; 1 Cor. 10 : 17— "we, 
who are many, are one bread, one body : for we all partake of the one bread " ; Eph. 2 : 15 — " create in himself of the 
twain one naw man, so making peace " ; 1 John 1 : 3— "that ye also may have fellowship with us : yea, and our fel- 
lowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ"— here the word koivoivlo. is used. Fellowship 
with each other is the effect and result of the fellowship of each with God in Christ. 
Compare John 10:16— "they shall become one flock, one shepherd"; Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco: 
"The bond of fellowship is shown to lie in the common relation to one Lord .... 
Nothing is said of one ' fold ' under the new dispensation." Here is a unity, not of ex- 
ternal organization, but of common life. Of this the visible church is the consequence 
and expression. But this communion is not limited to earth,— it is perpetuated beyond 
death : 1 Thess. 4 : 17— "so shall we ever be with the Lord " ; Heb. 12 : 28 — "to the general assembly and church of 
the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect " ; 



REGENERATION. 447 

Rev. 21 and 22 — the city of God, the new Jerusalem, is the image of perf ect society, as 
well as of intensity and fullness of life in Christ. 

The consciousness of union with Christ gives assurance of salvation. It is a great 
stimulus to believing prayer and to patient labor. It is a duty to "know what is the hope of 
his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power 
to us-ward who believe" (Bph. 1 : 18, 19). Christ's command, "Abide in me, and I in yon" (John 15 : 4), 
implies that we are both to realize and to confirm this union, by active exertion of our 
own wills. We are to abide in him by an entire consecration, and to let him abide in us 
by an appropriating faith. We are to give ourselves to Christ, and to take in return the 
Christ who gives himself to us,— in other words, we are to believe Christ's promises and 
to act upon them. All sin consists in the sundering of man's fife from God, and most 
systems of falsehood in religion are attempts to save man without merging his life in 
God's once more. The only religion that can save mankind is the religion that fills the 
whole heart and the whole life with God, and that aims to interpenetrate universal 
humanity with that same living Christ who has already made himself one with the 
believer. 

We append a few statements with regard to this union and its consequences, from 
noted names in theology and the church. Luther: "By faith thou art so glued to 
Christ that of thee and him there becomes as it were one person, so that with confidence 
thou canst say: 'I am Christ,— that is, Christ's righteousness, victory, etc., are mine'; 
and Christ in turn can say : 'I am that sinner,— that is, his sins, his death, etc., are mine, 
because he clings to me and I to him, for we have been joined through faith into one 
flesh and bone.' " Calvin : " I attribute the highest importance to the connection between 
the head and the members ; to the inhabitation of Christ in our hearts ; in a word, to the 
mystical union by which we enjoy him, so that, being made ours, he makes us partakers 
of the blessings with which he is furnished." Edwards: "Faith is the soul's active 
uniting with Christ. God sees fit that, in order to a union's being established between 
two intelligent active beings, there should be the mutual act of both, that each should, 
receive the other, as entirely joining themselves to one another." Andrew Fuller : " I 
have no doubt that the imputation of Christ's righteousness presupposes a union with 
him ; since there is no perceivable fitness in bestowing benefits on one for another's 
sake, where there is no union or relation between." 

See Luther, quoted, with other references, in Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 
3 : 325. See also Calvin, Institutes, 1 : 660 ; Edwards, Works, 4 : 66, 69, 70 ; Andrew Fuller, 
Works, 2 : 685 ; Pascal, Thoughts, Eng. trans., 429 ; Hooker, Eccl. Polity, book 5, ch. 
56; Tillotson, Sermons, 3:307; Trench, Studies in Gospels, 284, and Christ the True 
Vine, in Hulsean Lectures ; Schoberlein, in Studien und Kritiken, 1847 : 7-69 ; Caird, on 
Union with God, in Scotch Sermons, sermon 2 ; Godet, on the Ultimate Design of Mr.n, 
in Princeton Rev., Nov., 1880 — the design is "God in man, and man in God"; Baird, 
Elohim Revealed, 590-617 ; Upham, Divine Union, Interior Life, Life of Madame Guyon 
and Fenelon ; A. J. Gordon, In Christ ; MacDuff , In Christo ; J. Denham Smith, Life- 
truths, 25-98; A. H. Strong. Philosophy and Religion, 220-225. 

II. Regenekation. 

Regeneration is that act of God by which the governing disposition of 
the soul is made holy, and by which, through the truth as a means, the first 
holy exercise of this disposition is secured. 

Regeneration, or the new birth, is the divine side of that change of heart 
which, viewed from the human side, we call conversion. It is God's turn- 
ing the soul to himself, — conversion being the soul's turning itself to God, of 
which God's turning it is both the accompaniment and cause. It will be 
observed from the above definition, that there are two aspects of regener- 
ation, in the first of which the soul is passive, in the second of which the 
soul is active. God changes the governing disposition, — in this change the 
soul is simply acted upon. God secures the initial exercise of this disposi- 
tion in view of the truth, — in this change the soul itself acts. Yet these 
two parts of God's operation are simultaneous. At the same moment that 
he makes the soul sensitive, he pours in the light of his truth and induces 
the exercise of the holy disposition he has imparted. 



448 SOTERIOLOGY, OB THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

1. Scripture Representations. 

( a ) Regeneration is a change indispensable to the salvation of the sinner. 

John 3 : 7 — "Ye must be lorn anew" ; Gal. 6 : 15 — "neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a 
new creature" (niarg. — "creation"); cf. Heb. 12 : 14 — "the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord" 
—regeneration, therefore, is yet more necessary to salvation; Eph. 2 : 2— "by nature children 
of wrath, even as the rest" ; Rom. 3 : 11 — "There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God" ; 
John 6 : 44, 65 — "Ho man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him .... no man can come unto me. 
except it be given unto him of the Father " ; Jer. 13 : 23 — " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? 
then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." 

( b ) It is a change in the inmost principle of life. 

John 3 : 3 — "Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" ; 5 : 21— "as the Father raiseth the 
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will" ; Rom. 6 : 13 — "present yourselves unto God, as 
alive from the dead " ; Eph. 2:1 — " And you did he quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins " ; 
5 : 14 — "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." 

( c ) It is a change in the heart, or governing disposition. 

Mat. 12 : 33, 35 — " Either make the tree good, and its fruit good ; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt ; for 

the tree is known by its fruit The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things : and the evil 

man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things" ; 15 : 19 — "For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, 
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings"; Acts 16 : 14— "And a certain woman named Lydia 
.... heard us : whose heart the Lord opened, to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul " ; Rom. 6 : 17 — 
"But thanks be to God, that whereas ye were the servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of 
teaching whereunto ye were delivered" ; 10 : 10 — "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" ; cf. Ps. 51 : 10 
— " Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a right spirit within me " ; Jer. 31 : 33 — " I will put my law in their 
inward parts, and in their hearts will I write it " ; Ez. 11 : 19 — " And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new 
spirit within you ; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh." 

(d) It is a change in the moral relations of the soul. 

Eph. 2 : 5 — "when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ" ; 4 : 23, 24 — "that ye 
be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and 
holiness of truth" ; Col. 1 : 13 — "who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom 
of the Son of his love." 

(e) It is a change wrought in connection with the use of truth as a 
means. 

James 1 : 18 — "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth"— here in connection with the 
special agency of God ( not of mere natural law ) the truth is spoken of as a means ; 

1 Pet. 1 : 23 — " having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, 
which liveth and abideth"; 2 Pet. 1 : 4— "his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may 
become partakers of the divine nature" ; cf. Jer. 23 : 29 — "Is not my word like as fire? saith the Lord; and like a 
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" John 15 : 3 — "Already ye are clean because of the word which I have 
spoken unto you" ; Eph. 6 : 17 — "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" ; Heb. 4 : 12— "For the word 
of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and 
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" ; 1 Pet 2 : 9 — "called 
you out of darkness into his marvellous light." 

(/) It is an instantaneous change. 

John 5 : 24 — " He that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judg- 
ment, but hath passed out of death into life" ; cf. Mat. 6 : 24 — "No man can serve two masters: for either he will 
hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other." 

( g ) It is a change secretly wrought, inscrutable, and known only in its 

results. 

John 3 : 8 — "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, 
and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit " ; cf. Phil. 2 : 12, 13 — " work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure " ; 2 Pet 
1 : 10 — ""Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure." 

( h ) It is a change wrought by God. 

John 1 : 13 — " which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " ; 3:5 
—"Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" ; Eph. 1 : 19, 20 — "the 
exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which 



REGENERATION. 449 

"he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places " ; 
2 : 10 — "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should 
walk in them " ; 1 Pet. 1 : 3 —"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great 
mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead " ; cfA Cor. 3 : 6, 7 — "I 
planted, Apollos watered ; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that 
watereth ; but God that giveth the increase." 

(i) It is a change accomplished through the union of the soul with 
Christ. 

Rom. 8:2—" For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death " ; 2 Cor. 
5 : 17— "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" (marg. — "there is a new creation" ) ; Gal. 1 : 15, 16 — "it 
was the good pleasure of God .... to reveal his Son to me " ; Eph. 2 : 10 — " For we are his workmanship, created in 
Christ Jesus for good works." On the Scriptural representations, see E. D. Griffin, Divine Effi- 
ciency, 117-164 ; H. B. Smith, System of Theology, 553-569 — " Regeneration involves union 
with Christ, and not a change of heart without relation to him." 

2. Necessity of Regeneration. 

That all men without exception need to be changed in moral character, is 
manifest, not only from Scripture passages already cited, but from the fol- 
lowing rational considerations : 

( a ) Holiness, or conformity to the fundamental moral attribute of God, 
is the indispensable condition of securing the divine favor, of attaining 
peace of conscience, and of preparing the soul for the associations and 
employments of the blest. 

(6) The condition of universal humanity as by nature depraved, and, 
when arrived at moral consciousness, as guilty of actual transgression, is 
precisely the opposite of that holiness without which the soul cannot exist 
in normal relation to God, to self, or to holy beings. 

( c ) A radical internal change is therefore requisite in every human soul 
— a change in that which constitutes its character. Holiness cannot be 
attained, as the pantheist claims, by a merely natural growth or develop- 
ment, since man's natural tendencies are wholly in the direction of selfish- 
ness. There must be a reversal of his inmost dispositions and principles 
of action, if he is to see the kingdom of God. 

Martensen, Christian Ethics : "When Kant treats of the radical evil of human nature, 
he makes the remarkable statement that, if a good will is to appear in us, this cannot 
happen through a partial improvement, nor through any reform, but only through a 
revolution, a total overturn -within us, that is to be compared to a new creation." Those 
who hold that man may attain perfection by mere natural growth deny this radical evil 
of human nature, and assume that our nature is a good seed which needs only favorable 
external influences of moisture and sunshine to bring forth good fruit. But human 
nature is a damaged seed, and what comes of it will be aborted and stunted like itself. 
The doctrine of mere development denies God's holiness, man's sin, the need of Christ, 
the necessity of atonement, the work of the Holy Spirit, the justice of penalty. 

Men's good deeds and reformations may be illustrated by eddies in a stream whose 
general current is downward ; by walking westward in a railway-car while the train is 
going east; by Capt. Parry's travelling north, while the ice-floe on which he walked 
was moving southward at a rate much more rapid than his walking. It is possible to be 
"ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7). Better never have 
been born, than not be born again. But the necessity of regeneration implies its pos- 
sibility: John 3 : 7 — "Ye must be born anew "= ye may be born anew. Every sinner has the 
chance of making a new start and of beginning a new life. 

The greatest minds feel, at least at times, their need of help from above. Although 

Cicero uses the term l regeneration ' to signify what we should call naturalization, yet he 

recognizes man's dependence upon God : " Nemo vir magnus, sine aliquo divino afflatu, 

unquam f uit." Seneca : " Bonus vir sine illo nemo est." Aristotle : " Wickedness per- 

29 



450 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

verts the judgment and makes men err with respect to practical principles, so that no* 
man can be wise and judicious who is not good." Goethe: "Who ne'er his bread in 
sorrow ate, Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours Weeping upon his bed has sate, He 
knows you not, ye heavenly Powers." Shakespeare, King Lear: "Is there a reason in 
nature for these hard hearts ? " Robert Browning, in Halbert and Hob, replies : " O 
Lear, That a reason out of nature must turn them soft, seems clear." 

John Stuart Mill (see Autobiography, 132-143) knew that the feeling of interest in 
others' welfare would make him happy,— but the knowledge of this fact did not give 
him the f eeling. The " enthusiasm of humanity "— unselfish love, of which we read in 
"Ecce Homo," is easy to talk about; but how to produce it,— that is the question. 
Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 61-94 — " There is no abiogenesis in the 
spiritual, more than in the natural, world. Can the stone grow more and more living 
until it enters the organic world? No, Christianity is a new life,— it is Christ in you." 
As natural life comes to us mediately, through Adam, so spiritual life comes to us medi- 
ately, through Christ. See Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 230-349 ; Anderson, 
Regeneration, 51-88 ; Bennet Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 340-354. 

3. The Efficient Cause of Regeneration. 

Three views only need be considered, — all others are modifications of 
these. The first view puts the efficient cause of regeneration in the human 
will ; the second, in the truth considered as a system of motives ; the third* 
in the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit. 

John Stuart Mill regarded cause as embracing all the antecedents to an event. Hazard, 
Man a Creative First Cause, 13-15, shows that, as at any given instant the whole past is 
everywhere the same, the effects must, upon this view, at each instant be everywhere 
one and the same. "The theory that, of every successive event, the real cause is the 
whole of the antecedents, does not distinguish between the passive conditions acted 
upon and changed, and the active agencies which act upon and change them ; does not 
distinguish what produces, from what merely precedes, change." 

We prefer the definition given by Porter, Human Intellect, 593— Cause is "the most 
conspicuous and prominent of the agencies, or conditions, that produce a result " ; or 
that of Dr. Mark Hopkins : " Any exertion or manifestation of energy that produces a 
change is a cause, and nothing else is. We must distinguish cause from occasion, or 
material. Cause is not to be defined as ' everything without which the effect could not 
be realized.' " Better still, perhaps, may we say, that efficient cause is the competent 
producing power by which the effect is secured. James Martineau, Types, 1 : preface, 
xiii— "A cause is that which determines the indeterminate." Not the light, but the 
photographer, is the cause of the picture ; light is but the photographer's servant. So 
the " word of 66d " is the " sword of the Spirit " ( Eph. 6 : 17 ) ; the Spirit uses the word as his instru- 
ment ; but the Spirit himself is the cause of regeneration. 

A. The human will, as the efficient cause of regeneration. 

This view takes two forms, according as the will is regarded as acting 
apart from, or in conjunction with, special influences of the truth applied 
by God. Pelagians hold the former ; Arminians the latter. 

(a) To the Pelagian view, that regeneration is solely the act of man, and 
is identical with self-reformation, we object that the sinner's depravity, 
since it consists in a fixed state of the affections which determines the- 
settled character of the volitions, amounts to a moral inability. Without 
a renewal of the affections from which all moral action springs, man will 
not choose holiness nor accept salvation. 

Man's volitions are practically the shadow of his affections. It is as useless to think of 
a man's volitions separating themselves from his affections, and drawing him towards 
God, as it is to think of a man's shadow separating itself from him, and leading him in the 
opposite direction to that in which he is going. Man's affections, to use Calvin's words, 
are like horses that have thrown off the charioteer and are running wildly,— they need 
a new hand to direct them. In disease, we must be helped by a physician. We do not 
stop a locomotive engine by applying force to the wheels, but by reversing the lever* 
So the change in man must be, not in the transient volitions, but in the deeper springs of 
action — the fundamental bent of the affections and will. See Henslow, Evolution, 134. 



REGENERATION. 451 

( b ) To the Arminian view, that regeneration is the act of man, cooper- 
ating with divine influences applied through the truth (synergistic theory), 
we object that no beginning of holiness is in this way conceivable. For, 
so long as man's selfish and rjerverse affections are unchanged, no choosing 
God is possible but such as jDroceeds from supreme desire for one's own 
interest and hajzipiness. But the man thus supremely bent on self -gratifi- 
cation cannot see in God, or his service, anything productive of happiness ; 
or, if he could see in them anything of advantage, his choice of God and his 
service from such a motive would not be a holy choice, and therefore could 
not be a beginning of holiness. 

Dorner says : Melancthon held at first that " the Spirit of God is the primary, and the 
word of God the secondary, or instrumental, agency in conversion, while the human 
will allows their action and freely yields to it." Later, he held that " conversion is the 
result of the combined action (copulatio) of three causes, the truth of God, the Holy 
Spirit, and the will of man." This synergistic view in his last years involved the theo- 
logian of the German Reformation in serious trouble. Luthardt : M He made a facnltas 
out of a mere capacitas." Dorner says again: "Man's causality is not to be coordi- 
nated with that of God, however small the influence ascribed to it. It is a purely 
receptive, not a productive, agency. The opposite is the fundamental Romanist error." 
Self-love will never induce a man to give up self-love. Selfishness will not throttle and 
cast out selfishness. "Such a choice from a selfish motive would be unholy, when 
judged by God's standard. It is absurd to make salvation depend upon the exercise of 
a wholly unspiritual power " ; see Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 716-720 ( Syst. Doct., 4 : 179- 
183). Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 505— "Sin does not first stop, and then holiness come in 
place of sin ; but holiness positively expels sin. Darkness does not first cease, and then 
light enter; but light drives out darkness." On the Arminian view, see Bib. Sac, 
19 : 265, 266. For modification of this view, see N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 
369-406, and in Christian Spectator for 1829. 

Dr. Taylor, of New Haven, maintained that, antecedently to regeneration, the selfish 
principle is suspended in the sinner's heart, and that then, prompted by self-love, he uses 
the means of regeneration from motives that are neither sinful nor holy. He holds that 
all men, saints and sinners, have their own happiness for their ultimate end. Regen- 
eration involves no change in this principle or motive, but only a change in the 
governing purpose to seek this happiness in God rather than in the world. Dr. Taylor 
said that man could turn to God, whatever the Spirit did or did not do. He could turn 
to God if he would ; but he could also turn to God if he would n't. In other words, he 
maintained the power of contrary choice, while yet affirming the certainty that, with- 
out the Holy Spirit's influences, man would always choose wrongly. These doctrines 
caused a division in the Congregational body. Those who opposed Taylor withdrew 
their support from Xew Haven, and founded the East Windsor Seminary in 1834. 

The chief opponent of Dr. Taylor was Dr. Bennet Tyler. He replied to Dr. Taylor 
that moral character has its seat, not in the purpose, but in the affections back of the 
purpose. Otherwise every Christian must be in a state of sinless perfection, for his 
governing purpose is to serve God. But we know that there are affections and desires 
not under control of this purpose — dispositions not in conformity with the predomi- 
nant disposition. How, Dr. Tyler asked, can a sinner, completely selfish, from a selfish 
motive, resolve not to be selfish, and so suspend his selfishness? "Antecedently to 
regeneration, there can be no suspension of the selfish principle. It is said that, in 
suspending it, the sinner is actuated by self-love. But is it possible that the sinner, 
while destitute of love to God and every particle of genuine benevolence, should love 
himself at all and not love himself supremely ? He loves nothing more than self. He 
does not regard God or the universe, except as they tend to promote his ultimate end, 
his own happiness. No sinner ever suspended this selfishness until subdued by divine 
grace. We cannot become regenerate by preferring God to the world, merely from 
regard to our own interest. There is no necessity of the Holy Spirit to renew the heart, 
if self-love prompts men to turn from the world to God. On the view thus combated, 
depravity consists simply in ignorance. All men need is enlightenment as to the best 
means of securing their own happiness. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is, therefore, 
not necessary." See Bennet Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 316-381, esp. 334, 370, 371; 
Letters on the New Haven Theology, 21-72, 143-163; review of Taylor and Fitch, by 
E. D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 13-54; Martineau, Study, 2 : 9— "By making it a man's 



452 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRIKE OF SALVATION. 

interest to be disinterested, do you cause him to forget himself and put any love into 
his heart? or do you only break him in and cause him to turn this way and that by the 
bit and lash of a driving necessity ? '" 

B. The truth, as the efficient cause of regeneration. 

According to this view, the truth as a system of motives is the direct and 
immediate cause of the change from unholiness to holiness. This view is 
objectionable for two reasons : 

( a ) It erroneously regards motives as wholly external to the mind that 
is influenced by them. This is to conceive of them as mechanically con- 
straining the will, and is indistinguishable from necessitarianism. On the 
contrary, motives are compounded of external presentations and internal 
dispositions. It is the soul's affections which render certain suggestions 
attractive and others repugnant to us. In brief, the heart makes the motive. 

(6) Only as truth is loved, therefore, can it be a motive to holiness. 
But we have seen that the aversion of the sinner to God is such that the 
truth is hated instead of loved, and a thing that is hated, is hated more 
intensely, the more distinctly it is seen. Hence no mere power of the 
truth can be regarded as the efficient cause of regeneration. The contrary 
view implies that it is not the truth which the sinner hates, but rather some 
element of error which is mingled with it. 

Lyman Beecher and Charles G. Finney held this view. The influence of the Holy 
Spirit differs from that of the preacher only in degree,— both use only moral suasion > 
both do nothing more than to present the truth ; both work upon the soul from without. 
" Were I as eloquent as the Holy Ghost, I could convert sinners as well as he," said a 
popular preacher of this school ( see Bennet Tyler, Letters on New Haven Theology, 
164-171 ). On this view, it would be absurd to pray God to regenerate, for that is more 
than he can do,— regeneration is simply the effect of truth. 

Miley, in Meth. Quar., July, 1881 : 434-462, holds that " the will cannot rationally act 
without motive, but that it has always power to suspend action, or defer it, for the 
purpose of rational examination of the motive or end, and to consider the opposite 
motive or end. Putting the old end or motive out of view will temporarily break its 
power, and the new truth considered will furnish motive for right action. Thus, by 
using our faculty of suspending choice, and of fixing attention, we can realize the 
permanent eligibility of the good and choose it against the evil. This is, however, not 
the realization of a new spiritual life in regeneration, but the election of its attainment. 
Power to do this suspending is of grace [grace, however, given equally to all]. With- 
out this power, lif e would be a spontaneous and irresponsible development of evil." 

The view of Miley, thus substantially given, resembles that of Dr. Taylor, upon 
which we have already commented ; but, unlike that, it makes truth itself, apart from 
the affections, a determining agency in the change from sin to holiness. Our one reply 
is that, without a change in the affections, the truth can neither be known nor obeyed. 
Seeing cannot be the means of being born again, for one must first be born again in 
order to see the kingdom of God ( John 3:3). The mind will not choose God, until God 
appears to be the greatest good. 

Edwards, quoted by Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 74— "Let the sinner apply his rational 
powers to the contemplation of divine things, and let his belief be speculatively correct ; 
still he is in such a state that those objects of contemplation will excite in him no holy 
affections." The Scriptures declare (Rom. 8:7) that "the mind of the flesh is enmity" — not 
against some error or mistaken notion of God — but "is enmity against God." It is God's 
holiness, mandatory and punitive, that is hated. A clearer view of that holiness will 
only increase the hatred. A woman's hatred of spiders will never be changed to love by 
bringing them close to her. Magnifying them with a compound oxy-hydrogen micro- 
scope will not help the matter. Tyler : " All the light of the last day will not subdue 
the sinner's heart." The mere presence of God, and seeing God face to face, will be hell 
to him, if his hatred be not first changed to love. See E. D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 
105-116, 203-231 ; and review of Griffin, by S. R. Mason, Truth Unfolded, 383-407. 



REGENERATION. 453 

C. The immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, as the efficient cause of 
regeneration. 

In ascribing to the Holy Spirit the authorship of regeneration, we do not 
affirm that the divine Spirit accomplishes his work without any accomj)any- 
ing instrumentality. We simply assert that the power which regenerates 
is the power of God, and that although conjoined with the use of means, 
there is a direct operation of this power upon the sinner's heart which 
changes its moral character. We add two remarks by way of further 
explanation : 

(a) The Scriptural assertions of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and 
of his mighty power in the soul forbid us to regard the divine Spirit in 
regeneration as coming in contact, not with the soul, but only with the 
truth. Since truth is simply what is, there can be no change wrought in 
the truth. The jDhrases, "to energize the truth," "to intensify the truth," 
"to illuminate the truth," have no proper meaning ; since even God cannot 
make the truth more true. If any change is wrought, it must be wrought, 
not in the truth, but in the soul. 

The maxim, " Truth is mighty and will prevail," is very untrue, if God be left out of 
the account. Truth without God is an abstraction, and not a power. It is a mere instru- 
ment, useless without an agent. "The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6 :17), 
must be wielded by the Holy Spirit himself. And the Holy Spirit comes in contact, not 
simply with the instrument, but with the soul. To all moral, and especially to all relig- 
ious truth, there is an inward unsusceptibility, arising from the perversity of the affec- 
tions and the will. This blindness and hardness of heart must be removed, before the 
soul can perceive or be moved by the truth. Hence the Spirit must deal directly with 
the soul. Denovan : " Our natural hearts are hearts of stone. The word of God is good 
seed sown on the hard, trodden, macadamized highway, which the horses of passion, 
the asses of self-will, the wagons of imaginary treasure, have made impenetrable. Only 
the Holy Spirit can soften and pulverize this soil." 

The Psalmist prays: "Incline my heart unto thy testimonies" ( Ps. 119 : 36), while of Lydia it is 
said : " whose heart the Lord opened, to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul " ( Acts 16 : 14 ). "We 
may say of the Holy Spirit : " He freezes and then melts the soil, He breaks the hard, 
cold stone, Kills out the rooted weeds so vile,— All this he does alone; And every 
virtue we possess, And every victory won, And every thought of holiness, Are his, and 
his alone." Hence, in Ps. 90 : 16, 17, the Psalmist says, first : "Let thy work appear unto thy serv- 
ants" ; then "establish thou the work of our hands upon us" — God's work is first to appear, — then 
man's work, which is God's work carried out by human instruments. At Jericho, the 
force was not applied to the rams' horns, but to the walls. When Jesus healed the blind 
man, his power was applied, not to the spittle, but to the eyes. The impression is pre- 
pared, not by heating the seal, but by softening the wax. So God's power acts, not upon 
the truth, but upon the sinner. 

( b ) Even if truth could be energized, intensified, illuminated, there would 
still be needed a change in the moral disposition, before the soul could recog- 
nize its beauty or be affected by it. No mere increase of light can enable a 
blind man to see ; the disease of the eye must first be cured before external 
objects are visible. So God's work in regeneration must be performed 
within the soul itself. Over and above all influence of the truth, there must 
be a direct influence of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. Although wrought 
in conjunction with the presentation of truth to the intellect, regeneration 
differs from moral suasion in being an immediate act of God. 

Before regeneration, man's knowledge of God is the blind man's knowledge of color. 
The Scriptures call such knowledge " ignorance " ( Eph. 4 : 18 ). The heart does not appreciate 
God's mercy. Regeneration gives an experimental or heart knowledge; see Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 2 : 495. Is. 50 : 4 — God " wakeneth mine ear to hear." It is false to say that soul 
can come in contact with soul only through the influence of truth. In the intercourse 



454 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

of dear friends, or in the discourse of the orator, there is a personal influence, distinct 
from the word spoken, which persuades the heart and conquers the will. We sometimes 
call it "magnetism,"— but we mean simply that soul reaches soul, in ways apart from 
the use of physical intermediaries. Compare the facts, imperfectly known as yet, of 
second sight, mind-reading, clairvoyance. But whether these be accepted or not, it 
still is true that God has not made the human soul so that it is inaccessible to himself. 
The omnipresent Spirit penetrates and pervades all spirits that have been made by him. 
See Lotze, Outlines Psychology ( Ladd ), 143, 143. 

In the primary change of disposition, which is the most essential feature of regenera- 
tion, the Spirit of God acts directly upon the spirit of man. In the securing of the 
initial exercise of this new disposition — which constitutes the secondary feature of 
God's work of regeneration— the truth is used as a means. Hence, perhaps, in James 1 : 18, 
we read : " Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth " instead of "he begat us by the 
word of truth,"— the reference being to the secondary, not to the primary, feature of 
regeneration. The advocates of the opposite view — the view that God works only 
through the truth as a means, and that his only influence upon the soul is a moral 
influence — very naturally deny the mystical union of the soul with Christ. Squier, for 
example, in his Autobiog., 343-378, esp. 360, on the Spirit's influences, quotes John 16 : 8 — he 
" will convict the world in respect of sin "— to show that God regenerates by applying truth to nien's 
minds, so far as to convince them, by fair and sufficient arguments, that they are sinners. 

For the view that truth is "energized" or "intensified" by the Holy Spirit, see 
Phelps, New Birth, 61, 121 ; Walker, Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. 18. Per con- 
tra, see Wardlaw, Syst. Theol., 3 : 34, 25; E. D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 73-116; Ander- 
son, Regeneration, 123-168 ; Edwards, Works, 2 : 547-597 ; Chalmers, Lectures on Romans, 
chap. 1 ; Payne, Divine Sovereignty, lect. 23 : 363-367 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 3 : 3-37, 466-485. 
On the whole subject of the Efficient Cause of Regeneration, see Hopkins, Works, 1 : 454; 
Dwight, Theology, 2 : 41&429; John Owen, Works, 3 : 282-297, 366-538; Robert Hall, Ser- 
mon on the Cause, Agent, and Purpose of Regeneration. 

4. The Instrumentality used in Regeneration. 

A. The Roman, English and Lutheran churches hold that regeneration 
is accomplished through the instrumentality of baptism. The Disciples, or 
followers of Alexander Campbell, make regeneration include baptism, as 
well as repentance and faith. To the view that baptism is a means of regen- 
eration we urge the following objections : 

( a ) The Scriptures represent baptism to be not the means but only the 
sign of regeneration, and therefore to presuppose and follow regeneration. 
For this reason only believers — that is, persons giving credible evidence of 
being regenerated — were baptized (Acts 8 : 12). Not external baptism, 
but the conscientious turning of the soul to God which baptism symbolizes, 
saves us (1 Pet. 3 : 21 — owetdr/cEog aya&ijc en e purr) /ua). Texts like John 3 : 5, 
Acts 2 : 38, Col. 2 : 12, Tit. 3 : 5, are to be explained upon the principle that 
regeneration, the inward change, and baptism, the outward sign of that 
change, were regarded as only different sides or aspects of the same fact, 
and either side or aspect might therefore be described in terms derived 
from the other. 

• ( 6 ) Upon this view, there is a striking incongruity between the nature 
of the change to be wrought and the means employed to produce it. The 
change is a spiritual one, but the means are physical. It is far more rational 
to suppose that, in changing the character of intelligent beings, God uses 
means which have relation to their intelligence. The view we are consider- 
ing is part and parcel of a general scheme of mechanical rather than moral 
salvation, and is more consistent with a materialistic than with a spiritual 
philosophy. 

Acts 8 : 12— " when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus 
Christ, they were baptized " ; 1 Pet. 3 : 21 —"which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the 



REGENERATION-. 455 

■ putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation [ marg.— ' inquiry ', ' appeal ' ] of a good conscience toward 
God "= the inquiry of the soul after God, the conscientious turning of the soul to God. 

Plumptre, however, makes ea-eptoTij/aa a forensic term equivalent to "examination," 
and including both question and answer. It means, then, the open answer of allegiance 
to Christ, given by the new convert to the constituted officers of the church. " That 
which is of the essence of the saving power of baptism is the confession and the profes- 
sion which precede it. If this comes from a conscience that really renounces sin and 
believes on Christ, then baptism, as the channel through which the grace of the new 
birth is conveyed and the convert admitted into the church of Christ, ' saves us,' but not 
otherwise." We may adopt this statement from Plumptre's Commentary, with the alter- 
ation of the word " conveyed " into " symbolized " or " manifested." Plumptre's inter- 
pretation is, as he seems to admit, in its obvious meaning inconsistent with infant bap- 
tism ; to us it seems equally inconsistent with any doctrine of baptismal regeneration. 

Scriptural regeneration is God's (1) changing man's disposition, and (2) securing its 
first exercise. Regeneration, according to the Disciples, is man's (1) repentance and 
faith, and ( 2 ) submission to baptism. Alexander Campbell, Christianity Restored : " We 
plead that all the converting power of the Holy Spirit is exhibited in the divine Record." 
Address of Disciples to Ohio Baptist State Convention, 1871: "With us regeneration 
includes all that is comprehended in faith, repentance and baptism, and so far as it is 
expressive of birth, it belongs more properly to the last of these than to either of the 
former." But if baptism be the instrument of regeneration, it is difficult to see how the 
patriarchs, or the penitent thief, could have been regenerated. On John 3:5—" Except a man 
be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" ; Acts 2 : 38 — "Repent ye, and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins " ; Col. 2 : 12 — "buried with him in bap- 
tism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith" ; Tit. 3 : 5 — "saved us, through the washing of regenera- 
tion and renewing of the Holy Ghost"— and for further criticism of the Disciple view, see under 
Baptism, pages 531, 532. 

B. The Scriptural view is that regeneration, so far as it secures an 
• activity of man, is accomplished through the instrumentality of the truth. 
Although the Holy Spirit does not in any way illuminate the truth, he does 
illuminate the mind, so that it can perceive the truth. In conjunction with 
the change of man's inner disposition, there is an appeal to man's rational 
nature through the truth. Two inferences may be drawn : 

(a) Man is not wholly passive at the time of his regeneration. He is 
passive only with respect to the change of his ruling disposition. With 
respect to the exercise of this disposition, he is active. Although the effi- 
cient power which secures this exercise of the new disposition is the power 
of God, yet man is not therefore unconscious, nor is he a mere machine 
worked by God's fingers. On the other hand, his whole moral nature 
under God's working is alive and active. We reject the "exercise-system," 
which regards God as the direct author of all man's thoughts, feelings, and 
volitions, not only in its general tenor, but in its special application to 
regeneration. 

( b ) The activity of man's mind in regeneration is activity in view of the 
truth. God secures the initial exercise of the new disposition which he has 
wrought in man's heart in connection with the use of truth as a means. 
Here we perceive the link between the efficiency of God and the activity of 
man. Only as the sinner's mind is brought into contact with the truth, 
does God complete his regenerating work. And as the change of inward 
disposition and the initial exercise of it are never, so far as we know, sepa- 
rated by any interval of time, we can say, in general, that Christian work is 
successful only as it commends the truth to every man's conscience in the 
sight of God (2 Cor. 4:2). 

In Eph. 1 : 17, 18, there is recognized the divine illumination of the mind to behold the 
truth — " may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him ; having the eyes of your 
heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling." On truth as a means of regenera- 



456 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

tion, see Hovey, Outlines, 192, who quotes Cunningham, Historical Theology, 1 : 617 
— " Regeneration may be taken in a limited sense as including only the first impartation 
of spiritual life .... or it may be taken in a wider sense as comprehending the whole 
of that process by which he is renewed or made over again in the whole man after the 
image of God,— i. e., as including the production of saving faith and union to Christ. 
Only in the first sense did the Reformers maintain that man in the process was wholly 
passive and not active ; for they did not dispute that, before the process in the second 
and more enlarged sense was completed, man was spiritually alive and active, and con- 
tinued so ever after during the whole process of his sanctification." 

Dr. Hovey suggests an apt illustration of these two parts of the Holy Spirit's work 
and their union in regeneration : At the same time that Cod makes the photographic 
plate sensitive, he pours in the light of truth whereby the image of Christ is formed in 
the soul. Without the "sensitizing " of the plate, it would never fix the rays of light 
so as to retain the image. In the process of "sensitizing," the plate is passive ; under 
the influence of light, it is active. In both the "sensitizing " and the taking of the pic- 
ture, the real agent is not the plate nor the light, but the photographer. The photog- 
rapher cannot perform both operations at the same moment. God can. He gives the 
new affection, and at the same instant he secures its exercise in view of the truth. 

For denial of the instrumentality of truth in regeneration, see Pierce, in Bap. Quar., 
Jan., 1872 : 52. Per contra, see Anderson, Regeneration, 89-122. H. B. Smith holds middle 
ground. He says: "In adults it [regeneration] is wrought most frequently by the 
word of God as the instrument. Believing that infants may be regenerated, we cannot 
assert that it is tied to the word of God absolutely." We prefer to say that, if infants 
are regenerated, they also are regenerated in conjunction with some influence of truth 
upon the mind, dim as the recognition of it may be. Otherwise we break the Scriptural 
connection between regeneration and conversion, and open the way for faith in a physi- 
cal, magical, sacramental salvation. Squier, Autobiog., 368, says well, of the theory of 
regeneration which makes man purely passive, that it has a benumbing effect upon 
preaching : " The lack of expectation unnerves the efforts of the preacher ; an impres- 
sion of the fortuitous presence neutralizes his engagedness. This antinomian depend- 
ence on the Spirit extracts all vitality from the pulpit and sense of responsibility from 
the hearer, and makes preaching an opus operatum, like the baptismal regeneration of 
the formalist." Only of the first element in regeneration are Shedd's words true : "A 
dead man cannot assist in his own resurrection " ( Dogm. Theol., 2 : 503 ). 

Squier goes to the opposite extreme of regarding the truth alone as the cause of 
regeneration. His words are none the less a valuable protest against the view that 
regeneration is so entirely due to God that in no part of it is man active. It was with a 
better view that Luther cried : " O that we might multiply living books, that is, 
preachers ! " And the preacher is successful only as he possesses and unfolds the truth. 
John took the little book from the Covenant-angel's hand and ate it (Rev. 10 : 8-11). So 
he who is to preach God's truth must feed upon it, until it has become his own. For the 
Exercise-system, see Emmons, Works, 4 : 339-411 ; Hagenbach, Hist. Doct., 2 : 439. 

5. The Nature of the Change wrought in Regeneration. 

A. It is a change in which the governing disposition is made holy. 
This implies that : 

( a ) It is not a change in the substance of either body or soul. Eegener- 
ation is not a physical change. There is no physical seed or germ 
implanted in man's nature. Regeneration does not add to, or subtract 
from, the number of man's intellectual, emotional, or voluntary faculties. 
But regeneration is the giving of a new direction or tendency to powers of 
affection which man possessed before. Man had the faculty of love before, 
but his love was supremely set on self. In regeneration the direction of 
that faculty is changed, and his love is now set supremely upon God. 

Eph. 2 : 10— "created in Christ Jesus for good works"— does not imply that the old soul is anni- 
hilated, and a new soul created. The "old man" which is "crucified" (Rom. 6:6) and "put 
away" (Eph. 4 : 22 ) is simply the sinful bent of the affections and will. When this direc- 
tion of the dispositions is changed, and becomes holy, we can call the change a new 
birth of the old nature, because the same faculties that acted before are acting now, the 
only difference being that now these faculties are set toward God and purity. Or, 



REGENERATION. 457 

regarding the change from another point of view, we may speak of man as having a 
"new nature," as "recreated," as being a "new creature," because this direction of the 
affections and will, which ensures a different life from what was led before, is some- 
thing totally new, and due wholly to the regenerating act of God. In 1 Pet. 1 : 23 — 
"begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible" — all materialistic inferences from the 
word "seed," as if it implied the implantation of a physical germ, are prevented by the 
following explanatory words : " through the word of God, which liveth and abideth." 

So, too, when we describe regeneration as the communication of a new life to the 
soul, we should not conceive of this new life as a substance imparted or infused into us. 
The new life is rather a new direction and activity of our own affections and will. 
There is, indeed, a union of the soul with Christ ; Christ dwells in the renewed heart ; 
Christ's entrance into the soul is the cause and accompaniment of its regeneration. 
But this entrance of Christ into the soul is not itself regeneration. We must distinguish 
the effect from the cause ; otherwise we shall be in danger of a pantheistic confounding 
of our own personality and life with the personality and life of Christ. Christ is indeed 
our life, in the sense of being the cause and supporter of our life, but he is not our lif e 
in the sense that, after our union with him, our individuality ceases. The effect of 
union with Christ is rather that our individuality is enlarged and exalted (John 10 : 10 — "I 
came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." See page 443, ( c ). 

We must therefore take with a grain of allowance the generally excellent words of 
Gordon, Twofold Life, 22 — " Regeneration is the communication of the divine nature 
to man by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the word " (2 Pet. 1:4). "As Christ 
was made partaker of human nature by incarnation, that so he might enter into truest 
fellowship with us, we are made partakers of the divine nature, by regeneration, that 
we may enter into truest fellowship with God. Regeneration is not a change of nature, 
i. e., a natural heart bettered. Eternal life is not natural life prolonged into endless 
duration. It is the divine life imparted to us, the very life of God communicated to 
the human soul, and bringing forth there its proper fruit." 

So, too, we would criticize the doctrine of Drummond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World : 
"People forget the persistence of force. Instead of transforming energy, they try to 
create it. We must either depend on environment, or be self-sufficient. The ' cannot bear 
fruit of itself ' (John 15 : 4) is the 'cannot' of natural law. Natural fruit flourishes with air and 
sunshine. The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is the difference 
between the organic and the inorganic. The Christian has all the characteristics of life : 
assimilation, waste, reproduction, spontaneous action." See criticism of Drummond, 
by Murphy, in Brit. Quar., 1884 : 118-125— "As in resurrection there is a physical connec- 
tion with the old body, so in regeneration there is a natural connection with the old 
soul." Also, Brit. Quar., July, 1880, art. : Evolution Viewed in Relation to Theology— 
"The regenerating agency of the Spirit of God is symbolized, not by the vitalization of 
dead matter, but by the agency of the organizing intelligence which guides the evolu- 
tion of living beings," 

( b ) Regeneration involves an enlightenment of the understanding and a 
rectification of the volitions. But it seems most consonant with Scripture 
and with a correct psychology to regard these changes as immediate and 
necessary consequences of the change of disposition already mentioned, 
rather than as the primary and central facts in regeneration. The taste for 
truth logically precedes perception of the truth, and love for God logically 
precedes obedience to God ; indeed, without love no obedience is possible. 
Reverse the lever of affection, and this moral locomotive, without further 
change, will move away from sin, and toward truth and God. 

Texts which seem to imply that a right taste, disposition, affection, logically precedes 
both knowledge of God and obedience to God, are the following : Ps. 34 : 8— " taste and see 
that the Lord is good" ; 119 : 36 — "Incline my heart unto thy testimonies" ; Jer. 24 : 7 — "I will give them a heart 
to know me" ; Mat. 5 : 8— "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God " ; John 7 : 17— "If any man 
willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God " ; Acts 16 : 14 — Of Lydia it is said : 
" whose heart the Lord opened, to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul " ; Eph. 1 : 18— "having the 
eyes of your heart enlightened." " Change the centre of a circle and you change the place and 
direction of all its radii." 

The text John 1 : 12, 13 — "But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, 
even to them that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God"— seems at first sight to imply that faith is the condition of regeneration,. 



458 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRIKE OF SALVATION. 

and therefore prior to it. "But if ii-ovalav here signifies the 'right' or 'privilege' of 
sonship, it is a right which may presuppose faith as the work of the Spirit in regenera- 
tion—a work apart from which no genuine faith exists in the soul. But it is possible 
that John means to say that, in the case of all who received Christ, their power to 
believe was given to them by him. In the original the emphasis is on 'gave,' and this is 
shown by the order of the words " ; see Hovey, Manual of Theology. 345, and Com. on 
Johnl :12, 13— "The meaning would then be this: 'Many did not receive him; but some 
did ; and as to all who received him, he gave them grace by which they were enabled to 
do this, and so to become God's children.' " 

(c) It is objected, indeed, that we know only of mental substance and of 
mental acts, and that the new disposition or state just mentioned, since 
it is not an act, must be regarded as a new substance, and so lack all 
moral quality. But we reply that, besides substance and acts, there are 
habits, tendencies, proclivities, some of them native and some of them 
acquired. They are voluntary, and have moral character. If we can by 
repeated acts originate sinful tendencies, God can surely originate in us 
holy tendencies. Such holy tendencies formed a part of the nature of 
Adam, as he came from the hand of God. As the result of the Fall, we are 
born with tendencies toward evil for which we are responsible. Regenera- 
tion is a restoration of the original tendencies toward God which were lost 
by the Fall. Such holy tendencies (tastes, dispositions, affections) are not 
only not unmoral — they are the only possible springs of right moral action. 
Only in the restoration of them does man become truly free. 

On holy affection as the proper spring of holy action, see Hodge, Essays and Reviews, 
1 : 48 ; Owen on Holy Spirit, in Works, 3 : 297-336 ; Charnock on Regeneration ; Andrew 
Fuller, Works, 2 : 461-471, 512-560, and 3 : 796 ; Edwards on Religious Affections, in Works, 
3 : 1-21 ; Bellamy, Works, 2 : 502 ; Dwight, Works, 2 : 418 ; Woods, Works, 3 : 1-21 ; Ander- 
son, Regeneration, 21-50. 

B. It is an instantaneous change, in a region of the soul below con- 
sciousness, and is therefore known only in its results. 

(a) It is an instantaneous change. — Regeneration is not a gradual work. 
Although there may be a gradual work of God's providence and Spirit, 
preparing the change, and a gradual recognition of it after it has taken 
place, there must be an instant of time when, under the influence of God's 
Spirit, the disposition of the soul, just before hostile to God, is changed to 
love. Any other view assumes an intermediate state of indecision which 
has no moral character at all, and confounds regeneration either with con- 
viction or with sanctification. 

Conviction of sin is an ordinary, if not an invariable, antecedent of regeneration. It 
results from the contemplation of truth. It is often accompanied by fear, remorse, 
and cries for mercy. But these desires and fears are not signs of regeneration. They 
are selfish. They are quite consistent with manifest and dreadful enmity to God. 
They have a hopeful aspect, simply because they are evidence that the Holy Spirit is 
striving with the soul. But this work of the Spirit is not yet regeneration ; at most, it 
is preparation for regeneration. So far as the sinner is concerned, he is more of a 
sinner than ever before ; because, under more light than has ever before been given 
bim, he is still rejecting Christ and resisting the Spirit. The word of God and the Holy 
Spirit appeal to lower as well as to higher motives ; most men's concern about religion 
is determined, at the outset, by hope or fear. See Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 512. 

All these motives, though they are not the highest, are yet proper motives to influ- 
ence the soul ; it is right to seek God from motives of self-interest, and because we 
desire heaven. But the seeking which not only begins, but ends, upon this lower plane, 
is never successful. Until the soul gives itself to God from motives of love, it is never 
saved. And so long as these preliminary motives rule, regeneration has not yet taken 
place. Bible-reading, and prayers, and church-attendance, and partial reformations, 
are certainly better than apathy or outbreaking sin. They may be signs that God is 



REGENERATION. 459 

^working in the soul. But without complete surrender to God, they may be accompanied 
with the greatest guilt and the greatest danger ; simply because, under such influences, 
the withholding of submission implies the most active hatred to God, and opposition to 
his will. Instance cases of outward reformation that preceded regeneration, — like that 
of John Bunyan, who left off swearing before his conversion. Park : " The soul is a 
monad, and must turn all at once. If we are standing on the line, we are yet unre- 
generate. We are regenerate only when we cross it." 

So, too, we must not confound regeneration with sanctification. Sanctification, as the 
development of the new affection, is gradual and progressive. But no "beginning is 
progressive or gradual ; and regeneration is a beginning of the new affection. We may 
gradually come to the knowledge that a new affection exists, but the knowledge of a 
beginning is one thing ; the beginning itself is another thing. Luther had experienced 
a change of heart, long before he knew its meaning or could express his new feelings in 
scientific form. It is not in the sense of a gradual regeneration, but in the sense of a 
gradual recognition of the fact of regeneration, and a progressive enjoyment of its 
results, that "the path of the righteous " is said to be " as the shining light " — the morning-dawn that 
begins in faintness, but — " that shineth more and more unto the perfect day " ( Prov. 4 : 18 ). Cf. 2 Cor. 4 : 4 
— " the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, 
who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them." Here the recognition of God's work is described 
as gradual; that the work itself is instantaneous, appears from the following verse 6— 
"Seeing it is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowl- 
edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

Illustrate by the unconscious crossing of the line which separates one State of the 
Federal Union from another. From this doctrine of instantaneous regeneration, we 
may infer the duty of reaping, as well as of sowing : John 4 : 38 — " I sent you to reap." " It is 
a mistaken notion that it takes God a long time to give increase to the seed planted in a 
sinner's heart. This grows out of the idea that regeneration is a matter of training; 
that a soul must be educated from a lost state into a state of salvation. Let us remem- 
ber that three thousand, whom in the morning Peter called murderers of Christ, were 
before night regenerated and baptized members of his church." Drummond, in his 
Nat. Law in the Spir. World, remarks upon the humaneness of sudden conversion. As 
self -limitation, self -mortification, suicide of the old nature, it is well to have it at once 
done and over with, and not to die by degrees. 

( b ) This change takes j)lace in a region of the soul below consciousness. 
— It is by no means true that God's work in regeneration is always recog- 
nized by the subject of it. On the other hand, it is never directly perceived 
at all. The working of God in the human soul, since it contravenes no law 
of man's being, but rather puts him in the full and normal possession of his 
own powers, is secret and inscrutable. Although man is conscious, he is 
not conscious of God's regenerating agency. 

We know our own natural existence only through the phenomena of thought and sense. 
So we know our own spiritual existence, as new creatures in Christ, only through the 
new feelings and experiences of the soul. " The will does not need to act solitarily, in 
order to act freely." God acts on the will, and the resulting holiness is true freedom. 
John 8 : 36 — " If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." We have the consciousness 
of freedom ; but the act of God in giving us this freedom is beyond or beneath our con- 
sciousness. 

(c) This change, however, is recognized indirectly in its results. — At 
the moment of regeneration, the soul is conscious only of the truth and of 
its own exercises with reference to it. That God is the author of its new 
affection is an inference from the new character of the exercises which it 
prompts. The human side or aspect of regeneration is Conversion. This, 
and the Sanctification which follows it (including the special gifts of the 
Holy Spirit), are the sole evidences in any particular case that regeneration 
is an accomplished fact. 

Regeneration, though it is the birth of a perfect child, is still the birth of a child. The 
child is to grow, and the growth is sanctification ; in other words, sanctification, as we 
shall see, is simply the strengthening and development of the holy affection which 
begins its existence in regeneration. Hence the subject of the epistle to the Romans— 



460 SOTEKIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

salvation by faith — includes not only justification by faith ( Chapters 1-7 ), but sanctification 
by faith ( Chapters 8-16 ). On evidences of regeneration, see Anderson, Regeneration, 169- 
214, 327-295; Woods, Works, 44-55. 

III. Conversion. 

Conversion is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner, in which 
he turns, on the one hand, from sin, and on the other hand, to Christ. The 
former or negative element in conversion, namely, the turning from sin, 
we denominate repentance. The latter or positive element in conversion, 
namely, the turning to Christ, we denominate faith. 

For account of repentance and faith as elements of conversion, see Andrew Fuller, 
Works, 1 : 666 ; Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 3d ed., 202-206. The two elements 
of conversion seem to be in the mind of Paul, when he writes in Rom. 6 : 11— "reckon ye also 
yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" ; Col. 3 : 3 — "ye died, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God." Cf. anoo-Tp<i<f>bj, in Acts 3 : 26 — " in turning away every one of you from your iniquities," with 
€7rtcrTpe<|)a) in Acts 11 : 21 —"believed and turned unto the Lord." 

(a) Conversion is the human side or aspect of that fundamental spiritual 
change which, as viewed from the divine side, we call regeneration. It is 
simply man's turning. The Scriptures recognize the voluntary activity of 
the human soul in this change as distinctly as they recognize the causative 
agency of God. While God turns men to himself ( Ps. 85 : 4 ; Song 1:4; 
Jer. 31 : 18 ; Lam. 5:21), men are exhorted to turn themselves to God 
(Prov. 1 : 23 ; Is. 31 : 6 ; 59 : 20 ; Ez. 14 : 6 ; 18 : 32 ; 33 : 9, 11 ; Joel 2 : 
12-14). While God is represented as the author of the new heart and the 
new spirit (Ps. 51 : 10 ; Ez. 11 : 19 ; 36 : 26), men are commanded to make 
for themselves a new heart and a new spirit ( Ez. 1 8 : 31 ; 2 Cor. 7:1; cf. 
Phil. 2:12; Eph. 5:14). 

Ps. 85 : 4 — " Turn us, God of our salvation " ; Song 1 : 4 — " Draw me, we will run after thee " ; Jer. 31 : 18 — 
"turn thou me, and I shall be turned " ; Lam. 5 : 21 — "Turn thou us unto thee, Lord, and we shall be turned." 

Prov. 1 : 23 — " Turn you at my reproof : Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you " ; Is. 31 : 6 — " Turn ye unto 
him from whom ye have deeply revolted, children of Israel " ; 59 : 20 — "And a redeemer shall come to Zion, and 
unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob" ; Ez. 14 : 6— "Return ye, and turn yourselves from your idols" - r 
18 : 32 — "turn yourselves and live " ; 33 : 9 — "if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not 
from his way, he shall die in his iniquity " ; 11 — " turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, house 
of Israel ? " Joel 2 : 12-14 — " turn ye unto me with all your heart." 

Ps. 51 : 10 — " Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a right spirit within me " ; Ez. 11 : 19 — " And 1 will give 
them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give 
them an heart of flesh " ; 36 : 26 — " A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." 

Ez. 18 : 31 — " Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed ; and make you a new 
heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, house of Israel?" 2 Cor. 7 : 1— "Having, therefore, these promises, 
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God " ; cf. Phil. 
2 : 12, 13 — "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you both to will 
and to work, for his good pleasure" ; Eph. 5 : 14 — "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall 
shine upon thee." 

(6) This twofold method of representation can be explained only when 
we remember that man's powers may be interpenetrated and quickened by 
the divine, not only without destroying man's freedom, but with the result 
of making man for the first time truly free. Since the relation between the 
divine and the human activity is not one of chronological succession, man 
is never to wait for God's working. If he is ever regenerated, it must be in 
and through a movement of his own will; in which he turns to God as 
unconstrainedly and with as little consciousness of God's operation upon 
him, as if no such operation of God were involved in the change. And in 



C0NVEKSI02ST. 461 

preaching, we are to press upon men the claims of God and their duty of 
immediate submission to Christ, with the certainty that they who do so 
submit will subsequently recognize this new and holy activity of their own 
wills as due to a working within them of divine power. 

Ps. 110 : 3— "Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power." The act of God is accom- 
panied by an activity of man. Dorner: "God's act initiates action." There is indeed 
an original changing of man's tastes and affections, and in this man is passive. But this 
is only the first aspect of regeneration. In the second aspect of it — the rousing of 
man's powers— God's action is accompanied by man's activity, and regeneration is but 
the obverse side of conversion. Luther's word : " Man, in conversion, is purely passive," 
is true only of the first part of the change; and here, by "conversion," Luther means 
" regeneration." Melancthon said better : " Non est enim coactio, ut voluntas non possit 
repugnare: trahit Deus, sed volentem trahit." See Meyer on Rom. 8 : 14— "led by the Spirit 
of God": "The expression," Meyer says, "is passive, though without prejudice to the 
human will, as verse 13 proves : 'by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body.' " 

As, by a well known principle of hydrostatics, the water contained in a little tube can 
balance the water of a whole ocean, so God's grace can be balanced by man's will. As 
sunshine on the sand produces nothing unless man sow the seed, and as a fair breeze 
does not propel the vessel unless man spread the sails, so the influences of God's Spirit 
require human agencies, and work through them. The Holy Spirit is sovereign,— he 
bloweth where he listeth. Even though there be uniform human conditions, there will 
not be uniform spiritual results. Results are often independent of human conditions 
as such. This is the truth emphasized by Andrew Fuller. But this does not prevent us 
from saying that, whenever God's Spirit works in regeneration, there is always accom- 
panying it a voluntary change in man, which we call conversion, and that this change is 
as free, and as really man's own work, as if there were no divine influence upon him. 

( c ) From the fact that the word ' conversion ' means simply ' a turning, ' 
every turning of the Christian from sin, subsequent to the first, may, in 
a subordinate sense, be denominated a conversion (Luke 22 : 32). Since 
regeneration is not complete sanctification, and the change of governing 
disposition is not identical with complete purification of the nature, such 
subsequent turnings from sin are necessary consequences and evidences of 
the first (c/. John 13: 10). But they do not, like the first, imply a change 
in the governing disposition, — they are rather new manifestations of a 
disposition already changed. For this reason, conversion proper, like the 
regeneration of which it is the obverse side, can occur but once. The 
phrase ' second conversion, ' even if it does not inrply radical misconception 
of the nature of conversion, is misleading. We prefer, therefore, to describe 
these subsequent experiences, not by the term 'conversion,' but by such 
phrases as 'breaking off, forsaking, returning from, neglects or transgres- 
sions,' and 'coming back to Christ, trusting anew in him.' It is with 
repentance and faith, as elements in that first and radical change by which 
the soul enters upon a state of salvation, that we have now to do. 

Luke 22 : 31, 32 — " Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat : bat I made sup- 
plication for thee, that thy faith fail not : and do thou, when once thou hast turned again [ A. V. : 'art converted ' ], 
stablish thy brethren " ; John 13 : 10 — " He that is bathed [has taken a full bath] needeth not save to wash his 
feet, but is clean every whit [as a whole]." 

On the relation between the divine and the human agencies, we quote a different view 
from another writer: "God decrees to employ means which in every case are suffi- 
cient, and which in certain cases it is foreseen will be effectual. Human action converts 
a sufficient means into an effectual means. The result is not always according to the 
varying use of means. The power is all of God. Man has power to resist only. There 
is an universal influence of the Spirit, but the influences of the Spirit vary in different 
cases, just as external opportunities do. The love of holiness is blunted, but it still 
lingers. The Holy Spirit quickens it. When this love is wholly lost, sin against the 



462 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

Holy Ghost results. Before regeneration there is a desire for holiness, an apprehension 
of its beauty, but this is overborne by a greater love for sin. If the man does not 
quickly grow worse, it is not because of positive action on his part, but only because 
negatively he does not resist as he might. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' God leads at 
first by a resistible influence. When man yields, God leads by an irresistible influence. 
The second influence of the Holy Spirit confirms the Christian's choice. This second 
influence is called 'sealing.' There is no necessary interval of time between the two. 
Prevenient grace comes first ; conversion comes after." 

To this view, we would reply that a partial love for holiness, and an ability to choose it 
before God works effectually upon the heart, seem to contradict those Scriptures which 
assert that "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God " ( Rom. 8:7), and that all good works are the 
result of God's new creation ( Eph. 2 : 10). Conversion does not precede regeneration,— it 
chronologically accompanies regeneration, though it logically follows it. 

1. Repentance. 

We may analyze repentance into three constituents, each succeeding term 
of which includes and implies the one preceding : 

A. An intellectual element, — recognition of sin as involving personal 
guilt, defilement, and helplessness (Ps. 51:3, 7, 11). If unaccompanied 
by the following elements, this recognition may manifest itself in fear of 
punishment, although as yet there is no hatred of sin. This element is 
indicated in the Scripture phrase eTriyvuac dfiapriag (Rom. 3 : 20; cf. 1 : 32). 

Ps. 51 : 3, 11 — " For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me Cast me not away from 

thy presence, And take not thy Holy Spirit from me " Rom. 3 : 20 — "through the law cometh the knowledge of sin " ; 
cf. 1 : 32— "who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they which practise such things are worthy of death not only 
do the same, but also consent with them that practise them." 

It is well to remember that God requires us to cherish no views or emotions that 
contradict the truth. He wants of us no false humility. Humility ( humus ) = ground- 
ness — a coming down to the hard-pan of facts — a facing of the truth. Repentance, 
therefore, is not a calling ourselves by hard names. It is not cringing, or exaggerated 
self -contempt. It is simple recognition of what we are. 

B. An emotional element, — sorrow for sin as committed against goodness 
and justice, and therefore hateful to God, and hateful in itself ( Ps. 51 : 1 , 
2, 10, 14). This element of repentance is indicated in the Scripture word 
fterafteXofiai. If accompanied by the following element, it is a Avtctj mrd Qeov. 
If not so accompanied, it is a avttt} rov koouov = remorse and despair ( Mat. 
27 : 3 ; Luke 18 : 23 ; 2 Cor. 7 : 9, 10). 

Ps. 51 : 1, 2, 10, 14— "Have mercy upon me blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine 

iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin . . . Create in me a clean heart, God Deliver me from blood guiltiness, 

God " ; Mat. 27 : 3 — " Then Judas, which betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and 
brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent 
blood " ; Luke 18 : 23 — " when he heard these things, he became exceeding sorrowful ; for he was very rich " ; 2 Cor.. 
7 : 9, 10 — " Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance : for ye were made 

sorry after a godly sort For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no 

regret : but the sorrow of the world worketh death." We must distinguish sorrow for sin from shame 
on account of it and fear of its consequences. These last are selfish, while godly sorrow 
is disinterested. "A man may be angry with himself and may despise himself without 
any humble prostration before God or confession of his guilt " ( Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 
2: 535, note). 

C. A voluntary element, — inward turning from sin and disposition to 
seek pardon and cleansing (Ps. 51 : 5, 7, 10 ; Jer. 25 : 5). This includes and 
implies the two preceding elements, and is therefore the most important 
aspect of repentance. It is indicated in the Scripture term uerdvota (Acts 
2:38; Rom. 2:4). 

Ps. 51 ; 5. 7, 10— "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity: And in sin did my mother conceive me ... . Purge me with 
hyssop, and I shall be clean : Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow .... Create in me a clean heart, God, And. 



CONVERSION. 463 

renew a right spirit within me " ; Jer. 25 : 5 — "Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your 
doings" ; Acts 2 : 38— "And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ" ; Rom. 2 : 4 — "despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that 
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? " 

In broad distinction from the Scriptural doctrine, we find the Romanist 
view, which regards the three elements of repentance as the following: 
(1) contrition; (2) confession; (3) satisfaction. Of these, contrition is 
the only element properly belonging to repentance. ; yet from this contri- 
tion the Romanist excludes all sorrow for sin of nature. Confession is con- 
fession to the priest ; and satisfaction is the sinner's own doing of outward 
penance, as a temporal and symbolic submission and reparation to violated 
law. This view is false and pernicious, in that it confounds repentance with 
its outward fruits, conceives of it as exercised rather toward the church 
than toward God, and regards it as a meritorious ground, instead of a mere 
condition, of pardon. 

On the Romanist doctrine of Penance, Thornwell ( Collected Writings, 1 : 423 ) remarks : 
" The culpa may be remitted, they say, while the pcena is to some extent retained." The 
priest absolves, not declaratively, but judicially. Denying the greatness of the sin, it 
makes man able to become his own Savior. Christ's satisfaction, for sins after baptism, 
is not sufficient ; our satisfaction is sufficient. But performance of one duty, we object, 
cannot make satisfaction for the violation of another. 

In further explanation of the Scripture representations, we remark : 

( a ) That repentance, in each and all of its aspects, is wholly an inward 
act, not to be confounded with the change of life which proceeds from it. 

True repentance is indeed manifested and evidenced by confession of sin 
before God (Luke 18 : 13), and by reparation for wrongs done to men (Luke 
19:8). But these do not constitute repentance; they are rather fruits 
of repentance. Between * repentance ' and 'fruit worthy of repentance,' 
Scripture plainly distinguishes (Mat. 3:8). 

Luke 18 : 13 — " But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his 
breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner ['be propitiated to me the sinner']"; 19:8 — "And 
Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have wrongfully 
exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold " ; Mat. 3 : 8 — "Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of repentance." 

On the question whether the requirement that we forgive without atonement implies 
that God does, see Brit, and For. Evang. Rev., Oct., 1881 : 678-691— "Answer: 1. The 
present constitution of things is based upon atonement. Forgiveness on our part is 
required upon the ground of the cross, without which the world would be hell. 2. God 
is Judge. We forgive, as brethren. When he forgives, it is as Judge of all the earth, of 
whom all earthly judges are representatives. If earthly judges may exact justice, much 
more God. The argument that would abolish atonement would abolish all civil govern- 
ment. 3. I should forgive my brother on the ground of God's love, and Christ's bearing 
of his sins. 4. God, who requires atonement, is the same being that provides it. This 
is 'handsome and generous.' But I can never provide atonement for my brother. I 
must, therefore, forgive freely, only upon the ground of what Christ has done for him." 

(b) That repentance is only a negative condition, and not a positive 
means of salvation. 

This is evident from the fact that repentance is no more than the sinner's 
present duty, and can furnish no offset to the claims of the law on account 
of past transgression. The truly penitent man feels that his repentance has 
no merit. Apart from the positive element of conversion, namely, faith in 
Christ, it would be only sorrow for guilt unremoved. This very sorrow, 
moreover, is not the mere product of human will, but is the gift of God. 



464 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

Acts 5 : 31 — " Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, 
and remission of sins " ; 11 : 18 — "Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto life" ; 2 Tim. 2 : 25 — "if 
peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth." The truly penitent man recog- 
nizes the fact that his sin deserves punishment. He never regards his penitence as off- 
setting- the demands of law, and as making his punishment unjust. Whitefield : " Our 
repentance needeth to be repented of, and our very tears to be washed in the blood of 
Christ." 

(c) That true repentance, however, never exists except in conjunction 
with faith. 

Sorrow for sin, not simply on account of its evil consequences to the 
transgressor, but on account of its intrinsic hatefulness as opposed to divine 
holiness and love, is practically impossible without some confidence in God's 
mercy. It is the Cross which first makes us truly penitent ( cf. John 12 : 
32, 33). Hence all true preaching of repentance is implicitly a preaching 
of faith (Mat. 3 : 1-12 ; cf. Acts 19 : 4), and repentance toward God involves 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20 : 21 ; Luke 15 : 10, 24 ; 19 : 8, 9 ; cf. 
Gal. 3:7). 

John 12 : 32, 33 — " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying 
by what manner of death he should die." Mat. 3 : 1-12 — John the Baptist's preaching of repentance 
was also a preaching of faith ; as is shown by Acts 19 : 4— "John baptized with the baptism of repent- 
ance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus." 
Repentance involves faith: Acts 20 : 21 — "testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ " ; Luke 15 : 10, 24 —"there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth .... this my son was dead, and is alive" again; he was lost, and is found"; 19 : 8, 9 — "the 
half of my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus 
said unto him, To-day is saivation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham" — the father of 
all believers; cf. Gal. 3 : 6, 7 — "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. 
Know therefore that they which be of faith, the same are sons of Abraham." 

( d ) That, conversely, wherever there is true faith, there is true repent- 
ance also. 

Since repentance and faith are but different sides or aspects of the same 
act of turning, faith is as inseparable from repentance as repentance is from 
faith. That must be an unreal faith where there is no repentance, just as 
that must be an unreal repentance where there is no faith. Yet because the 
one aspect of his change is more prominent in the mind of the convert than 
the other, we are not hastily to conclude that the other is absent. Only that 
degree of conviction of sin is essential to salvation, which carries with it a 
forsaking of sin and a trustful surrender to Christ. 

2 Cor. 7:10 — "repentance unto salvation." In consciousness, sensation and perception are in 
inverse ratio to each other. Clear vision is hardly conscious of sensation, but inflamed 
eyes are hardly conscious of anything besides sensation. So repentance and faith are 
seldom equally prominent in the consciousness of the converted man ; but it is important 
to know that neither can exist without the other. The truly penitent man will, sooner 
or later, show that he has faith ; and the true believer will certainly show, in due season, 
that he hates and renounces sin. 

The question, how much conviction a man needs to ensure his salvation, may be 
answered by asking how much excitement one needs on a burning steamer. As, in the 
latter case, just enough to prompt persistent effort to escape ; so, in the former case, 
just enough remorseful feeling is needed, to induce the sinner to betake himself believ- 
ingly to Christ. 

On the general subject of repentance, see Anderson, Regeneration, 279-288 ; Bp. Ossory, 
Nature and Effects of Faith, 40-48, 311-318 ; Woods, Works, 3 : 68-78 ; Philippi, Glaubens- 
lehre, 5 : 1-10, 208-246 ; Luthardt, Compendium, 3rd ed., 206-208 ; Hodge, Outlines of Theol- 
ogy, 375-381; Alexander, Evidences of Christianity, 47-60; Crawford, Atonement, 413-419. 



CONVERSION. 465 

2. Faith. 

We may analyze faith also into three constituents, each succeeding term 
of which includes and implies the preceding : 

A. An intellectual element (notitia, credere Deum ), — recognition of the 
truth of God's revelation, or of the objective reality of the salvation pro- 
vided by Christ. This includes not only a historical belief in the facts of 
the Scripture, but an intellectual belief in the doctrine taught therein as to 
man's sinfulness and dependence upon Christ 

John 2 : 23, 24 — "Kow when he was in Jerusalem, at the passover, during the feast, many believed on his name, 
beholding his signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men " : c/. 3 : 2 — 
Xicodemus has this external faith : "no man can do these signs that thou doest except God be with him." 
James 2 : 19 — " Thou believest that God is one ; thou doest well : the demons also believe and shudder." Even this 
historical faith is not without its fruits. It is the spring of much philanthropic work. 
There were no hospitals in ancient Rome. Much of our modern progress is due to the 
leavening influence of Christianity, even in the case of those who have not personally 
accepted Christ. 

B. An emotional element ( assensus, credere Deo ), — assent to the revela- 
tion of God's power and grace in Jesus Christ, as applicable to the present 
needs of the soul. Those in whom this awakening of the sensibilities is 
unaccompanied by the fundamental decision of the will, which constitutes 
the next element of faith, may seem to themselves, and for a time may 
appear to others, to have accepted Christ. 

Mat. 13 : 20, 21 — "he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with 
joy receiveth it ; yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while ; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth 
because of the word, straightway he stumbleth " ; cf. Ps. 106 : 12, 13 — " Then believed they his words ; they sang his 
praise. They soon forgat his works ; they waited not for his counsel " ; Ez. 33 : 31, 32 — " And they come unto thee as 
the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but do them not : for with their 
mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their gain. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song 
of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument : for they hear thy words, but they do them 
not" ; John 5 : 35 — Of John the Baptist : " He was the lamp that burneth and shineth : and ye were willing 
to rejoice for a season in his light" 

Saving faith, however, includes also : 

C. A voluntary element {jiducia, credere in Deum), — trust in Christ as 
Lord and Savior ; or, in other words — to distinguish its two aspects : 

( a ) Surrender of the soul, as guilty and denied, to Christ's governance. 

Mat 11 : 28, 29 — " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me " ; John 8 : 12 — " I am the light of the world : he that followeth me shall not walk in the 
darkness " ; 14 : 1 — " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me " ; Acts 16 : 31 — " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." Instances of the use of Trio-reveo, in the sense of trust- 
ful committance or surrender, are : John 2 : 24 — "But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he 
knew all men" ; Rom. 3 : 2— "they were intrusted with the oracles of God" ; Gal. 2 : 7 — "when they saw that I 
had been intrusted with the gospel of the circumcision" witrns = M trustful self -surrender to God" 
(Meyer). 

( 6 ) Keception and appropriation of Christ, as the source of pardon and 
spiritual life. 

John 1 : 12 — "as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that 
believe on his name" ; 4 : 14 — "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the 
water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life " ; 6 : 53 — "Eicept ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves " ; 20 : 31 — " these are written, that 
ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God ; and that believing ye may have life in his name " ; Eph. 3 : 17 
— "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith " ; Heb. 11 : 1 — "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, 
a conviction of things not seen " ; Rev. 3 : 20 —"Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any man hear my voice and 
•open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 

The three constituents of faith may be illustrated from the thought, feeling, and action 
30 



466 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

of a person who stands by a boat, upon a little island which the rising stream threatens 
to submerge. He first regards the boat from a purely intellectual point of view, — it is 
merely an actually existing hoat. As the stream rises, he looks at it, secondly, with some 
accession of emotion, — his prospective danger awakens in him the conviction that it is a 
good hoat for a time of need, though he is not yet ready to make use of it. But, thirdly, 
when he feels that the rushing tide must otherwise sweep him away, a volitional element 
is added, — he gets into the boat, trusts himself to it, accepts it as his present, and only, 
means of safety. Only this last faith in the boat is faith that saves, although this last 
includes both the preceding. It is equally clear that the getting into the boat may actu- 
ally save a man, while at the same time he may be full of fears that the boat will never 
bring him to shore. These fears may be removed by the boatman's word. So saving 
faith is not necessarily assurance of faith ; but it becomes assurance of faith when the 
Holy Spirit " beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" (Rom. 8 : 16 ). On the nature of 
this assurance, and on the distinction between it and saving faith, see pages 468, 469. 

"Coming to Christ," "looking to Christ," "receiving Christ," are all descriptions of 
faith, as are also the phrases : "surrender to Christ," " submission to Christ," "closing 
in with Christ." Paul refers to a confession of faith in Rom. 10 : 9— "if thou shalt confess with 
thy mouth Jesus as Lord." Faith, then, is a taking of Christ as both Savior and Lord; and 
it includes both appropriation of Christ, and consecration to Christ. The voluntary 
element in faith, however, is a giving as well as a taking. The giving, or surrender, is 
illustrated in baptism by submergence ; the taking, or reception, by emergence. See 
further under Baptism, pages 527, 528. McCosh, Div. Government : " Saving faith is the 
consent of the will to the assent of the understanding, and commonly accompanied 
with emotion." Pres. Hopkins, in Princeton Rev., Sept., 1878 : 511-540— "In its intel- 
lectual element, faith is receptive, and believes that God is ; in its affectional element, 
faith is assimilative, and believes that God is a rewarder ; in its voluntary element, faith 
is operative, and actually comes to God (Heb. 11 : 6)." 

The passages already referred to refute the view of the Romanist, that 
saving faith is simply implicit assent to the doctrines of the church ; and the 
view of the Disciple or Campbellite, that faith is merely intellectual belief 
in the truth, on the presentation of evidence. 

The Romanist says that faith can coexist with mortal sin. The Disciple holds that faith 
may and must exist before regeneration,— regeneration being completed in baptism. 
With these erroneous views, compare the noble utterance of Luther, Com. on Galatians, 
1 : 191, 247, quoted in Thomasius, in, 2 : 183— "True faith," says Luther, "is that assured 
trust and firm assent of heart, by which Christ is laid hold of,— so that Christ is the 
object of faith. Yet he is not merely the object of faith ; but in the very faith, so to 
speak, Christ is present. Faith lays hold of Christ, and grasps him as a present posses- 
sion, just as the ring holds the jewel." Edwards, Works, 4 : 71-73 ; 2 : 601-641—" Faith," 
says Edwards, "includes the whole act of unition to Christ as a Savior. The entire 
active uniting of the soul, or the whole of what is called coming to Christ, and receiving 
of him, is called faith in the Scripture." See also Belief, What Is It ? 150-179, 290-298. 

In further explanation of the Scripture representations, we remark : 
( a ) That faith is an act of the affections and will, as truly as it is an act 
of the intellect. 

It has been claimed that faith and unbelief are purely intellectual states, 
which are necessarily determined by the facts at any given time presented 
to the mind ; and that they are, for this reason, as destitute of moral quality 
and as far from being matters of obligation, as are our instinctive feelings 
of pleasure and pain. But this view unwarrantably isolates the intellect, 
and ignores the fact that, in all moral subjects, the state of the affections and 
will affects the judgment of the mind with regard to truth. In the intellect- 
ual act the whole moral nature expresses itself. Since the tastes determine 
the opinions, faith is a moral act, and men are responsible for not believing. 

John 3 : 18-20 — "He that believeth on him is not judged : he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he 
hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that light is come into the 
world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light ; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil 
hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved " ; 5 : 40 — " ye will not come to me, 



conveksiost. 467 

that ye may have life " ; 16 : 8, 9 — " And he, when, he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin ... . of sin, 
because they believe not on me " ; Rev. 2 : 21 — " she willeth not to repent." Notice that the Revised Ver- 
sion very frequently substitutes the voluntary and active terms " disobedience " and " disobe- 
dient " for the " unbelief" and " unbelieving " of the Authorized Version,— as in Rom. 15 : 31 ; Heb. 
3 : 18 ; 4 : 6 11 ; 11 : 31. See Park, Discourses, 45, 46. 

Savages do not know that they are responsible for their physical appetites, or that 
there is any right and wrong in matters of sense, until they come under the influence 
of Christianity. In like manner, even men of science can declare that the intellectual 
sphere has no part in man's probation, and that we are no more responsible for our 
opinions and beliefs than we are for the color of our skin. But faith is not a merely 
intellectual act,— the affections and will give it quality. There is no moral quality in 
the belief that 2 + 2 = 4, because we cannot help that belief. But in believing on 
Christ there is moral quality, because there is the element of choice. Indeed it may be 
questioned, whether, in every judgment upon moral things, there is not an act of will. 

Hence on John 7 : 17 — " If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak from myself" — F. L. Patton calls attention to the two common errors: 
(1) that obedience will certify doctrine,— which is untrue, because obedience is the 
result of faith, not vice versa ; (2 ) that personal experience is the ultimate test of faith, 
— which is untrue, because the Bible is the only rule of faith, and it is one thing to 
receive truth through the feelings, but quite another to test truth by the feelings. The 
text really means, that if any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know whether it 
be of God ; and the two lessons to be drawn are : ( 1 ) the gospel needs no additional 
evidence; (2) the Holy Ghost is the hope of the world. On responsibility for opinions 
and beliefs, see Mozley, on Blanco White, in Essays Philos. and Historical, 2 : 142 ; T. T. 
Smith, Hulsean Lectures for 1839. Wilfrid Ward, The Wish to Believe, quotes Shakes- 
peare : " Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought " ; and Thomas Arnold : " They 
dared not lightly believe what they so much wished to be true." 

( b ) That faith is not chronologically subsequent to regeneration, but is 
its accompaniment. 

As the soul's appropriation of Christ and his salvation, it is not the result 
of an accomplished renewal, but rather the medium through which that 
renewal is effected. Otherwise it would follow that one who had not yet 
believed (i. e., received Christ) .might still be regenerate, whereas the 
Scripture represents the privilege of sonship as granted only to believers. 

John 1 : 12, 13 — " But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them 
that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God " ; Gal. 3 : 26 — " For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus." 

(c) That the object of saving faith is, in general, the whole truth of 
God, so far as it is objectively revealed or made known to the soul ; but, 
in particular, the person and work of Jesus Christ, which constitutes the 
centre and substance of God's revelation (Acts 17 : 18; 1 Cor. 1 : 23; Col. 

tl :27; Eev. 19 :10). 
The patriarchs, though they had no knowledge of a personal Christ, 
were saved by believing in God so far as God had revealed himself to 
them; and whoever among the heathen are saved, must in like manner 
be saved by casting themselves as helpless sinners upon God's plan of 
mercy, dimly shadowed forth in nature and providence. But such faith, 
even among the patriarchs and heathen, is implicitly a faith in Christ, 
and would become explicit and conscious trust and submission, whenever 
Christ were made known to them (Mat. 8 : 11, 12 ; John 10 : 16 ; Acts 4 : 
12; 10:31, 34, 35, 44; 16:31). 

Acts 17 : 18 — "he preached Jesus and the resurrection" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 23— "we preach Christ crucified" ; Col. 1 : 27 — 
"this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we proclaim"; Rev. 19 : 10 — 
"the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Saving faith is not belief in a dogma, but per- 
sonal trust in a personal Christ. It is, therefore, possible to a child. Dorner : "The 



468 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

object of faith is the Christian revelation — God in Christ .... Faith is union with 
objective Christianity — appropriation of the real contents of Christianity." 

It must be remembered, however, that Christ is the Word of God and the Truth of 
God ; and that he may, therefore, be received even by those who have not heard of his 
manifestation in the flesh. A proud and self-righteous morality is inconsistent with 
saving faith ; but a humble and penitent reliance upon God, as a Savior from sin and a 
guide of conduct, is an implicit faith in Christ ; for such reliance casts itself upon God, 
so far as God has revealed himself,— and the only Revealer of God is Christ. We have, 
therefore, the hope that even among the heathen there may be some, like Socrates, 
who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit working through the truth of nature and 
conscience, have found the way of life and salvation. 

The number of such is so small as in no degree to weaken the claims of the mission- 
ary enterprise upon us. But that there are such seems to be intimated in Scripture : 
Mat. 8 : 11, 12 — "many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kingdom of heaven : bnt the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness " ; John 10 16 — 
" And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold : them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and they 
shall become one flock, one shepherd" ; Acts 4 : 12 — "And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any 
other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved " ; 10 : 31, 34, 35, 44 — " Cornelius, thy 
prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God .... Of a truth I perceive that God is no 
respecter of persons ; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him .... 
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word" ; 16 : 31— "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house." 

And instances are found of apparently regenerated heathen ; see in Godet on John 7 : 17, 
note ( vol. 2 : 277), the account of the so-called " Chinese hermit," who accepted Christ, 
saying: "This is the only Buddha whom men ought to worship!" Edwards, Life of 
Brainard, 173-175, gives an account "of one who was a devout and zealous reformer, or 
rather restorer, of what he supposed was the ancient religion of the Indians." After a 
period of distress, he says that God "comforted his heart and showed him what he 
should do, and since that time he had known God and tried to serve him ; and loved all 
men, be they who they would, so as he never did before." See art. by Dr. Lucius E. 
Smith, in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1881 : 622-645, on the question : "Is salvation possible without a 
knowledge of the gospel?" H. B. Smith, System, 323, note, rightly bases hope for the 
heathen, not on morality, but on sacrifice. 

On the question whether men are ever led to faith, without intercourse with living 
Christians or preachers, see Life of Judson, by his son, 84. The British and Foreign 
Bible Society publish a statement, made upon the authority of Sir Bartle Frere, that 
he met with "an instance, which was carefully investigated, in which all the inhab- 
itants of a remote village in the Deccan had abjured idolatry and caste, removed from 
their temples the idols which had been worshiped there time out of mind, and agreed to 
profess a form of Christianity which they had deduced for themselves from the careful 
perusal of a single Gospel and a few tracts." Max Miiller, Chips, 4 : 177-189, apparently 
proves that Buddha is the original of St. Josaphat, who has a day assigned to him 
in the calendar of both the Greek and the Roman churches. "Sancte Socrates, ora 
pro nobis." 

(d) That the ground of faith is the external word of promise. The 
ground of assurance, on the other hand, is the inward witness of the 
Spirit that we fulfill the conditions of the promise ( Eom. 4 : 20, 21 ; 8 : 
16 ; Eph. 1 : 13 ; 1 John 4 : 13 ; 5 : 10). This witness of the Spirit is not 
a new revelation from God, but a strengthening of faith so that it becomes 
conscious and indubitable. 

True faith is possible without assurance of salvation. But if Alexander's 
view were correct, that the object of saving faith is the proposition : "God, 
for Christ's sake, now looks with reconciling love on me, a sinner," no one 
could believe, without being at the same time assured that he was a saved 
person. Upon the true view, that the object of saving faith is not a propo- 
sition, but a person, we can perceive not only the simplicity of faith, but 
the possibility of faith even where the soul is destitute of assurance or of 
joy. Hence those who already believe are urged to seek for assurance 
(Heb. 6:11; 2 Pet. 1 : 10). 



CONVERSION. 469 

Rom. 4 : 20, 21 — "looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through 
faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform " ; 8 : 16 
— "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God " ; Eph. 1 : 13 — "in whom, having 
also believed, ye were sealed with the My Spirit of promise" ; 1 John 4 : 13 — "hereby know we that we abide in 
him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit " ; 5 : 10 — "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the wit- 
ness in him. - ' This assurance is not of the essence of faith, because believers are exhorted 
to attain to it : Heb. 6 : 11 — " And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of 
hope [marg.— 'full assurance' ] even to the end" ; 2 Pet. 1 : 10 — "Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to 
make your calling and election sure." Cf. Prov. 14 : 14 — "a good man shall be satisfied from himself." 

There is need to guard the doctrine of assurance from mysticism. The witness of the 
Spirit is not a new and direct revelation from God. It is a strengthening- of previously 
existing faith until he who possesses this faith cannot any longer doubt that he pos- 
sesses it. It is a general rule that all our emotions, when they become exceedingly 
strong, also become conscious. Instance affection between man and woman. 

Edwards, Religious Affections, in Works, 3 : 83-91, says the witness of the Spirit is not 
a new word or suggestion from God, but an enlightening and sanctifying influence, so 
that the heart is drawn forth to embrace the truth already revealed, and to perceive that 
it embraces it. " Bearing witness " is not in this case to declare and assert a thing to be 
true, but to hold forth evidence from which a thing may be proved to be true : God 

" bears witness by signs and wonders " ( Heb. 2:4). So the " seal of the Spirit " is not a voice 

or suggestion, but a work or effect of the Spirit, left as a divine mark upon the soul, to 
be an evidence by which God's children may be known. Seals had engraved upon them 
the image or name of the persons to whom they belonged. The "seal of the Spirit," 
the " earnest of the Spirit," the " witness of the Spirit," are all one thing. The child- 
like spirit, given by the Holy Spirit, is the Holy Spirit's witness or evidence in us. 

See also illustration of faith and assurance, in C. S. Robinson's Short Studies for S. S. 
Teachers, 179, 180. Faith should be distinguished not only from assurance, but also from 
feeling or joy. Instance Abraham's faith, when he went to sacrifice Isaac ; and Madame 
Guyon's faith, when God's face seemed hid from her. See, on the witness of the Spirit, 
Short, Bampton Lectures for 1846 ; British and For. Evang. Rev., 1888 : 617-631. For the 
view which confounds faith with assurance, see Alexander, Discourses on Faith, 63-118. 

(e) That faith necessarily leads to good works, since it embraces the 
whole truth of God so far as made known, and appropriates Christ, not only 
as an external Savior, but as an internal sanctifying power ( Heb. 7:16; 
Gal. 5:6). 

Good works are the proper evidence of faith. The faith which does not 
lead men to act upon the command and promises of Christ, or, in other 
words, does not lead to obedience, is called in Scripture a "dead," that is, 
an unreal, faith. Such faith is not saving, since it lacks the voluntary ele- 
ment — actual appropriation of Christ (James 2 : 14-26). 

Heb. 7 : 16 — " another priest, who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power 
of an endless life " ; Gal. 5 : 6 — " For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision ; but 
faith working through love " ; James 2 : 14, 26 — " What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but 
have not works ? Can that faith save him ? .... For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart 
from works is dead." 

The best evidence that I believe a man's word is that I act upon it. Instance the 
bank-cashier's assurance to me that a sum of money is deposited with him to my 
account. If I am a millionaire, the communication may cause me no special joy. My 
faith in the cashier's word is tested by my going, or not-going, for the money. So my 
faith in Christ is evidenced by my acting upon his commands and promises. 

(/) That faith, as characteristically the inward act of reception, is not 
to be confounded with love or obedience, its fruit. 

Faith is, in the Scriptures, called a work, only in the sense that man's 
active powers are engaged in it. It is a work which God requires, yet 
which God enables man to perform (John 6 : 29 — ipyov tov Qeov. Cf. Rom. 
1 : 17 — CLKaioovvi] Qeov). As the gift of God and as the mere taking of 
undeserved mercy, it is expressly excluded from the category of works 



470 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

upon the basis of which man may claim salvation (Eom. 3 : 28; 4 : 4, 5, 
16). It is not the act of the full soul bestowing, but the act of an empty 
soul receiving. Although this reception is prompted by a drawing of heart 
toward God inwrought by the Holy Spirit, this drawing of heart is not yet 
a conscious and developed love : such love is the result of faith (Gal. 5:6). 
What precedes faith is an unconscious and undeveloped tendency or dispo- 
sition toward God. Conscious and developed affection toward God, or love 
proper, must always follow faith and be the product of faith. So, too, 
obedience can be rendered only after faith has laid hold of Christ, and with 
him has obtained the spirit of obedience (Rom. 1 : 5 — viranoi/v irioTsug = 
"obedience resulting from faith"). Hence faith is not the procuring cause 
of salvation, but is only the instrumental cause. The procuring cause is 
the Christ, whom faith embraces. 

John 6 : 29— "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" ; cf. Rom. 1 : 17— "For therein 
is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith : as it is written, But the righteous shall live from faith " ; Rom. 
3 : 28 — " We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law " ; 4 : 4, 5, 16 —"Now 
to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth 
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness .... For this cause it is of faith, that it may 
be according to grace " ; Gal. 5 : 6— "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision ; 
but faith working through love" ; Rom. 1 : 5— "through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of 
faith among all nations." 

Faith stands as an intermediate factor between the unconscious and undeveloped 
tendency or disposition toward God inwrought in the soul by God's regenerating act, 
on the one hand, and the conscious and developed affection toward God which is one of 
the fruits and evidences of conversion, on the other. Illustrate by the motherly instinct 
shown in a little girl's care for her doll,— a motherly instinct which becomes a developed 
mother's love, only when a child of her own is born. This new love of the Christian is 
an activity of his own soul, and yet it is a "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5 : 22). To attribute it 
wholly to himself would be like calling the walking and leaping of the lame man ( Acts 
3:8) merely a healthy activity of his own. For illustration of the priority of faith to 
love, see Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 533, note ; on the relation of faith to love, see Julius 
Muller, Doct. Sin, 1 : 116, 117. 

(g) That faith is susceptible of increase. 

This is evident, whether we consider it from the human or from the divine 
side. As an act of man, it has an intellectual, an emotional, and a voluntary 
element, each of which is capable of growth. As a work of God in the 
soul of man, it can receive, through the presentation of the truth and the 
quickening agency of the Holy Spirit, continually new accessions of knowl- 
edge, sensibility, and active energy. Such increase of faith, therefore, we 
are to seek, both by resolute exercise of our own powers, and above all, by 
direct application to the source of faith in God (Luke 17 : 5). 

Luke 17 : 5 — "And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith." The adult Christian has more 
faith than he had when a child,— evidently there has been increase. 1 Cor. 12 : 8, 9— "For to 
one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom .... to another faith, in the same Spirit." In this latter 
passage, it seems to be intimated that for special exigencies the Holy Spirit gives to his 
servants special faith, so that they are enabled to lay hold of the general pro mis e of God 
and make special application of it. Rom. 8 : 26, 27 — "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity . . . maketh 
intercession for us ... . maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" ; 1 John 5 : 14, 15 — "And 
this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us : and if we 
know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him." 

On the general subject of faith, see Kostlin, Die Lehre von dem Glauben, 13-85, 301-341, 
and in Jahrbuch f . d. Theol., 4 : 177 sq. ; Romaine on Faith, 9-89 ; Bishop of Ossory, 
Nature and Effects of Faith, 1-40; Venn, Characteristics of Belief, Introduction; 
Nitzsch, System of Christ. Doct., 394. 



JUSTIFICATION. 471 

IV. Justification. 

1. Definition of Justification. 

By justification we mean that judicial act of God by which, on account of 
Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith, he declares that sinner to be 
no longer exposed to the penalty of the law, but to be restored to his favor. 
Or, to give an alternative definition from which all metaphor is excluded : 
Justification is the reversal of God's attitude toward the sinner, because of 
the sinner's new relation to Christ. God did condemn ; he now acquits. 
He did repel ; he now admits to favor. 

Justification, as thus defined, is therefore a declarative act, as distinguished 
from an efficient act ; an act of God external to the sinner, as distinguished 
from an act within the sinner's nature and changing that nature ; a judicial 
act, as distinguished from a sovereign act ; an act based upon and logically 
})resupposing the sinner's union with Christ, as distinguished from an act 
which causes and is followed by that union with Christ. 

The word ' declarative ' does not imply a ' spoken ' word on G-od's part,— much less 
that the sinner hears God speak. That justification is sovereign, is held by Arminians, 
and by those who advocate a governmental theory of the atonement. On any such 
theory, justification must be sovereign ; since Christ bore, not the penalty of the law, 
but a substituted suffering which God graciously and sovereignly accepts in place of 
our suffering and obedience. 

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1100, wrote a tract for the consolation of the 
dying, who were alarmed on account of sin. The following is an extract from it: 
'"Question. Dost thou believe that the Lord Jesus died for thee? Answer. I believe it. 
Qu. Dost thou thank him for his passion and death ? Ans. I do thank him. Qu. Dost 
thou 'believe that thou canst not be saved except by his death? Ans. I believe it." 
And then Anselm addresses the dying man : " Come then, while life remaineth in thee; 
in his death alone place thy whole trust ; in naught else place any trust ; to his death 
commit thyself wholly ; with this alone cover thyself wholly ; and if the Lord thy God 
will to judge thee, say, ' Lord, between thy judgment and me I present the death of our 
Lord Jesus Christ ; no otherwise can I contend with thee.' And if he shall say that thou 
art a sinner, say thou : ' Lord, I interpose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between 
my sins and thee.' If he say that thou hast deserved condemnation, say : ' Lord, I set 
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between my evil deserts and thee, and his merits I 
offer for those which I ought to have and have not.' Lf he say that he is wroth with 
thee, say : ' Lord, I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between thy wrath and 
me.' And when thou hast completed this, say again : ' Lord, I set the death of our Lord 
Jesus Christ between thee and me.'" See Anselm, Opera (Migne), 1:686, 687. The 
above quotation gives us reason to believe that the New Testament doctrine of justi- 
fication by faith was implicitly, if not explicitly, held by many pious souls through all 
the ages of papal darkness. 

2. Proof of the Doctrine of Justification. 

A. Scripture proofs of the doctrine as a whole are the following : 

Rom. 1 : 17— "a righteousness of God from faith unto faith"; 3 : 24-30— "being justified freely by his grace 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus .... the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus .... We reckon 
therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law .... justify the circumcision by faith, 
and the uncircumcision through faith " ; Gal. 3 : 11 — " Now that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, is 
evident : for, The righteous shall live by faith ; and the law is not of faith ; but, He that doeth them shall live in them " ; 
Eph. 1 : 7 — " in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches 
of his grace" ; Heb. 11 : 4, 7 — "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he 
had witness borne to him that he was righteous .... By faith Noah .... moved with godly fear, prepared an ark 
.... became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith " ; cf. Gen. 15 : 6 — " And he believed in the Lord; 
and he counted it to him for righteousness" ; Is. 7 : 9 — "If ye will not believe, surely ye -shall not be established" ; 
28 : 16 — " he that believeth shall not make haste " ; Hab. 2:4—" the just shall live by his faith." 



472 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

B. Scripture use of the special words translated "justify" and "justifi- 
cation" in the Septuagint and in the New Testament. 

(a) 6/.Ka'.6co — uniformly, or with only a single exception, signifies, not to 
make righteous, hut to declare just, or free from guilt and exposure to pun- 
ishment. The only O. T. passage where this meaning is questionable is 
Dan. 12 : 3. But even here the proper translation is, in all probability, 
not 'they that turn many to righteousness,' but 'they that justify many,' 
i. e., cause many to be justified. For the Hiphil force of the verb, see 
Girdlestone, O. T. Syn., 257, 258, and Delitzsch on Is. 53 : 11 ; cf. James 
5 : 19, 20. 

O. T. texts : Ex. 23 : 7 — " I will not justify the wicked " ; Deut. 25 : 1 — " they [ the judges ] shall justify 
the righteous, and condemn the wicked " ; Job 27 : 5 — " God forbid that I should justify you " ; Ps. 143 : 2— "in thy 
sight shall no man living be justified" ; Prov. 17 : 15— "He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the 
righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord " ; Is. 5 : 23— "which justify the wicked for a reward, 
and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him"; 50 : 8 — "He is near that justifieth me"; 53 : 11 — 
"by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many ; for he shall bear their iniquities" ; Dan. 12 : 3 — "and 
they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever " ( ' they that justify many,' i. e., cause 
many to be justified) ; cf. James 5 : 19, 20 — "My brethren, if any among you do err from the truth, and one 
convert him ; let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, 
and shall cover a multitude of sins." 

In Rom. 6 : 7 — o yap ano&avuv dediKaitorai airb rfjc duapriac = 'he that once 
died with Christ was acquitted from the service of sin considered as a pen- 
alty. ' In 1 Cor. 4 : 4 — ovdev yap k[xav-Q ovvcuda. aXX 1 ovk kv tovtu dedinaio/biat 
= 'I am conscious of no fault, but that does not in itself make certain God's 
acquittal as respects this particular charge.' The usage of the epistle of 
James does not contradict this ; the doctrine of James is that we are justi- 
fied only by such faith as makes us faithful and brings forth good works. 
"He uses the word exclusively in a judicial sense; he combats a mistaken 
view of nioTLc, not a mistaken view of 6iKat6u" ; see James 2 : 21, 23, 24, and 
Cremer, N. T. Lexicon, Eng. trans., 182, 183. The only N. T. passage 
where this meaning is questionable is Rev. 22 : 11 ; but here Alford, with 
tf, A, and B, reads dtKaioavv^v iroi^aaTu. 

N. T. texts: Mat. 12 : 37— "For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be con- 
demned" ; Luke 7 : 29— "And all the people .... justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John" ; 10 : 29 
— "But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?" 16 : 15 — "Ye are they that justify 
yourselves in the sight of men ; but God knoweth your hearts " ; 18 : 14 — " This man went down to his house justified 
rather than the other" ; cf. 13 (lit. ) — "God be propitiated toward me the sinner" ; Rom. 4 : 6-8 — "Even as David 
also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are 
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not reckon 
sin " ; cf. Ps. 32 : 1, 2 — " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto 
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." 

Rom. 5 : 18, 19 — "So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation ; even so through 
one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man's disobedience 
the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous" ; 8 : 33, 34 
— "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?" 
2 Cor. 5 : 19, 21 — " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses .... 
Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God [ God's jus- 
tified persons] in him" ; Rom. 6 : 7— "he that hath died is justified from sin" ; 1 Cor. 4 : 4— "For I know 
nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified : but he that judgeth me is the Lord." 

James 2 : 21, 23, 24 — "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the 
altar ? . . . . Abraham believed God, and it was reokoned unto him for righteousness .... Ye see that by works a man 
is justified, and not only by faith." James is denouncing a dead faith, while Paul is speaking of 
the necessity of a living faith ; or, rather, James is describing the nature of faith, while 
Paul is describing the instrument of justification. "They are like two men beset by a 
couple of robbers. Back to back, each strikes out against the robber opposite him, — 



JUSTIFICATION. 473 

each having a different enemy in his eye" (Wm. M. Taylor). Neander on James 2 : 14-26 
—"James is denouncing- mere adhesion to an external law, trust in intellectual posses- 
sion of it. With him, law means an inward principle of life. Paul, contrasting' law as he 

does with faith, commonly means by law mere external divine requisition James 

does not deny salvation to him who has faith, hut only to him who falsely professes to 
have. When he says that 'by works a man is justified,' he takes into account the outward 
manifestation only, speaks from the point of view of human consciousness. In works 
only does faith show itself as genuine and complete." Rev. 22 : 11 — " he that is righteous, let him 
do righteousness still"— not, as the A. V. seemed to imply, "he that is just, let him be justi- 
fied still "— i. e., made subjectively holy. 

(b) dimiuoiq — is the act, in process, of declaring a man just, — that is, 
acquitted from guilt and restored to the divine favor (Rom. 4 : 25 ; 5 : 18). 

Rom. 4 : 25 — "who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification" ; 5 : 18 — "unto all 
men to justification of life." 

(c) diKaiuixa — is the act, as already accomplished, of declaring a man 
just, — that is, no longer exposed to penalty, but restored to God's favor 
(Rom. 5 : 16, 18; c/. 1 Tim. 3 : 16). Hence, in other connections, oinaiuua 
has the meaning of statute, legal decision, act of justice (Luke 1:6; Rom. 
2:26; Heb. 9:1). 

Rom. 5 : 16, 18— "of many trespasses unto justification .... through one act of righteousness" ; cf. 1 Tim. 3 : 
16 — "justified in the spirit." The distinction between SikcuWis and 6\Katu>/u.a may be illustrated 
by the distinction between poesy and poem, — the former denoting something in process, 
an ever-working spirit ; the latter denoting something fully accomplished, a completed 
work. Hence SiKaiufxa is used in Luke 1 : 6 — "ordinances of the Lord" ; Rom. 2 : 26 — "ordinances of 
the law" ; Heb. 9 : 1 — "ordinances of divine service." 

{d ) ccnaioovvri — is the state of one justified, or declared just ( Rom. 8 : 
10; 1 Cor. 1 : 30). In Rom. 10 : 3, Paul inveighs against r^v Idiav dacaioavvr/v 
as insufficient and false, and in its place ■would put tt]v rov Qeov dtKaioGvvrjv, — 
that is, a SiKaiocvvrj which God not only requires, but provides ; which is not 
only acceptable to God, but proceeds from God, and is appropriated by 
faith, — hence called ducaiocvvij Trhreug or en 7r/crre<jc. " The primary significa- 
tion of the word, in Paul's writings, is therefore that state of the believer 
which is called forth by God's act of acquittal, — the state of the believer as 
justified," that is, freed from punishment and restored to the divine favor. 

Rom. 8 : 10— "the spirit is life because of righteousness" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 30 — "Christ Jesus, who was made unto us 
.... righteousness" ; Rom. 10 : 3— "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they 
did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 542 — "The 'righteousness 
of God ' is the active and passive obedience of incarnate God." See, on Sucaioo-vvri, Cremer, 
N. T. Lexicon, Eng. trans., 174; Meyer on Romans, trans., 6&-70 — " Sucaioo-vin) Qeov (gen. 
of origin, emanation from ) = Tightness which proceeds from God — the relation of being 
right into which man is put by God (by an act of God declaring him righteous J." 

Since this state of acquittal is accompanied by changes in the character 
and conduct, ciKaiocvvr] comes to mean, secondarily, the moral condition of 
the believer as resulting from this acquittal and inseparably connected with 
it (Rom. 14 : 17; 2 Cor. 5 : 21). This righteousness arising from justifica- 
tion becomes a principle of action (Mat. 3 : 15 ; Acts 10 : 35 ; Rom. 6 : 13, 
18). The term, however, never loses its implication of a justifying act 
upon which this principle of action is based. 

Rom. 14 : 17 — " the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost" ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21— "that we might become the righteousness of God in him" ; Mat. 3 : 15— "Suffer it now: for 
thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" ; Acts 10 : 35 — "in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh 
righteousness, is acceptable to him" ; Rom. 6 : 13— "present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your 
members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Meyer on Rom. 3 : 23 — "Every mode of concep- 
tion which refers redemption and the forgiveness of sins, not to a real atonement 



474 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

through the death of Christ, but subjectively to the dying and reviving with him 
guaranteed and produced by. that death ( Schleiermacher, Nitzsch, Hofmann), is opposed 
to the N. T.,— a mixing up of justification and sanctifi cation." 

On these Scripture terms, see Bp. of Ossory, Nature and Effects of Faith, 436-496; 
Lange, Com., on Romans 3 : 24 ; Buchanan on Justification, 226-249. Versus Moehler, Sym- 
bolism, 102—" The forgiveness of sins .... is undoubtedly a remission of the guilt and 
the punishment which Christ hath taken and borne upon himself ; but it is likewise the 
transfusion of his Spirit into us"; Newman, Lectures on Justification, 68-143; Knox, 
Remains ; N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 310-372. 

It is worthy of special observation that, in the passages cited above, the 
terms "justify" and "justification" are contrasted, not with the process of 
depraving or corrupting, but with the outward act of condemning ; and that 
the expressions used to explain and illustrate them are all derived, not from 
the inward operation of purifying the soul or infusing into it righteousness, 
but from the procedure of courts in their judgments, or of offended persons 
in their forgiveness of offenders. We conclude that these terms, wherever 
they have reference to the sinner's relation to God, signify a declarative and 
judicial act of God, external to the sinner, and not an efficient and sovereign 
act of God changing the sinner's nature and making him subjectively 
righteous. 

3. Elements of Justification. 

These are two : 

A. Eemission of punishment. 

( a ) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them 
just. This is not to declare them innocent, — that would be a judgment 
contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satis- 
fied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation. 

Rom. 4 : 5— "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned 
for righteousness " ; cf. John 3 : 16 — "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish " ; 
see page 475, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2 : 549. 

( b ) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, 
administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act 
of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace 
to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness. 

Micah 7 : 18 — " Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant 
of his heritage ? " Ps. 130 : 4 — " But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." 

( c ) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved 
to be transgressors, — for such there is only conviction and punishment. 
But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, 
even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God 
declares this remission. 

There is no forgiveness in nature. F. "W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored 
the vis medicatrix of the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural con- 
science says: "I must pay my debt." But the believer finds that "Jesus paid it all." 
Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at 
death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay. Ps. 34 : 22— "The 
Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that trust in him shall be condemned." 

( d ) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty 
of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the 
part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by 



JUSTIFICATION. 475 

Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first 
element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits 
the transgressor and suffers him to go free. 

Acts 13 : 38, 39 — " Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission 
of sins : and by him [ lit. : ' in him ' ] every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not 
be justified by the law of Moses " ; Rom. 3 : 24, 26 — " being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is 
in Christ Jesus .... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus " ; 1 Cor. 6 : 11 — 
"but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus" ; Eph. 1 : 7 — "in whom we have our redemption through his 
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." 

This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather 
as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned — a trial 
in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteous- 
ness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M. : " When Balak seeks to 
curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah : ' He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath 
he seen perverseness in Israel ' ( Sum. 23 : 21 ). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word 
is : ' The Lord rebuke thee, Satan .... Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? ' ( Zech. 3:2). Thus he 
ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them. ' Touch 
not mine anointed ones,' he says, ' and do my prophets no harm ' ( Ps. 105 : 15 ). ' It is God that justifieth ; who is 
he that condemneth?' (Rom. 8 : 34)." It is not sin, then, that condemns,— it is the failure to 
ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Eliza- 
beth to the Earl of Essex. 

B. Restoration to favor. 

(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would 
leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal, — law 
requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punish- 
ment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and 
had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only 
remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience. 

Luke 15 : 22-24 — " Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on 
his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry : for this my son was dead, and is alive 
again ; he was lost and is found " ; John 3 : 16 — "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
.... have eternal life " ; Rom. 5 : 1, 2— "Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand ; and we rejoice in 
hope of the glory of God" —"this grace" being a permanent state of divine favor ; 1 Cor. 1 : 29, 30 
— " But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, 
and redemption : that according as it is written. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 — "that we 
might become the righteousness of God in him." 

Gal. 3 : 6— "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness" ; Eph. 2 : 7 — "the 
eiceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus " ; 3 : 12 — "in whom we have boldness and access 
in confidence through our faith in him " ; Phil. 3 : 8, 9 — " I count all things to be loss for the eicellency of the knowl- 
edge of Christ Jesus my Lord .... the righteousness which is from God by faith " ; Col. 1 : 22 — " reconciled in the body 
of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him " ; Tit. 3 : 4, 7— "the 
kindness of God our Savior .... that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of 
eternal life " ; Rev. 19 : 8— "And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: 
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." 

( b ) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a 
broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation ; viewed in its aspect as a 
renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated 
adoption. 

John 1 : 12 — " But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that 
believe on his name" ; Rom. 5 : 11 — "and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
through whom we have now received the reconciliation"; Gal. 4 : 5 — "born under the law, that he might redeem 
them which were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" ; Eph. 1 : 5 — "having foreordained us 
unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself" ; c/. Rom. 8 : 23 — "even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body"— that is, this adoption is completed, so 
far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection. 



476 SOTEKIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

( c ) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the 
pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards ; law can- 
not claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing 
of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human 
government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, 
but approval ; not only pardon, but promotion. Eemission is never sepa- 
rated from restoration. 

After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him 
and with no f riends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain 
employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again ; and then 
the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punish- 
ment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified 
sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal 
death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly 
the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured 
favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for 
him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two ele- 
ments, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of 
darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if 
he would have, an incomplete justification. 

( d ) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its 
ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the 
obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by 
faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in 
both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of 
the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the 
rewards of law. 

All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedi- 
ence : John 20 : 31 — " that believing ye may have life in his name " ; 1 Cor. 3 : 21-23 — " For all things are yours ; 
. ; . . all are yours ; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec, 1883, 
maintains that "grace operates in two ways: (1) for the rebel it provides a scheme of 
justification,— this is judicial, matter of debt ; (2) for the child it provides pardon,— 
fatherly forgiveness on repentance." But see pages 409, ( b ), 420, ( h ). 

H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524— "Justification and pardon are 
not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons ( Works, vol. 5 ), that ' jus- 
tification is no more nor less than pardon,' and that l God rewards men for their own, 
and not Christ's, obedience,' for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate 
to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not 
pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge 
against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justifi- 
cation. There is no significance in the use of the word 'justify,' if pardon be all that 
is intended. . . . 

"Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of 
the acquittal and favor ; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, 
is at the basis — the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far sat- 
isfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely 
set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God 
might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness) ; but in 
the gospel he does more,— he pardons in consistency with his holiness,— upholding that 
as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all 
the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. 
The penalty of the law — spiritual, temporal, eternal death — is all taken away; and the 
opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ — the resurrection to blessed- 
ness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life. . . . ,. 

" If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to the past. If it is also a title to 
life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the 
plan and decrees of God respecting redemption — his seeing the end from the beginning. 



JUSTIFICATION. 477 

The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two fold : first, it does involve 
pardon,— this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also —the title to eternal 
life ; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts 
of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might 
remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do. 

"Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on 
any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. 
Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is 
observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine 
methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental 
scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of 
it is only pardon, and not eternal life." 

But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness 
of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of 
law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See 
also Quenstedt, 3 : 524 ; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ. 

4. Relation of Justification to God's Law and Holiness. 

A. Justification has been shown to be a forensic term. A man may, 
indeed, be conceived of as just, in either of two senses: (a) as just in 
moral character, — that is, absolutely holy in nature, disposition, and con- 
duct; (6) as just in relation to law, — or as free from all obligation to 
suffer x>enalty, and as entitled to the rewards of obedience. 

So, too, a man may be conceived of as justified, in either of two senses : 
{a) made just in moral character ; or, (6) made just in his relation to law. 
But the Scriptures declare that there does not exist on earth a just man, in 
the first of these senses (Eccl. 7 : 20). Even in those who are renewed in 
moral character and united to Christ, there is a remnant of moral depravity. 

If, therefore, there be any such thing as a just man, he must be just, not 
in the sense of possessing an unsjpotted holiness, but in the sense of being 
delivered from the penalty of law, and made partaker of its rewards. If 
there be any such thing as justification, it must be, not an act of God 
-which renders the sinner absolutely holy, but an act of God which declares 
the sinner to be free from legal jDenalties and entitled to legal rewards. 

Justus is derived from jus, and suggests the idea of courts and legal procedures. The 
fact that ' justify ' is derived from Justus and facio, and might therefore seem to imply 
the making of a man subjectively righteous, should not blind us to its forensic use. The 
phrases "sanctify the Holy One of Jacob " ( Is. 29 : 23 ; cf. 1 Pet. 3 : 15 — " sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord " ) 
and "glorify God " (1 Cor. 6 : 20) do not mean, to make God subjectively holy or glorious, for 
this he is, whatever we may do ; they mean rather, to declare, or show, him to be holy or 
glorious. So justification is not making a man righteous, or even pronouncing him 
righteous, for no man is subjectively righteous. It is rather to count him righteous so 
far as respects his relations to law, to treat him as righteous, or to declare that God will, 
for reasons assigned, so treat him (Payne). So long as any remnant of sin exists, no 
justification, in the sense of making holy, can be attributed to man: Eccl. 7 : 20— "Sorely 
there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." If no man is just, in this sense, 
then God cannot pronounce him just, for God cannot lie. Justification, therefore, must 
signify a deliverance from legal penalties, and an assignment of legal rewards. O. P. 
Gifford: There is no such thing as "salvation by character"; what men need is salva- 
tion from character. 

B. The difficult feature of justification isthe declaration, on the part of 
God, that a sinner whose remaining sinfulness seems to necessitate the 
vindicative reaction of God's holiness against him, is yet free from such 
reaction of holiness as is expressed in the penalties of the law. 

The fact is to be accepted on the testimony of Scripture. If this testi- 
mony be not accepted, there is no deliverance from the condemnation of 
law. But the difficulty of conceiving of God's declaring the sinner no 



478 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

longer exposed to legal penalty is relieved, if not removed, by the three- 
fold consideration : 

(a) That Christ has endured the penalty of the law in the sinner's stead. 

Gal. 3 : 13 — " Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." Denovan : " We 
are justified by faith, instrumentally, in the same sense as a debt is paid by a good note 
or a check on a substantial account in a distant bank. It is only the intelligent and 
honest acceptance of justification already provided." Rom. 8: 3 — "God, sending his own Son 
.... condemned sin in the flesh" = the believer's sins were judged and condemned on Calvary. 
The way of pardon through Christ honors God's justice as well as God's mercy ; cf. Rom. 
3 : 26 — " that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." 

( b ) That the sinner is so united to Christ, that Christ's life already con- 
stitutes the dominating principle within him. 

Gal. 2 : 20 — "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." God 
does not justify any man whom he does not foresee that he can and will sanctify. Some 
prophecies produce their own fulfillment. Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to 
become so. So declaratory justification, when published in the heart by the Holy 
Spirit, helps to make men just. 

( c ) That this life of Christ is a power in the soul which will gradually, 
but infallibly, extirpate all remaining depravity, until the whole physical 
and moral nature is perfectly conformed to the divine holiness. 

Phil. 3 : 21 — " who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, 
according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself" ; Col. 3 : 1-4 — "If then ye were 
raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your 
mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God. "When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.' ' 

Truth of fact, and ideal truth, are not opposed to each other. F. W. Robertson, 
Lectures and Addresses, 256 — " When the agriculturist sees a small, white, almond-like 
thing rising from the ground, he calls that an oak ; but this is not a truth of fact, it is 
an ideal truth. The oak is a large tree, with spreading branches and leaves and acorns ; 
but that is only a thing an inch long, and imperceptible in all its development ; yet the 
agriculturist sees in it the idea of what it shall be, and, if I may borrow a Scriptural 
phrase, he imputes to it the majesty, and excellence, and glory, that is to be hereafter." 
This method of representation is effective and unobjectionable, so long as we remember 
that the force which is to bring about this future development and perfection is not the 
force of unassisted human nature, but rather the force of Christ and his indwelling 
Spirit. See Philippi, Glaubenslehre, v, 1 : 201-208. 

5. Relation of Justification to Union ivith . Christ and the Work of 
the Spirit. 

A. Since the sinner, at the moment of justification, is not yet com- 
pletely transformed in character, we have seen that God can declare him 
just, not on account of what he is in himself, but only on account of what 
Christ is. The ground of justification is therefore not, ( a ) as the Roman- 
ists hold, a new righteousness and love infused into us, and now constituting 
our moral character ; nor, ( b ) as Osiander taught, the essential righteous- 
ness of Christ's divine nature, which has become ours by faith ; but ( c ) the 
satisfaction and obedience of Christ, as the head of a new humanity, and as 
embracing in himself all believers as his members. 

As Adam's sin is imputed to us, not because Adam is in us, but because 
we were in Adam ; so Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, not because 
Christ is in us, but because we are in Christ, — that is, joined by faith to 
one whose righteousness and life are infinitely greater than our power to 
appropriate or contain. In this sense, we may say that we are justified 
through a Christ outside of us, as we are sanctified through a Christ within 



JUSTIFICATION. 479 

us. Edwards : "The justification of the believer is no other than his being 
admitted to communion in, or participation of, this head and surety of all 
believers." 

1 Tim. 1 : 14 — " faith and love which is in Christ Jesns" ; 3 : 16 — "He who was manifested in the flesh, jnstified in 
the spirit" ; Acts 13 : 39— "and by him [lit. : 'in him ' ] every one that believeth is jnstified from all things, from 
which ye could not he justified by the law of Moses " ; Rom. 4 : 25 — " who was delivered up for our trespasses and was 
raised for our justification." 

Here we hare the third instance of imputation. The first was the imputation of 
Adam's sin to us ; and the second was the imputation of our sins to Christ. The third is 
now the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. In each of the former cases, we 
have sought to show that the legal relation presupposes a natural relation. Adam's sin 
is imputed to us, because we are one with Adam ; our sins are imputed to Christ, because 
Christ is one with humanity. So here, we must hold that Christ's righteousness is 
imputed to us, because we are one with Christ. Justification is not an arbitrary trans- 
fer to us of the merits of another with whom we have no real connection. This would 
make it merely a legal fiction ; and there are no legal fictions in the divine government. 

Instead of this external and mechanical method of conception, we should first set 
before us the fact of Christ's justification, after he had borne our sins and risen from the 
dead. In him, humanity, for the first time, is acquitted from punishment and restored 
to the divine favor. But Christ's new humanity is the germinal source of spiritual life 
for the race. He was justified, not simply as a private person, but as our representative 
and head. By becoming partakers of the new life in him, we share in all he is and all 
he has done ; and, first of all, we share in his justification. So Luther gives us, for sub- 
stance, the formula : " We in Christ = justification ; Christ in us = sanctification." And 
in harmony with this formula is the statement quoted in the text above from Edwards, 
Works, 4 : 66. 

See also H. B. Smith, in Presb. Rev., July, 1881 — " Union with Adam and with Christ is 
the ground of imputation. But the parallelism is incomplete. While the sin of Adam 
is imputed to us because it is ours, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us simply 
because of our union with him, not at all because of our personal righteousness. In the 
one case, character is taken into the account ; in the other, it is not. In sin, our demerits 
are included ; in justification, our merits are excluded." For further statements of Dr. 
Smith, see his System of Christian Theology, 524-552. 

C. H. M. on Genesis, page 78 — " The question for every believer is not ' What am I ? * 
but 4 What is Christ ? ' Of Abel it is said : ' God testified of his gifts ' ( Heb. 11 : 4, A. V. ). So God 
testifies, not of the believer, but of his gi0,— and his gift is Christ. Yet Cain was angry 
because he was not received in his sins, while Abel was accepted in his gift. This was 
right, if Abel was justified in himself ; it was wrong, because Abel was justified only in 
Christ." See also Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 384-388, 392 ; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 448. 

B. The relation of justification to regeneration and sanctification, more- 
over, delivers it from the charges of externality and immorality. God does 
not justify ungodly men in their ungodliness. He pronounces them just 
only as they are united to Christ, who is absolutely just, and who, by his 
Spirit, can make them just, not only in the eye of the law, but in moral 
character. The very faith by which the sinner receives Christ is an act 
in which he ratifies all that Christ has done, and accepts God's judgment 
against sin as his own (John 16 : 11). 

Justification is possible, therefore, because it is always accompanied by 
regeneration and union with Christ, and is followed by sanctification. But 
this is a very different thing from the Bomanist confounding of justification 
and sanctification, as different stages of the same process of making the 
sinner actually holy. It holds fast to the Scripture distinction between 
justification as a declarative act of God, and regeneration and sanctification 
as those efficient acts of God by which justification is accompanied and 
followed. 

John 16 : 11 — " of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged "— the Holy Spirit leads the 



480 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

believer to ratify God's judgment against sin and Satan. Accepting Christ, the believer 
accepts Christ's death for sin, and resurrection to life, for his own. If it were otherwise, 
the first act of the believer, after his discharge, might be a repetition of his offences. 
Such a justification would offend against the fundamental principles of justice and the 
safety of government. It would also fail to satisfy the conscience. This clamors not 
only for pardon, but for renewal. Union with Christ has one legal fruit — justification ; 
but it has also one moral fruit — sanctification. 

Both history and our personal observation show that nothing can change the lif e and 
make men moral, like the gospel of free pardon in Jesus Christ. Mere preaching of 
morality will effect nothing of consequence. There never has been more insistence 
upon morality than in the most immoral times, like those of Seneca, and of the English 
deists. As to their moral fruits, we can safely compare Protestant with Roman Catholic 
systems and leaders and countries. We do not become right by doing right, for only 
those can do right who have become right. The prodigal son is forgiven before he 
actually confesses and amends ( Luke 15 : 20 21). Justification is always accompanied by 
regeneration, and is followed by sanctification ; and all three are results of the death 
of Christ. 

Hence we read in Eph. 5 : 25, 26 — "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might 
sanctify it, having cleansed [ = after he had cleansed] it by the washing of water with the word" [ = re- 
generation ] ; 1 Pet. 1 : 1, 2 — "elect .... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of 
the Spirit [regeneration], unto obedience [conversion] and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ [jus- 
tification]'" ; 1 John 1 : 7 — "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, 
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin"— here the 'cleansing' refers primarily 
and mainly to justification, not to sanctification; for the apostle himself declares in 
verse 8 — "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 

Quenstedt says well, that "justification, since it is an act, outside of man, in God, 
cannot produce an intrinsic change in us." And yet, he says, "although faith alone 
justifies, yet faith is not alone." Melancthon: "Sola fides justificat; sed fides nonest 
sola." With faith go all manner of gifts of the Spirit and internal graces of character. 
But we should let go all the doctrinal gains of the Reformation if we did not insist that 
these gifts and graces are accompaniments and consequences of justification, instead of 
being a part or a ground of justification. See Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms, 104, note : 
"Justification is God's declaration that the individual sinner, on account of the faith 
which unites him to Christ, is taken up into the relation which Christ holds to the rather, 
and has applied to him personally the objective work accomplished for humanity by 
Christ." 

6 Relation of Justification to Faith. 

A. We are justified by faith, rather than by love or by any other grace : 
( a ) not because faith is itself a work of obedience by which we merit justi- 
fication, — for this would be a doctrine of justification by works; (6) nor 
because faith is accepted as an equivalent of obedience, — for there is no 
equivalent except the perfect obedience of Christ ; (c) nor because faith is 
the germ from which obedience may spring hereafter, — for it is not the 
faith which accepts, but the Christ who is accepted, that renders such 
obedience possible ; but ( d ) because faith, and not repentance, or love, or 
hope, is the medium or instrument by which we receive Christ and are 
united to him. Hence we are never said to be justified tita izioTiv, = <m 
account of faith, but only Sta Triareuc, = through faith, or ek Trlcreug, = by 
faith. Or, to express the same truth in other words, while the grace of 
God is the efficient cause of justification, and the obedience and sufferings 
of Christ are the meritorious or procuring cause, faith is the mediate or 
instrumental cause. 

Edwards, Works, 4 : 69-73— "Faith justifies, because faith includes the whole act of 
unition to Christ as a Savior. It is not the nature of any other graces or virtues directly 
to close with Christ as a mediator, any further than they enter into the constitution of 
justifying faith, and do belong to its nature"; Observations on Trinity, 64-67— "Sal- 
vation is not offered to us upon any condition, but freely, and for nothing. We are 
to do nothing for it,— we are only to take it. This taking and receiving is faith." 



JUSTIFICATION". 481 

TL B. Smith, System, 524— "An internal change is a sine qua non of justification, but 
not its meritorious ground." Give a man a gold mine. It is 7m. He has not to work 
for it; he has only to work it. The marriage of a poor girl to a wealthy proprietor 
makes her possessor of his riches, despite her former poverty. Yet her acceptance has 
not purchased wealth. It is hers, not because of what she is or has done, but because of 
what her husband is and has done. So faith is the condition of justification, only because 
through it Christ becomes ours, and with him his atonement and righteousness. Salva- 
tion comes not because our faith saves us, but because it links us to the Christ who 
saves ; and believing is only the link. There is no more merit in it than in the beggar's 
stretching forth his hand to receive the offered purse, or the drowning man's grasping 
the rope that is thrown to him. 

The Wesleyan scheme is inclined to make faith a work. See Dabney, Theology, 637. 
This is to make faith the cause and ground, or at least to add it to Christ's work as a 
.joint cause and ground, of justification; as if justification were Sia nio-Tiv, instead of 
■Sia 7ri'o-T€W5 or e#c 7rtcrrea>s. Since faith is never perfect, this is to go back to the Roman 
Catholic uncertainty of salvation. See Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 744, 745 ( Syst. Doct., 
4 : 206, 207). C. H. M. on Gen. 3 : 7— "They made themselves aprons of fig-leaves, before 
God made them coats of skins. Man ever tries to clothe himself in garments of his own 
righteousness, before he will take the robe of Christ's. But Adam felt himself naked 
when God visited him, even though he had his fig-leaves on him." 

B. Since the ground of justification is only Christ, to whom we are 
united by faith, the justified person has peace. If it were anything in our- 
selves, our peace must needs be proportioned to our holiness. The practi- 
cal effect of the Eomanist mingling of works with faith, as a joint ground of 
justification, is to render all assurance of salvation impossible. ( Council of 
Trent, 9th chap. : "Every man, by reason of his own weakness and defects, 
must be in fear and anxiety about his state of grace. Nor can any one 
know, with infallible certainty of faith, that he has received forgiveness of 
God.") But since justification is an instantaneous act of God, complete at 
the moment of the sinner's first believing, it has no degrees. Weak faith 
justifies as perfectly as strong faith ; although, since justification is a secret 
act of God, weak faith does not give so strong assurance of salvation. 

Foundations of our Faith, 216—" The Catholic doctrine declares that justification is not 
dependent upon faith and the righteousness of Christ imputed and granted thereto, but 
on the actual condition of the man himself. But there remain in the man an undeniable 
amount of fleshly lusts or inclinations to sin, even though the man be regenerate. The 
Catholic doctrine is therefore constrained to assert that these lusts are not in themselves 
sinful, or objects of the divine displeasure. They are allowed to remain in the man, 
that he may struggle against them ; and, as they say, Paul designates them as sinful, only 
because they are derived from sin, and incite to sin ; but they only become sin by the 
positive concurrence of the human will. But is not internal lust displeasing to God ? 
Can we draw the line between lust and will ? The Catholic favors self here, and makes 
many things lust, which are really will. A Protestant is necessarily more earnest in the 
work of salvation, when he recognizes even the evil desire as sin, according to Christ's 
precept." 

All systems of religion of merely human origin tend to make salvation, in larger or 
smaller degree, the effect of human works, but only with the result of leaving man in 
despair. See, in Ecclesiasticus 2 : 30, an Apocryphal declaration that alms make atone- 
ment for sin. So Romanism bids me doubt God's grace and the forgiveness of sins. See 
Dorner, Gesch. Prot. Theol., 228, 229, and his quotations from Luther. " But if the 
Romanist doctrine is true, that a man is justified only in such measure as he is sancti- 
fied, then: 1. Justification must be a matter of degrees, and so the Council of Trent 
declares it to be. The sacraments which sanctify are therefore essential, that one may 
be increasingly justified. 2. Since justification is a continuous process, the redeeming 
death of Christ, on which it depends, must be a continuous process also ; hence its pro- 
longed reiteration in the sacrifice by the Mass. 3. Since sanctification is obviously never 
■completed in this life, no man ever dies completely justified ; hence the doctrine of Pur- 
gatory." For the substance of the Romanist doctrine, see Moehler, Symbolism, 79-190; 
31 



482 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

Newman, Lectures on Justification, 253-345; Ritschl, Christian Doctrine of Justification,. 
121-336. 

A better doctrine is that of the Puritan divine : " It is not the quantity of thy faith 
that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean. So a little 
faith is as true faith as the greatest. It is not the measure of thy faith that saves thee, — 
it is the blood that it grips to that saves thee. The weak hand of the child, that leads 
the spoon to the mouth, will feed as well as the strong arm of a man ; for it is not the 
hand that feeds, but the meat. So, if thou canst grip Christ ever so weakly, he will not 
let thee perish." I am troubled about the money I owe in New York, until I find that a 
friend has paid my debt there. When I find that the objective account against me is 
cancelled, then and only then do I have subjective peace. 

A child may be heir to a vast estate, even while he does not know it ; and a child of God 
may be an heir of glory, even while, through the weakness of his faith, he is oppressed 
with painful doubts and fears. No man is lost simply because of the greatness of his 
sins ; however ill-deserving he may be, faith in Christ will save him. Luther's climbing 
the steps of St. John Lateran, and the voice of thunder: "The just shall live by faith," 
are not certain as historical facts ; but they express the substance of Luther's experience. 
Not obeying, but receiving, is the substance of the gospel. A man cannot merit salva- 
tion ; he cannot buy it ; but one thing he must do,— he must take it. And the least faith 
makes salvation ours, because it makes Christ ours. See Foundations of our Faith, 216. 

C. Justification is instantaneous, complete, and final : instantaneous, 
since otherwise there would be an interval during which the soul was neither 
approved nor condemned by God (Mat. 6 : 24) ; complete, since the soul, 
united to Christ by faith, becomes partaker of his complete satisfaction to 
the demands of law ( Col. 2:9, 10 ) ; and final, since this union with Christ is 
indissoluble (John 10 : 28-30). As there are many acts of sin in the life of 
the Christian, so there are many acts of pardon following them. But all 
these acts of pardon are virtually implied in that first act by which he was 
finally and forever justified ; as also successive acts of repentance and faith, 
after such sins, are virtually implied in that first repentance and faith which 
logically preceded justification. 

Mat. 6 : 24 — "No man can serve two masters" ; Col. 2 : 9, 10 — "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily, and in him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power" ; John 10 : 28-30 — "they shall 
never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, which hath given them unto me, is greater 
than all ; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." 

Plymouth Brethren say truly that the Christian has sin in him, but not on him, because 
Christ had sin on him, but not in him. All our sins are buried in the grave with Christ, 
and Christ's resurrection is our resurrection. Toplady : " From whence this fear and 
unbelief ? Hast thou, O Father, put to grief Thy spotless Son for me ? And will the 
righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin, Which, Lord, was laid on 
thee ? If thou hast my discharge procured, And freely in my room endured The whole 
of wrath divine, Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's 
hand, And then again at mine. Complete atonement thou hast made, And to the utmost 
farthing paid Whate'er thy people owed ; How then can wrath on me take place, If shel- 
tered in thy righteousness And sprinkled with thy blood ? Turn, then, my soul, unto 
thy rest ; The merits of thy great High-priest Speak peace and liberty ; Trust in his 
efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for thee ! " 

Justification, however, is not eternal in the past. "We are to repent unto the remission 
of our sins ( Acts 2 : 38 ). Remission comes after repentance. Sin is not pardoned before 
it is committed. In justification God grants us actual pardon for past sin, but virtual 
pardon for future sin. Edwards, Works, 4 : 104 — " Future sins are respected, in that first 
justification, no otherwise than as future faith and repentance are respected in it; and 
future faith and repentance are looked upon by him that justifies as virtually implied 
in that first repentance and faith t in the same manner that justification from future 
sins is implied in that first justification." 

7. Advice to Inquirers demanded by a Scriptural View of Justification. 

(a) Where conviction of sin is yet lacking, our aim should be to show 
the sinner that he is under God's condemnation for his past sins, and that 



SANCTIFICATION. 483 

no future obedience can ever secure his justification, since this obedience, 
even though perfect, could not atone for the past, and even if it could, he 
is unable, without God's help, to render it. 

With the help of the Holy Spirit, conviction of sin may be roused by presentation of 
the claims of God's perfect law, and by drawing attention, first to particular overt 
transgressions, and then to the manifold omissions of duty, the general lack of supreme 
and all-pervading love to God, and the guilty rejection of Christ's offers and commands. 

( 6 ) Where conviction of sin already exists, our aim should be, not, in 
the first instance, to secure the performance of external religious duties, 
such as prayer, or Scripture-reading, or uniting with the church, but to 
induce the sinner, as his first and all-inclusive duty, to accept Christ as his 
only and sufficient sacrifice and Savior, and, committing himself and the 
matter of his salvation entirely to the hands of Christ, to manifest this 
trust and submission by entering at once upon a life of obedience to 
Christ's commands. 

A convicted sinner should be exhorted, not first to prayer and then to faith, but first 
to faith, and then to the immediate expression of that faith in prayer and Christian 
activity. He should pray, not for faith, but in faith. It should not be forgotten that 
the sinner never sins against so much light, and never is in so great danger, as when he 
is convicted but not converted, when he is moved to turn but yet refuses to turn. Xo 
such sinner should be allowed to think that he has the right to do any other thing 
whatever before accepting Christ. This accepting Christ is not an outward act, but an 
inward act of mind and heart and will, although believing is naturally evidenced by 
immediate outward action. To teach the sinner, however apparently well disposed, 
how to believe on Christ, is beyond the power of man. God is the only giver of faith. 
But Scripture instances of faith, and illustrations drawn from the child's taking the 
father at his word, and acting upon it. have often been used by the Holy Spirit as means 
of leading men themselves to put faith in Christ. 

On the general subject of Justification, see Edwards, Works, 4 : 64-132 ; Buchanan on 
Justification, 250-411 ; Owen on Justification, in Works, vol. 5 ; Bp. of Ossory, Nature 
and Effects of Faith, 49-152; Hodge, Syst. Theol.. 3 : 114-212; Thomasius, Christi Person 
und Werk, 3 : 193-200 ; Herzog, Encyclopedic, art. : Rechtf ertigung. 



SECTION III. — THE APPLICATION OF CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 
IN ITS CONTINUATION. 

Under this head we treat of Sanctification and of Perseverance. These 
two are but the divine and the human sides of the same fact, and they bear 
to each other a relation similar to that which exists between Kegeneration 
and Conversion. 

I. Sanctification. 

1. Definition of Sanctification. 

Sanctification is that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which 
the holy disposition imparted in regeneration is maintained and strength- 
ened. 

Godet: "The work of Jesus in the world is twofold. It is a work accomplished 
for us, destined to effect reconciliation between God and man; it is a work accom- 
plished in us, with the object of effecting our sanctification. By the one, a right relation 
is established between God and us ; by the other, the fruit of the reestablished order is 
secured. By the former, the condemned sinner is received into the state of grace ; by 



484 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

the latter, the pardoned sinner is associated with the life of God .... How many- 
express themselves as if, when forgiveness with the peace which it procures has been 
once obtained, all is finished and the work of salvation is complete ! They seem to have 
no suspicion that salvation consists in the health of the soul, and that the health of the 
soul consists in holiness. Forgiveness is not the reestablishment of health; it is the 
crisis of convalescence. If God thinks fit to declare the sinner righteous, it is in order 
that he may by that means restore him to holiness." O. P. Gifford: "The steamship 
whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast to the dock. She is 
safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time. Christ designs to make us both safe 
and sound. Justification gives the first— safety sanctification gives the second— 
soundness." 

This definition implies : 

( a ) t That, although in regeneration the governing disposition of the soul 
is made holy, there still remain tendencies to evil which are unsubdued. 

John 13 : 10 — "He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit [ i. e., as a whole ] " ; 
Rom. 6 : 12 — "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof" — sin dwells 
in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever ( C. H. M. ). Subordinate volitions in the 
Christian are not always determined in character by the fundamental choice ; eddies in 
the stream sometimes run counter to the general course of the current. 

( b ) That the existence in the believer of these two opposing principles 
gives rise to a conflict which lasts through life. 

Gal. 5 : 17 — " For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; for these are contrary the one to 
the other ; that ye may not do the things that ye would " — not, as the A. V. had it, ' so that ye cannot do the 
things that ye would ' ; the Spirit who dwells in believers is represented as enabling them suc- 
cessfully to resist those tendencies to evil which naturally exist within them ; James 4 : 5 
( the marginal and better reading ) — " That spirit which he made to dwell in us. yearneth for us even 
unto jealous envy"— i. e., God's love, like all true love, longs to have its objects wholly for 
its own. The Christian is two men in one ; but he is to " put away the old man " and " put on the 
new man" (Eph. 4 : 22, 23 ). Compare Ecclesiasticus 2 : 1 — "My son, if thou dost set out to 
serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation." 

( c ) That in this conflict the Holy Spirit enables the Christian, through 
increasing faith, more fully and consciously to appropriate Christ, and thus 
progressively to make conquest of the remaining sinfulness of his nature. 

Rom. 8 : 13, 14 — "for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die ; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the 
body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God " ; 1 Cor. 6 : 11 — " but ye were 
washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God " ; James 
1 : 26 — " If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this 
man's religion is vain"— see Com. of Neander, in loco— "That religion is merely imaginary, 
seeming, unreal, which allows the continuance of the moral defects originally predom- 
inant in the character." 

Dr. Hastings : " When Bourdaloue was probing the conscience of Louis XIV, apply- 
ing to him the words of St. Paul and intending to paraphrase them : ' For the good that I would 
I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do,' 'I find two men in me'— the King interrupted the great 
preacher with the memorable exclamation : ' Ah, these two men, I know them well ! ' 
Bourdaloue answered : ' It is already something to know them, Sire ; but it is not enough, 
— one of the two must perish.'" And, in the genuine believer, the old does little by 
little die, and the new takes its place, as " David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed 
weaker and weaker " ( 2 Sam. 3:1). As the Welsh minister found himself after awhile thinking 
and dreaming in English, so the language of Canaan becomes to the Christian his native 
and only speech. 

2. Explanations and Scripture Proof. 

( a ) Sanctification is the work of God. 

1 Thess. 5 : 23— "And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly." Much of our modern literature 
ignores man's dependence upon God, and some of it seems distinctly intended to teach 
the opposite doctrine. Auerbach's "On the Heights," for example, teaches that man 
can make his own atonement; and "The Villa on the Rhine," by the same author, 
teaches that man can sanctify himself. 



SANCTIFICATION. 485 

( 6 ) It is a continuous process. 

PhD. 1 : 6 — "being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in yon will perfect it nntil the 
day of Jesus Christ" ; 3 : 15 — "Let ns, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded : and if in anything ye are 
otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you " ; Col. 3 : 9, 10 — " Lie not one to another ; seeing that ye have 
put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the 
image of him that created him" ; cf. Acts 2 : 47 — "those that were being saved" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 18— "unto us which are 
being saved"; 2 Cor. 2 : 15— "in them that are being saved"; 1 Thess. 2 : 12— "God, who calleth you into his own 
kingdom and glory." 

( c ) It is distinguished from regeneration as growth from birth, or as the 
strengthening of a holy disposition from the original impartation of it. 

Eph. 4 : 15 — "speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, which is the head, even Christ"; 
1 Thess. 3 : 12 — "the Lord make you to- increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men " ; 2 Pet. 
3 : 18 — "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" ; cf. 1 Pet. 1 : 23 — "begotten 
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth " ; 1 John 3 : 9 
— " Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is begot- 
ten of God." Not sin only, but holiness also, is a germ whose nature is to grow. The 
new love in the believer's heart follows the law of all Lif e, in developing and extending 
itself under God's husbandry. George Eliot: "The reward of one duty done is the 
power to do another." J. W. A. Stewart : " When the 21st of March has come, we say 
1 the back of the winter is broken.' There will still be alternations of frost, but the pro- 
gress will be towards heat. The coming of summer is sure,— in germ the summer is 
already here." Regeneration is the crisis of a disease ; sanctiflcation is the progress of 
convalescence. 

(d) The operation of God reveals itself in, and is accompanied by, intel- 
ligent and voluntary activity of the believer in the discovery and mortifica- 
tion of sinful desires, and in the bringing of the whole being into obedience 
to Christ and conformity to the standards of his word. 

John 17 : 17 — "Sanctify them in the truth : thy word is truth " ; 2 Cor. 10 : 5 — "casting down imaginations, and 
every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedi- 
ence of Christ " ; Phil. 2 : 12, 13 —"work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God which work- 
eth in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure" ; 1 Pet. 2 : 2— "as new-born babes, long for the spiritual 
milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation." 

Baxter : " Every man must grow, as trees do, downward and upward at once. The 
visible outward growth must be accompanied by an invisible inward growth." Drum- 
mond : " The spiritual man having passed from death to life, the natural man must pass 
from life to death." There must be increasing sense of sin : "My sins gave sharpness 
to the nails, And pointed every thorn." There must be a bringing of new and yet newer 
regions of thought, f eeling, and action, under the sway of Christ and his truth. There 
is a grain of truth even in Macaulay's jest about " essentially Christian cookery." 

(e) The agency through which God effects the sanctification of the 
believer is the indwelling Spirit of Christ. 

John 14 : 17, 18— "the Spirit of truth .... he abideth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate: 
I come unto you" ; 15 : 3-5— "Already ye are clean .... Abide in me ... . Apart from me ye can do nothing"; 
Rom. 8 : 9, 10 — " the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And 
if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteousness " ; 1 Cor. 1 : 2, 30 — 
"sanctified in Christ Jesus .... Christ Jesus, who was made unto us ... . sanctification " ; 6 : 19 —"know ye not 
that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God?" Gal. 5 : 16 — "Walk by the 
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh " ; Eph. 5 : 18 — " And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but 
be filled with the Spirit" ; Col. 1 : 27-29 —"the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ 
in you, the hope of glory : whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we 
may present every man perfect in Christ ; whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in 
me mightily " ; 2 Tim. 1 : 14 — " That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Ghost which 
dwelleth in us." 

Christianity substitutes for the old sources of excitement the power of the Holy 
Spirit. Here is a source of comfort, energy, and joy, infinitely superior to any which 
the sinner knows. God does not leave the soul to fall back upon itself. The higher up 
we get in the scale of being, the more does the new life need nursing and tending,— 
compare the sapling and the babe. God gives to the Christian, therefore, an abiding 
presence and work of the Holy Spirit,— not only regeneration, but sanctification. C. E. 
Smith, Baptism of Fire: "The soul needs the latter as well as the former rain, the 



486 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

sealing- as well as the renewing- of the Spirit, the baptism of fire as well as the baptism 
of water. Sealing gives something additional to the document, an evidence plainer 
than the writing within, both to one's self and to others." 

(/) The mediate or instrumental cause of sanctification, as of justifica- 
tion, is faith. 

Acts 15 : 9 — "cleansing their hearts by faith " ; Rom. 1 : 17— "For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from 
faith unto faith : as it is written, But the righteous shall live from faith." This righteousness includes sanc- 
tification as well as justification ; and the subject of the epistle to the Romans is not 
simply justification by faith, but rather righteousness by faith, or salvation by faith. 
Justification by faith is the subject of Chapters 1-7 ; sanctification by faith is the subject of 
Chapters 8-16. We are not sanctified by efforts of our own, any more than we are justified 
by efforts of our own. 

(g) The object of this faith is Christ himself, as the head of a new 
humanity and the source of truth and life to those united to him. 

2 Cor. 3 : 18— "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" ; Eph. 4 : 13 — "till we all attain unto the unity of 
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Christ." Faith here is of course much more than intellectual faith,— it is the reception 
of Christ himself. As Christianity furnishes a new source of life and energy— in the 
Holy Spirit : so it gives a new object of attention and regard — the Lord Jesus Christ. 
As we get air out of a vessel by pouring in water, so we can drive sin out only by bring- 
ing Christ in. See Chalmers' Sermon on the Expulsive Power of a New Affection. 
Drummond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World, 123-140 — " Man does not grow by making efforts 
to grow, but by putting himself into the conditions of growth by living in Christ." 

(h) Though the weakest faith perfectly justifies, the degree of sanctifi- 
cation is measured by the strength of the Christian's faith, and the persist- 
ence with which he apprehends Christ in the various relations which the 
Scriptures declare him to sustain to us. 

Mat. 9 : 29 — "According to your faith be it done unto you" ; Luke 17 : 5 — "Lord, increase our faith" ; Rom. 12 : 2 
— " be not fashioned according to this world : but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove 
what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" ; 13 : 14— "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make 
not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" ; Eph. 4 : 24— "put on the new man, which after God hath been 
created in righteousness and holiness of truth"; 1 Tim. 4: 7— "exercise thyself unto godliness." Leighton: 
" None of the children of God are born dumb." Milton : " Good, the more communi- 
cated, the more abundant grows." Faith can neither be stationary nor complete ( West- 
cott, Bible Com. on John 11 : 15 — " so shall ye become my disciples " ). Luther : " He who is a 
Christian is no Christian." 

(i) From the lack of persistence in using the means appointed for 
Christian growth — such as the word of God, prayer, association with other 
believers, and personal effort for the conversion of the ungodly — sanctifi- 
cation does not always proceed in regular and unbroken course, and it is 
never completed in this life. 

Phil. 3 : 12 — "Hot that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect ; but I press on, if so be that I may lay 
hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus" ; 1 John 1 : 8— "If we say that we have no sin, we 
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Carlyle, in his Life of John Sterling, chap. 8, says of 
Coleridge, that " whenever natural obligation or voluntary undertaking made it his duty 
to do anything, the fact seemed a sufficient reason for his not doing it." A regular, 
advancing sanctification is marked, on the other hand, by a growing habit of instant 
and joyful obedience. The intermittent spring depends upon the reservoir in the moun- 
tain cave,— only when the rain fills the latter full, does the spring begin to flow. So to 
secure unbroken Christian activity, there must be constant reception of the word and 
Spirit of God. 

(j ) Sanctification, both of the soul and of the body of the believer, is 
completed in the life to come, — that of the former at death, that of the latter 
at the resurrection. 

Phil. 3 : 21 —"who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of 
his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself" ; Col. 3 : 4— "When 



SANCTIEICATION". 487 

Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory" ; Heb. 12 : 14, 23 — 
" Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord .... spirits of just 
men made perfect" ; 1 John 3 : 2 — "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we 
shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him even as he is " ; Jude 
24 — " able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding 
joy " ; Rev. 14 : 5 — " And in their mouth was found no lie : they are without blemish." 

As Jesus' resurrection was prepared by holiness of life, so the Christian's resurrection 
is prepared by sanctification. When our souls are freed from the last remains of sin, 
then it will not he possible for us to be holden by death ( cf. Acts 2 : 24 ). See Gordon, The 
Twofold Life, or Christ's Work for us and in us ; Brit, and For. Evang. Rev., April, 
1884 : 305-329 ; Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 657-662. 

3. Erroneous Views refuted by these Scripture Passages. 

A. The Antinomian, — which holds that, since Christ's obedience and 
sufferings have satisfied the demands of the law, the believer is free from 
obligation to observe it. 

The Antinomian view rests upon a misinterpretation of Rom. 6 : 14— "ye are not under law, 
but under grace." Agricola and Amsdorf (1559) were representatives of this view. Ams- 
dorf said that "good works are hurtful to salvation." But Melancthon's words 
furnish the reply : " Sola fides justificat, sed fides non est sola." F. W. Robertson states 
it : " Faith alone justifies, but not the faith that is alone." And he illustrates : " Light- 
ning alone strikes, but not the lightning which is without thunder ; for that is summer 
lightning and harmless." 

To this view we urge the following objections : 

(a) That since the law is a transcript of the holiness of God, its 
demands as a moral rule are unchanging. Only as a system of penalty 
and a method of salvation is the law abolished in Christ's death. 

Mat. 5 : 17-19— "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. 
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the 
law, till all things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach 
men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great 
in the kingdom of heaven" ; 48 — "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" ; 1 Pet. 1 : 16 
— " Ye shall be holy ; for I am holy " ; Rom. 10 : 4 — " For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one 
that belie veth" ; Gal. 2 : 20 — "I have been crucified with Christ" ; 3 : 13 — "Christ redeemed us from the curse of 
the law, having become a curse for us"; Col. 2 : 14 —"having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was 
against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" ; Heb. 2 : 15 
— " deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 

( b ) That the union between Christ and the believer secures not only the 
bearing of the penalty of the law by Christ, but also the impartation of 
Christ's spirit of obedience to the believer, — in other words, brings him 
into communion with Christ's work, and leads him to ratify it in his own 
experience. 

Rom. 8 : 9, 10, 15 — " ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. But if any 
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the 
Spirit is life because of righteousness .... For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear : but ye received 
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" ; Gal. 5 : 22-24— "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance : against such there is no law. And they 
that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof" ; 1 John 1 : 6— "If we say that 
we have fellowship with him, and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth " ; 3:6—" Whosoever abideth in 
him sinneth not : whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him " 

(c) That the freedom from the law of which the Scriptures speak, is 
therefore simply that freedom from the constraint and bondage of the law, 
which characterizes those who have become one with Christ by faith. 

Ps. 119 : 97— "0 how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day"; Rom. 3 : 8, 31— "and why not (as we 
be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say ), Let us do evil that good may come ? whose condemnation 



488 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION". 

is just .... Do we then make the law of none effect through faith ? God forbid : nay, we establish the law " ; 6 : 14^. 
15, 22 — " For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under law, but under grace. What then ? shall 
we sin, because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid .... now being made free from sin, and become - 
servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life" ; 7 : 6 — "But now we have been dis- 
charged from the law, having died to that wherein we were holden ; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not 
in oldness of the letter " ; 8 : 4 — " that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, 
but after the Spirit" ; 1 Cor. 7 : 22 — "he that was called in the Lord, being a bond-servant, is the Lord's freeman" ; 
Gal. 5 : i — " For freedom did Christ set us free : stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bond- 
age " ; 1 Tim. 1 : 9 — " law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly " ; James 1 : 25 — "the- 
perfect law, the law of liberty." 

To sum up the doctrine of Christian freedom as opposed to Antinomian- 
ism, we may say that Christ does not free us, as the Antinomian believes, 
from the law as a rule of life. But he does free us ( 1 ) from the law as 
a system of curse and penalty ; this he does by bearing the curse and 
penalty himself. Christ frees us (2) from the law with its claims as a 
method of salvation; this he does by making his obedience and merits 
ours. Christ frees us ( 3 ) from the law as an outward and foreign com- 
pulsion ; this he does by giving to us the spirit of obedience and sonship, 
by which the law is progressively realized within. 

Christ, then, does not free us, as the Antinomian believes, from the law as a rule of 
lif e. But he does free us ( i ) from the law as a system of curse and penalty. This he 
does by bearing the curse and penalty himself. Just as law can do nothing with a man 
after it has executed its death- penalty upon him, so law can do nothing with us, now 
that its death-penalty has been executed upon Christ. There are some insects that- 
expire in the act of planting their sting ; and so, when the law gathered itself up and 
planted its sting in the heart of Christ, it expended all its power as a judge and avenger 
over us who believe. In the Cross, the law as a system of curse and penalty exhausted 
itself ; so we were set free. 

Christ frees us (2) from the law with its claims as a method of salvation; in other 
words, he frees us from the necessity of trusting our salvation to an impossible future- 
obedience. As the sufferings of Christ, apart from any sufferings of ours, deliver us 
from eternal death, so the merits of Christ, apart from any merits of ours, give us a 
title to eternal life. By faith in what Christ has done and simple acceptance of his 
work f Or us, we secure a right to heaven. Obedience on our part is no longer rendered 
painfully, as if our salvation depended on it, but freely and gladly, in gratitude for 
what Christ has done for us. Illustrate by the English nobleman's invitation to his. 
park, and the regulations he causes to be posted up. 

Christ frees us (3) from the law as an outward and foreign compulsion. In putting 
an end to legalism, he provides against license. This he does by giving the spirit of 
obedience and sonship. He puts love in the place of fear ; and this secures an obedi- 
ence more intelligent, more thorough, and more hearty, than could have been secured 
by mere law. So he frees us from the burden and compulsion of the law, by realizing 
the law within us by his Spirit. See John Owen, Works, 3 : 366-651 ; 6 : 1-313. 

B. The Perfectionist,— which holds that the Christian may, in this 
life, become perfectly free from sin. This view was held by John Wesley 
in England, and by Mahan and Finney in America. 

For statements of the Perfectionist view, see John Wesley's Christian Theology, 
edited by Thornley Smith, 365-273; Mehan, Christian Perfection, and art. in Bib. Repos., 
2d Series, vol. iv, Oct., 1840:408-428; Finney, Systematic Theology, 586-766; Peck, 
Christian Perfection ; Ritschl, Bib. Sac, Oct., 1878 : 656. 

In reply, it will be sufficient to observe : 

(a) That the theory rests upon false conceptions : first, of the law, — as a. 
sliding-scale of requirement graduated to the moral condition of creatures, 
instead of being the unchangeable reflection of God's holiness ; secondly, 
of siu, — as consisting only in voluntary acts, instead of embracing also> 






SAXCTIFICATIOX. 489 

those dispositions and states of the soul which are not conformed to the 
divine holiness ; thirdly, of the human will, — as able to choose God 
supremely and persistently at every moment of life, and to fulfill at every 
moment the obligations resting upon it, instead of being corrupted and 
enslaved by the Fall. 

This view reduces the debt to the debtor's ability to pay,— a short and easy method of 
discharging obligations. I can leap over a church steeple, if I am only permitted to 
make the church steeple low enough ; and I can touch the stars, if the stars will only 
come down to my hand. The fundamental error of perfectionism is its low view of 
God's law ; the second is its narrow conception of sin. John Wesley : " I believe a per- 
son filled with the love of God is still liable to involuntary transgressions. Such trans- 
gressions you may call sins, if you please : I do not." The third error of perfectionism 
is its exaggerated estimate of man's power of contrary choice. To say that, whatever 
may have been the habits of the past and whatever may be the evil affections of the 
present, a man is perfectly able at any moment to obey the whole law of God, is to 
deny that there are such things as character and depravity. Finney, Gospel Themes, 
383, indeed, disclaimed "all expectation of attaining this state ourselves, and by our 
own independent, unaided efforts." On the Law of God, see pages 276-279. 

( b ) That the theory finds no support in, but rather is distinctly contra- 
dicted by, Scripture. 

First, the Scriptures never assert or imply that the Christian may in this 
life live without sin ; rjassages like 1 John 3:6, 9, if interpreted consist- 
ently with the context, set forth either the ideal standard of Christian 
living, or the actual state of the believer so far as respects his new nature. 

1 John 3:6 — " Whosoever abideth in him shmeth not : whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him " ; 
9 — " Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, becanse his seed abideth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is 
begotten of God." Ann. Par. Bible, in loco: — "John is contrasting the states in which sin 
and grace severally predominate, without reference to degrees in either, showing that 
all men are in one or the other." Xeander : M John recognizes no intermediate state, no 
gradations. He seizes upon the radical point of difference. He contrasts the two 
states in their essential nature and principle. It is either love or hate, light or darkness, 
truth or a lie. The Christian life in its essential nature is the opposite of all sin. If 
there be sin, it must be the afterworking of the old nature." Yet all Christians are 
required in Scripture to advance, to confess sin, to ask forgiveness, to maintain warfare, 
to assume the attitude of ill desert in prayer, to receive chastisement for the removal 
of imperfections, to regard full salvation as matter of hope, not of present experience. 

Secondly, the apostolic admonitions to the Corinthians and Hebrews 
show that no such state of complete sanctincation had been generally 
attained by the Christians of the first century. 

Rom. 8 : 24 — " For in hope were we saved : but hope that is seen is not hope : for who hopeth for that which he seeth ? " 
The party-feeling, selfishness, and immorality found among the members of the Corin- 
thian church are evidence that they were far from a state of entire sanctincation. 

Thirdly, there is express record of sin committed by the most perfect 
characters of Scripture — as Noah, Abraham, Job, David, Peter. 

Fourthly, the word ri/^ioc, as applied to spiritual conditions already 
attained, can fairly be held to signify only a relative perfection, equivalent 
to sincere piety or maturity of Christian judgment. 

1 Cor. 2 : 6 — "Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect," or, as the Am. Revisers have it, "among 
them that are fullgrown"; Phil. 3 : 15 — "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." Men are 
often called perfect, when free from any fault which strikes the eyes of the world. See 
Gen. 6 : 9— "Noah was a righteous man and perfect" ; Job 1 : 1— "That man was perfect and upright." On reAeto?, 
see Trench, Syn. X. T., 1 : 110. 

Fifthly, the Scriptures distinctly deny that any man on earth lives with- 
out sin. 



490 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

1 K. 8 : 46— "there is no man that sinneth not" ; Eccl. 7 : 20 — "Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth, 
that doeth good and sinneth not" ; James 3 : 2 —"For in many things we all stumble. If any stumble not in word, 
the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also" ; 1 John 1 : 8— "If we say that we have no sin, we 
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 

Sixthly, the declaration : "ye were sanctified" (1 Cor. 6 : 11), and the 
designation: "saints" (1 Cor. 1:2), applied to early believers, are, as the 
whole epistle shows, expressive of a holiness existing in germ and anticipa- 
tion ; the expressions deriving their meaning not so much from what these 
early believers were, as from what Christ was, to whom they were united 
by faith. 

When N. T. believers are said to be "sanctified," we must remember the O. T. use of 
the word. ' Sanctify ' may have either the meaning- 4 to make holy outwardly,' or ' to 
make holy inwardly.' The people of Israel and the vessels of the tabernacle were 
made holy in the former sense ; their sanctiflcation was a setting- apart to the sacred 
use. Hum. 8 : 17— "all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine .... I sanctified them for myself" ; Deut. 
33 : 3 — " yea, he loved the peoples ; all his saints are in thy hand " ; 2 Chron. 29 : 19 — " all the vessels .... have we 
prepared and sanctified." The vessels mentioned were first immersed, and then sprinkled from 
day to day according to need. So the Christian by his regeneration is set apart for God's 
service, and in this sense is a "saint" and "sanctified." More than this, he has in him the 
beginnings of purity, — he is " clean as a whole," though he yet needs " to wash his feet" ( John 13 : 
10) — that is, to be cleansed from the recurring defilements of his daily life. Shedd, 
Dogm. Theol., 2 : 551— "The error of the Perfectionist is that of confounding imputed 
sanctiflcation with inherent sanctiflcation. It is the latter which is mentioned in 1 Cor. 
1 : 30 — 'Christ Jesus, who was made unto us ... . sanctiflcation.' " 

( c) That the theory is disapproved by the testimony of Christian expe- 
rience. — In exact proportion to the soul's advance in holiness does it shrink 
from claiming that holiness has been already attained, and humble itself 
before God for its remaining apathy, ingratitude, and unbelief. 

Phil. 3 : 12-14— "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if so be that I may 
lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus." Some of the greatest advocates of 
perfectionism have been furthest from claiming any such perfection ; although many 
of their less instructed followers claimed it for them, and even professed to have 
attained it themselves. 

Perfectionism is best met by proper statements of the nature of the law 
and of sin ( Ps. 119 : 96 ). While we thus rebuke spiritual pride, how- 
ever, we should be equally careful to point out the inseparable connection 
between justification and sanctification, and their equal importance as 
together making up the Biblical idea of salvation. While we show no 
favor to those who would make sanctification a sudden and paroxysmal act 
of the human will, we should hold forth the holiness of God as the standard 
of attainment, and the faith in a Christ of infinite fullness as the medium 
through which that standard is to be gradually but certainly realized in us 
(2 Cor. 3:18). 

We should imitate Lyman Beecher's method of opposing perfectionism — by searching 
expositions of God's law. When men know what the law is, they will say with the 
Psalmist: "I have seen an end of all perfection; thy commandment«is exceeding broad" (Ps. 119 : 96). And 
yet we are earnestly and hopefully to seek in Christ for a continually increasing meas- 
ure of sanctiflcation : 1 Cor. 1 : 30 —"Christ Jesus, who was made unto us ... . sanctification " ; 2 Cor. 3 : 18 
— " But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image 
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit." Arnold of Rugby : "Always expect to succeed, 
and never think you have succeeded." 

See Hovey, Doctrine of the Higher Christian Life, Compared with Scripture ; Snod- 
grass, Scriptural Doctrine of Sanctification ; Princeton Essays, 1 : 335-365 ; Hodge, Syst. 
Theol., 3 : 213-258; Calvin, Institutes, in, 11 : 6; Bib. Repos., 2nd Series, 1 : 44-58; 2 : 143- 
166; Woods, Works, 4 : 465-523; H. A. Boardman, The "Higher Life" Doctrine of 
Sanctification. 



PERSEVERANCE. 491 

II. Perseverance. 

The Scriptures declare that, in virtue of the original purpose and continu- 
ous oj>eration of God, all who are united to Christ by faith will infallibly 
continue in a state of grace and will finally attain to everlasting life. This 
voluntary continuance, on the part of the Christian, in faith and well-doing 
we call perseverance. Perseverance is, therefore, the human side or aspect 
of that spiritual process which, as viewed from the divine side, we call 
sanctification. It is not a mere natural consequence of conversion, but 
involves a constant activity of the human will from the moment of conver- 
sion to the end of life. 

Adam's holiness was mutable ; God did not determine to keep him. It is otherwise 
with believers in Christ; God has determined to give them the kingdom (Luke 12:32). 
Yet this keeping by God, which we call sanctification, is accompanied and followed by a 
keeping of himself on the part of the believer, which we call perseverance. The former 
is alluded to in John 17 : 11, 12— "keep them in thy name .... I kept them in thy name .... I guarded them 
and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition" ; the latter is alluded to in 1 John 5 : 18— "he that 
was begotten of God keepeth himself." Both are expressed in Jude 21, 24— "Keep yourselves in the love of 
■God .... Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling " 

A German treatise on Pastoral Theology is entitled: "Keep What Thou Hast"— an 
allusion to 2 Tim. 1 : 14 — " That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Ghost which 
dwelleth in us." Not only the pastor, but every believer, has a charge to keep ; and the 
keeping of ourselves is as important a point of Christian doctrine as is the keeping of 
God. Both are expressed in the motto : Teneo, Teneor. 

1. Proof of the Doctrine of Perseverance. 
A. From Scripture. 

John 10 : 28, 29 — " they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, which hath 
given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand" ; Rom. 11 : 29 
—"For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance" ; 1 Cor. 13 : 7— "endureth all things" ; cf. 13 — 
"But now abideth faith, hope, love" ; Phil. 1 : 6 — "being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good 
work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ" ; 2 Thess. 3 : 3 — "But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish 
you, and guard you from the evil one" ; 2 Tim. 1 : 12— "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is 
able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day" ; 1 Pet. 1 : 5 — "who by the power of God are 
guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time " ; Rev. 3 : 10 — " Because thou didst keep 
the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, 
to try them that dwell upon the earth." 



uni» 



B. From Eeason. 



(a) It is a necessary inference from other doctrines, — such as election, 
on with Christ, regeneration, justification, sanctification. 

Election of certain individuals to salvation is election to bestow upon them such 
influences of the Spirit as will lead them not only to accept Christ, but to persevere and 
be saved. Union with Christ is indissoluble ; regeneration is the beginning of a work 
of new creation, which is declared in justification, and completed in sanctification. All 
these doctrines are parts of a general scheme, which would come to naught if any single 
Christian were permitted to fall away. 

(!>) It accords with analogy, — God's preserving care being needed by, 
and being granted to, his spiritual, as well as his natural, creation. 

As natural life cannot uphold itself, but we "live, and move, and have our being" in God ( Acts 
17 : 28 ), so spiritual life cannot uphold itself, and God maintains the faith, love, and holy 
activity which he has originated. If he preserves our natural life, much more may wo 
expect him to preserve the spiritual. 

(c) It is implied in all assurance of salvation, — since this assurance is 



492 SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. 

given by the Holy Spirit, and is based not upon the known strength of 
human resolution, but upon the purpose and operation of God. 

S. R. Mason : " If Satan and Adam both fell away from perfect holiness, it is a million 
to one that, in a world full of temptations and with all appetites and habits against me, 
I shall fall away from imperfect holiness, unless God by his almighty power keep me." 
It is in the power and purpose of God, then, that the believer puts his trust. But since 
this trust is awakened by the Holy Spirit, it must be that there is a divine fact corre- 
sponding to it ; namely, God's purpose to exert his power in such a way that the Christian 
shall persevere. See Wardlaw, Syst. Theol., 2 : 550-578 ; N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 
445-460. 

2. Objections to the Doctrine of Perseverance. 

These objections are urged chiefly by Arminians and by Romanists. 

A. That it is inconsistent with human freedom. — Answer : It is no more 
so than is the doctrine of Election or the doctrine of Decrees. 

The doctrine is simply this, that God will bring to bear such influences upon all true 
believers, that they will freely persevere. 

B. That it tends to immorality. — Answer : This cannot be, since the 
doctrine declares that God will save men by securing their perseverance in 
holiness. 

2 Tim. 2 : 19 — " Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his : 
and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness " ; that is, the temple of Chris- 
tian character has upon its foundation two significant inscriptions, the one declaring 
God's power, wisdom, and purpose of salvation ; the other declaring the purity and holy 
activity, on the part of the believer, through which God's purpose is to be fulfilled ; 1 Pet. 
1 : 1, 2 — "elect .... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience 
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" ; 2 Pet. 1 : 10, 11 — "Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make 
your calling and election sure : for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble : for thus shall be richly supplied unto 
you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 

C That it leads to indolence. — Answer : This is a perversion of the 
doctrine, continuously possible only to the unregenerate ; since, to the regen- 
erate, certainty of success is the strongest incentive to activity in the conflict 
with sin. 

1 John 5 : 4 — " For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world : and this is the victory that hath overcome 
the world, even our faith." It is notoriously untrue that confidence of success inspires timidity 
or indolence. 

D. That the Scripture commands to persevere and warnings against 
apostasy show that certain, even of the regenerate, will fall away. — Answer : 

( a ) They show that some, who are apparently regenerate, will fall away. 

Mat. 18 : 7 — "Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come;- 
but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 19— "For there must be also factions [lit^ 
'heresies'] among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you"; 1 John 2 : 19 — "They 
went out from us, but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us : but they 
went out, that they might be made manifest how that they all are not of us." Judas probably experienced 
strong emotions, and received strong impulses toward good, under the influence of 
Christ. 

( b ) They show that the truly regenerate, and those who are only appar- 
ently so, are not certainly distinguishable in this life. 

Mai. 3 : 18 — " Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked ; between him that serveth 
God, and him that serveth him not"; Mat. 13 : 25, 47 — "while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also 
among the wheat, and went away .... Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net. that was cast into the sea, and 



PERSEVERANCE. 493 

gathered of every kind'' ; Rom. 9 : 6 — "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are 
Abraham's seed, are they all children" ; Rev. 3 : 1 — "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and 
thou art dead." 

( c ) They show the fearful consequences of rejecting Christ, to those who 
have enjoyed special divine influences, but who are only apparently regen- 
erate. 

Heb. 10 : 26-29 — " For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no 
more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the 
adversaries. A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses; 
of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and 
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the 
Spirit of grace ? ' ' Here ' ' sanctified ' ' = external sanctiflcation, like that of the an cient Israelites, 
by outward connection "with G-od's people ; e/. 1 Cor. 7 : 14— "the unbelieving husband is sanctified iu 
the wife." 

(d) They show what the fate of the truly regenerate would be, in case 
they should not persevere. 

Heb. 6 : 4-6— "For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par- 
takers of the My Ghost, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away, it is 
impossible to renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him 
to an open shame." This is to be understood as a hypothetical case, — as is clear from verse 9 
which follows : " But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, 
though we thus speak." Dr. A. C. Kendrick : " If passages like this teach the possibility of fall- 
ing from grace, they teach also the impossibility of restoration to it. The saint who 
once apostatizes has apostatized forever. 1 ' So Ez. 18 : 24 — " When the righteous turneth away from his 
righteousness, and committeth iniquity .... in them shall he die" ; 2 Pet. 2 : 20 — "For if, after they have escaped 
the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein 
and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first." 

( e ) They show that the perseverance of the truly regenerate may be 
secured by these very commands and warnings. 

1 Cor. 9: 27 — " I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage : lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, 
I myself should be rejected " — or, to bring out the meaning more fully : " I beat my body blue [ or, 
4 strike it under the eye ' ], and make it a slave, lest after having been a herald to others, I myself should be 
rejected" ('unapproved,' 'counted unworthy of the prize'); 10 : 12 —" Wherefore let him that 
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 

(/) They do not show that it is certain, or possible, that any truly regen- 
erate person will fall away. 

E. That we have actual examples of such apostasy. — We answer : 

(a) Such are either men once outwardly reformed, like Judas and 
Ananias, but never renewed in heart ; 

Instance the young profligate who, in a moment of apparent drowning, repented, was 
then rescued, and afterward lived a long life as a Christian. If he had never been 
rescued, his repentance would never have been known, nor the answer to his mother's 
prayers. So, in the moment of a backslider's death, God can renew repentance and 
faith. 

( b ) Or they are regenerate men, who, like David and Peter, have fallen 
into temporary sin, from which they will, before death, be reclaimed by 
God's discipline. 

But, per contra, instance the experience of a man in typhoid fever, who apparently 
repented, but who never remembered it when he was restored to health. Sick-bed and 
death-bed conversions are not the best. There was one penitent thief, that none might 
despair ; there was but one penitent thief, that none might presume. 

On the general subject, see Edwards, Works, 3 : 509-532, and 4 : 104 ; Ridgeley, Body of 
Divinity, 2:164-194; John Owen, Works, vol. 11; Woods, Works, 3:221-246; Van Oos- 
terzee, Christian Dogmatics, 662-666. 



PART TIL 

ECCLESIOLOGY, OB THE DOCTEINE OF THE CHUECH. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHUECH, OR CHURCH POLITY. 

I. Definition of the Church. 

( a ) The church of Christ, iu its largest signification, is the whole com- 
pany of regenerate persons in all times and ages, in heaven and on earth. 
(Mat. 16 : 18; Eph. 1 : 22, 23 ; 3 : 10; 5 : 24, 25; Col. 1 : 18; Heb. 12 : 23). 
In this sense, the church is identical with the spiritual kingdom of God ; 
both signify that redeemed humanity in which God in Christ exercises 
actual spiritual dominion (John 3:3, 5). 

Mat. 16 : 18 — "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail 
against it" ; Eph. 1 : 22, 23 — "and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all 
things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all " ; 3 : 10 — " to the intent that now unto 
the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom 
of God " ; 5 : 24, 25 — " But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in every thing. 
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it" ; Col. 1 : 18 — "And he is 
the head of the body, the church : who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead ; that in all things he might have 
the preeminence" ; Heb. 12 : 23 — "the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" . 
John 3 : 3, 5 — " Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God ... . Except a man be born of water 
and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 

Cicero's words apply here : " Una navis est jam bonorum omnium "— all good men 
are in one boat. Cicero speaks of the state, but it is still more true of the church invisi- 
ble. Andrews, in Bib. Sac, Jan., 1883 : 54, mentions the following differences between 
the church and the kingdom, or, as we prefer to say, between the visible church and 
the invisible church: (1) the church began with Christ,— the kingdom began earlier; 
(2) the church is confined to believers in the historic Christ,— the kingdom includes all 
God's children ; (3) the church belongs wholly to this world,— not so the kingdom ; (4) 
the church is visible,— not so the kingdom; (5) the church has quasi organic character, 
and leads out into local churches,— this is not so with the kingdom. On the universal 
or invisible church, see Cremer, Lexicon N. T., transl., 113, 114, 331 ; Jacob, Eccl. Polity 
of N. T., 12. 

( b ) The Scriptures, however, distinguish between this invisible or uni- 
versal church, and the individual church, in which the universal church 
takes local and temporal form, and in which the idea of the church as a 
whole is concretely exhibited. 

Mat. 10 : 32 — " Every one therefore, who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which 
is in heaven" ; 12 : 34, 35— "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good 



DEFINITION OF THE CHURCH. 495 

treasure bringeth forth good things" ; Rom. 10 : 9, 10 — "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt 
believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved : for with the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" ; James 1 : 18— "Of his own will he brought 
us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures " — we were saved, not for 
ourselves only, but as parts and beginning of an organic kingdom of God ; believers 
are called "first-fruits," because from them the blessing shall spread, until the whole world 
shall be pervaded with the new life ; Pentecost, as the feast of first-fruits, was but the 
beginning of a stream that shall continue to flow until the whole race of man is 
gathered in. 

R. S. Storrs: "When any truth becomes central and vital, there comes the desire to 
utter it,"— and we may add, not only in words, but in organization. So beliefs crystal- 
lize into institutions. But Christian faith is something more vital than the common 
beliefs of the world. Linking the soul to Christ, it brings Christians into living fellow- 
ship with one another before any bonds of outward organization exist; outward 
organization, indeed, only expresses and symbolizes this inward union of spirit to Christ 
and to one another. 

( c ) The individual church may be defined as that smaller company of 
regenerate persons, who, in any given community, unite themselves volun- 
tarily together, in accordance with Christ's laws, for the purpose of securing 
the complete establishment of his kingdom in themselves and in the world. 

Mat. 18 : 17 — " And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church : and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him 
be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican " ; Acts 14 : 23 — "appointed for them elders in every church " ; Rom. 16 : 5 
— "salute the church that is in their house " ; 1 Cor. 1 : 2— "the church of God which is at Corinth " ; 4 : 17 — "even 
as I teach everywhere in every church " ; 1 Thess. 2 : 14 — "the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus." 

We do not define the church as a body of "baptized believers," because baptism is but 
one of "Christ's laws," in accordance with which believers unite themselves. Since 
these laws are the laws of church-organization contained in the New Testament, no 
Temperance Society or Young Men's Christian Association is properly a church. 

We may summarize these laws as follows : ( 1 ) the sufficiency and sole authority of 
Scripture as the rule both of doctrine and polity ; ( 2 ) credible evidence of regeneration 
and conversion as prerequisite to church-membership ; (3) immersion only, as answer- 
ing to Christ's command of baptism, and to the symbolic meaning of the ordinance; 
(4) the order of the ordinances, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, as of divine appoint- 
ment, as well as the ordinances themselves ; (5) the right of each member of the church 
to a voice in its government and discipline; (6) each church, while holding fellowship 
with other churches, solely responsible to Christ ; ( 7 ) the freedom of the individual 
conscience, and the total independence of church and state. 

These are the essential principles of Baptist churches, although other bodies of Chris- 
tians have come to recognize a portion of them. Bodies of Christians which refuse to 
accept these principles we may, in a somewhat loose and modified sense, call churches; 
but we cannot regard them as churches organized in all respects according to Christ's 
laws, or as completely answering to the New Testament model of church organization. 

As Luther, having found the doctrine of justification by faith, could not recognize 
that doctrine as Christian which taught justification by works, but denounced the 
church which held it as Antichrist, saying, " Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise, God 
help me," so we, in matters not indifferent, as feet- washing, but vitally affecting the 
existence of the church, as regenerate church-membership, must stand by the New 
Testament, and refuse to call any other body of Christians a regular church, that is not 
organized according to Christ's laws. The English word 'church' like the Scotch 
'kirk ' and the German ' KircheS is derived from the Greek icvpia<cr?, and means ' belong- 
ing' to the Lord.' The term itself should teach us to regard only Christ's laws as our 
rule of organization. 

(d) Besides these two significations of the term 'church,' there are 
properly in the New Testament no others. The word cuafo/oia is indeed 
used in Acts 7 : 38 ; 19 : 32, 39 ; Heb. 2 : 12, to designate a popular assem- 
bly ; but since this is a secular use of the term, it does not here concern us. 
In certain passages, as for example Acts 9 : 31 [eK&qoia, sing., Xabc), 1 Cor. 
12 : 28, Phil. 3 : 6, and 1 Tim. 3 : 15, tnnAr/cia appears to be used either as a 



496 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

generic or as a collective term, to denote simply the body of independent 
local churches existing in a given region or at a given epoch. But since 
there is no evidence that these churches were bound together in any out- 
ward organization, this use of the term sKKlr/ala cannot be regarded as 
adding any new sense to those of 'the universal church' and 'the local 
church ' already mentioned. 

Acts 7 : 38 — "the church [marg. 'congregation'] in the -wilderness " = the whole body of the people 
of Israel; 19:32 — "the assembly was in confusion" — the tumultous mob in the theatre at 
Ephesus ; 39 — " the regular assembly " ; 9 : 31 — " So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had 
peace, being edified" ; 1 Cor. 12 : 28 — "and God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly 
teachers" ; Phil. 3:6 — "as touching zeal, persecuting the church" ; 1 Tim. 3 : 15 — "that thou mayest know how men 
ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of 
the truth." 

In the original use of the word eKKK-qa-ia, as a popular assembly, there was doubtless an 
allusion to the derivation from e* and /caAea>, to call out, by herald. Some have held that 
the N. T. term contains an allusion to the fact that the members of Christ's church are 
called, chosen, elected by God. This, however, is more than doubtful. In common use, 
the term had lost its etymological meaning, and signified merely an assembly, however 
gathered or summoned. The church was never so large that it could not assemble. 
The church of Jerusalem gathered for the choice of deacons ( Acts 6 : 2, 5), and the church 
of Antioch gathered to hear Paul's account of his missionary journey (Acts 14 : 27). 

It is only by a common figure of rhetoric that many churches are spoken of together 
in the singular number, in svich passages as Acts 9 : 31. We speak generically of 'man,' 
meaning the whole race of men; and of 'the horse,' meaning all horses. Gibbon, 
speaking of the successive tribes that swept down upon the Roman Empire, uses a noun 
in the singular number, and describes them as "the several detachments of that 
immense army of northern barbarians, "—yet he does not mean to intimate that these 
tribes had any common government. So we may speak of " the American college " or 
" the American theological seminary," but we do not thereby mean that the colleges or 
the seminaries are bound together by any tie of outward organization. 

So Paul says that God has set in the church apostles, prophets, and teachers (1 Cor. 12 : 
28 ), but the word ' church ' is only a collective term for the many independent churches. 
In this same sense, we may speak of " the Baptist church " of New York, or of America ; 
but it must be remembered that we use the term without any such implication of 
common government as is involved in the phrases ' the Presbyterian church,' or ' the 
Protestant Episcopal church,' or 'the Roman Catholic church'; with us, in this con- 
nection, the term ' church ' means simply ' churches.' 

On the meaning of eiackriaia, see Cremer, Lex. N. T., 329; Trench, Syn. N. T., 1 : 18; 
Girdlestone, Syn. O. T., 367 ; Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 301 ; Dexter, Congre- 
gationalism, 25 ; Dagg, Church Order, 100-120 ; Robinson, N. T. Lex., sub voce. 

The prevailing usage of the N. T. gives to the term eiucXrioia the second 
of these two significations. It is this local church only which has definite 
and temporal existence, and of this alone we henceforth treat. Our defini- 
tion of the individual church implies the two following particulars : 

A. The church, like the family and the state, is an institution of 
divine appointment. This is plain: (a) from its relation to the church 
universal, as its concrete embodiment ; ( b ) from the fact that its necessity 
is grounded in the social and religious nature of man ; ( c ) from the Script- 
ure, — as for example, Christ's command in Mat. 18 : 17, and the designation 
'church of God,' applied to individual churches (1 Cor. 1:2). 

President Wayland: "The universal church comes before the particular church. 
The society which Christ has established is the foundation of every particular associa- 
tion calling itself a church of Christ." Andrews, in Bib. Sac, Jan., 1883 : 35-58, on the 
conception enKkiqaia in the N. T., says that " the ' church ' is the prius of all local 
'churches.' iKK^aia in Acts 9 : 31 = the church, so far as represented in those provinces, 
It is ecumenical-local, as in 1 Cor. 10 : 33. The local church is a microcosm, a specialized 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 497 

localization of the universal body. /HP, in the O. T. and in the Targums, means the 
whole congregation of Israel, and then secondarily those local bodies which were parts 
and representations of the whole. Christ, using- Aramaic, probably used 1HP in Mat. 
18 : 17. He took his idea of the church from it, not from the heathen use of the word 
eKK.K-qa-ia, which expresses the notion of locality and state much more than /HP- The 
larger sense of tnK^-qaia. is the primary. Local churches are points of consciousness and 
activity for the great all-inclusive unit, and they are not themselves the units for an 
ecclesiastical aggregate. They are faces, not parts of the one church." 

B. The church, unlike the family and the state, is a voluntary society, 
{a) This results from the fact that the local church is the outward expres- 
sion of that rational and free life in Christ which characterizes the church 
as a whole. In this it differs from those other organizations of divine 
appointment, entrance into which is not optional. Membership in the 
church is not hereditary or compulsory. ( b ) The doctrine of the church, 
as thus defined, is a necessary outgrowth of the doctrine of regeneration. 
As this fundamental spiritual change is mediated not by outward appliances, 
but by inward and conscious reception of Christ and his truth, union with 
the church logically follows, not precedes, the soul's spiritual union with 
Christ. 

Dorner includes under his doctrine of the Church : ( 1 ) the genesis of the church, 
through the new birth of the Spirit, or Regeneration ; ( 2 ) the growth and persistence 
of the church through the continuous operation of the Spirit in the means of grace, or 
Ecclesiology proper, as others call it ; ( 3 ) the completion of the church, or Eschatology. 
While this scheme seems designed to favor a theory of baptismal regeneration, we must 
commend its recognition of the fact that the doctrine of the church grows out of the 
doctrine of regeneration and is determined in its nature .by it. If regeneration has 
always conversion for its obverse side, and if conversion always includes faith in Christ, 
it is vain to speak of regeneration without faith. And if union with the church is but 
the outward expression of a preceding union with Christ which involves regeneration 
and conversion, then involuntary church-membership is an absurdity, and a misrepre- 
sentation of the whole method of salvation. 

The value of compulsory religion may be illustrated from David Hume's experience. 
A godly matron of the Canongate, so runs the story, when Hume sank in the mud in 
her vicinity, and on account of his obesity could not get out, compelled the sceptic to 
say the Lord's Prayer before she would help him. Amos Kendall, on the other hand, 
concluded in his old age that he had not been acting on Christ's plan for saving the 
world, and so, of his own accord, connected himself with the church, Martineau, Study, 
1 : 319—" Till we come to the State and the Church, we do not reach the highest organism 
of human life, into the perfect working of which all the disinterested affections and 
moral enthusiasms and noble ambitions flow." 

II. Organization of the Church. 

1. The fact of organization. 

Organization may exist without lists of members or formal choice of 
officers. These last are the proofs, reminders, and helps of organization, 
but they are not essential to it. It is however not merely informal, but 
formal, organization in the church, to which the New Testament bears 
witness. 

That there was such organization is abundantly shown from (a) its stated 
meetings, ( b ) elections, and ( c ) officers ; ( d ) from the designations of its 
ministers, together with (c) the recognized authority of the minister and 
of the church; (/) from its discipline, (g) contributions, (/*) letters of 
commendation, (i) registers of widows, (j) uniform customs, and (k) 
32 



498 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRIHE OF THE CHURCH. 

ordinances; (I) from the order enjoined and observed, (m) the qualifi- 
cations for membership, and (n) the common work of the whole body. 

( a ) Acts 20 : 7 —"upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed 
with them" ; leb. 10 : 25 — "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhort- 
ing one another." 

(b ) Acts 1 : 23-26 — the election of Matthias; 6 : 5, 6— the election of deacons. 

( c) Phil. 1 : 1 — "the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." 

( d ) Acts 20 : 17, 28 — "the elders of the church .... the flock in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops 
[ marg. : ' overseers ' ]." 

( e ) Mat. 18 : 17—" And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church : and if he refuse to hear the church also, 
let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican" ; 1 Pet. 5 : 2 — "Tend the flock of God which is among you, 
exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God." 

(/) 1 Cor. 5 : 4, 5, 13— "in the name of the Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power 
of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the 
day of the Lord Jesus .... Put away the wicked man from among yourselves." 

( g ) Rom. 15 : 26 — " For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for 
the poor among the saints that are at Jerusalem" ; 1 Cor. 16 : 1, 2 — "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I 
gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in 
store, as he may prosper, that no collection be made when I come." 

(7i) Acts 18 : 27 — "And when he was minded to pass over into Achaia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to 
the disciples to receive him"; 2 Cor. 3 : 1 — "Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do 
some, epistles of commendation to you or from you ? " 

( i ) 1 Tim. 5:9—" Let none be enrolled as a widow under three score years old " ; cf. Acts 6 : 1 — " there arose a 
murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration." 

( j) 1 Cor. 11 : 16 — "But if any man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of 
God." 

(7c) Acts 2: 41 — "Then they that received his word were baptized" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 23-26 — "For I received of the 
Lord that which also I delivered unto you "—the institution of the Lord's Supper. 

(1)1 Cor. 14 : 40 — " Let all things be done decently and in order " ; Col. 2:5—" For though I am absent in the 
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." 

(m) Mat. 28 : 19 — "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into' the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost " ; Acts 2 : 47 — " And the Lord added to them day by day those that were 
being saved." 

( n ) Phil. 2 : 30 — " because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which 
was lacking in your service toward me." 

As indicative of a developed organization in the N. T. church, of which 
only the germ existed before Christ's death, it is important to notice the 
progress in names from the Gospels to the Epistles. In the Gospels, the 
word " disciples" is the common designation of Christ's followers, but it is 
not once found in the Epistles. In the Epistles, there are only "saints," 
"brethren," "churches." A consideration of the facts here referred to is 
sufficient to evince the unscriptural nature of two modern theories of the 
church : 

A. The theory that the church is an exclusively spiritual body, destitute 
of all formal organization, and bound together only by the mutual relation 
of each believer to his indwelling Lord. 

The church, upon this view, so far as outward bonds are concerned, is 
only an aggregation of isolated units. Those believers who chance to 
gather at a particular place, or to live at a particular time, constitute the 
church of that place or time. This view is held by the Friends and by the 
Plymouth Brethren. It ignores the tendencies to organization inherent in 
human nature; confounds the visible with the invisible church; and is 
directly opposed to the Scripture representations of the visible church as 
comprehending some who are not true believers. 

Acts 5 : 1-11 —Ananias and Sapphira show that the visible church comprehended some 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CHUECH. 499 

who were not true believers ; 1 Cor. 14 : 23 — " If therefore the whole church be assembled together, and all 
speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad ? "— here, if 
the church had been an unorganized assembly, the unlearned visitors who came in 
would have formed a part of it; Phil. 3 : 18 — "For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell 
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." 

Some years ago a book was placed upon the Index, at Rome, entitled : " The Priest- 
hood a Chronic Disorder of the Human Race." The Plymouth Brethren dislike church 
organizations, for fear they will become machines ; they dislike ordained ministers, for 
fear they will become bishops. They object to praying for the Holy Ghost, because he 
was given on Pentecost, ignoring the fact that the church after Pentecost so prayed : 
see Acts 4 : 31 — "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." What we call a giving or 
descent of the Holy Spirit is, since the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, only a manifestation 
of the power of the Holy Spirit, and this certainly may be prayed for ; see Luke 11 : 13 — 
" If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? " 

The Plymouth Brethren would " unite Christendom by its dismemberment, and do 
away with all sects by the creation of a new sect, more narrow and bitter in its hostility 
to existing sects than any other." Yet the tendency to organize is so strong in human 
nature, that even Plymouth Brethren, when they meet regularly together, fall into an 
informal, if not a formal, organization ; certain teachers and leaders are tacitly recog- 
nized as officers of the body ; committees and rules are unconsciously used for facilitat- 
ing business. Even one of their own writers, C. H. M., speaks of the " natural tendency 
to association without God,— as in the Shinar Association or Babel Confederacy of 
Gen. 11, which aimed at building up a name upon the earth. The Christian church is 
God's appointed association to take the place of all these. Hence God confounds the 
tongues in Gen. 11 (judgment); gives tongues in Acts 2 (grace); but only one tongue is 
spoken in Rev. 7 (glory )." 

Dr. Wm. Reid, Plymouth Brethrenism Unveiled, 79-143, attributes to the sect the 
following Church-principles: (1) the church did not exist before Pentecost; (2) the 
visible and the invisible church identical ; (3) the one assembly of God; (4) the presi- 
dency of the Holy Spirit; (5) rejection of a one-man and man-made ministry; (6) 
the church is without government. Also the following heresies : ( 1 ) Christ's heavenly 
humanity; (2) denial of Christ's righteousness, as being obedience to law; (3) denial 
that Christ's righteousness is imputed; (4) justification in the risen Christ ; (5) Christ's 
non-atoning sufferings; (6) denial of moral law as rule of life; (7) the Lord's day is 
not the Sabbath ; ( 8 ) perfectionism ; ( 9 ) secret rapture of the saints,— caught up to be 
with Christ. To these we may add : ( 10 ) premillemal advent of Christ. 

On the Plymouth Brethren and their doctrine, see British Quar., Oct., 1873:202; 
Princeton Rev., 1872 : 48-77 ; H. M. Bang, in Baptist Review, 1881 : 438-465; Fish, Ecclesi- 
ology, 314-316; Dagg, Church Order, 80-83; R. H. Carson, The Brethren, 8-14; J. C. L. 
Carson, The Heresies of the Plymouth Brethren ; Croskery, Plymouth Brethrenism ; 
Teulon, Hist, and Teachings of Plymouth Brethren. 

B. The theory that the form of church organization is not definitely 
prescribed in the New Testament, but is a matter of expediency, each body 
of believers being permitted to adopt that method of organization which 
best suits its circumstances and condition. 

The view under consideration seems in some respects to be favored by 
Neander, and is often regarded as incidental to his larger conception of 
church history as a progressive development. But a proper theory of 
development does not exclude the idea of a church organization already 
complete in all essential particulars before the close of the inspired canon, 
bo that the record of it may constitute a providential example of binding 
authority upon all subsequent ages. The view mentioned exaggerates the 
differences of practice among the N. T. churches ; underestimates the need 
of divine direction as to methods of church union ; and admits a principle 
of 'church powers,' which may be historically shown to be subversive of 
the very existence of the church as a spiritual body. 



500 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Dr. Galusha Anderson finds the theory of optional church government in Hooker's 
Ecclesiastical Polity, and says that not until Bishop Bancroft was there claimed a divine 
right of Episcopacy. Hunt, also, in his Religious Thought in England, 1 : 57, says that 
Hooker gives up the divine origin of Episcopacy. So Jacob, Eccl. Polity of the N. T., 
and Hatch, Organization of Early Christian Churches,— both Hatch and Jacob belong- 
ing to the Church of England. But we may well ask: Shall missionaries conform 
church order to the degraded ideas of the nations among which they labor? Shall 
church government be despotic in Turkey, a limited monarchy in England, a democ- 
racy in the United States of America, and two-headed in Japan ? For the development 
theory of Neander, see his Church History, 1 : 179-190. On the general subject, see 
Hitchcock, in Presb. Rev., 1868 : 265 ; Davidson, Eccl. Polity, 1-43 ; Harvey, The Church. 

2. The nature of this organization. 

The nature of any organization may be determined by asking, first : who 
constitute its members? secondly: for what object has it been formed? 
and, thirdly : what are the laws which regulate its operations ? 

The three questions with which our treatment of the nature of this organization 
begins are furnished us by Pres. Wayland, in his Principles and Practices of Baptists. 

A. They only can properly be members of the local church, who have 
previously become members of the church universal, — or, in other words, 
have become regenerate persons. 

Only those who have been previously united to Christ are, in the New Testament, per- 
mitted to unite with his church. See Acts 2 : 47— "And the Lord added to them day by day those that 
were being saved [ Am. Rev. : 'those that were saved ' ] " ; 5 : 14 — "and believers were the more added to the 
Lord " ; 1 Cor. 1 : 2 — " the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 
saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours." 

From this limitation of membership to regenerate persons, certain results 
follow : 

(a) Since each member bears supreme allegiance to Christ, the church 
as a body must recognize Christ as the only lawgiver. The relation of the 
individual Christian to the church does not supersede, but furthers and 
expresses, his relation to Christ. 

1 John 2 : 20 — "And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things" — see Neander, Com., 
in loco— "No believer is at liberty to forego this maturity and personal independence, 
bestowed in that inward anointing [ of the Holy Spirit ], or to place himself in a depend- 
ent relation, inconsistent with this birthright, to any teacher whatever among men. 
.... This inward anointing furnishes an element of resistance to such arrogated 
authority." Here we have reproved the tendency on the part of ministers to take the 
place of the church, in Christian work and worship, instead of leading it forward in 
work and worship of its own. The missionary who keeps his converts in prolonged and 
unnecessary tutelage is also untrue to the church organization of the New Testament, 
and untrue to Christ whose aim in church training is to educate his followers to the 
bearing of responsibility and the use of liberty. Macaulay : " The only remedy for the 
evils of liberty is liberty." 

( 6 ) Since each regenerate man recognizes in every other a brother in 
Christ, the several members are upon a footing of absolute equality (Mat. 
23:8-10). 

Mat. 23 : 8-10 —"But be not ye called Rabbi : for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man 
your father on the earth : for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven ' ' ; John 15 : 5 — " I am the vine, ye are the 
branches" — no one branch of the vine outranks another; one may be more advanta- 
geously situated, more ample in size, more fruitful; but all are alike in kind, draw 
vitality from one source. Among the planets *' one star differeth from another star in glory " (1 Cor. 
15 : 41 ), yet all shine in the same heaven, and draw their light from the same sun. " The 
serving-man may know more of the mind of God than the scholar." Christianity has 
therefore been the foe to heathen castes. The Japanese noble objected to it, " because 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 501 

the brotherhood of man was incompatible with proper reverence for rank." There can 
be no rightful human lordship over God's heritage (1 Pet. 5 : 3— "neither as lording it over the 
charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock " ). 

(c) Since each local church is directly subject to Christ, there is no 
jurisdiction of one church over another, but all are on an equal footing, and 
all are independent of interference or control by the civil power. 

Mat. 22 : 21— "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's ; and unto God the things that are God's" ; 
Acts 5: 29— "We must obey God rather than men." As each believer has personal dealings with 
Christ and for even the pastor to come between him and his Lord is treachery to Christ 
and harmful to his soul, so much more does the New Testament condemn any attempt 
to bring the church into subjection to any other church or combination of churches, 
or to make the church the creature of the state. Absolute liberty of conscience under 
Christ has always been a distinguishing tenet of Baptists, as it is of the New Testament 
( cf. Rom. 14 : 4 — " Who art thou that judgest the servant of another ? to his own Lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, 
he shall be made to stand ; for the Lord hath power to make him stand " ). John Locke, 100 years before 
American independence : "The Baptists were the first and only propounders of abso- 
lute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty." George Bancroft says 
of Roger Williams: "He was the first person in modern Christendom to assert the 

doctrine of liberty of conscience in religion Freedom of conscience was from 

the first a trophy of the Baptists Their history is written in blood." 

B. The sole object of the local church is the glory of God, in the com- 
plete establishment of his kingdom, both in the hearts of believers and in 
the world. This object is to be promoted : 

(a) By united worship, — including prayer and religious instruction ; 

Heb. 10 : 25 — " not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one 
another." 

( b ) By mutual watch-care and exhortation ; 

1 Thess. 5 : 11 — " Wherefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also ye do " ; Heb. 3 : 13 —"exhort 
one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day ; lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." 

(c) By common labors for the reclamation of the impenitent world. 

Mat. 28 : 19 — " Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations " ; Acts 8:4 — " They therefore that were scat- 
tered abroad went about preaching the word" ; 2 Cor. 8 : 5— "and this, not as we had hoped, but first they gave their 
own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God" ; Jude 23 — "And on some have mercy, who are in doubt; and 
some save, snatching them out of the fire." Inscribed upon a mural tablet of a Christian church, 
in Aneityum in the South Seas, to the memory of Dr. John Geddie, the pioneer mission- 
ary in that field, are the words : "When he came here, there were no Christians; when 
he went away, there were no heathen." 

C. The law of the church is simply the will of Christ, as expressed in 
the Scriptures and interpreted by the Holy Spirit. This law respects : 

(a) The qualifications for membership. — These are regeneration and 
baptism, i. c, spiritual new birth and ritual new birth; the surrender of 
the inward and of outward life to Christ ; the spiritual entrance into com- 
munion with Christ's death and resurrection, and the formal profession of 
this to the world by being buried with Christ and rising with him in 
baptism. 

(6) The duties imposed on members. — In discovering the will of Christ 
from the Scriptures, each member has the right of private judgment, being 
directly responsible to Christ for his use of the means of knowledge, and 
for his obedience to Christ's commands when these are known. 

On the whole subject, soe Dagg, Church Order, 74-99; Curtis, on Communion, 1-61. 



502 ECCLESIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

3. The genesis of this organization. 

{a) The church existed in germ before the day of Pentecost, — otherwise 
there would have been nothing to which those converted upon that day 
could have been "added" (Acts 2 : 47). Among the apostles, regenerate 
as they were, united to Christ by faith and in that faith baptized (Acts 19 : 
4), under Christ's instruction and engaged in common work for him, there 
were already the beginnings of organization. There was a treasurer of the 
body (John 13 : 29), and as a body they celebrated for the first time the 
Lord's Supper (Mat. 29 : 26-29). To all intents and purposes they consti- 
tuted a church, although the church was not yet fully equipped for its work 
by the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2), and by the appointment of pastors 
and deacons. The church existed without officers, as in the first days suc- 
ceeding Pentecost. 

Acts 2 : 47 — " And the Lord added to them [ marg. : ' together ' ] day by day those that were being saved " ; 19 : 4 
— "And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on 
him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus" ; John 13 : 29— "For some thought, because Judas had the bag, 
that Jesus said unto him, Buy what things we have need of for the feast ; or, that he should give something to the 
poor " ; Mat. 26 : 26-29 — " And as they were eating, Jesus took bread .... and he gave to the disciples and said, Take, 
eat ... . And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it" ; Acts 2 — the Holy 
Spirit is poured out. It is to be remembered that Christ himself is the embodied union 
between God and man, the true temple of God's indwelling-. So soon as the first 
believer joined himself to Christ, the church existed in miniature and germ. 

Fish, Ecclesiology, 11-14, by a striking- analogy, distinguishes three periods of the 
church's life: (1) the pre-natal period, in which the church is not separated from 
Christ's bodily presence; (2) the period of childhood, in which the church is under 
tutelage, preparing for an independent life ; ( 3 ) the period of maturit y, in which the 
church, equipped with doctrines and officers, is ready for self-government. The three 
periods may be likened to bud, blossom, and fruit. Before Christ's death, the church 
existed in bud only. 

(6) That provision for these offices was made gradually as exigencies 
arose, is natural when we consider that the church immediately after Christ's 
ascension was under the tutelage of inspired apostles, and was to be pre- 
pared, by a process of education, for independence and self-government. 
As doctrine was communicated gradually yet infallibly, through the oral 
and written teaching of the apostles, so we are warranted in believing that 
the church was gradually but infallibly guided to the adoption of Christ's 
own plan of church organization and of Christian work. The same promise 
of the Spirit which renders the New Testament an unerring and sufficient 
rule of faith, renders it also an unerring and sufficient rule of practice, for 
the church in all places and times. 

John 16 : 12-16 is to be interpreted as a promise of gradual leading by the Spirit into all 
the truth; 1 Cor. 14 : 37 — "the things which I write unto you .... they are the commandments of the Lord." 
An examination of Paul's epistles in their chronological order shows a progress in defi- 
niteness of teaching with regard to church polity, as well as with regard to doctrine in 
general. In this matter, as in other matters, apostolic instruction was given as provi- 
dential exigencies demanded it. In the earliest days of the church, attention was paid 
to preaching rather than to organization. Like Luther, Paul thought more of church 
order in his later days than at the beginning of his work. Yet even in his first epistle 
we find the germ which is afterwards continuously developed. See : 

(1)1 Thess. 5 : 12, 13 (A. D. 52 ) — " But we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are 
over you ( irpoi<nayi.£vov<; ) in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their 
work's sake." 

(2)1 Cor. 12 : 28 ( A. D. 57 ) — " And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly 



GrOVEKlSTMENT OF THE CHURCH. 503 

teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps [ avTiArj/x^eis = gifts needed by deacons ], governments 
[ Kvpepvrjaets = gifts needed by pastors ], divers kinds of tongues." 

(3) Rom. 12 : 6-8 (A. D. 58) — "And having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether 
prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith ; or ministry [ 8i.aKoviav~\, let us give ourselves to 
our ministry ; or he that teacheth, to his teaching ; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting : he that giveth, let him do it 
with liberality ; he that ruleth [ 6 7rpol'trTa/aeVo? ], with diligence ; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness." 

(4) Phil. 1 : i ( A. D. 62) — "Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which 
are at Philippi, with the bishops [ e7r«r/c67j-oi?, marg. : ' overseers ' ] and deacons [ Sta/covoi? ]." 

( 5 ) Eph. 4 : 11 ( A. D. 63 ) — " And he gave some to be apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and 
some, pastors and teachers [ 7roi/i.ei/as «al SiSaa/caAovs ]." 

(6) i Tim. 3 : 1, 2 (A. D. 66)— "If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, ne desireth a good work. The bishop 
{_ rbv iirio-Konov ] therefore must be without reproach." On this last passage, Huther in Meyer's Com. 
remarks : " Paul in the beginning looked at the church in its unity,— only gradually 
does he make prominent its leaders. We must not infer that the churches in the earlier 
time were without leadership, but only that in the later time circumstances were such 
as to require him to lay emphasis upon the pastor's office and work." See also Schaff, 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 62-75. 

On the question how far our Lord and his apostles, in the organization of the church, 
-availed themselves of the synagogue as a model, see Neander, Planting and Training, 
28-34. The ministry of the church is without doubt an outgrowth and adaptation of 
the eldership of the synagogue. In the synagogue, there were elders who gave them- 
selves to the study and expounding of the Scriptures. The synagogues held united 
prayer, and exercised discipline. They were democratic in government, and independ- 
ent of each other. It has sometimes been said that election of officers by the 
membership of the church came from the Greek e/c/cATjo-ia, or popular assembly. But 
Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1 : 438, says of the elders of the 
synagogue that "their election depended on the choice of the congregation." Talmud, 
Berachob, 55 a : " No ruler is appointed over a congregation, unless the congregation 
is consulted." 

( c ) Any number of believers, therefore, may constitute themselves into 
a Christian church, by adopting for their rule of faith and practice Christ's 
law as laid down in the New Testament, and by associating themselves 
together, in accordance with it, for his worship and service. It is impor- 
tant, where practicable, that a council of churches be previously called, to 
advise the brethren proposing this union as to the desirableness of consti- 
tuting a new and distinct local body; and if it be found desirable, to 
recognize them, after its formation, as being a church of Christ. But such 
action of a council, however valuable as affording ground for the fellowship 
of other churches, is not constitutive, but is simply declaratory; and, 
without such action, the body of believers alluded to, if formed after the 
N. T. example, may notwithstanding be a true church of Christ. Still 
further, a band of converts, among the heathen or providentially precluded 
from access to existing churches, might rightfully appoint one of their 
number to baptize the rest, and then might organize, dc novo, a New 
Testament church. 

Hagenbach, Hist. Doct., 2 : 294, quotes from Luther, as follows : " If a company of 
pious Christian laymen were captured and sent to a desert place, and had not among 
them an ordained priest, and were all agreed in the matter, and elected one and told 
him to baptize, administer the Mass, absolve, and preach, such a one would be as true 
a priest as if all the bishops and popes had ordained him." 

III. Government of the Church. 

1. Nature of this government in general. 

It is evident from the direct relation of each member of the church, and 
so of the church as a whole, to Christ as sovereign and lawgiver, that the 



504 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

government of the church, so far as regards the source of authority, is an 
absolute monarchy. 

In ascertaining the will of Christ, however, and in applying his com- 
mands to providential exigencies, the Holy Spirit enlightens one member 
through the counsel of another, and, as the result of combined delibera- 
tion, guides the whole body to right conclusions. This work of the Spirit 
is the foundation of the Scripture injunctions to unity. This unity, since 
it is a unity of the Spirit, is not an enforced, but an intelligent and willing, 
unity. While Christ is sole king, therefore, the government of the church, 
so far as regards the interpretation and execution of his will by the body, 
is an absolute democracy, in which the whole body of members is intrusted 
with the duty and responsibility of carrying out the laws of Christ as 
expressed in his word. 

The seceders from the established church of Scotland, on the memorable 18th of May, 
1843, embodied in their protest the following words : We go out " from an establishment 
which we loved and prized, through interference with conscience, the dishonor done to 
Christ's crown, and the rejection of his sole and supreme authority as King in his 
church." The church should be rightly ordered, since it is the representative and 
guardian of God's truth— its "pillar and ground" (i Tim. 3 : 15 ) — the Holy Spirit working in 
and through it. 

But it is this very relation of the church to Christ and his truth which renders it 
needful to insist upon the right of each member of the church to his private judgment 
as to the meaning of Scripture ; in other words, absolute monarchy, in this case, 
requires for its complement an absolute democracy. President Wayland : " No indi- 
vidual Christian or number of individual Christians, no individual church or number of 
individual churches, has original authority, or has power over the whole. None can 
add to or subtract from the laws of Christ, or interfere with his direct and absolute 
sovereignty over the hearts and lives of his subjects." Each member, as equal to every 
other, has right to a voice in the decisions of the whole body ; and no action of the 
majority can bind him against his conviction of duty to Christ. 

A. Proof that the government of the church is democratic or congrega- 
tional, 
(a) From the duty of the whole church to preserve unity in its action. 

Rom. 12 : 16 — "Be of the same mind one toward another" ; 1 Cor. 1 : 10 — "Now I beseech you .... that ye all 
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind 
and in the same judgment " ; 2 Cor. 13 : 11 — " be of the same mind " ; Eph. 4 : 3 — "giving diligence to keep the unity 
of the Spirit in the bond of peace " ; Phil. 1 : 27—" that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith, 
of the gospel " ; 1 Pet. 3 : 8 — "be ye all likeminded." 

These exhortations to unity are not mere counsels to passive submission, such as 
might be given under a hierarchy, or to the members of a society of Jesuits ; they are 
counsels to cooperation and to harmonious judgment. Each member, while forming 
his own opinions under the guidance of the Spirit, is to remember that the other mem- 
bers have the Spirit also, and that a final conclusion as to the will of God is to be 
reached only through comparison of views. The exhortation to unity is therefore an 
exhortation to be open-minded, docile, ready to subject our opinions to discussion, to 
welcome new light with regard to them, and to give up any opinion when we find it to 
be in the wrong. The church is in general to secure unanimity by moral suasion only ; 
though, in case of willful and perverse opposition to its decisions, it may be necessary 
to secure unity by excluding an obstructive member, for schism. 

A quiet and peaceful unity is the result of the Holy Spirit's work in the hearts of 
Christians. New Testament church government proceeds upon the supposition that 
Christ dwells in all believers. Baptist polity is the best possible polity for good people. 
Christ has made no provision for an unregenerate church-membership, and for Satanic 
possession of Christians. It is best that a church in which Christ does not dwell should 
by dissension reveal its weakness, and fall to pieces ; and any outward organization that 
conceals inward disintegration, and compels a merely formal union after the Holy 
Spirit has departed, is a hindrance instead of a help to true religion. 



GOVEKJOIEXT OF THE CHURCH. 505 

(b) From the responsibility of the whole church for maintaining pure 
doctrine and practice. 

1 Tim. 3 : 15— "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" ; Jude 3— "exhorting you to 
contend earnestly for the faith -which was once for all delivered unto the saints " ; Rev. 2 and 3 — exhortations to 
the seven churches of Asia to maintain pure doctrine and practice. In all these pas- 
sages, pastoral charges are given, not by a so-called bishop to his subordinate priests, 
but by an apostle to the whole church and to all its members. 

(c) From the committing of the ordinances to the charge of the whole 
church to observe and guard. As the church expresses truth in her teach- 
ing, so she is to express it in symbol through the ordinances. 

Mat 28 : 19, 20 — " Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them .... teaching them " ; cf. 
Luke 24 : 33— "And they rose up that very hour, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with 
them" ; Acts 1 : 15 — "And in these days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, and said (and there was a 
multitude of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty ) " ; 1 Cor. 15 : 6 — "then he appeared to above five 
hundred brethren at once"— these passages show that it was not to the eleven apostles alone 
that Jesus committed the ordinances. 

1 Cor. 11 : 2 — " Now I praise you that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered 
them to you" ; cf. 23, 24 — "For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, how that the Lord Jesus 
in the night in which he was betrayed took bread ; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my 
body, which is for you : This do in remembrance of me "—here Paul commits the Lord's Supper into the 
charge, not of the body of officials, but of the whole church. Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper, therefore, are not to be administered at the discretion of the individual 
minister. He is simply the organ of the church ; and pocket baptismal and communion 
services are without warrant. See Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 299 ; Robinson, 
Harmony of Gospels, notes, § 170. 

(d) From the election by the whole church, of its own officers and 
delegates. In Acts 14 : 23, the literal interpretation of x £l P 0T0V fo avT£C is not 
to be pressed. In Titus 1 : 5, "when Paul empowers Titus to set presiding 
officers over the communities, this circumstance decides nothing as to the 
mode of choice, nor is a choice by the community itself thereby necessarily 
excluded. " 

Acts 1 : 23, 26 — " And they put forward two ... . and they gave lots for them ; and the lot fell upon Matthias ; and 
he was numbered with the eleven apostles" ; 6 : 3, 5— "Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among yoa seven men of 
good report .... And the saying pleased the whole multitude ; and they chose Stephen, .... and Philip, and 
Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas" — as deacons; Acts 13 : 2, 3 — "And as they 
ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have 
called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." 

On this passage, see Meyer's comment : " 'Ministered ' here expresses the act of celebrat- 
ing divine service on the part of the whole church. To refer avruv to the ' prophets and 
teachers ' is forbidden by the a.<j>opi<rare — and by verse 3. This interpretation would confine 
this most important mission-act to five persons, of whom two were the missionaries 
sent ; and the church would have had no part in it, even through its presbyters. This 
agrees, neither with the common possession of the Spirit in the apostolic church, nor 
with the concrete cases of the choice of an apostle ( ch. 1 ) and of deacons ( ch. 6 ). Compare 
14 : 27 where the returned missionaries report to the church. The imposition of hands 
( verse 3 ) is by the presbyters, as representatives of the whole church. The subject in 
verses 2 and 3 is ' the church '— ( represented by the presbyters in this case ). The church sends 
the missionaries to the heathen, and consecrates them through its elders." 

Acts 15 : 2, 4, 22, 30 — " the brethren appointed that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to 
Jerusalem .... And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and the apostles and the 

elders Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men out of their 

company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas .... So they .... came down to Antioch ; and having 
gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle " ; 2 Cor. 8 : 19—" who was also appointed by the churches to 
travel with us in the matter of this grace"— the contribution for the poor in Jerusalem; Acts 
14:23— "And when they had appointed (x* i P OTOV1 i <ral ' Te s) f° r ^ em el( iers i Q evei 7 church"— the apostles 
announced the election of the church, as a College President confers degrees, i. e., by 
announcing degrees conferred by the Board of Trustees. To this same effect witnesses 
the newly discovered Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, chapter 15 : "Appoint therefore 
for yourselves bishops and deacons." 



506 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Hackett, Com. on Acts—" \ e '-P 0T0V1 i< TaVTe s is not to be pressed, since Paul and Barnabas 
constitute the persons ordaining 1 . It may possibly indicate a concurrent appointment, 
in accordance with the usual practice of universal suffrage ; but the burden of proof 
lies on those who would so modify the meaning- of the verb. The verb is frequently 
used in the sense of choosing, appointing, with reference to the formality of raising the 
hand." Per contra, see Meyer, in loco : " The church officers were elective. As appears 
from analogy of 6:2-6 ( election of deacons ), the word x ei P 0T0V w^Te<; retains its 
etymological sense, and does not mean 'constituted' or 'created.' Their choice was a 
recognition of a gift already bestowed,— not the ground of the office and source of 
authority, but merely the means by which the gift becomes [known, recognized, and] 
an actual office in the church." 

Baumgarten, Apostolic History, 1 : 456 ^" They — the two apostles — allow presbyters 
to be chosen for the community by voting." Alexander, Com. on Acts—" The method 
of election here, as the expression xeiporovijo-ai/Te? indicates, was the same as that in Acts G : 
5, 6, where the people chose the seven, and the twelve ordained them." Barnes, Com. on 
Acts: "The apostles presided in the assembly where the choice was made,— appointed 
them in the usual way by the suffrage of the people." Dexter, Congregationalism, 138 
— " ' Ordained ' means here ' prompted and secured the election ' of elders in every church." 
So in Titus 1:5—" appoint elders in every city." Compare the Latin : " dictator consules creavit " 
= prompted and secured the election of consuls by the people. See Neander, Church 
History, 1 : 189 ; Guericke, Church History, 1 : 110 ; Meyer, on Acts 13 : 2. 

(e) From the power of the whole church to exercise discipline. Pas- 
sages which show the right of the whole body to exclude, show also the 
right of the whole body to admit, members. 

Mat. 18 : 17 — " And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church : and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him 
be to thee as the Gentile and the publican. Verily, I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven: and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" — words often 
inscribed over Roman Catholic confessionals, but improperly, since they refer not to 
the decisions of a single priest, but to the decisions of a whole body of believers guided 
by the Holy Spirit. 

1 Cor. 5 : 4, 5, 13 — "ye being gathered together .... to deliver such an one unto Satan .... Put away that 
wicked man from among yourselves " ; 2 Cor. 2 : 6, 7 — " Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted 
by the many ; so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him " ; 7 : 11 — " For behold, this self same 
thing .... what earnest care it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves .... In every thing ye approved 
yourselves to be pure in the matter" ; 2 Thess. 3 : 6, 14, 15— "withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh 
disorderly .... If any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man, that ye have no company with him, 
to the end that he may be ashamed. And yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." 

The educational influence upon the whole church of this election of officers, admission 
and exclusion of members, general conduct of business, and responsibility for doctrine 
and practice, cannot be over-estimated. The whole body can know those who apply 
for admission, better than pastor or elders can. To put the whole government of the 
church into the hands of a few is to deprive the membership of one great means of 
Christian training and progress. Hence the pastor's duty is to develop the self-govern- 
ment of the church. The missionary should not command, but advise. That minister 
is most successful who gets the whole body to move, and who renders the church 
independent of himself. The test of his work is not while he is with them, but after he 
leaves them. Then it can be seen whether he has taught them to follow him, or to 
follow Christ; whether he has led them to the formation of habits of independent 
Christian activity, or whether he has made them passively dependent upon himself. 

A Christian pastor can either rule, or he can have the reputation of ruling ; but he 
can not do both. Real ruling involves a sinking of self, a working through others, a 
doing of nothing that some one else can be got to do. The reputation of ruling leads 
sooner or later to the loss of real influence, and to the decline of the activities of the 
church itself. See Coleman, Manual of Prelacy and Ritualism, 87-135; and on the 
advantages of Congregationalism over every other form of church-polity, see Dexter, 
Congregationalism, 336-396. Dexter, 390, note, quotes from Belcher's Religious Denomi- 
nations of the U. S., 184, as follows: "Jefferson said that he considered Baptist church 
government the only form of pure democracy which then existed in the world, and had 
concluded that it would be the best plan of government for the American Colonies. 
This was eight or ten years before the American Revolution." On Baptist democracy,, 
see Thomas Armitage, in N. Amer. Rev., March, 1887': 233-343. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. 507 

B. Erroneous views as to church government refuted by the foregoing 
passages. 

( a ) The world-church theory, or the Komanist view. — This holds that all 
local churches are subject to the supreme authority of the Bishop of Borne, 
as the successor of Peter and the infallible vicegerent of Christ, and, as thus 
united, constitute the one and only church of Christ on earth. We reply : 

First, — Christ gave no such supreme authority to Peter. Mat. 16:18, 19, 
simply refers to the personal position of Peter as first confessor of Christ 
and preacher of his name to Jews and Gentiles. Hence other apostles also 
constituted the foundation ( Eph. 2 : 20 ; Bev. 21 : 11) . On one occasion, 
the counsel of James was regarded as of equal weight with that of Peter 
(Acts 15 : 7-30), while on another occasion Peter was rebuked by Paul ( Gal. 
"2 : 11 ), and Peter calls himself only a fellow-elder ( 1 Pet. 5:1). Secondly, 
— if Peter had such authority given him, there is no evidence that he had 
power to transmit it to others. Thirdly, — there is no conclusive evidence 
that Peter ever was at Borne, much less that he was bishop of Borne. 
Fourthly, — there is no evidence that he really did so appoint the bishops 
of Borne as his successors. Fifthly, — if he did so appoint the bishops of 
Borne, the evidence of continuous succession since that time is lacking. 
Sixthly, — there is abundant evidence that a hierarchical form of church 
government is corrupting to the church and dishonoring to Christ. 

Mat. 16 : 18, 19 — " And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the 
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shalt be loosed in heaven." 
Peter exercised this power of the keys for both Jews and Gentiles, by being- the first 
to preach Christ to them, and so admit them to the kingdom of heaven. The "rock " is a 
confessing heart. The confession of Christ makes Peter a rock upon which the church 
can be built. Plumptre on Epistles of Peter, Introd., 14—" He was a stone — one with 
that rock with which he was now joined by an indissoluble union." But others come to 
be associated with him : Eph. 2 : 20 — " built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus him- 
self being the chief corner stone " ; Rev. 21 : 14 — " And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve 
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." Acts 15 : 7-30 — the Council of Jerusalem. Gal. 2 : 11 — "But 
when Cephas came to Antioch, I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned " ; 1 Pet. 5:1 — "The elders there- 
fore among you I eihort, who am a fellow-elder." 

Here it should be remembered that three things were necessary to constitute an apos- 
tle : ( 1 ) he must have seen Christ after his resurrection, so as to be a witness to the fact 
that Christ had risen from the dead; (2) he must be a worker of miracles, to certify 
that he was Christ's messenger; (3) he must be an inspired teacher of Christ's truth, 
so that his final utterances are the very word of God. In Rom. 16 : 17 — "Salute Andronicus and 
Junias, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles " means simply : ' who are 
highly esteemed among, or by, the apostles.' Barnabas is called an apostle, in the ety- 
mological sense of a messenger : Acts 13 : 2 — "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I 
have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away " ; leb. 
3:1—" consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus." In this latter sense, the num 
ber of the apostles was not limited to twelve. 

On the question whether Peter founded the Roman Church, see Meyer, Com. on 
Romans, transl., vol. 1 : 23—" Paul followed the principle of not interfering with another 
apostle's field of labor. Hence Peter could not have been laboi'ing at Rome, at the time 
when Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans from Ephesus ; cf. Acts 19 : 21 ; Rom 15 : 20 ; 2 Cor. 
10 : 16." Meyer thinks Peter was martyred at Rome, but that he did not found the Roman 
church, the origin of which is unknown. " The epistle to the Romans," he says, "since 
Peter cannot have labored at Rome before it was written, is a fact destructive of the 
historical basis of the Papacy " ( p. 28 ). See also Elliott, Horre Apocalyptica?, 3 : 500. 

" Romanism," says Dorner, " identifies the church and the kingdom of God. The pro- 
fessedly perfect hierarchy is itself the church, or its essence." Yet Mochler, the greatest 
modern advocate of the Romanist system, himself acknowledges that there were popes 
before the Reformation " whom hell has swallowed up " ; see Dorner, Hist. Prot. Theol., 



508 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Introd., ad finem. If the Romanist asks: "Where was your church before Luther?" 
the Protestant may reply : " Where was your face this morning- before it was washed? " 
Disciples of Christ have sometimes kissed the feet of Antichrist, but it recalls an ancient 
story. When an Athenian noble thus, in old times, debased himself to the King of Per- 
sia, his fellow-citizens at Athens doomed him to death. See Coleman, Manual on Prelacy 
and Ritualism, 265-274 ; Park, in Bib. Sac, 2 : 451 ; Princeton Rev., Apr., 1876 : 265. 

( b ) The national-church theory, or the theory of provincial or national 
churches. — This holds that all members of the church in any province or 
nation are bound together in provincial or national organization, and that 
this organization has jurisdiction over the local churches. We reply : 

First, — the theory has no support in the Scriptures. There is no evi- 
dence that the word kKKkijoia in the New Testament ever means a national 
church organization. 1 Cor. 12 : 28, Phil. 3 : 6, and 1 Tim. 3 : 15, may be 
more naturally interpreted as referring to the generic church. In Acts 9 : 
31, hnKlrjcia is a mere generalization for the local churches then and there 
existing, and implies no sort of organization among them. Secondly, — it is 
contradicted by the intercourse which the New Testament churches held 
with each other as independent bodies, — for example, at the Council of 
Jerusalem (Acts 15). Thirdly, — it has no practical advantages over the 
congregational polity, but rather tends to formality, division, and the 
extinction of the principles of self-government and direct responsibility to 
Christ. Fourthly, — it is inconsistent with itself, in binding a professedly 
spiritual church by formal and geographical lines. Fifthly, — it logically 
leads to the theory of Eomanism. If two churches need a superior author- 
ity to control them and settle their differences, then two countries and 
two hemispheres need a common ecclesiastical government, — and a world- 
church, under one visible head, is Eomanism. 

1 Cor. 12 •. 28 — " And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, 
then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues" ; Phil. 3 : 6 — "as touching zeal, persecuting the 
church" ; 1 Tim. 3 : 15 — " that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is 
the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth " ; Acts 9 : 31 — " So the church throughout all Judea and 
Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified." For advocacy of the Presbyterian system, see Cun- 
ning-ham, Historical Theology, 2 : 514-556 ; McPherson, Presbyterianism. Per contra, 
see Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 9— "There is no example of a national church in the 
New Testament." 

There were no councils that claimed authority till the second century, and the inde- 
pendence of the churches was not given up until the third or fourth century. In Bp. 
Lightfoot's essay on the Christian Ministry, in the appendix to his Com. on Philippians, 
progress to episcopacy is thus described : " In the time of Ignatius, the bishop, then 
primus inter pares, was regarded only as a centre of unity ; in the time of Irenseus, as 
a depositary of primitive truth ; in the time of Cyprian, as absolute vicegerent of 
Christ in things spiritual." 

Hatch, in his Bampton Lectures on Organization of Early Christian Churches, with- 
out discussing the evidence from the New Testament, proceeds to treat of the post- 
apostolic development of organization, as if the existence of a germinal Episcopacy very 
soon after the apostles proved such a system to be legitimate or obligatory. In reply, we 
would ask whether we are under moral obligation to conform to whatever succeeded in 
developing itself. If so, then the priests of Baal, as well as the priests of Rome, had just 
claims to human belief and obedience. Prof. Black : " We have no objection to antiq- 
uity, if they will only go back far enough. We wish to listen, not only to the fathers 
of the church, but also to the grandfathers." 

Phillips Brooks speaks of " the fantastic absurdity of apostolic succession." And with 
reason, for in the Episcopal system, bishops qualified to ordain must be : ( 1 ) baptized 
persons ; ( 2 ) not scandalously immoral ; ( 3 ) not having obtained office by bribery ; ( 4 ) 
must not have been deposed. In view of these qualifications, Archbishop Whately pro- 
nounces the doctrine of apostolic succession untenable, and declares that " there is no 
Christian minister existing now, who can trace up with complete certainty his own ordi- 



GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. 509 

nation through perfectly regular steps, to the time of the apostles." See Macaulay's 
Review of Gladstone on Church and State, in his Essays, 4 : 166-178. There are breaks iu 
the line, and a chain is only as strong- as its weakest part. See Presb. Rev., 1886 : 89-126. 

Instance the evils of Presbyterianism in practice. Dr. Park says that "the split 
between the Old and the New School was due to an attempt on the part of the majority 

to impose their will on the minority The Unitarian defection in New England 

would have ruined Presbyterian churches, but it did not ruin Congregational churches. 
A Presbyterian church may be deprived of the minister it has chosen, by the votes of 
neighboring churches, or by the few leading men who control them, or by one single 
vote in a close contest." 

We see leanings toward the world-church idea in Pananglican and Panpresbyterian 
Councils. Human nature ever tends to substitute the unity of external organization 
for the spiritual unity which belongs to all believers in Christ. There is no necessity 
for common government, whether Presbyterian or Episcopal ; since Christ's truth and 
Spirit are competent to govern all as easily as one. It is a remarkable fact, that the 
Baptist denomination, without external bonds, has maintained a greater unity in doc- 
trine, and a closer general conformity to New Testament standards, than the churches 
which adopt the principle of episcopacy, or of provincial organization. With Abp. 
Whately, we find the true symbol of Christian unity in "the tree of life, bearing twelve maimer of 
fruits" (Rev. 22 : 2). Cf. John 10: 16 — yevqa-ovTcu. /xia noCfivri, els noinrjv— "they shall become one flock, 
one shepherd "= not one fold, not external unity, but one flock in many folds. See Jacob, 
Eccl. Polity of N. T., 130; Dexter, Congregationalism, 236; Coleman, Manual on Prelacy 
and Ritualism, 128-264 ; Albert Barnes, Apostolic Church. 

2. Officers of the Church. 

A. The number of offices in the church is two : — first, the office of 
bishop, presbyter, or pastor ; and, secondly, the office of deacon. 

(a) That the appellations 'bishop,' 'presbyter,' and 'pastor' designate 
the same office and order of persons, may be shown from Acts 20 : 28 — 
ettlgkottovq noi/ualveiv ( cf. 17 — Trpeaj3vTepovg) ; Phil. 1 : 1 ; 1 Tim. 3:1, 8 ; Titus 
1 : 5, 7 J 1 Pet. 5:1, 2 — TzpecQvTepove • • • • -KapaKaku 6 av/2Trp£aj3vrepor • ■ • ■ 
Toifxavare Troifiviov • • • • ETrioKOTrovvrec;. Conybeare and Howson : ' ' The terms 
'bishop' and 'elder' are used in the New Testament as equivalent, — the 
former denoting (as its meaning of overseer implies) the duties, the latter 
the rank, of the office. " See passages quoted in Giessler, Church History, 
1 : 90, note 1 — as, for example, Jerome : "Apud veteres iidem episcopi et 
jDresbyteri, quia illud nomen dignitatis est, hoc setatis. Idem est ergo 
presbyter qui episcopus." 

Acts 20 : 28 — "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops 
[marg. 'overseers'], to feed [lit. 'to shepherd,' 'be pastors of] the church of the Lord, which he purchased with 
his own blood" (so Am. Rev.); cf. 17 — "the elders of the church" are those whom Paul addresses 
as bishops or overseers, and whom he exhorts to be good pastors. Phil. 1:1—" bishops and 
deacons" ; 1 Tim. 3 : 1, 8— "If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work .... Deacons in like 
manner must be grave" ; Tit. 1 : 5, 7 — "appoint elders in every city ; for the bishop must be blameless" ; 1 Pet. 5 : 
1, 2— "The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder .... Tend [lit. 'shepherd,' 'be pastors of ] 
the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight [ acting as bishops ], not of constraint, but willingly, 
according to the will of God." In this last passage, Westcott and Hort, with Tischendorf 's 8th 
edition, follow N and B in omitting e7ricr/co7roi}i/Te?. Tregelles and our Revised Version 
follow A and N c in retaining it. Rightly, we think; since it is easy to see how, in a 
growing ecclesiasticism, it should have been omitted, from the feeling that too much 
was here ascribed to a mere presbyter. 

Dexter, Congregationalism, 114, shows that bishop, elder, pastor are names for the 
same office: (1) from the significance of the words; (2) from the fact that the same 
qualifications are demanded from all; (3) from the fact that the same duties are 
assigned to all ; ( 4 ) from the fact that the texts held to prove higher rank of the bishop 
do not support that claim. Plumptre, in Pop. Com., Pauline Epistles, 555, 556— "There 
cannot be a shadow of doubt that the two titles of Bishop and Presbyter were in the 
Apostolic Age interchangeable." 

( h ) The only plausible objection to the identity of the presbyter and the 



510 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

bishop is that first suggested by Calvin, on the ground of 1 Tim. 5 : 17. 
But this text only shows that the one office of presbyter or bishop involved 
two kinds of labor, and that certain presbyters or bishops were more suc- 
cessful in one kind than in the other. That gifts of teaching and ruling 
belonged to the same individual, is clear from Acts 20 : 28-31 ; Eph. 4 : 11 ; 
Heb. 13:7; 1 Tim. 3:2 — k-rriaKOTvov SidanTiKov. 

1 Tim. 5 : 17 — "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of doable honor, especially those who labor in the 
word and in teaching" ; Wilson, Primitive Government of Christian Churches, concedes that 
this last text " expresses a diversity in the exercise of the presbyterial office, but not in 
the office itself" ; and although he was a Presbyterian, he very consistently refused to 
have any ruling- elders in his church. 

Acts 20 : 28-31 — "bishops, to feed the church of the Lord .... wherefore watch ye" ; Eph. 4 : 11 — "and some, 
pastors and teachers"— here Meyer remarks that the single article binds the two words 
tog-ether, and prevents us from supposing that separate offices are intended. Jerome : 
"Nemo .... pastoris sibi nomen assumere debet, nisi possit docere quos pascit." Heb. 
13 : 7— "Remember them that had the rule over you, which spake unto you the word of God" ; 1 Tim. 3 : 2— "the 
bishop must be .... apt to teach." The great temptation to ambition in the Christian ministry 
is provided against by having no gradation of ranks. The pastor is a priest, only as 
every Christian is. See Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 56 ; Olshausen, on 1 Tim. 5 : 17 ; 
Hackett on Acts 14 : 23; Presb. Rev., 1886 : 89-126. 

( c ) In certain of the N. T. churches there appears to have been a plu- 
rality of elders (Acts 20 : 17; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:5). There is, however, 
no evidence that the number of elders was uniform, or that the plurality 
which frequently existed was due to any other cause than the size of the 
churches for which these elders cared. The N. T. example, while it per- 
mits the multiplication of assistant pastors according to need, does not 
require a plural eldership in every case ; nor does it render this eldership, 
where it exists, of coordinate authority with the church. There are indica- 
tions, moreover, that, at least in certain churches, the pastor was one, while 
the deacons were more than one, in number. 

Acts 20 : 17 — "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church" ; Phil. 1 : 1 — "Paul 
and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and 
deacons " ; Tit. 1:5—" For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, 
and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge." See, however, Acts 12 : 17 — "Tell these things unto 
James, and to the brethren"; 15:13— "and after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Brethren, 
hearken unto me" ; 21 : 18— "And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were 
present"; Gal. 1 : 19— "But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother"; 2 : 12— "certain 
came from James." These passages seem to indicate that James was the pastor or president 
of the church at Jerusalem, an intimation which tradition corroborates. 

1 Tim. 3:2—" The bishop therefore must be without reproach " ; Tit. 1 : 7 — " For the bishop must be blameless, as 
God's steward" ; c/. 1 Tim. 3 : 8, 10, 12— "Deacons in like manner must be grave .... And let these also first be 
proved ; then let them serve as deacons, if they be blameless .... Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their 
children and their own houses well " — in all these passages the bishop is spoken of in the singular 
number, the deacons in the plural. So, too, in Rev. 2 : 1, 8, 12, 18 and 3 : 1, 7, 14, "the angel of 
the church" is best interpreted as meaning the pastor of the church ; and, if this be cor- 
rect, it is clear that each church had, not many pastors, but one. 

It would, moreover, seem antecedently improbable that every church of Christ, how- 
ever small, should be required to have a plural eldership, particularly since churches 
exist that have only a single male member. A plural eldership is natural and advan- 
tageous, only where the church is very numerous and the pastor needs assistants in his 
work : and only in such cases can we say that New Testament example favors it. For 
advocacy of the theory of plural eldership, see Fish, Ecclesiology, 239-249 ; Ladd, Prin- 
ciples of Church Polity, 22-29. On the whole subject of offices in the church, see Dexter, 
Congregationalism, 77-98 ; Dagg, Church Order, 241-266. 

B. The duties belonging to these offices. 

( a ) The pastor, bishop, or elder is : 

First, — a spiritual teacher, in public and private ; 






GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. 511 

Acts 20 : 20, 21, 35 — " how that I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching 
you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward 
our Lord Jesus Christ .... In all things I gave you an example, how that so laboring ye ought to help the weak, and 
to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive " ; 1 Thess. 5 : 12 
— "But we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish 
you" ; Eeb. 13 : 7, 17 — "Remember them that had the rule over you, which spake unto you the word of God ; and con- 
sidering the issue of their life, imitate their faith .... Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them: 
for they watch in behalf of your souls, as they that shall give account." 

Here we should remember that the pastor's private work of religious conversation 
and prayer is equally important with his public m in istrations ; in this respect he is to 
be an example to his flock, and they are to learn from him the art of winning the uncon- 
verted and of caring for those who are already saved. 

Secondly, — administrator of the ordinances ; 

Mat. 28 : 19, 20 — "Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded " ; 1 Cor. 1 : 16, 17 — 
" And I baptized also the household of Stephanas : besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me 
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." Here it is evident that, although the pastor administers 
the ordinances, this is not his main work, nor is the church absolutely dependent upon 
him in the matter. He is not set, like an O. T. priest, to minister at the altar, but to 
preach the gospel. In an emergency any other member appointed by the church may 
administer them with equal propriety, the church always determining who are fit sub- 
jects of the ordinances, and constituting him their organ in administering them. Any 
other view is based on sacramental notions, and on ideas of apostolic succession. 

Thirdly, — superintendent of the discipline, as well as presiding officer at 
meetings of the church. 

Superintendent of discipline : 1 Tim. 5 : 17 — "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double 
honor, especially those who labor in word and in teaching " ; 3 : 5 —"if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, 
how shall he take care of the church of God?" Presiding officer at meetings of the church : 1 Cor. 
12 : 28 —"governments " ; 1 Pet. 5 : 2, 3—" Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not 
of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God ; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as 
lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the fiock." 

In the old Congregational churches of New England, an authority was accorded to 
the pastor which exceeded the New Testament standard. " Dr. Bellamy could break in 
upon a festival which he deemed improper, and order the members of his parish to their 
homes." The congregation rose as the minister entered the church, and stood uncov- 
ered as he passed out of the porch. We must not hope or desire to restore the New 
England regime. The pastor is to take responsibility, to put himself forward when 
there is need, but he is to rule only by moral suasion, and that only by guiding, teach- 
ing, and carrying into effect the rules imposed by Christ and the decisions of the church 
in accordance with those rules. 

Dexter, Congregationalism, 115, 155, 157— "The Governor of New York suggests to the 
Legislature such and such enactments, and then executes such laws as they please to 
pass. He is chief ruler of the State, while the Legislature adopts or rejects what he pro- 
poses." So the pastor's functions are not legislative, but executive. Christ is the only 
lawgiver. In fulfilling this office, the manner and spirit of the pastor's work are of as 
great importance as are correctness of j udgment and faithfulness to Christ's law. " The 
young man who cannot distinguish the wolves from the dogs should not think of becom- 
ing a shepherd." Gregory Nazianzen : " Either teach none, or let your life teach too." 
See Harvey, The Pastor; Wayland, Apostolic Ministry ; Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 99; 
Samson, in Madison Avenue Lectures, 261-288. 

( b ) The deacon is helper to the pastor and the church, in both spiritual 
and temporal things. 

First, — relieving the pastor of external labors, informing him of the con- 
dition and wants of the church, and forming a bond of union between pas- 
tor and people. 

Acts 6 : 1-4 — "Now in these days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the 
Grecian Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. And the twelve called 
the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not fit that we should forsake the word of God, and serve tables. 
Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you, seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we 



512 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

may appoint over this business. But we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word. And the 
saying pleased the whole multitude : and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and 
Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch : whom they set before the apostles: 
and when they had prayed, they kid their hands upon them " ; c/. 8-10 — where Stephen shows power in 
disputation ; Rom. 12 : 7— "or ministry [ Staicoviav ], let us give ourselves to our ministry" ; 1 Cor. 12 : 28 — 
"helps" ; Phil. 1 : 1 — "bishops and deacons." 

Secondly, — helping the church, by relieving the poor and sick and min- 
istering in an informal way to the church's spiritual needs, and by perform- 
ing certain external duties connected with the service of the sanctuary. 

Since deacons are to be helpers, it is not necessary in all cases that they should be old 
or rich ; in fact, it is better that among the number of deacons the various differences 
in station, age, wealth, and opinion in the church should be represented. The quali- 
fications for the diaconate mentioned in Acts 6 : 1-4 and 1 Tim. 3 : 8-13, are, in substance : 
wisdom, sympathy, and spirituality. There are advantages in electing deacons, not for 
life, but for a term of years. While there is no New Testament prescription in this 
matter, and each church may exercise its option, service for a term of years, with 
re-election where the office has been well discharged, would at least seem favored by 
1 Tim. 3 : 10 — " Let these also first be proved ; then let them serve as deacons, if they be blameless " ; 13 — " For they 
that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ 
Jesus." 

In Rom. 16 : 1, 2, we have apparent mention of a deaconess — "I commend unto you Phoebe, our 
sister, who is a servant [ marg. : ' deaconess ' ] of the church that is in Cenchres .... for she herself also hath been a 
succorer of many, and of mine own self." See also 1 Tim. 3 : 11 — "Women in like manner must be grave, not 
slanderous, temperate, faithful in all things "— here Ellicott and Alford claim that the word "women" 
refers, not to deacons' wives, as our Auth. Vers, had it, but to deaconesses. Dexter, 
Congregationalism, 69, 132, maintains that the office of deaconess, though it once existed, 
has passed away, as belonging to a time when men could not, without suspicion, minister 
to women. 

This view that there are temporary offices in the church does not, however, commend 
itself to us. It is more correct to say that there is yet doubt whether there was such an 
office as deaconess, even in the early church. Each church has a right in this matter to 
interpret Scripture for itself, and to act accordingly. An article in the Bap. Quar., 
1869 : 40, denies the existence of any diaconal rank or office, for male or female. Fish, 
in his Ecclesiology, holds that Stephen was a deacon, but an elder also, and preached as 
elder, not as deacon,— Acts 6 : 1-4 being called the institution, not of the diaconate, but of 
the Christian ministry. The use of the phrase Sicucovelv rpaire^a^, and the distinction 
between the diaconate and the pastorate subsequently made in the Epistles, seem to 
refute this interpretation. On the fitness of women for the ministry of religion, see 
E. P. Cobbe, Peak of Darien, 199-262. On the general subject, see Howell, The Deacon- 
ship ; Williams, The Deaconship ; Robinson, N. T. Lexicon, ivTi^^. On the Claims of 
the Christian Ministry, and on Education for the Ministry, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy 
and Religion, 269-318. 

C. Ordination of officers. 

( a ) What is ordination ? 

Ordination is the setting apart of a person divinely called to a work of 
special ministration in the church. It does not involve the communication 
of power, — it is simply a recognition of powers previously conferred by God, 
and a consequent formal authorization, on the part of the church, to exercise 
the gifts already bestowed. This recognition and authorization should not 
only be expressed by the vote in which the candidate is approved by the 
church or the council which represents it, but should also be accompanied 
by a special service of admonition, prayer, and the laying-on of hands (Acts 
6 : 5, 6; 13 : 2, 3; 14 : 23; 1 Tim. 4 : 14; 5 : 22). 

Licensure simply commends a man to the churches as fitted to preach. 
Ordination recognizes him as set apart to the work of preaching and admin- 
istering ordinances, in some particular church or in some designated field 
of labor, as representative of the church. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. 513 

Of his call to the ministry, the candidate himself is to be first persuaded 
(1 Cor. 9 : 16; 1 Tim. 1 : 12) ; but, secondly, the church must be per- 
suaded also, before he can have authority to minister among them ( 1 Tim. 
3:2-7; 4:14; Titus 1 :6-9). 

The word • ordain ' has come to have a technical signification not found in the New 
Testament. There it means simply to choose, appoint, set apart. In 1 Tim. 2 : 7— "where- 
unto I was appointed [ereflrjv] a preacher and an apostle .... a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth" — it 
apparently denotes ordination of God. In the following passages we read of an ordina- 
tion by the church: Acts 6 : 5, 6 — "And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, 
.... and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas .... whom they set before the 
apostles : and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them "—the ordination of deacons ; 13 : 2, 3 
— " And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work 
whereunto I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them 
away " ; 14 : 23—" And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they 
commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed " ; 1 Tim. 4 : 14— "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which 
was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery" 5 : 22 — "Lay hands hastily on no 
man, neither be partaker of other men's sins." 

Since ordination is simply choosing, appointing, setting apart, it seems plain that in 
the case of deacons, who sustain official relations only to the church that constitutes 
them, ordination requires no consultation with other churches. But in the ordination 
of a pastor, there are three natural stages : ( 1 ) the call of the church ; ( 2 ) the decision 
of a council ( the council being virtually only the church advised by its brethren ) ; 
(3) the publication of this decision by a public service of prayer and the laying on of 
hands. The prior call to be pastor may be said, in the case of a man yet unordained, to 
be given by the church conditionally, and in anticipation of a ratification of its action 
by the subsequent judgment of the council. In a well-instructed church, the calling of 
a council is a regular method of appeal from the church unadvised to the church 
advised by its brethren ; and the vote of the council approving the candidate is only 
the essential completing of an ordination, of which the vote of the church calling the 
candidate to the pastorate was the preliminary stage. 

This setting apart by the church, with the advice and assistance of the council, is all 
that is necessarily implied in the New Testament words which are translated " ordain " ; 
and such ordination, by simple vote of church and council, could not be counted 
invalid. But it would be irregular. New Testament precedent makes certain accom- 
paniments not only appropriate, but obbigatory. A formal publication of the decree of 
the council, by laying-on of hands, in connection with prayer, is the last of the duties 
of this advisory body, which serves as the organ and assistant of the church. The 
laying-on of hands is appointed to be the regular accompaniment of ordination, as 
baptism is appointed to be the regular ace -"paniment of regeneration; while yet the 
laying-on of hands is no more the substa^^* ordination, than baptism is the sub- 
stance of regeneration. % 

The imposition of hands is the natural symbol of the communication, not of grace, 
but of authority. It does not make a man a minister of the gospel, any more than 
coronation makes Victoria a Queen. What it does signify and publish, is formal 
recognition and authorization. Viewed in this light, there not only can be no objection 
to the imposition of hands upon the ground that it favors sacramentalism, but 
insistence upon it is the bounden duty of every council of ordination. 

( b ) Who are to ordain ? 

Ordination is the act of the church, not the act of a privileged class in 
the church, as the eldership has sometimes wrongly been regarded, nor yet 
the act of other churches, assembled by their representatives in council. 
No ecclesiastical authority higher than that of the local church is recog- 
nized in the New Testament. This authority, however, has its limits ; and 
since the church has no authority outside of its own body, the candidate 
for ordination should be a member of the ordaining church. 

Since each church is bound to recognize the presence of the Spirit in 
other rightly constituted churches, and its own decisions, in like manner, 
33 



514 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

are to be recognized by others, it is desirable in ordination, as in all 
important steps affecting other churches, that advice be taken before the 
candidate is inducted into office, and that other churches be called to sit 
with it in council, and if thought best, assist in setting the candidate apart 
for the ministry. 

It is always to be remembered, however, that the power to ordain rests 
with the church, and that the church may proceed without a council, or 
even against the decision of the council. Such ordination, of course, would 
give authority only within the bounds of the individual church. Where no 
immediate exception is taken to the decision of the council, that decision is 
to be regarded as virtually the decision of the church by which it was 
called. The same rule applies to a council's decision to depose from the 
ministry. In the absence of immediate protest from the church, the deci- 
sion of the council is rightly taken as virtually the decision of the church. 

In so far as ordination is an act performed by the local church with the 
advice and assistance of other rightly constituted churches, it is justly 
regarded as giving formal permission to exercise gifts and administer ordi- 
nances within the bounds of such churches. Ordination is not, therefore, 
to be repeated upon the transfer of the minister's pastoral relation from 
one church to another. In every case, however, where a minister from a 
body of Christians not scripturally constituted assumes the pastoral rela- 
tion in a rightly organized church, there is peculiar propriety, not only in 
the examination, by a council, of his Christian experience, call to the 
ministry, and views of doctrine, but also in that act of formal recognition 
and authorization which is called ordination. 

The council of ordination is not to be composed simply of ministers who have been 
themselves ordained. As the whole church is to preserve the ordinances and to main- 
tain sound doctrine, and as the unordained church member is often a more sagacious 
judge of a candidate's Christian experience than his own pastor would be, there seems 
no warrant, either in Scripture or in reason, for the exclusion of lay-delegates from 
ordaining councils. It was not merely the apostles and elders, but the whole church at 
Jerusalem, that passed upon the matters submitted to them at the council, and others 
than ministers appear to have been dc^ggates. The theory that only ministers can 
ordain has in it the beginnings of a hiercu fiy. To make the ministry a close corpora- 
tion is to recognize the principle of apostolic succession, to deny the validity of all our 
past ordinations, and to sell to an ecclesiastical caste the liberties of the church of God. 

The council should be numerous and impartially constituted. The church calling the 
council should be represented in it by a fair number of delegates. Neither the church, 
nor the council, should permit a prejudgment of the case by the previous announce- 
ment of an ordination service. While the examination of the candidate should be 
public, all danger that the council be unduly influenced by pressure from without 
should be obviated by its conducting its deliberations, and arriving at its decision, in 
private session. "We subjoin the form of a letter missive, calling a council of ordina- 
tion ; an order of procedure after the council has assembled ; and a programme of 
exercises for the public service. 

Letter Missive. — The church of to the church of : Dear Brethren: 

By vote of this church, you are requested to send your pastor and two delegates to meet 

with us in accordance with the following resolutions, passed by us on the , 188— : 

Whereas, brother , a member of this church, has offered himself to the work of the 

gospel ministry, and has been chosen by us as our pastor, therefore, Resolved, 1. That 
such neighboring churches, in fellowship with us, as shall be herein designated, be 
requested to send their pastor and two delegates each, to meet and counsel with this 

church, at— o'clock— . M., on , 188—, and if, after examination by the Council, he be 

approved, that brother be on the next day set apart, formally, by public service, to 

the gospel ministry. Resolved, 2. That the Council, if they approve the ordination, be 



GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. 515 

requested to appoint two of their number to act with the candidate, in arranging' the 
ordination services. Resolved, 3. That printed letters of invitation, embodying these 
resolutions, and signed by the clerk of this church, be sent to the following churches, 

, and that these churches be requested to furnish to their delegates 

an officially signed certificate of their appointment, to be presented at the organization 

of the Council. Resolved, 4. That Rev. , and brethren , be also invited by 

the clerk of the church to be present as members of the Council. Resolved, 5. That 

brethren , , and , be appointed as our delegates, to represent this church in 

the deliberations of the Council ; and that brother be requested to present the 

candidate to the Council, with an expression of the high respect and warm attachment 
with which we have welcomed him and his labors among us. In behalf of the church, 
, Clerk. ,188-. 

Order of Procedure.— 1. Reading, by the clerk of the church, of the letter-missive, 
followed by a call, in their order, upon all churches and individuals invited, to present 
responses and names in writing ; each delegate, as he presents his credentials, taking his 
seat in a portion of the house reserved for the Council. 2. Announcement, by the clerk 
of the church, that a Council has convened, and call for the nomination of a moderator, 
— the motion to be put by the clerk, — after which the moderator takes the chair. 3. 
Organization completed by election of a clerk of the Council, the offering of prayer, and 
an invitation to visiting brethren to sit with the Council, but not to vote. 4. Reading, 
on behalf of the church, by its clerk, of the records of the church concerning the call 
extended to the candidate, and his acceptance, together with documentary evidence of 
his licensure, of his present church membership, and of his standing in other respects, if 
coming from another denomination. 5. Vote, by the Council, that the proceedings of 
the church, and the standing of the candidate, warrant an examination of his claim to 
ordination. 6. Introduction of the candidate to the Council, by some representative of 
the church, with an expression of the church's feeling respecting him and his labors. 
7. Vote to hear his Christian experience. Narration on the part of the candidate 
followed by questions as to any features of it still needing elucidation. 8. Vote to hear 
the candidate's reasons for believing himself called to the ministry. Narration and 
questions. 9. Vote to hear the candidate's views of Christian doctrine. Narration and 
questions. 10. Vote to conclude the public examination, and to withdraw for private 
session. 11. In private session, after prayer, the Council determines, by three separate 
votes, in order to secure separate consideration of each question, whether it is satisfied 
with the candidate's Christian experience, call to the ministry, and views of Christian 
doctrine. 13. Vote that the candidate be hereby set apart to the gospel ministry, and 
that a public service be held, expressive of this fact ; that for this purpose, a committee 
of two be appointed, to act with the candidate, in arranging such service of ordination, 
and to report before adjournment. 13. Reading of minutes, by clerk of Council, and 
correction of them, to prepare for presentation at the ordination service, .and for 
preservation in the archives of the church. 14. Vote to give the candidate a certificate 
of ordination, signed by the moderator and clerk of the Council, and to publish an 
account of the proceedings in the journals of the denomination. 15. Adjourn to meet 
at the service of ordination. 

Programme of Public Service (two hours in length).— 1. Voluntary— five minutes. 
2. Anthem — five. 3. Reading minutes of the Council, by the clerk of the council — ten. 
4. Prayer of invocation — five. 5. Reading of Scripture — five. 6. Sermon — twenty-five. 
7. Prayer of ordination, with laying-on of hands— fifteen. 8. Hymn — ten. 9. Right 
hand of fellowship — five. 10. Charge to the candidate — fifteen. 11. Charge to the 
church— fifteen. 12. Doxology— five. 13. Benediction by the newly ordained pastor. 

The tenor of the N. T. would seem to indicate that deacons should be ordained with 
prayer and the laying-on of hands, though not by council or public service. Evangel- 
ists, missionaries, ministers serving as secretaries of benevolent societies, should also be 
ordained, since they are organs of the church, set apart for special religious work on 
behalf of the churches. The same rule applies to those who are set to be teachers of the 
teachers, the professors of theological seminaries. Philip, baptizing the eunuch, is 
to be regarded as an organ of the church at Jerusalem. Both home missionaries and 
foreign missionaries are evangelists ; and both, as organs of the home churches to which 
they belong, are not under obligation to take letters of dismission to the churches they 
gather. 

Retirement from the office of public teacher should work a forfeiture of the official 
character. The authorization granted by the Council was based upon a previous recog- 
nition of a divine call. When by reason of permanent withdrawal from the ministry, 



516 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

and devotion to wholly secular pursuits, there remains no longer any divine call to be 
recognized, all authority and standing- as a Christian minister should cease also. We 
therefore repudiate the doctrine of the " indelibility of sacred orders," and the corre- 
sponding maxim: "Once ordained, always ordained"; although we do not, with the 
Cambridge Platform, confine the ministerial function to the pastoral relation. That 
Platform held that " the pastoral relation ceasing, the ministerial function ceases, and 
the pastor becomes a layman again, to be restored to the ministry only by a second 
ordination, called installation. This theory of the ministry proved so inadequate, that 
it was held scarcely more than a single generation. It was rejected by the Congrega- 
tional churches of England ten years after it was formulated in New England." 

"The National Council of Congregational Churches, in 1880, resolved that any man 
serving a church as minister can be dealt with and disciplined by any church, no matter 
what his relations may be in church membership, or ecclesiastical affiliations. If the 
church choosing him will not call a council, then any church can call one for that 
purpose " ; see New Englander, July, 1883 : 461-491. This latter course, however, pre- 
supposes that the steps of fraternal labor and admonition, provided for in our next 
section on the Relation of Local Churches to one another, have been taken, and have 
been insufficient to induce proper action on the part of the church to which such 
minister belongs. See essay on Councils of Ordination, their Powers and Duties, by 
A. H. Strong, in Philosophy and Religion, 259-268 ; Wayland, Principles and Practices of 
Baptists, 114; Dexter, Congregationalism, 136, 145, 146, 150, 151. Per contra, see Fish, 
Ecclesiology, 365-399: Presb. Rev., 1886 : 89-126. 

3. Discipline of the Church. 

A. Kinds of discipline. — Discipline is of two sorts, according as offences 
are private or public. ( a ) Private offences are to be dealt with according 
to the rule in Mat. 5 : 23, 24 ; 18 : 15-17. 

Mat. 5 : 23, 24 — "If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath 
aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
come and offer thy gift" — here is provision for self -discipline on the part of each offender; 
18 : 15, 17 — " And if thy brother sin against thee, go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone : if he hear thee, 
thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two 
witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church : and if he 
refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican" — here is, first, private 
discipline, one of another ; and then, only as a last resort, discipline by the church. 

( b ) Public offences are to be dealt with according to the rule in 1 Cor. 
5 : 3-5, 13, and 2 Thess. 3 : 6. 

1 Cor. 5 : 3-5, 13 — "For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, 
judged him that hath so wrought this thing, in the name of the Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, 
with the power of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be 
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus .... Put away the wicked man from among yourselves." 

Notice here that Paul gave the incestuous person no opportunity to repent, confess, 
or avert sentence. The church can have no valid evidence of repentance immediately 
upon discovery and arraignment. At such a time the natural conscience always reacts 
in remorse and self -accusation, but whether the sin is hated because of its inherent 
wickedness, or only because of its unfortunate consequences, cannot be known at once. 
Only fruits meet for repentance can prove repentance real. But such fruits take time. 
And the church has no time to wait. Its good repute in the community, and its 
influence over its own members, are at stake. These therefore demand the instant exclu- 
sion of the wrong-doer, as evidence that the church clears its skirits from all complicity 
with the wrong. In the case of gross public offences, labor with the offender is to 
come, not before, but after, his excommunication; c/. 2 Cor. 1 : 6-8 — " Sufficient to such a one is 
this punishment which was inflicted by the many ; . . . . forgive him and comfort him ; . . . . confirm your love 
toward him." 

2 Thess. 3 : 6 — "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus, that ye withdraw yourselves 
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which they received of us." The mere 
" dropping " of names from the list of members seems altogether contrary to the spirit 
of the N. T. polity. That recognizes only three methods of exit from the local church . 
( 1 ) exclusion ; (2) dismission; (3) death. To provide for the case of members whose 
residence has long been unknown, it is well for the church to have a standing rule that 
all members residing at a distance shall report each year by letter or by contribution, 






RELATION" OF LOCAL CHURCHES TO ONE ANOTHER. 517 

and, in case of failure to report for two successive years, shall be subject to discipline. 
The action of the church, in such cases, should take the form of an adoption of preamble 
and resolution : " Whereas A. B. has been absent from the church for more than two 
years, and has failed to comply with the standing- rule requiring a yearly report or 
contribution, therefore, Resolved, that the church withdraw from A. B. the hand of 
fellowship." 

In all cases of exclusion, the resolution may uniformly read as above ; the preamble 
may indefinitely vary, and should always cite the exact nature of the offence. In this 
way, neglect of the church or breach of covenant obligations may be distinguished from 
offences against common morality, so that exclusion upon the former ground shall not 
be mistaken for exclusion upon the latter. As the persons excluded are not commonly 
present at the meeting of the church when they are excluded, a written copy of the 
preamble and resolution, signed by the Clerk of the Church, should always be immedi- 
ately sent to them. 

B. Eelation of the pastor to discipline. — (a) He has no original author- 
ity; (&) but is the organ of the church, and (c) superintendent of its 
labors for its own purification and for the reclamation of offenders; and 
therefore ( d ) may best do the work of discipline, not directly, by consti- 
tuting himself a special policeman or detective, but indirectly, by securing 
proper labor on the part of the deacons or brethren of the church. 

It is not well for the pastor to be, or to have the reputation of being, a ferreter-out of 
misdemeanors among his church members. It is best for him in general to serve only 
as presiding officer in cases of discipline, instead of being a partisan or a counsel for the 
prosecution. For this reason it is well for him to secure the appointment by his church 
of a Prudential Committee, or Committee on Discipline, whose duty it shall be at a fixed 
time each year to look over the list of members, initiate labor in the case of delinquents, 
and, after the proper steps have been taken, present proper preambles and resolutions 
in cases where the church needs to take action. This regular yearly process renders 
discipline easy; whereas the neglect of it for several successive years results in an 
accumulation of cases, in each of which the person exposed to discipline has friends, 
and these are tempted to obstruct the church's dealing with others from fear that the 
taking up of any other case may lead to the taking up of that one in which they are 
most nearly interested. 

As the Prudential Committee, or Committee on Discipline, is simply the church itself 
preparing its own business, the church may well require all complaints to be made to it 
through the committee. In this way it may be made certain that the preliminary steps 
of labor have been taken, and the disquieting of the church by premature charges may 
be avoided. Where the committee, after proper representations made to it, fails to do 
its duty, the individual member may appeal directly to the assembled church ; and the 
difference between the New Testament order and that of a hierarchy is this, that 
according to the former all final action and responsibility is taken by the church itself 
in its collective capacity, whereas on the latter the minister, the session, or the bishop, 
so far as the individual church is concerned, determines the result. See Savage, 
Church Discipline, Formative and Corrective ; Dagg, Church Order, 268-274. On church 
discipline in cases of remarriage after divorce, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Relig- 
ion, 431-442. 

IV. Relation of Local Churches to one another. 

1. The general nature of this relation is that of fellowship between 
equals. — Notice here : 

(a) The absolute equality of the churches. — No church or council of 
churches, no association or convention or society, can relieve any single 
church of its direct responsibility to Christ, or assume control of its action. 

(6) The fraternal fellowship and cooperation of the churches. — No 
church can properly ignore, or disregard, the existence or work of other 
churches around it. Every other church is presumptively possessed of the 



518 ECCLESIOLOGT, OK THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Spirit, in equal measure with itself. There must therefore be sympathy 
and mutual furtherance of each other's welfare among churches, as among 
individual Christians. Upon this jDrinciple are based letters of dismission, 
recognition of the pastors of other churches, and all associational unions, or 
unions for common Christian work. 

2. This fellowship involves the duty of special consultation with 
regard to matters affecting the common interest. 

(a) The duty of seeking advice. — Since the order and good repute of 
each is valuable to all the others, cases of grave importance and difficulty in 
internal discipline, as well as the question of ordaining members to the min- 
istry, should be submitted to a council of churches called for the purpose. 

(5) The duty of taking advice. — For. the same reason, each church 
should show readiness to receive admonition from others. So long as this 
is in the nature of friendly reminder that the church is guilty of defects 
from the doctrine or practice enjoined by Christ, the mutual acceptance of 
whose commands is the basis of all church fellowship, no church can justly 
refuse to have such defects pointed out, or to consider the scripturalness of 
its own proceeding. Such admonition or advice, however, whether coming 
from a single church or from a council of churches, is not itself of bind- 
ing authority. It is simply in the nature of moral suasion. The church 
receiving it has still to compare it with Christ's laws. The ultimate decis- 
ion rests entirely with the church so advised or asking advice. 

3. This fellowship may be broken by manifest departures from the 
faith or practice of the Scriptures, on the part of any church. 

In such case, duty to Christ requires the churches whose labors to reclaim 
a sister church from error have proved unavailing to withdraw their fellow- 
ship from it, until such time as the erring church shall return to the path 
of duty. In this regard, the law which applies to individuals applies to 
churches, and the polity of the New Testament is congregational rather 
than independent. 

Independence is qualified by interdependence. While each church is, in the last resort, 
thrown upon its own responsibility in ascertaining' doctrine and duty, it is to acknowl- 
edge the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in other churches as well as in itself, and the 
value of the public opinion of the churches as an indication of the mind of the Spirit. 
The church in Antioch asks advice of the church in Jerusalem, although Paul himself 
was at Antioch. Although no church or union of churches has rightful jurisdiction 
over the single local body, yet the Council, when rightly called and constituted, has 
the power of moral influence. Its decision is an index to truth which only the gravest 
reasons will justify the church in ignoring or refusing to follow. 

The fact that the church has always the right, for just cause, of going behind the 
decision of the Council, and of determining for itself whether it will ratify or reject that 
decision, shows conclusively that the church has parted with no particle of its originaj 
independence or authority. Yet, though the Council is simply a counsellor — an organ 
and helper of the church, — the neglect of its advice may involve such ecclesiastical or 
moral wrong as to justify the churches represented in it, as well as other churches, in 
withdrawing, from the church that called it, their denominational fellowship. The rela- 
tion of churches to one another is analogous to the relation of private Christians to one 
another. No meddlesome spirit is to be allowed ; but in matters of grave moment, a 
church, as well as an individual, may be justified in giving advice unasked. 

Lightfoot, in his new edition of Clemens Romanus, shows that the Epistle, instead of 
emanating from Clement as Bishop of Rome, is a letter of the church at Rome to the 






RELATION" OF LOCAL CHURCHES TO ONE ANOTHER. 519 

Corinthians, urging- them to peace. No pope and no bishop existed, but the whole 
church congregationally addressed its counsels to its sister body of believers at Corinth. 
Congregationalism, in A. D. 95, considered it a, duty to labor with a sister church that 
had in its judgment gone astray, or that was in danger of going astray. The only pri- 
macy was the primacy of the church, not of the bishop ; and this primacy was a primacy 
of goodness, backed up by metropolitan advantages. All this fraternal fellowship fol- 
lows from the fundamental conception of the local church as the concrete embodiment 
of the universal church. Park : " Congregationalism recognizes a voluntary coopera- 
tion and communion of the churches, which Independency does not do. Independent 
churches ordain and depose pastors without asking advice from other churches." 

In accordance with this general principle, in a case of serious disagreement between 
different portions of the same church, the council called to advise should be, if possible, 
a mutual, not an ex parte, council ; see Dexter, Congregationalism, 2, 3, 61-64. It is a 
more general application of the same principle, to say that the pastor should not shut 
himself in to his own church, but should cultivate friendly relations with other pastors 
and with other churches, should be present and active at the meetings of Associations 
and State Conventions, and at the Anniversaries of the National Societies of the de- 
nomination. His example of friendly interest in the welfare of others will affect his 
church. The strong should be taught to help the weak, after the example of Paul in 
raising contributions for the poor churches of Judea. 

The principle of church independence is not only consistent with, but it absolutely 
requires under Christ, all manner of Christian cooperation with other churches ; and 
Social and Mission Unions to unify the work of the denomination, to secure the start- 
ing of new enterprises, to prevent one church from trenching upon the territory or 
appropriating the members of another, are only natural outgrowths of the principle. 
President Wayland's remark, " He who is displeased with everybody and everything 
gives the best evidence that his own temper is defective and that he is a bad associate," 
applies to churches as well as to individuals. Each church is to remember that, though 
it is honored by the indwelling of its Lord, it constitutes only a part of that great body 
of which Christ is the head. 

See Davidson, Ecci. Polity of the N. T.; Ladd, Principles of Church Polity ; and on 
the general subject of the Church, Hodge, Essays, 201 ; Flint, Christ's Kingdom on 
Earth, 53-82; Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity; The Church,— a collection of essays by 
Luthardt, Kahnis, etc. ; Hiscox, Baptist Church Directory ; Ripley, Church Polity ; 
Harvey, The Church; Crowell, Church Members' Manual; R. W. Dale, Manual of 
Congregational Principles ; Lightf oot, Com. on Philippians, excursus on the Christian 
Ministry ; Ross, The Church-Kingdom — Lectures on Congregationalism. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 

By the ordinances, we mean those outward rites which Christ has 
appointed to be administered in his church as visible signs of the saving 
truth of the gospel. They are signs, in that they vividly express this truth 
and confirm it to the believer. 

In contrast with this characteristically Protestant view, the Romanist 
regards the ordinances as actually conferring grace and producing holiness. 
Instead of being the external manifestation of a preceding union with 
Christ, they are the physical means of constituting and maintaining this 
union. With the Romanist, in this particular, sacramentalists of every 
name substantially agree. The Papal Church holds to seven sacraments or 
ordinances: — ordination, confirmation, matrimony, extreme unction, pen- 
ance, baptism and the eucharist. The ordinances prescribed in the N. T. , 
however, are two and only two, viz. : — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

I. Baptism. 

Christian Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, in token of his 
previous entrance into the communion of Christ's death and resurrection, — 
or, in other words, in token of his regeneration through union with Christ. 

1. Baptism an Ordinance of Christ. 

A. Proof that Christ instituted an external rite called baptism. 

(a) From the words of the great commission. 

Mat. 28 : 19 — "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the My Ghost " ; Mark 16 : 16 — " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saral "— we hold, 
with Westcott and Hort, that Mark 16 : 9-20 is of canonical authority, though probably not 
written by Mark himself. 

( b ) From the injunctions of the apostles. 

Acts 2 : 38 — "And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 
unto the remission of your sins." 

(c) From the fact that the members of the New Testament churches 
were baptized believers. 

Rom. 6 : 3-5 — " Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death ? 
We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised from the dead through 
the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him by the like- 
ness of his death, we shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection"; Col. 2 : 11, 12 — "in whom ye were also 
circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of 
Christ ; having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working 
of God, who raised him from the dead." 

520 



BAPTISM. 521 

(d) From the universal practice of such a rite in Christian churches of 
subsequent times. 

B. This external rite intended by Christ to be of universal and per- 
petual obligation. 

(a) Christ recognized John the Baptist's commission to baptize as 
derived immediately from heaven. 

Mat. 21 : 25 — " The baptism of John, whence was it ? from heaven or from men ? " — here Jesus clearly inti- 
mates that John's commission to baptize was derived directly from God ; c/. John 1 : 25 — 
the delegates sent to the Baptist by the Sanhedrin ask him : " Why then baptizest thou, if thou art 
not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? " thus indicating' that John's baptism, either in its 
form or its application, was a new ordinance that required special divine authorization. 

For the view that proselyte-baptism did not exist among the Jews before the time of 
John, see Schneckenburger, Ueber das Alter der jiidischen Proselytentaufe ; Stuart, in 
Bib. Repos., 1833 : 338-355 ; Toy, in Baptist Quarterly, 18T2 : 301-332. Dr. Toy, however, in 
a private note to the author (1884), says : "I am disposed now to regard the Christian 
rite as borrowed from the Jewish, contrary to my view in 1872." So holds Edersheim, 
Life and Times of Jesus, 2 : 742-744— "We have positive testimony that the baptism of 
proselytes existed in the times of Hillel and Shammai. For, whereas the school of 
Shammai is said to have allowed a proselyte who was circumcised on the eve of the 
Passover, to partake, after baptism, of the Passover, the school of Hillel forbade it. 
This controversy must be regarded as proving that at that time [ previous to Christ ] 
the baptism of proselytes was customary." 

Although the O. T. and the Apocrypha, Josephus and Philo, are silent with regard to 
proselyte baptism, it is certain that it existed among the Jews in the early Christian 
centuries ; and it is almost equally certain that the Jews could not have adopted it from 
the Christians. It is probable, therefore, that the baptism of John was an application 
to Jews of an immersion which, before that time, was administered to proselytes from 
among the Gentiles; and that it was this adaptation of the rite to a new class of 
subjects, and with a new meaning, which excited the inquiry and criticism of the 
Sanhedrin. "We must remember, however, that the Lord's Supper was likewise an 
adaptation of certain portions of the old Passover service to a new use and meaning. 
See also Kitto, Bib. Cyclop., 3 : 593. 

(6) In his own submission to John's baptism, Christ gave testimony to 
the binding obligation of the ordinance (Mat. 3 : 13-17). John's baptism 
was essentially Christian baptism (Acts 19 : 4), although the full signifi- 
cance of it was not understood until after Jesus' death and resurrection 
(Mat. 20 : 17-23 ; Luke 12 : 50 ; Bom. 6 : 3-6). 

Mat. 3 : 13-17— "Suffer it now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" ; Acts 19 : 4 — "John baptized 
with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, 
that is, on Jesus " ; Mat. 20 : 18, 19, 23 — " the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes ; and they 
shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify .... Are 
ye able to drink of the cup that I am about to drink ? " Luke 12 : 50 — " But I have a baptism to be baptized with ; 
and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " Rom. 6 : 3, 4 — " Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized 
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death ? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that 
like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life." 

Robert Hall, Works, 1 : 367-399, denies that John's baptism was Christian baptism, and 
holds that there is not sufficient evidence that all the apostles were baptized. The fact 
that John's baptism was a baptism of faith in the coming Messiah, as well as a baptism 
of repentance for past and present sin, refutes this theory. The only difference 
between John's baptism, and the baptism of our time, is that John baptized upon 
profession of faith in a Savior yet to come ; baptism is now administered upon pro- 
fession of faith in a Savior who has actually and already come. On John's baptism as 
presupposing faith in those who received it, see treatment of the Subjects of Baptism, 
page 534. 

(c) In continuing the practice of baptism through his disciples (John 
4 : 1, 2), and in enjoining it upon them as part of a work which was to last 



522 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

to the end of the world (Mat. 28 : 19, 20), Christ manifestly adopted and 
appointed baptism as the invariable law of his church. 

John 4 : 1, 2 — " When therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing 
more disciples than John (although Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples )" ; Mat. 28 : 19, 20 — " Go ye therefore, 
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you : and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world." 

(d) The analogy of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper also leads to the 
conclusion that baptism is to be observed as an authoritative memorial of 
Christ and his truth, until his second coming. 

1 Cor. 11 : 26 — "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come." 

(e) There is no intimation whatever that the command of baptism is 
limited, or to be limited, in its application, — that it has been or ever is to 
be repealed ; and, until some evidence of such limitation or repeal is 
produced, the statute must be regarded as universally binding. 

On the proof that baptism is an ordinance of Christ, see Pepper, in Madison Avenue 
Lectures, 85-114 ; Dagg, Church Order, 9-21. 

2. The Mode of Baptism. 

This is immersion, and immersion only. This appears from the follow- 
ing considerations : 

A. The command to baptize is a command to immerse. — We show this : 

(a) From the meaning of the original word Pairrifa. That this is to 
immerse, appears: 

First, — from the usage of Greek writers — including the church Fathers, 
when they do not speak of the Christian rite, and the authors of the Greek 
version of the Old Testament. 

Liddell and Scott, Greek Lexicon— "/3ajrTi£a>, to dip in or under water; Lat. immer- 
gere." Sophocles, Lexicon of Greek Usage in the Roman and Byzantine Periods, 140 
B. C. to 1000 A. D. — " /3a7rTi£co, to dip, to immerse, to sink .... There is no evidence that 
Luke and Paul and the other writers of the N. T. put upon this verb meanings not 
recognized by the Greeks." 

Conant, Appendix to Bible Union Version of Matthew, 1-64, has examples "drawn 
from writers in almost every department of literature and science ; from poets, rheto- 
ricians, philosophers, critics, historians, geographers; from writers on husbandry, on 
medicine, on natural history, on grammar, on theology ; from almost every form and 
style of composition, romances, epistles, orations, fables, odes, epigrams, sermons, nar- 
ratives; from writers of various nations and religions, Pagan, Jew, and Christian, 
belonging to many countries and through a long succession of ages. In all, the word 
has retained its ground-meaning without change. From the earliest age of Greek 
literature down to its close, a period of nearly two thousand years, not an example has 
been found in which the word has any other meaning. There is no instance in which it 
signifies to make a partial application of water by affusion or sprinkling, or to cleanse, 
to purify, apart from the literal act of immersion as the means of cleansing or purify- 
ing." See Stuart, in Bib. Kepos., 1833 : 313; Broadus on Immersion, 57, note. 

Dale, in his Classic, Judaic, Christie, and Patristic Baptism, maintains that pdnrio alone 
means 'to dip, 1 and that pamlfa never means 'to dip,' but only 'to put within,' giving 
no intimation that the object is to be taken out again. But see Review of Dale, by 
A. C. Kendrick, in Bap. Quarterly, 1869 : 129, and by Harvey, in Bap. Beview, 1879 : 141- 
163. " Plutarch used the word panri^, when he describes the soldiers of Alexander on a 
riotous march as by the roadside dipping (lit. : baptizing) with cups from huge wine 
jars and mixing bowis, and drinking to one another. Here we have pami£<a used where 
Dr. Dale's theory would call for Pan™. The truth is that paml^, the stronger word, 



BAPTISM. 523 

came to be used in the same sense with the weaker ; and the attempt to prove a broad 
and invariable difference of meaning between them breaks down. Of Dr. Dale's three 
meanings of fra-tnl^u — ( 1 ) intusposition without influence (stone in water), (2) intus- 
position with influence ( man drowned in water ), (3) influence without intusposition,— 
the last is a figment of Dr. Dale's imagination. It would allow me to say that when I 
burned a piece of paper, I baptized it. The grand result is this : Beginning with the posi- 
tion that baptize means immerse, Dr. Dale ends by maintaining that immersion is not 
baptism. Because Christ speaks of drinking a cup, Dr. Dale infers that this is baptism." 
For a complete reply to Dale, see Ford, Studies on Baptism. 

Secondly, — every passage where the word occurs in the New Testament 
either requires or allows the meaning ' immerse. ' 

Mat. 3 : 6, ii — "I indeed baptize you with [lit. : 'in' ] water unto repentance .... he shall baptize you with 
[ lit. : ' in ' 1 the My Ghost and fire " ; c/. 2 Kings 5 : 14 — " Then went he [ Naaman ] down and dipped himself 
[e0a.7TTio-aTo] seven times in Jordan" ; Mark 1 : 5, 9 — "they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing; 
their sins .... Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in [lit. : 'into ' ] the Jordan " ; 7:4 
— " and when they come from the market-place, except they bathe [ lit. : ' baptize ' ] themselves, they eat not : and 
many other things there be, which they have received to hold, washings [ lit. : ' baptizings ' ] of cups, and pots, and 
brazen vessels" — in this verse, Westcott and Hort, with N and B, read pavTi.<juvTai, instead 
of ^aTTTto-wvTat ; but it is easy to see how subsequent ignorance of Pharisaic scrupulous- 
ness might have changed jSan-TtcrtovTai into pavTiatavTat. ; but not easy to see how pavriauvTai 
should have been changed into pairritruvTaL. 

Meyer, Com. in loco— " iav ^ panT<.<Twi>Tai is not to be understood of washing the hands 
(Lightfoot, Wetstein ), but of immersion, which the word in classic Greek and in the N. 
T. everywhere means; here, according to the context, to take a bath." The Revised 
Version omits the words "and couches," although Maimonides speaks of a Jewish 
immersion of couches ; see quotation from Maimonides in Ingham, Handbook of Bap- 
tism, 373—" Whenever in the law washing of the flesh or of the clothes is mentioned, it 
means nothing else than the dipping of the whole body in a laver ; for if any man dip 
himself all over except the tip of his little finger, he is still in his uncleanness .... A 
bed that is wholly denied, if a man dip it part by part, it is pure." Watson, in Anno- 
tated Par. Bible, 1126. 

Luke 11 : 38 — " And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first bathed [ lit. : ' baptized ' ] himself 
before dinner" ; c/. Ecclesiasticus 31 : 25 — " He that washeth himself after the touching of 
a dead body " ( /3a7rri£6/uei/os anb ve*poG ) ; Judith 12 : 7 — " washed herself [ k^anri^To ] in a 
fountain of water by the camp " ; Lev. 22 : 4-6 —"Whoso toucheth anything that is unclean by the dead 
. . . . unclean until even .... bathe his flesh with water." Acts 2: 41 — " They then that received his word were bap- 
tized : and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls." Although the water supply 
of Jerusalem is naturally poor, the artificial provision of aqueducts, cisterns, and tanks, 
made water abundant. During the siege of Titus, though thousands died of famine, we 
read of no suffering from lack of water. The following are the dimensions of pools in 
modern Jerusalem : King's Pool, 15 feet x 16 x 3 ; Siloam, 53 x 18 x 19 ; Hezekiah, 240 x 
140 x 10 ; Bethesda ( so-called ), 360 x 130 x 75 ; Upper Gihon, 316 x 218 x 19 ; Lower Gihon, 
592 x 260 x 18 ; see Robinson, Biblical Researches, 1 : 323-348, and Samson, Water-supply 
of Jerusalem, pub. by Am. Bap. Pub. Soc'y. There was no difficulty in baptizing three 
thousand in one day ; for, in the time of Chrysostom, when all candidates of the year 
were baptized in a single day, three thousand were once baptized; and, in 1879, 2222 
Telugu Christians were baptized by two administrators in nine hours. 

Acts 16 : 33 — " And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes ; and was baptized, he and all 
his, immediately "—the prison was doubtless, as are most large edifices in the East, whether 
public or private, provided with tank and fountain. See Cremer, Lexicon of N. T. 
Greek, mh voce — " /3a7TTi£u>, immersion or submersion for a religious purpose." Grimm's 
ed. of Wilke— "/SaTrTi^uj, 1. Immerse, submerge; 2. Wash or bathe, by immersing or 
submerging (Mark 7:4, also Naaman and Judith); 3. Figuratively, to overwhelm, as 
with debts, misfortunes, etc." In the N. T. rite, he says it denotes "an immersion in 
water, intended as a sign of sins washed away, and received by those who wished to be 
admitted to the benefits of Messiah's reign." 

DOllinger, Kirche und Kirchen, 337— "The Baptists are, however, from the Protestant 
point of view, unassailable, since for their demand of baptism by submersion they have 
the clear Bible text ; and the authority of the church and of her testimony is not 
regarded by either party"— i. e., by either Baptists or Protestants, generally. Prof. 
Harnack, of Giessen, writes in the Independent, Feb. 19, 1885— "1. Baptizein undoubt- 
edly signifies immersion (eintauchen). 2. No proof can be found that it signifies any- 



524 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

thing else in the N. T. and in the most ancient Christian literature. The suggestion 
regarding a ' sacred sense ' is out of the question. 3. There is no passage in the N. T. 
which suggests the supposition that any .New Testament author attached to the word 
baptizein any other sense than eintauchen = untertauchen (immerse, submerge)." See 
further statement of Prof. Harnack, below. On the Scripture passages mentioned, see 
Com. of Meyer, and Cunningham, Croall Lectures. 

Thirdly, — the absence of any use of the word in the passive voice with 
'water' as its subject confirms our conclusion that its meaning is "to 
immerse." Water is never said to be baptized upon a man. 

( b ) From the use of the verb /3a7rW£« with prepositions : 
First, — with etc (Mark 1 : 9 — where 'lopdavrjv is the element into which 
the person passes in the act of being baptized). 

Mark 1 : 9 — "And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John 
in [lit. : 'into ' ] the Jordan." 

Secondly,— with ev (Mark 1 : 5, 8 ; cf. Mat. 3 : 11. John 1 : 26, 31, 33 ; 
cf. Acts 2 : 2, 4). In these texts, ev is to be taken, not instrumental^, but 
as indicating the element in which the immersion takes place. 

Mark 1 : 5, 8 — "they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins .... I baptized you. with 
[ lit. : ' in ' ] water ; but he shall baptize you with [ lit. : ' in ' ] the Holy Ghost " — here see Meyer's Com. 
on Mat. 3 : ii— "e^ is, in accordance with the meaning of /SarrTi^o) (immerse), not to be 
understood instrumentally, but on the contrary, in the sense of the element in which 
the immersion takes place." Those who pray for a 'baptism of the Holy Spirit' pray 
for such a pouring out of the Spirit as shall fill the place and permit them to be flooded 
or immersed in his abundant presence and power ; see C. E. Smith, Baptism of Fire, 
1881 : 305-311. 

(c) From circumstances attending the administration of the ordinance 
(Mark 1 : 10 — avafiaivcov eic tov vdarog ; John 3 : 23 — voara ttoIM • Acts 8 : 38, 
39 — KaTefirjoav elg rb ijSup • • • • avefirjcav £/c tov vdarog). 

Mark 1 : 10 — "coming up out of the water" ; John 3 : 23 — "And John also was baptizing in jEnon near to Salim, 
because there was much water there"— a sufficient depth of water for baptizing ; see Prof. W. A. 
Stevens, on ^Enon near to Salim, in Journ. Soc. of Bib. Lit. and Exegesis, Dec, 1883. Acts 
8 : 38, 39— "And they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when 
they came up out of the water . . . . " 

(d) From figurative allusions to the ordinance. 

Mark 10 : 38 — " Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink ? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized 
with?"— here the cup is the cup of suffering in Gethsemane ; cf. Luke 22 : 42— "Father, if thou 
be willing, remove this cup from me" ; and the baptism is the baptism of death on Calvary, and 
of the grave that was to follow ; cf. Luke 12 : 50 — " I have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I 
straitened till it be accomplished ! " Death presented itself to the Savior's mind as a baptism, 
because it was a sinking under the floods of suffering. Rom. 6 : 4 — " w"e were buried therefore 
with him through baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory ef the Father, so 
we also might walk in newness of life" — Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 
say on this passage that "it cannot be understood without remembering that the primi- 
tive method of baptism was by immersion." 

1 Cor. 10 : 1, 2—" our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto 
Moses in the cloud and in the sea" ; Col. 2 : 12 — "having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised 
with him " ; Eeb. 10 : 22 — " having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed [ AeAovo-/u.eVoi ] 
with pure water"— here Trench, N. T. Synonyms, 216, 217, says that "Aovw implies always, 
not the bathing of a part of the body, but of the whole." 1 Pet. 3 : 20, 21— "saved through 
water : which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, 
but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" — as the ark whose 
sides were immersed in water saved Noah, so the immersion of believers typically saves 
them ; that is, the answer of a good conscience, the turning of the soul to God, which 
baptism symbolizes. 



BAPTISM. 525 

( e ) From the testimony of church history as to the practice of the early 
church. 

Dean Stanley, in his Address at Eton College, March, 1879, on Historical Aspects of 
American Churches, speaks of immersion as " the primitive apostolical, and, till the 13th 
century, the universal, mode of baptism, which is still retained throughout the Eastern 
churches, and which is still in our own church as positively enjoined in theory as it is 
universally neglected in practice." The same writer, in the Nineteenth Century, Oct., 
1879, says that " the change from immersion to sprinkling has set aside the larger part of 
the apostolic language regarding baptism, and has altered the very meaning of the 
word." Neander, Church Hist., 1 : 310— "In respect to the form of baptism, it was, in 
conformity with the original institution and the original import of the symbol, per- 
formed by immersion, as a sign of entire baptism into the Holy Spirit, of being entirely 
penetrated by the same .... It was only with the sick, where exigency required it, 
that any exception was made. Then it was administered by sprinkling ; but many 
superstitious persons imagined such sprinkling to be not fully valid, and stigmatized 
those thus baptized as clinics." 

Until recently, there has been no evidence that clinic baptism, i. e., the baptism of a 
sick or dying person in bed by pouring water copiously around him, was practiced 
earlier than the time of Novatian, in the third century ; and in these cases there is good 
reason to believe that a regenerating efficacy was ascribed to the ordinance. We are 
now, however, compelled to recognize a departure from N. T. precedent somewhat 
further back. The latest testimony is that of Prof. Harnack, of Giessen, in the Inde- 
pendent of Feb. 19, 1885—" Up to the present moment we possess no certain proof from 
the period of the second century, in favor of the fact that baptism by aspersion was 
then even facultatively administered; for Tertullian (De Poenit., 6, and De Baptismo, 
13 ) is uncertain ; and the age of those pictures upon which is represented a baptism by 
aspersion is not certain. The 'Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' however, has now 
instructed us that already, in very early times, people in the church took no offence 
when aspersion was put in place of immersion, when any kind of outward circum- 
stances might render immersion impossible or impracticable .... But the rule was 
also certainly maintained that immersion was obligatory if the outward conditions of 
such a performance were at hand." This seems to show that, while the corruption of 
the N. T. rite began soon after the death of the apostles, baptism by any other form 
than immersion was even then a rare exception, which those who introduced the 
change sought to justify upon the plea of necessity. See Schaff, Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles, 39-57, and other testimony in Coleman, Christian Antiquities, 375; 
Stuart, in Bib. Repos., 1883 : 355-363. 

Dexter, in his True Story of John Smyth and Sebaptism, maintains that immersion 
was a new thing in England in 1641. But if so, it was new, as Congregationalism was 
new— a newly restored practice and ordinance of apostolic times. For reply to Dexter, 
see Long, in Bap. Rev., Jan., 1883 : 13, 13, who tells us, on the authority of Blunt's Ann. 
Book of Com. Prayer, that from 1085 to 1549, the ' Salisbury Use ' was the accepted mode, 
and this provided for the child's trine immersion. "The Prayerbook of Edward VI 
succeeded to the Salisbury Use in 1549 ; but in this, too, immersion has the place of honor 
—affusion is only for the weak. The English church has never sanctioned sprinkling 
(Blunt, 336). In 1664, the Westminster Assembly said 'sprinkle or pour,' thus annul- 
ling what Christ commanded 1600 years before. Queen Elizabeth was immersed in 1533. 
If in 1641 immersion had been so generally and so long disused that men saw it with 
wonder and regarded it as a novelty, then the more distinct, emphatic, and peculiarly 
their own was the work of the Baptists. They come before the world, with no partners, 
or rivals, or abettors, or sympathizers, as the restorers and preservers of Christian 
baptism." 

(/) From the doctrine and practice of the Greek church. 

De Stourdza, the greatest modern theologian of the Greek church, writes: "|3a7rTi'£a> 
signifies literally and always ' to plunge.' Baptism and immersion are therefore identi- 
cal, and to say 'baptism by aspersion' is as if one should say 'immersion by aspersion,' 
or any other absurdity of the same nature. The Greek church maintain that the Latin 
church, instead of a /3a7mo-Mo?, practice a mere pai/Tio>6s,— instead of baptism, a mere 
sprinkling "— quoted in Conant on Mat., appendix, 99. See also Broadus on Immer- 
sion, 18. 

The prevailing usage of any word determines the sense it bears, when 



526 ECCLESIOLOGY, OK THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

found in a command of Christ. We have seen, not only that the prevailing 
usage of the Greek language determines the meaning of the word ' baptize ' 
to be * immerse, ' but that this is its fundamental, constant, and only mean- 
ing. The original command to baptize is therefore a command to immerse. 

For the view that sprinkling or pouring constitutes valid baptism, see Hall, Mode of 
Baptism. Per contra, see Hovey, in Baptist Quarterly, April, 1875 ; Wayland, Principles 
and Practices of Baptists, 85 ; Carson, Noel, Judson, and Pengilly, on Baptism ; especially 
recent and valuable is Burrage, Act of Baptism. 

B. No church has the right to modify or dispense with this command of 
Christ. This is plain : 

(a) From the nature of the church. Notice : 

First, — that, besides the local church, no other visible church of Christ is 
known to the New Testament. Secondly, — that the local church is not a 
legislative, but is simply an executive, body. Only the authority which 
originally imposed its laws can amend or abrogate them. Thirdly, — that 
the local church cannot delegate to any organization or council of churches 
any power which it does not itself rightfully possess. Fourthly, — that the 
opposite principle puts the church above the Scriptures and above Christ, 
and would sanction all the usurpations of Rome. 

(&) From the nature of God's command : 

First, — as forming a part, not only of the law, but of the fundamental 
law, of the church of Christ. The power claimed for a church to change 
it is not only legislative but constitutional. Secondly, — as expressing the 
wisdom of the Lawgiver. Power to change the command can be claimed 
for the church, only on the ground that Christ has failed to adapt the 
ordinance to changing circumstances, and has made obedience to it unneces- 
sarily difficult and humiliating. Thirdly, — as providing in immersion the 
only adequate symbol of those saving truths of the gospel which both of 
the ordinances have it for their office to set forth, and without which they 
become empty ceremonies and forms. In other words, the church has no 
right to change the method of administering the ordinance, because such a 
change vacates the ordinance of its essential meaning. As this argument, 
however, is of such vital importance, we present it more fully in a special 
discussion of the Symbolism of Baptism. 

For advocacy of the church's right to modify the form of an ordinance, see Coleridge 
Aids to Reflection, in Works, 1:333-349 — "Where a ceremony answered, and was 
intended to answer, several purposes which at its first institution were blended in respect 
of the time, but which afterward, by change of circumstances, were necessarily dis- 
united, then either the church hath no power or authority delegated to her, or she must 
be authorized to choose and determine to which of the several purposes the ceremony 
should be attached." Baptism, for example, at the first symbolized not only entrance 
into the church of Christ, but personal faith in him as Savior and Lord. It is assumed 
that entrance into the church and personal faith are now necessarily disunited. Since 
baptism is in charge of the church, she can attach baptism to the former, and not to the 
latter. 

We of course deny that the separation of baptism from faith is ever necessary. We 
maintain, on the contrary, that thus to separate the two is to pervert the ordinance, and 
to make it teach the doctrine of hereditary church membership and salvation by out- 
ward manipulation apart from faith. We say with Dean Stanley ( on Baptism, in the 
Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1879), though not, as he does, with approval, that the change in 
the method of administering the ordinance shows "how the spirit that lives and moves 



BAPTISM. 527 

in human society can override the most sacred ordinances." We cannot with him call 
this spirit "the free spirit of Christianity,"— we regard it rather as an evil spirit of dis- 
obedience and unbelief. "Baptists are therefore pledged to prosecute the work of the 
Reformation until the church shall return to the simple forms it possessed under the 
apostles " ( G. M. Stone). See Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 234-245. 

Objections : 1. Immersion is often impracticable.— We reply that, when really imprac- 
ticable, it is no longer a duty. Where the will to obey is present, but providential 
circumstances render outward obedience impossible, Christ takes the will for the deed. 

2. It is often dangerous to health and life.— We reply that, when it is really danger- 
ous, it is no longer a duty. But then, we have no warrant for substituting another act 
for that which Christ has commanded. Duty demands simple delay until it can be 
administered with safety. It must be remembered that ardent feeling nerves even the 
body. "Brethren, if your hearts be warm, Ice and snow can do no harm." The cold 
climate of Russia does not prevent the universal practice of immersion by the Greek 
church of that country. 

3. It is indecent.— We reply, that there is need of care to prevent exposure, but that 
with this care there is no indecency, more than in fashionable sea-bathing. The argu- 
ment is valid only against a careless administration of the ordinance, not against 
immersion itself. 

4. It is inconvenient.— We reply that, in a matter of obedience to Christ, we are not 
to consult convenience. The ordinance which symbolizes his sacrificial death, and our 
spiritual death with him, may naturally involve something of inconvenience, but joy in 
submitting to that inconvenience will be a test of the spirit of obedience. When the 
act is performed, it should be performed as Christ enjoined. 

5. Other methods of administration have been blessed to those who submitted to 
them.— We reply that God has often condescended to human ignorance, and has given 
his Spirit to those who honestly sought to serve him, even by erroneous forms, such as 
the Mass. This, however, is not to be taken as a divine sanction of the error, much 
less as a warrant for the perpetuation of a false system on the part of those who know 
that it is a violation of Christ's commands. It is, in great part, the position of its 
advocates, as representatives of Christ and his church, that gives to this false system 
its power for evil. 

3. The Symbolism of Baptism,. 

Baptism symbolizes the previous entrance of the believer into the com- 
munion of Christ's death and resurrection, — or, in other words, regenera- 
tion through union with Christ. 

A. Expansion of this statement as to the symbolism of baptism. Bap- 
tism, more particularly, is a symbol : 

(a) Of the death and resurrection of Christ. 

Rom. 6 : 3 — "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" 
cf. Mat. 3 : 13 — " Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him " ; Mark 10 : 38 — 
" Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink ? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ? " Luke 12 : 
50 — "But I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" For the 
meaning of these latter passages, see note on the baptism of Jesus, under B. ( a ), page 528. 

(6) Of the purpose of that death and resurrection, — namely, to atone 
for sin, and to deliver sinners from its penalty and power. 

Rom. 6:4—" We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised from 
the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life " ; cf. 7, 10, 11 — " for he that hath 
died is justified from sin ... . For the death that he died, he died unto sin once : but the life that he liveth he liveth 
unto God. Even so reckon ye yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 14 — " we 
thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died." Baptism is therefore a confession of evangelical 
faith both as to sin, and as to the deity and atonement of Christ. No one is properly a 
Baptist who does not acknowledge these truths which baptism signifies. 

(c) Of the accomplishment of that purpose in the person baptized, — 
who thus professes his death to sin and resurrection to spiritual life. 

Gal. 3 : 27 — " For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ " ; 1 Pet. 3 : 21 — " which [ water ] 
also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the inter- 
rogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ"; cf. Gal. 2 19, 20— "For I 



528 ECCLESIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer 
I that live, but Christ liveth in me, and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the 
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me " ; Col. 3 : 3 — " For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in 
God." 

(d) Of the method in which that purpose is accomplished, — by union 
with Christ, receiving him and giving one's self to him by faith. 

Rom. 6 : 5 — " For if we have become united [ crvfufrvToi ] with him by the likeness of his death, we shall be also by 
the likeness of his resurrection " — o-v^vtol, or <rvixTre<f>vicu>s, is used of the man and the horse as 
grown tog-ether in the Centaur, by Lucian, Dial. Mort.,16 : 4, and by Xenophon, Cyrop., 
4 3 : 18. Col. 2 : 12 — " having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through 
faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." Dr. N. S. Burton : " The oneness of the 
believer and Christ is expressed by the fact that the one act of immersion sets forth 
the death and resurrection of both Christ and the believer." As the voluntary element 
in faith has two parts, a giving and a taking, so baptism illustrates both. Submer- 
gence = surrender to Christ ; emergence = reception of Christ ; see page 465, ( b ). " Putting 
on Christ " ( Gal. 3 : 27 ) is the burying of the old life and the rising to a new. Cf. the active 
and the passive obedience of Christ ( pages 409, 420 ), the two elements of justification 
( pages 474-477 ), the two aspects of formal worship ( page 13 ), the two divisions of the 
Lord's Prayer. 

( e ) Of the consequent union of all believers in Christ. 

Eph. 4 : 5 — "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" ; 1 Cor. 12 : 13— "For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one 
body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free ; and were all made to drink of one Spirit" ; cf. 10 : 3, 4 — "and 
did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiritual drink : for they drank of a spiritual rock that 
followed them : and the rock was Christ." 

(/) Of the death and resurrection of the body, — which will complete 
the work of Christ in us, and which Christ's death and resurrection assure 
to all his members. 

1 Cor. 15 : 12, 22 — "Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that 
there is no resurrection of the dead ? ... For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." In the 
Scripture passages quoted above, we add to the argument from the meaning of the word 
j8a.7j-Ti'£u> the argument from the meaning of the ordinance. Luther : Baptism is "a sign 
both of death and resurrection. Being moved by this reason, I would have those that 
are baptized to be altogether dipped into the water, as the word means and the mystery 
signifies." See Calvin on Acts 8 : 38; Conybeare and Howson on Rom. 6 : 4 Boardman, in 
Madison Avenue Lectures, 115-135. 

B. Inferences from the passages referred to : 

( a ) The central truth set forth by baptism is the death and resurrection 
of Christ, — and our own death and resurrection only as connected with that. 

The baptism of Jesus in Joi'dan, equally with the subsequent baptism of his follow- 
ers, was a symbol of his death. It was his death which he had in mind, when he said : 
"Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (Mark 
10 : 38 ) ; " But I have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " ( Luke 12 : 50 ). 
The being immersed and overwhelmed in waters is a frequent metaphor in all languages 
to express the rush of successive troubles; compare Ps. 69 : 2— "I am come into deep waters, 
where the floods overflow me " ; 42 : 7 — " All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me " ; 124 : 4, 5 — " Then the 
waters had overwhelmed us, The stream had gone over our soul : Then the proud waters had gone over our soul." 

So the suffering, death, and burial, which were before our Lord, presented themselves 
to his mind as a baptism, because the very idea of baptism was that of a complete sub- 
mersion under the floods of waters. Death was not to be poured upon Christ,— it was 
no mere sprinkling of suffering which he was to endure, but a sinking into the mighty 
waters, and a being overwhelmed by them. It was the giving of himself to this, which 
he symbolized by his baptism in Jordan. That act was not arbitrary, or formal, or 
ritual. It was a public consecration, a consecration to death, to death for the sins of 
the world. It expressed the essential nature and meaning of his earthly work: the 
baptism of water at the beginning of his ministry consciously and designedly pre- 
figured the baptism of death with which that ministry was to close. 

Jesus' submission to John's baptism of repentance, the rite that belonged only to sin- 
ners, can be explained only upon the ground that he was "made to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 



BAPTISM. 529 

5:21). He had taken our nature upon him, without it3 hereditary corruption indeed, 
but with all its hereditary guilt, that he might redeem that nature and reunite it to God. 
As one with humanity, he had in his unconscious childhood submitted to the rites of 
circumcision, purification, and legal redemption ( Luke 2 : 21-24 ; cf. Ex. 13 : 2, 13 ; see Lange, 
Alford, Webster and Wilkinson on Luke 2 : 24) — all of them rites appointed for sinners. 
■ " Made in the likeness of men " ( Phil. 2 : 7 ), " the likeness of sinful flesh " ( Rom. 8 : 3 ), he was " to put away sin 
by the sacrifice of himself " ( Heb. 9 : 26 ). 

In his baptism, therefore, he could say, " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness " ( Mat. 3 : 15), 
because only through the final baptism of suffering and death, which this baptism in 
water foreshadowed, could he "make an end of sins" and "bring in everlasting righteousness" (Dan. 
9 : 24 ) to the condemned and ruined world. He could not be "the Lord our Righteousness" ( Jer. 
23 : 6) except by first suffering the death due to the nature he had assumed, thereby 
delivering it from its guilt and perfecting it forever. All this was indicated in that act 
by which he was first " made manifest to Israel " (John 1 : 31 ). In his baptism in Jordan, he was 
buried in the likeness of his coming death, and raised in the likeness of his coming 
resurrection. 

As that baptism pointed forward to Jesus' death, so our baptism points backward to 
the same, as the centre and substance of his redeeming work, the one death by which 
we live. We who are " baptized into Christ " are " baptized into his death " ( Rom. 6:3), that is, into 
spiritual communion and participation in that death which he died for our salvation; 
in short, in baptism we declare in symbol that his death has become ours. On the 
Baptism of Jesus, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 226-237. 

(6) The correlative truth of the believer's death and resurrection, set 
forth in baptism, implies, first, — confession of sin and humiliation on 
account of it, as deserving of death; secondly, — declaration of Christ's 
death for sin, and of the believer's acceptance of Christ's substitutionary 
work; thirdly, — acknowledgment that the soul has become j)artaker of 
Christ's life, and now lives only in and for him. 

A false mode of administering the ordinance has so obscured the meaning of baptism 
that it has to multitudes lost all reference to the death of Christ, and the Lord's Supper 
is assumed to be the only ordinance which is intended to remind us of the atoning sacri- 
fice to which we owe our salvation. For evidence of this, see the remarks of President 
Woolsey in the Sunday School Times : " Baptism it [ the Christian religion ] could share 
in with the doctrine of John the Baptist, and if a similar rite had existed under the 
Jewish law, it would have been regarded as appropriate to a religion which inculcated 
renunciation of sin and purity of heart and life. But [ in the Lord's Supper ] we go 
beyond the province of baptism to the very penetrate of the gospel, to the efficacy and 
meaning of Christ's death." 

(c) Baptism symbolizes purification, but purification in a peculiar and 
divine way, — namely, through the death of Christ and the entrance of the 
soul into communion with that death. The radical defect of sprinkling or 
pouring, as a mode of administering the ordinance, is that it does not point 
to Christ's death as the procuring cause of our purification. 

It is a grievous thing to say by symbol, as those do say who practice sprinkling 
in place of immersion, that a man may regenerate himself, or, if not this, yet that 
his regeneration may take place without connection with Christ's death. Edward 
Beecher's chief argument against Baptist views is drawn from John 3 : 22, 25— "a questioning 
on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purifying." Purification is made to be the essential 
meaning of baptism, and the conclusion is drawn that any form expressive of purifica- 
tion will answer the design of the ordinance. But if Christ's death is the procuring 
cause of our purification, we may expect it to be symbolized in the ordinance which 
declares that purification ; if Christ's death is the central fact of Christianity, we may 
expect it to be symbolized in the initiatory rite of Christianity. 

(d) In baptism we show forth the Lord's death as the original source of 
holiness and life in our souls, just as in the Lord's Supper we show forth 
the Lord's death as the source of all nourishment and strength, after this 
life of holiness has been once begun. As the Lord's Supper symbolizes 

34 



530 ECCLESIOLOGY, OK THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHUKCH. 

the sanctifying power of Jesus' death, so baptism symbolizes its regener- 
ating power. 

The truth of Christ's death and resurrection is a precious jewel, and it is given us in 
these outward ordinances as in a casket. Let us care for the casket lest we lose the 
gem. As a scarlet thread runs through every rope and cord of the British navy, 
testifying that it is the property of the Crown, so through every doctrine and 
ordinance of Christianity runs the red line of Jesus' blood. It is their common refer- 
ence to the death of Christ that hinds the two ordinances together. 

(e) There are two reasons, therefore, why nothing but immersion will 
satisfy the design of the ordinance: first, — because nothing else can 
symbolize the radical nature of the change effected in regeneration — a 
change from spiritual death to spiritual life ; secondly, — because nothing 
else can set forth the fact that this change is due to the entrance of the soul 
into communion with the death and resurrection of Christ. 

Christian truth is an organism. Part is hound to part, and all together constitute one 
vitalized whole. To give up any single portion of that truth is like maiming the human 
body. Life may remain, but one manifestation of life has ceased. The whole body of 
Christian truth has lost its symmetry and a part of its power to save. 

(/) To substitute for baptism anything which excludes all symbolic 
reference to the death of Christ, is to destroy the ordinance, just as substi- 
tuting for the broken bread and poured out wine of the communion some 
form of administration which leaves out all reference to the death of Christ 
would be to destroy the Lord's Supper, and to celebrate an ordinance of 
human invention. 

Baptism, like the Fourth of July, the Passover, the Lord's Supper, is a historical 
monument. It witnesses to the world that Jesus died and rose again. In celebrating 
it, we show forth the Lord's death as truly as in the celebration of the Supper. But it 
is more than a historical monument. It is also a pictorial expression of doctrine. Into 
it are woven all the essential truths of the Christian scheme. It tells of the nature and 
penalty of sin, of human nature delivered from sin in the person of a crucified and 
risen Savior, of salvation secured for each human soul that is united to Christ, of 
obedience to Christ as the way to life and glory. Thus baptism stands from age to age 
as a witness for God — a witness both to the facts and to the doctrines of Christianity. 
To change the form of administering the ordinance is therefore to strike a blow at 
Christianity and at Christ, and to defraud the world of a part of God's means of salva- 
tion. See Ebrard's view of Baptism, in Baptist Quarterly, 1869 : 257, and in Olshausen'8 
Com. on N. T., 1 : 270, and 3 : 594. Also Lightfoot, Com. on Colossians 2 : 20, and 3 : 1. 

4. The Subjects of Baptism. 

The proper subjects of baptism are those only who give credible evidence 
that they have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, — or, in other words, 
have entered by faith into the communion of Christ's death and resurrection. 

A. Proof that only persons giving evidence of being regenerated are 
proper subjects of baptism : 

( a ) From the command and example of Christ and his apostles, which 
show: 

First, that those only are to be baptized who have previously been made 
disciples. 

Mat. 28 : 19—" Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost " ; Acts 2 : 41 — " Then they that received his word were baptized." 

Secondly, that those only are to be baptized who have previously 
repented and believed. 






BAPTISM. 531 

Mat. 3 : 1, 2, 6 — " Repent ye ... . make ye ready the way of the Lord .... and they were baptized of him in the 
river Jordan, confessing their sins" ; Acts 2 : 37, 38— "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, 
and said nnto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do ? And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and 
be baptized every one of you" ; 8 : 12— "Bat when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom 
of God ani the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women" ; 18 : 8— "And Crispus, the ruler of 
the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house ; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were bap- 
tized" ; 19 : 4— "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on 
him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus." 

( b ) From the nature of the church — as a company of regenerate persons. 

John 3 : 5 — " Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God " ; Rom. 6 : 13 
— "Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness ; but present yourselves unto God, as alive 
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." 

(c) From the symbolism of the ordinance, — as declaring a previous 
spiritual change in him who submits to it. 

Acts 10 : 47 — "Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost 
as well as we ? " Rom. 6 : 2-5 — " We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein ? Or are ye ignorant that 
all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death ? We were buried therefore with him through 
baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk 
in newness of life. For if we have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we shall be also by the likeness 
of his resurrection " ; Gal. 3 : 26, 27 — " For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you 
as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ." 

See Dean Stanley on Baptism, 24— "In the apostolic age and in the three centuries 
which followed, it is evident that, as a general rule, those who came to baptism came in 
full age, cf their own deliberate choice. The liturgical service of baptism was framed 
for full-grown converts, and is only by considerable adaptation applied to the case of 
infants " ; Wayland, Principles and Practices of Baptists, 93 ; Robins, in Madison Avenue 
Lectures, 136-159. 

B. Inferences from the fact that only persons giving evidence of being 
regenerate are proper subjects of baptism : 

(a) Since only those who give credible evidence of regeneration are 
proper subjects of baptism, baptism cannot be the means of regeneration. 
It is the appointed sign, but is never the condition, of the forgiveness of 
sins. 

Passages like Mat. 3 : 11, Mark 1:4, 16 : 16, John 3 : 5, Acts 2 : 38, 22 : 
16, Eph. 5 : 26, Titus 3 : 5, and Heb. 10 : 22, 23, are to be explained as par- 
ticular instances "of the general fact that, in Scripture language, a single 
part of a complex action, and even that part of it which is most obvious 
to the senses, is often mentioned for the whole of it, and thus, in this case, 
the whole of the solemn transaction is designated by the external symbol." 
In other words, the entire change, internal and external, spiritual and ritual, 
is referred to in language belonging strictly only to the outward aspect of 
it. So the other ordinance is referred to by simply naming the visible 
11 breaking of bread," and the whole transaction of the ordination of minis- 
ters is termed the "imposition of hands" (cf. Acts 2 : 42 ; 1 Tim. 4 : 14). 

Mat 3 : 11— "I indeed baptized you with water unto repentance"; Mark 1 : 4— "the baptism of repentance unto 
remission of sins " ; 16 : 16 — " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved " ; John 3:5—" Eicept a man be born 
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" — here Nicodemus, who was familiar 
with John's baptism, and with the refusal of the Sanhedrin to recognize its claims, is 
told that the baptism of water, which he suspects may be obligatory, is indeed neces- 
sary to that complete change by which one enters outwardly, as well as inwardly, into 
the kingdom of God ; but he is taught also, that to " be born of watsr " is worthless unless it 
is the accompaniment and sign of a new birth of " the Spirit" ; and therefore, in the fur- 
ther statements of Christ, baptism is not alluded to ; see verses 6, 8—" that which is born of the 
Spirit is spirit .... so is every one that is born of the Spirit." 

lets 2 : 38 —"Repent ye, and be baptized .... unto the remission of your sins"— on this passage see 



532 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Hackett: "The phrase 4 in order to the forgiveness of sins' we connect naturally with 
both the preceding verbs ( ' repent ' and ' be baptized ' ). The clause states the motive or object 
which should induce them to repent and be baptized. It enforces the entire exhorta- 
tion, not one part to the exclusion of the other"— i. e., they were to repent for the 
remission of sins, quite as much as they were to be baptized for the remission of sins. 
Acts 22 : 16 — " Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name " ; Eph. 5 : 26 — " that he might 
sanctify it [ the church ], having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word " ; Tit. 3 : 5 — " According to 
his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration [baptism] and renewing of the Holy Ghost [the new 
birth] " ; Heb. 10 : 22 — "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [regeneration] and our bodies 
washed with pure water [baptism] " ; c/. Acts 2 : 42— "the breaking of bread" ; 1 Tim. 4 : 14—" the laying on 
of the hands of the presbytery." 

Dr. A. C. Kendrick : " Considering how inseparable they were in the Christian pro- 
fession— believe and be baptized, and how imperative and absolute was the requisition 
upon the believer to testify his allegiance by baptism, it could not be deemed singular 
that the two should be thus united, as it were, in one complex conception .... We have 
no more right to assume that the birth from water involves the birth from the Spirit, 
and thus do away with the one, than to assume that the birth from the Spirit involves 
the birth from water, and thus do away with the other. We have got to have them 
both, each in its distinctness, in order to fulfill the conditions of membership in the 
kingdom of God." 

Campbellism, however, holds that instead of regeneration preceding baptism and 
expressing itself in baptism, it is completed only in baptism, so that baptism is a means 
of regeneration. Alexander Campbell: "I am bold to affirm that every one of them, 
who in the belief of what the apostle spoke was immersed, did, in the very instant in 
which he was put under water, receive the forgiveness of his sins and the gift of the 
Holy Spirit." But Peter commanded that men should be baptized because they had 
already received the Holy Ghost : Acts 10 : 47— "Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be 
baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" Baptists baptize Christians; Disciples 
baptize sinners, and in baptism think to make them Christians. With this form of sac- 
ramentalism, Baptists are necessarily less in sympathy than with pedobaptism or with 
sprinkling. The view of the Disciples confines the divine efficiency to the word (see 
quotation from Campbell on page 455). It was anticipated by Claude Pajon, the 
Reformed theologian, in 1673; see Dorner, Gesch. Prot. Theologie, 448-450. That this 
was not the doctrine of John the Baptist would appear from Josephus, Ant., 18 : 5 : 2, 
who in speaking of John's baptism says : " Baptism appears acceptable to God, not in 
order that those who were baptized might get free from certain sins, but in order that 
the body might be sanctified, because the soul beforehand had already been purified 
through righteousness." 

For the High Church view, see Sadler, Church Doctrine, 41-124. On F. W. Robertson's 
view of Baptismal Regeneration, see Gordon, in Bap. Quar., 1869 : 405. On the whole 
matter of baptism for the remission of sins, see Willmarth, in Bap. Quar., 1877 : 1-26 
( verging toward the Disciple view ) ; and, per contra, see Bap. Quar., 1877 : 476-489 ; 1872 : 
214; Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 255, 256. 

( b ) As the profession of a spiritual change already wrought, baptism is 
primarily the act, not of the administrator, but of the person baptized. 

Upon the person newly regenerate the command of Christ first ter- 
minates ; only upon his giving evidence of the change within him does it 
become the duty of the church to see that he has opportunity to follow 
Christ in baptism. Since baptism is primarily the act of the convert, no 
lack of qualification on the part of the administrator invalidates the bap- 
tism, so long as the proper outward act is performed, with intent on the 
part of the person baptized to express the fact of a preceding spiritual 
renewal (Acts 2 : 37, 38). 

Acts 2 : 37, 38 — " Brethren, what shall we do? ... . Repent ye and be baptized." If baptism be primarily 
the act of the administrator or of the church, then invalidity in the administrator or 
the church renders the ordinance itself invalid. But if baptism be primarily the act of 
the person baptized— an act which it is the church's business simply to scrutinize and 
further, then nothing but the absence of immersion, or of an intent to profess faith in 
Christ, can invalidate the ordinance. It is the erroneous view that baptism is the act of 
the administrator which causes the anxiety Of High Church Baptists to deduce their 






BAPTISM. 533 

Baptist lineage from regularly baptized ministers all the way back to John the Baptist, 
and which induces many modern endeavors of pedobaptists to prove that the earliest 
Baptists of England and the Continent did not immerse. All these solicitudes are 
unnecessary. "SVe have no need to prove a Baptist apostolical succession. If we can 
derive our doctrine and practice from the New Testament, it is all we require. 

(c) As intrusted with the administration of the ordinances, however, the 
church is, on its part, to require of all candidates for baptism credible evi- 
dence of regeneration. 

This follows from the nature of the church and its duty to maintain its 
own existence as an institution of Christ. The church which cannot restrict 
admission into its membership to such as are like itself in character and aims 
must soon cease to be a church by becoming indistinguishable from the 
world. The duty of the church to gain credible evidence of regeneration 
in the case of every person admitted into the body involves its right to 
require of candidates, in addition to a profession of faith with the lips, some 
satisfactory proof that this profession is accompanied by change in the con- 
duct. The kind and amount of evidence which would have justified the 
reception of a candidate in times of j>ersecution may not now constitute a 
sufficient proof of change of heart. 

If an Odd Fellows' Lodge, in order to preserve its distinct existence, must have its 
own rules for admission to membership, much more is this true of the church. The 
church may make its own regulations with a view to secure credible evidence of regen- 
eration. Yet it is bound to demand of the candidate no more than reasonable proof of 
his repentance and faith. Since the church is to be convinced of the candidate's fitness 
before it votes to receive him to its membership, it is generally best that the experience 
of the candidate should be related before the church. Yet in extreme cases, as of 
sickness, the church may hear this relation of experience through certain appointed 
representatives. 

Baptism is sometimes figuratively described as "the door into the church." The 
phrase is unfortunate, since, if by the church is meant the spiritual kingdom of God. 
then Christ is its only door ; if the local body of believers is meant, then the faith of the 
candidate, the credible evidence of regeneration which he gives, the vote of the church 
itself, are all, equally with baptism, the door through which he enters. The door, in 
this sense, is a double door, one part of which is his confession of faith, and the other 
his baptism. 

(d) As the outward expression of the inward change by which the 
believer enters into the kingdom of God, baptism is the first, in point of 
time, of all outward duties. 

Regeneration and baptism, although not holding to each other the relation 
of effect and cause, are both regarded in the New Testament as essential to 
the restoration of man's right relations to God and to his people. They 
properly constitute parts of one whole, and are not to be unnecessarily sepa- 
rated. Baptism should follow regeneration with the least possible delay, 
after the candidate and the church have gained evidence that a spiritual 
change has been accomplished within him. No other duty and no other 
ordinance can properly precede it. 

Neither the pastor nor the church should encourage the convert to wait for others' 
company before being baptized. We should aim continually to deepen the sense of 
individual responsibility to Christ, and of personal duty to obey his command of bap- 
tism just so soon as a proper opportunity is afforded. That participation in the Lord's 
Supper cannot properly precede Baptism, will be shown hereafter. 

(e) Since regeneration is a work accomplished once for all, the baptism 
which symbolizes this regeneration is not to be repeated. 

Even where the persuasion exists, on the part of the candidate, that at the 



534 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

time of baptism he was mistaken in thinking himself regenerated, the ordi- 
nance is not to be administered again, so long as it has once been submitted 
to, with honest intent, as a profession of faith in Christ. We argue this 
from the absence of any reference to second baptisms in the New Testa- 
ment, and from the grave practical difficulties attending the opposite view. 
In Acts 19 : 1-5, we have an instance, not of rebaptism, but of the baptism 
for the first time of certain persons who had been wrongly taught with 
regard to the nature of John the Baptist's doctrine, and so had ignorantly 
submitted to an outward rite which had in it no reference to Jesus Christ 
and expressed no faith in him as a Savior. This was not John's baptism, 
nor was it in any sense true baptism. For this reason Paul commanded 
them to be "baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." 

In the respect of not being- repeated, Baptism is unlike the Lord's Supper, which 
symbolizes the continuous sustaining- power of Christ's death, while baptism symbolizes 
its power to begin a new life within the soul. In Acts 19 : 1-5, Paul instructs the new 
disciples that the real baptism of John, to which they erroneously supposed they had 
submitted, was not only a baptism of repentance, but a baptism of faith in the coming 
Savior. "And when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" — as they had not 
been before. Here there was no rebaptism, for the mere outward submersion in water 
to which they had previously submitted, with no thought of professing faith in Christ, 
was no baptism at all— whether Johannine or Christian. See Brooks, in Baptist Quar- 
terly, April, 1867, art. : Rebaptism. 

Whenever it is clear, as in many cases of Campbellite immersion, that the candidate 
has gone down into the water, not with intent to profess a previously existing faith, but 
in order to be regenerated, baptism is still to be administered if the person subsequently 
believes on Christ. But wherever it appears that there was intent to profess an already 
existing faith and regeneration, there should be no repetition of the immersion, even 
though the ordinance had been administered by the Campbellites. 

To rebaptize whenever a Christian's faith and joy are rekindled so that he begins to 
doubt the reality of his early experiences, would, in the case of many fickle believers, 
require many repetitions of the ordinance. The presumption is that, when the profes- 
sion of faith was made by baptism, there was an actual faith which needed to be pro- 
fessed, and therefore that the baptism, though followed by much unbelief and many 
wanderings, was a valid one. Rebaptism, in the case of unstable Christians, tends to 
bring reproach upon the ordinance itself. 

(/) So long as the mode and the subjects are such as Christ has enjoined, 
mere accessories are matters of individual judgment. 

The use of natural rather than of artificial baptisteries is not to be elevated 
into an essential. The formula of baptism prescribed by Christ is "into 
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. " 

Mat. 28 : 19 — "baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" ; cf. Acts 8 : 16 
—"they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus" ; Rom. 6:3 — "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were 
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Gal. 3 : 27 — "For as many of you as were baptized into 
Christ did put on Christ." Baptism is immersion into God, into the presence, communion, life 
of the Trinity ; see Com. of Clark, and of Lange, on Mat. 28 : 19 ; also C. E. Smith, in Bap. 
Rev., 1881 : 305-311. President Wayland and the Revised Version read, "into the name." 
Per contra, see Meyer ( transl., 1 : 281, note ) on Rom. 6:3; cf. Mat. 10 : 41 ; 18 : 20 ; in all which 
passages, as well as in Mat. 28 : 19, he claims that ei? to ovoy.a signifies "with reference to 
the name." In Acts 2 : 38, and 10 : 48, we have "in the name." For the latter translation of 
Mat. 28 : 19, see Conant, Notes on Mat., 171. On the whole subject of this section, see 
Dagg, Church Order, 13-73 ; Ingham, Subjects of Baptism. 

C. Infant Baptism. 

This we reject and reprehend, for the following reasons : 
( a ) Infant baptism is without warrant, either express or implied, in the 
Scripture. 



BAPTISM. 535 

First, — there is no express command that infants should be baptized. 
Secondly, — there is no clear example of the baptism of infants. Thirdly, — 
the passages held to imply infant baptism contain, when fairly interpreted, 
no reference to such a practice. In Mat. 19 : 14, none would have ' forbid- 
den, ' if Jesus and his disciples had been in the habit of baptizing infants. 
From Acts 16 : 15, ef. 40, and Acts 16 : 33, of. 34, Neander says that we 
cannot infer infant baptism. For 1 Cor. 16 : 15 shows that the whole 
family of Stephanas, baptized by Paul, were adults (1 Cor. 1 : 16). It is 
impossible to suppose a whole heathen household baptized upon the faith 
of its head. As to 1 Cor. 7 : 14, Jacobi calls this text ' ' a sure testimony 
against infant baptism, since Paul would certainly have referred to the 
baptism of children as a proof of their holiness, if infant baptism had been 
practiced." Moreover, this passage would in that case equally teach the 
baptism of the unconverted husband of a believing wife. It plainly proves 
that the children of Christian parents were no more baptized, and had no 
closer connection with the Christian church, than the unbelieving partners 
of Christians. 

Mat. 19 : 14 — " Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me ; for to such belongeth the kingdom of 
heaven " ; Acts 16 : 15 — " And when she [ Lydia ] was baptized, and her household " ; c/. 40 — " And they went out 
of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia : and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and 
departed." Acts 16 : 33 — The jailor "was baptized, he and all his, immediately" ; cf. 34 — "And he brought 
them up into his house, and set meat before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God" ; 
1 Cor. 16 : 15 — " Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves 
to minister unto the saints " ; 1:16 — " And I baptized also the household of Stephanas " ; 7 : 14 — " For the unbelieving 
husband is sanctified iu the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband : else were your children unclean ; 
but now are they holy"— here the sanctity or holiness attributed to unbelieving members of 
the household is evidently that of external connection and privilege, like that of the 
O. T. Israel. 

A review of the passages held by pedobaptists to support their views leads us to the 
conclusion expressed in the North British Review, Aug., 1852 : 211, that infant baptism is 
utterly unknown to Scripture. Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 270-275—" Infant baptism is 
not mentioned in the N. T. No instance of it is recorded there ; no allusion is made to 

its effects ; no directions are given for its administration It is not an apostolic 

ordinance." See also Neander's view, in Kitto, Bib. Cyclop., art.: Baptism ; Kendrick, 
in Christian Rev., April, 1863; Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 96; Wayland, 
Principles and Practices of Baptists, 125; Cunningham, lect. on Baptism, in Croall 
Lectures for 1886. 

( 6 ) Infant baptism is expressly contradicted : 

First, — by the Scriptural prerequisites of faith and repentance, as signs 
of regeneration. In the great commission, Matthew speaks of baptizing 
disciples, and Mark of baptizing believers ; but infants are neither of these. 
Secondly, — by the Scriptural symbolism of the ordinance. As we should 
not bury a person before his death, so we should not symbolically bury a 
person by baptism until he has in spirit died to sin. Thirdly, — by the 
Scriptural constitution of the church. The church is a company of persons 
whose union with one another presujDposes and expresses a previous con- 
scious and voluntary union of each with Jesus Christ. But of this conscious 
and voluntary union with Christ infants are not capable. Fourthly, — by 
the Scriptural prerequisites for participation in the Lord's Supper. 
Participation in the Lord's Supper is the right only of those who can 
"discern the Lord's body" (1 Cor. 11 : 29). No reason can be assigned for 
restricting to intelligent communicants the ordinance of the Supper, which 
would not equally restrict to intelligent believers the ordinance of Baptism. 



536 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Infant baptism has accordingly led in the Greek church to infant communion. This 
course seems logically consistent. If baptism is administered to unconscious babes, they 
should participate in the Lord's Supper also. But if confirmation or any intelligent 
profession of faith is thought necessary before communion, why should not such con- 
firmation or profession be thought necessary before baptism ? On Jonathan Edwards 
and the Halfway Covenant, see New Englander, Sept., 1884 : 601-614. 

(c) The rise of infant baptism in the history of the church is due to 
sacramental conceptions of Christianity, so that all arguments in its favor 
from the writings of the first three centuries are equally arguments for 
baptismal regeneration. 

Neander's view may be found in Kitto, Cyclopaedia, 1 : 287 —"Infant baptism was 
established neither by Christ nor by his apostles. Even in later times Tertullian 
opposed it, the North African church holding to the old practice." The newly dis- 
covered Teaching of the Apostles, which Bryennios puts at 140-160 A. D., and Lightfoot 
at 80-110 A. D., seems to know nothing of infant baptism. 

Prof. A. H. Newman, in Bap. Rev., Jan., 1884— "Infant baptism has always gone hand 
in hand with State churches. It is difficult to conceive how an ecclesiastical establish- 
ment could be maintained without infant baptism or its equivalent. We should think, 
if the facts did not show us so plainly the contrary, that the doctrine of justification by 
faith alone would displace infant baptism. But no. The establishment must be main- 
tained. The rejection of infant baptism implies insistence upon a baptism of believers. 
Only the baptized are properly members of the church. Even adults would not all 
receive baptism on professed faith, unless they were actually compelled to do so. Infant 
baptism must therefore be retained as the necessary concomitant of a State church. 

" But what becomes of the justification by faith ? Baptism, if it symbolizes anything, 
symbolizes regeneration. It would be ridiculous to make the symbol to forerun the 
fact by a series of years. Luther saw the difficulty ; but he was sufficient for the 
emergency. ' Yes,' said he, ' justification is by faith alone. No outward rite, apart 
from faith, has any efficacy.' Why, it was against opera operata that he was laying out- 
all his strength. Yet baptism is the symbol of regeneration, and baptism must be 
administered to infants, or the State church falls. With an audacity truly sublime, the 
great reformer declares that infants are regenerated in connection with baptism, and 
that they are simultaneously justified by personal faith. An infant eight days old 
believe ? ' Prove the contrary if you can 1 ' triumphantly ejaculates Luther, and his 
point is gained. If this kind of personal faith is said to justify infants, is it wonderful 
that those of maturer years learned to take a somewhat superficial view of the faith 
that justifies?" 

See Christian Review, Jan., 1851 ; Neander, Church History, 1 : 311, 313 ; Coleman,. 
Christian Antiquities, 258-260 ; Arnold, in Bap. Quarterly, 1869 : 32 ; Hovey, in Baptist- 
Quarterly, 1871 : 75. 

(d) The reasoning by which it is supported is unscriptural, unsound, 
and dangerous in its tendency : 

First, — in assuming the power of the church to modify or abrogate a 
command of Christ. This has been sufficiently answered above. Secondly, 
— in maintaining that infant baptism takes the place of circumcision under 
the Abrahamic covenant. To this we reply that the view contradicts the 
New Testament idea of the church, by making it a hereditary body, in 
which fleshly birth, and not the new birth, qualifies for membership. "As 
the national Israel typified the spiritual Israel, so the circumcision which 
immediately followed, not preceded, natural birth, bids us baptize children, 
not before, but after spiritual birth." Thirdly, — in declaring that baptism 
belongs to the infant because of an organic connection of the child with the 
parent, which permits the latter to stand for the former and to make 
profession of faith for it, — faith already existing germinally in the child by 
virtue of this organic union, and certain for. the same reason to be developed 
as the child grows to maturity. "A law of organic connection as regards. 



BAPTISM. 537 

character subsisting between the parent and the child, — such a connection 
as induces the conviction that the character of the one is actually included 
in the character of the other, as the seed is formed in the capsule." We 
object to this view that it unwarrantably confounds the personality of the 
child with that of the parent; practically ignores the necessity of the 
Holy Spirit's regenerating influences in the case of children of Christian 
parents; and presumes in such children a gracious state which facts 
conclusively show not to exist. 

On the theory that baptism takes the place of circumcision, see Pepper, Baptist Quar- 
terly, April, 1857 ; Palmer, in Baptist Quarterly, 1871 : 314. The Christian Church is 
either a natural, hereditary body, or it was merely typified by the Jewish people. In 
the former case, baptism belongs to all children of Christian parents, and the church is 
indistinguishable from the world. In the latter case, it belongs only to spiritual 
descendants, and therefore only to true believers. "That Jewish Christians, who 
of course had been circumcised, were also baptized, and that a large number of them 
insisted that Gentiles who had been baptized should also be circumcised, shows con- 
clusively that baptism did not take the place of circumcision .... The notion that the 
family is the unit of society is a relic of barbarism. This appears in the Roman law, 
which was good for property but not for persons. It left none but a servile station to 
wife or son, thus degrading society at the fountain of family life. To gain freedom, 
the Roman wife had to accept a form of marriage which opened the way for unlimited 
liberty of divorce." 

Prof. Moses Stuart urged that the form of baptism was immaterial, but that the 
temper of heart was the thing of moment. Francis Wayland, then a student of his, 
asked : " If such is the case, with what propriety can baptism be administered to those 
who cannot be supposed to exercise any temper of heart at all, and with whom the 
form must be everything ?"— The third theory of organic connection of the child with 
its parents is elaborated by Bushnell, in his Christian Nurture, 90-223. Per contra, see 
Bunsen, Hippolytus and his Times, 179, 211; Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 262. 
Hezekiah's son Manasseh was not godly; and it would be rash to say that all the 
drunkard's children are presumptively drunkards. 

(c) The lack of agreement among pedobaptists as to the warrant for 
infant baptism and as to the relation of baptized infants to the church, 
together with the manifest decline of the practice itself, are arguments 
against it. 

The propriety of infant baptism is variously argued, says Dr. Bushnell, 
upon the ground of "natural innocence, inherited depravity, and federal 
holiness ; because of the infant's own character, the parents' piety, and the 
church's faith ; for the reason that the child is an heir of salvation already, 
and in order to make it such .... No settled opinion on infant baptism 
and on Christian nurture has ever been attained to. " 

Bushnell, Christian Nurture, 9-89, denies original sin, denies that hereditary connec- 
tion can make a child guilty. But he seems to teach transmitted righteousness, or that 
hereditary connection can make a child holy. He disparages " sensible experiences " 
and calls them "explosive conversions." But because we do not know the time of 
conversion, shall we say that there never was a time when the child experienced God's 
grace ? See Bib. Sac, 1872 : 665. 

On the Decline of Infant Baptism, see Vedder, in Baptist Review, April, 1882 : 173-189, 
who shows that in fifty years past the proportion of infant baptisms to communicants 
in general has decreased from one in seven to one in eleven ; among the Reformed, 
from one in twelve to one in twenty ; among the Presbyterians, from one in fifteen to 
one in thirty-three ; among the Methodists, from one in twenty-two to one in twenty- 
nine ; among the Congregationalists, from one in fifty to one in seventy-seven. 

(/) The evil effects of infant baptism are a strong argument against it : 

First, — in forestalling the voluntary act of the child baptized, and thus 

practically preventing his personal obedience to Christ's commands. 



538 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

The person baptized in infancy has never performed any act with intent to obey 
Christ's command to be baptized, never has put forth a single volition looking toward 
obedience to that command ; see Wilkinson, The Baptist Principle, 40-46. 

Secondly, — in inducing superstitious confidence in an outward rite as 

possessed of regenerating efficacy. 

French peasants still regard infants before baptism as only animals (Stanley). The 
haste with which the minister is summoned to baptize the dying child shows that super- 
stition still lingers in many an otherwise evangelical family in our own country. The 
English Prayerbook declares that in baptism the infant is "made a child of Cod and 
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." Even the Westminster Assembly's Catechism, 
28 : 6, holds that grace is actually conferred in baptism, though the efficacy of it is 
delayed till riper years. Mercersburg Review : " The objective medium or instrumental 
cause of regeneration is baptism. Men are not regenerated outside the church and 
then brought into it for preservation, but they are regenerated by being incorporated 
with or engrafted into the church through the sacrament of baptism." Catholic 
Review : " Unbaptized, these little ones go into darkness ; but baptized, they rejoice 
in the presence of God forever." 

Thirdly, — in obscuring and corrupting Christian truth with regard to the 
sufficiency of Scripture, the connection of the ordinances, and the incon- 
sistency of an impenitent life with church-membership. 

Infant baptism in England is followed by confirmation, as a matter of course, 
whether there has been any conscious abandonment of sin or not. In Germany, a 
man is always understood to be a Christian unless he expressly states to the contrary— 
in fact, he feels insulted if his Christianity is questioned. At the funerals even of 
infidels and debauchees the pall used may be inscribed with the words : " Blessed are 
the dead that die in the Lord." Confidence in one's Christianity and hopes of heaven 
based only on the fact of baptism in infancy, are a great obstacle to evangelical 
preaching and to the progress of true religion. 

Fourthly, — in destroying the church as a spiritual body, by merging it 
in the nation and the world. 

Ladd, Principles of Church Polity: " Unitarianism entered the Congregational 
churches of New England through the breach in one of their own avowed and most 
important tenets, namely, that of a regenerate church-membership. Formalism, 
indifferentism, neglect of moral reforms, and, as both cause and results of these, an 
abundance of unrenewed men and women, were the causes of their seeming disasters 
in that sad epoch." But we would add, that the serious and alarming decline of 
religion which culminated in the Unitarian movement in New England had its origin 
in infant baptism. This introduced into the church a multitude of unregenerate 
persons and permitted them to determine its doctrinal position. # 

Fifthly, — in putting into the place of Christ's command a commandment 
of men, and so admitting the essential principle of all heresy, schism, and 
false religion. 

There is therefore no logical halting-place between the Baptist and the Romanist 
positions. The Roman Catholic Archbishop Hughes of New York, said well to a 
Presbyterian minister • " We have no controversy with you. Our controversy is with 
the Baptists " Lange of Jena : " Would the Protestant church fulfill and attain to its 
final destiny, the baptism of infants must of necessity be abolished." The greatest work 
favoring the aoctrine which we here condemn is Wall's History of Infant Baptism. 
For the Baptist side of the controversy see Arnold, in Madison Avenue Lectures, 160- 
183; Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 274, 275; Dagg, Church Order, 144-202. 

II. The Lobd's Supper. 

The Lord's Supper is that outward rite in which the assembled church 
eats bread broken and drinks wine poured forth by its appointed represen- 
tative, in token of its constant dependence on the once crucified, now risen 



THE lord's supper. 539 

Savior, as source of its spiritual life ; or, in other words, in token of that 
abiding communion of Christ's death and resurrection through which the 
life begun in regeneration is sustained and perfected. 

On the Lord's Supper in general, see Weston, in Madison Avenue Lectures, 183-195; 
Dagg, Church Order, 203-214. 

1. The Lord's Supper an Ordinance instituted by Christ. 

(a) Christ appointed an outward rite to be observed by his disciples in 
remembrance of his death. It was to be observed after his death ; only 
after his death could it completely fulfill its purpose as a feast of commem- 
oration. 

Luke 22 : 19 — " And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is my 
body which is given for yon : this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This 
cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 23-25 — "For I received of 
the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, how that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took 
bread ; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you : this do in remembrance 
of me. In like manner the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood : this do, as oft as ye 
drink it, in remembrance of me." Observe that this communion was Christian communion 
before Christ's death, just as John's baptism was Christian baptism before Christ's 
death. 

(6) From the apostolic injunction with regard to its celebration in the 
church until Christ's second coming, we infer that it was the original inten- 
tion of our Lord to institute a rite of perpetual and universal obligation. 

1 Cor. 11 : 26 — "For as often as ye eat this bread and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come" ; 
c/. Mat. 26 : 29 — "But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I 
drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom " ; Mark 14 : 25 — " Verily I say unto you, I will no more drink of the 
fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God," 

( c ) The uniform practice of the N. T. churches, and the celebration of 
such a rite in subsequent ages by almost all churches professing to be Chris- 
tian, is best explained upon the supposition that the Lord's Supper is an 
ordinance established by Christ himself. 

Acts 2 : 42 — "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and 
the prayers"; 46 — "And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread 
at home, they did take their food with gladness and singleness of heart" — on the words here translated 
"at home" (xar* 61kov), but meaning - , as Jacob maintains, "from one worship-room to 
another," see page 540, (e). Acts 20 : 7— "And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered 
together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them " ; 1 Cor. 10 : 16 — " The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a 
communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ ? seeing 
that we, who are many, are one bread, one body : for we all partake of the one bread." 

2. The Mode of Administering the Lord's Supper. 

(a) The elements are bread and wine. 

Although the bread which Jesus broke at the institution of the ordinance was doubt- 
less the unleavened bread of the Passover, there is nothing in the symbolism of the 
Lord's Supper which necessitates the Romanist use of the wafer. Although the wine 
which Jesus poured out was doubtless the ordinary fermented juice of the grape, there 
is nothing in the symbolism of the ordinance which forbids the use of unfermented 
juice of the grape,— obedience to the command "This do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19) 
requires only that we should use the "fruit of the vine" (Mat. 26 : 29). 

Adoniram Judson (Life, by his Son, 352) writes from Burma: "No wine to be pro- 
cured in this place, on which account we are unable to meet with the other churches 
this day in partaking of the Lord's Supper." For proof that Bible wines, like all other 
wines, are fermented, see Presb. Rev., 1881 : 80-114; 1882 : 78-108, 394-399, 586; Hovey, in 
Bap. Quar. Rev., April, 1887 : 152-180. Per contra, see Samson, Bible Wines. On the 
Scripture Law of Temperance, see Presb. Rev., 1882 : 287-324. 



540 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

(6) The communion is of both kinds, — that is, communicants are to 
partake both of the bread and of the wine. 

The Roman Catholic church withholds the wine from the laity, although it considers 
the whole Christ to be present under each of the forms. Christ, however, says: "Drink 
ye all of it" ( Mat. 26 : 27 ). To withhold the wine from any believer is disobedience to Christ, 
and is too easily understood as teaching' that the laity have only a portion of the benefits 
of Christ's death. Calvin : " As to the bread, he simply said ' Take, eat.' Why does he 
expressly bid them all drink ? And Avhy does Mark explicitly say that 'they all drank of it' 
(Mark 14 : 23) ? " Bengel : Does not this suggest that, if communion in " one kind alone 
were sufficient, it is the cup which should be used ? The Scripture thus speaks, foresee^ 
ing what Rome would do." 

(c) The partaking of these elements is of a festal nature. 

The Passover was festal in its nature. Gloom and sadness are foreign to the spirit of 
the ordinance. The wine is the symbol of the death of Christ, but of that death by 
which we live. It reminds us that he drank the cup of suffering in order that we might 
drink the wine of joy. As the bread is broken to sustain our physical life, so Christ's 
body was broken by thorns and nails and spear to nourish our spiritual life. 

1 Cor. 11 : 29 — " For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the 
body." Here the Authorized Version wrongly had " damnation " instead of "judgment." Not 
eternal condemnation, but penal judgment in general, is meant. He who partakes "in 
an unworthy manner" (verse 27), i. e., in hypocrisy, or merely to satisfy bodily appetites, and 
not discerning the body of Christ of which the bread is the symbol (verse 29), draws 
down upon him God's judicial sentence. Of this judgment, the frequent sickness and 
death in the church at Corinth was a token. See verses 30-34, and Meyer's Com. 

(d) The communion is a festival of commemoration, — not simply bring- 
ing Christ to our remembrance, but making proclamation of his death to 
the world. 

1 Cor. 11 : 24, 26 — "This do in remembrance of me ... . For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye 
proclaim the Lord's death till he come." As the Passover commemorated the deliverance of Israel 
from Egypt, and as the Fourth of July commemorates our birth as a nation, so the 
Lord's Supper commemorates the birth of the church in Christ's death and resurrection. 
As a mother might bid her children meet over her grave and commemorate her, so 
Christ bids his people meet and remember him. But subjective remembrance is not its 
only aim. It is a public proclamation also. Whether it brings perceptible blessing to 
us or not, it is to be observed as a means of confessing Christ, testifying our faith, and 
publishing the fact of his death to others. 

( e ) It is to be celebrated by the assembled church. It is not a solitary 
observance on the part of individuals. No "showing forth" is possible 
except in company. 

Acts 20 : 7— "gathered together to break bread" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 18, 20, 22, 33, 34— "when ye come together in the 
church .... assemble yourselves together .... have ye not houses to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the church 
of God, and put them to shame that have not? ... . when ye come together to eat . If any man is, hungry, let 

him eat at home ; that your coming together be not for judgment." 

Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 191-194, claims that in Acts 2 : 46— "breaking bread at home" — 
where we have ol/cos, not oUia, ouco? is not a private house* but a 'worship-room,' and 
that the phrase should be translated "breaking bread from one worship-room to 
another," or "in various worship-rooms." This meaning seems very apt in Acts 5 : 42— 
"And every day, in the temple and at home [rather, 'in various worship-rooms'], they ceased not to teach and 
to preach Jesus as the Christ " ; 8:3 — " But Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house [ rather, ' every 
worship-room ' ], and haling men and women committed them to prison " ; Rom. 16 : 5 —"Salute the church that is in 
their house [rather, 'in their worship-room']"; Titus 1 : 11 — " men who overthrow whole houses [rather, 
' whole worship-rooms ' ], teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." Per contra, however, 
see 1 Cor. 11 : 34 — "let him eat at home" — where ot/co? is contrasted with the place of meeting; 
so also 1 Cor. 14 : 35 and Acts 20 : 20, where oIkos seems to mean a private house. 

The celebration of the Lord's Supper in each family by itself is not recognized in the 
New Testament. Stanley, in Nineteenth Century, May, 1878, tells us that as infant com- 



THE lord's supper. 541 

munion is forbidden in the Western Church, and evening- communion is forbidden by 
the Roman Church, so solitary communion is forbidden by the English Church, and 
death-bed communion by the Scottish Church. 

(/) The responsibility of seeing that the ordinance is properly adminis- 
tered rests with the church as a body ; and the pastor is, in this matter, the 
proper representative and organ of the church. In cases of extreme 
exigency, however, as where the church has no pastor and no ordained 
minister can be secured, it is competent for the church to appoint one from 
its own number to administer the ordinance. 

1 Cor. li : 2, 23 — "Now I praise you that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the traditions, even as I deliv- 
ered them to you ... . For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, how that the Lord Jesus, in the 
night in which he was betrayed, took bread." Here the responsibility of administering the Lord's 
Supper is laid upon the body of believers. 

(g) The frequency with which the Lord's Supper is to be administered 
is not indicated either by the N. T. precept or by uniform N. T. example. 
We have instances both of its daily and of its weekly observance. With 
respect to this, as well as with respect to the accessories of the ordinance, 
the church is to exercise a sound discretion. 

Acts 2 : 46 — " And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home 
[ or perhaps, ' in various worship-rooms ' ] " ; 20 : 7 — " And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered 
together to break bread." In 1878, thirty-nine churches of the Establishment in London held 
daily communion ; in two churches it was held twice each day. A few churches of the 
Baptist faith in England and America celebrate the Lord's Supper on each Lord's day. 
Carlstadt would celebrate the Lord's Supper only in companies of twelve, and held 
also that every bishop must marry. Reclining on couches, and meeting in the evening, 
are not commanded ; and both, by their inconvenience, might in modern times counter- 
act the design of the ordinance. 

8. The Symbolism of the Lord's Supper. 

The Lord's Supper sets forth, in general, the death of Christ as the 
sustaining power of the believer's life. 

A. Expansion of this statement. 

(a) It symbolizes the death of Christ for our sins. 

1 Cor. 11 : 26— "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come" ; 
cf. Mark 14 : 24— "This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many " — the blood upon which the 
covenant between God and Christ, and so between God and us who are one with Christ, 
from eternity past was based. The Lord's Supper reminds us of the covenant which 
ensures our salvation, and of the atonement upon which that covenant was based; 
cf. Heb. 13 : 20 — "blood of an eternal covenant." 

( b ) It symbolizes our personal appropriation of the benefits of that death. 

1 Cor. 11 : 24 — " This is my body, which is for you." 

( c ) It symbolizes the method of this appropriation, through union with 
Christ himself. 

1 Cor. 10 : 16— "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of [ marg. : 'participation in' ] the 
blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of [ marg. : ' participation in ' ] the body of 
Christ?" Here "is it not a participation "=' does it not symbolize the participation?' So Mat. 
26 : 26 —"this is my body "=' this symbolizes my body.' 

(d) It symbolizes the continuous dependence of the believer for all 
spiritual life upon the once crucified, now living, Savior, to whom he is thus 
united. 



542 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

Cf. John 6 : 53— "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye 
have not life in yourselves "— here is a statement, not with regard to the Lord's Supper, but 
with regard to spiritual union with Christ, which the Lord's Supper only symbolizes; 
see page 543, ( a ). 

(e) It symbolizes the sanctification of the Christian through a spiritual 
reproduction in him of the death and resurrection of the Lord. 

Rom. 8 : 10 — " And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteous- 
ness" ; Phil. 3 : 10 — "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, 
becoming conformed unto his death ; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead." The bread 
of life nourishes ; but it transforms me, not I it. 

(/) It symbolizes the consequent union of Christians in Christ, their 
head. 

1 Cor. 10 : 17 — " seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body : for we all partake of the one bread." The 
Roman Catholic says that bread is the unity of many kernels, the wine the unity of 
many berries, and all are changed into the body of Christ. We can adopt the former 
part of the statement, without taking the latter. By being united to Christ, we become 
united to one another; and the Lord's Supper, as it symbolizes our common partaking 
of Christ, symbolizes also the consequent oneness of all in whom Christ dwells. 

(g) It symbolizes the coming joy and perfection of the kingdom of God. 

Luke 22 : 18 — " For I say unto you, I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of 
God shall come " ; Mark 14 : 25 — " Verily I say unto you, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day 
when I drink it new in the kingdom of God " ; Mat. 26 : 29 — "But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this 
fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." 

Like Baptism, which points forward to the resurrection, the Lord's Supper is anticipa- 
tory also. It brings before us, not simply death, but life ; not simply past sacrifice, but 
future glory. It points forward to the great festival, "the marriage-supper of the Lamb" (Rev. 
19 : 9 ). Dorner : " Then Christ will keep the Supper anew with us, and the hours of 
highest solemnity in this life are but a weak foretaste of the powers of the world to 
come." See Madison Avenue Lectures, 176-216 ; The Lord's Supper, a Clerical Sympo- 
sium, by Pressense, Luthardt, and English Divines. 

B. Inferences from this statement. 

( a ) The connection between the Lord's Supper and Baptism consists in 
this, that they both and equally are symbols of the death of Christ. In 
Baptism, we show forth the death of Christ as the procuring cause of our 
new birth into the kingdom of God. In the Lord's Supper, we show forth 
the death of Christ as the sustaining power of our spiritual life after it has 
once begun. In the one, we honor the sanctifying power of the death of 
Christ, as in the other we honor its regenerating power. Thus both are 
parts of one whole, — setting before us Christ's death for men in its two 
great purposes and results. 

If baptism symbolized purification only, there would be no point of connection 
between the two ordinances. Their common reference to the death of Christ binds the 
two together. 

(6) The Lord's Supper is to be often repeated, — as symbolizing Christ's 
constant nourishment of the soul, whose new birth was signified in Baptism. 

Yet too frequent repetition may induce superstitious confidence in the value of com- 
munion as a mere outward form. 

(c) The Lord's Supper, like Baptism, is the symbol of a previous state 
of grace. It has in itself no regenerating and no sanctifying power, but is 






THE lord's suppeb. 543 

the symbol by which the relation of the believer to Christ, his sanctifier, is 

vividly expressed and strongly confirmed. 

We derive more help from the Lord's Supper than from private prayer, simply 
because it is an external rite, impressing the sense as well as the intellect, celebrated in 
company with other believers whose faith and devotion help our own, and bringing 
before us the profoundest truths of Christianity —the death of Christ, and our union 
with Christ in that death. 

(d) The blessing received from participation is therefore dependent 
upon, and proportioned to, the faith of the communicant. 

In observing the Lord's Supper, we need to discern the body of the Lord ( 1 Cor. 11 : 29 ) — 
that is, to recognize the spiritual meaning of the ordinance, and the presence of Christ, 
who through his deputed representatives gives to us the emblems, and who nourishes 
and quickens our souls as these material things nourish and quicken the body. The 
faith which thus discerns Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

( e ) The Lord's Supper expresses primarily the fellowship of the believer, 
not with his brethren, but with Christ, his Lord. 

The Lord's Supper, like Baptism, symbolizes fellowship with the brethren only as 
consequent upon, and incidental to, fellowship with Christ. Just as we are all baptized 
"into one body " ( 1 Cor. 12 : 13 ), only by being " baptized into Christ " (Rom. 6 : 3), so we commune with 
other believers in the Lord's Supper, only as we commune with Christ. Christ's words : 
"this do in remembrance of me " ( 1 Cor. 11 : 24 ), bid us think, not of our brethren, but of the Lord. 

The offence of a Christian brother, therefore, even if committed against myself, should 
not prevent me from remembering Christ and communing with the Savior. I could not 
commune at all, if I had to vouch for the Christian character of all who sat with me. 
This does not excuse the church from effort to purge its membership from unworthy 
participants ; it simply declares that the church's failure to do this does not absolve any 
single member of it from his obligation to observe the Lord's Supper. See Jacob, Eccl. 
Polity of N. T., 285. 

4. Erroneous Views of the Lord's Supper. 

A. The Komanist view, — that the bread and wine are changed by priestly 
consecration into the very body and blood of Christ ; that this consecration 
is a new offering of Christ's sacrifice ; and that, by a physical partaking of 
the elements, the communicant receives saving grace from God. To this 
doctrine of " transubstantiation, " we reply: 

( a ) It rests upon a false interpretation of Scripture. In Mat. 26 : 26, 
"this is my body" means : "this is a symbol of my body." Since Christ 
was with the disciples in visible form at the institution of the Supper, he 
could not have intended them to recognize the bread as being his literal 
body. "The body of Christ is present in the bread, just as it had been in 
the passover lamb, of which the bread took the place" (John 6 : 53 contains 
no reference to the Lord's Supper, although it describes that spiritual union 
with Christ which the Supper symbolizes ; c/. 63. In 1 Cor. 10 : 16, 17, 
Kotvuvia 7ov auuaro- rov X/uarov is a figurative expression for the spiritual 
partaking of Christ. In Mark 8 : 33, we are not to infer that Peter was 
actually "Satan," nor does 1 Cor. 12 : 12 prove that we are all Christs. Cf. 
Gen. 41:26; 1 Cor. 10:4). 

Mat. 26 : 28 — " This is my blood .... which is shed " cannot be meant to be taken literally, since 
Christ's blood was not yet shed. Hence the Douay version ( Roman Catholic ), without 
warrant, changes the tense and reads "which shall be shed." At the institution of the 
Supper, it is not conceivable that Christ should hold his body in bis own hands, and then 
break it to the disciples. Zwingle : u The words of institution are not the mandatory 



544 ECCLESIOLOGY, OB THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

'become' : they are only an explanation of the sign." When I point to a picture and 
say : " This is George Washington," I do not mean that the veritable body and blood of 
George Washington are before me. So when a teacher points to a map, and says: 
"This is New York," or when Jesus refers to John the Baptist, and says: "This is Elijah, 
which is to come" (Mat. 11:14). Jacob, The Lord's Supper, Historically Considered— u It 
originally marked, not a real presence, but a real absence, of Christ as the Son of God 
made man "— that is, a real absence of his body. Therefore the Supper, reminding us of 
his body, is to be observed in the church " till he come " ( 1 Cor. 11 : 26 ). 

John 6 : 53 — "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves " must 
be interpreted by verse 63 — " It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I have 
spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." 1 Cor. 10 : 16, 17 — "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a com- 
munion of [ marg. : ' participation in ' ] the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of 
[marg. : 'participation in' ] the body of Christ?" Mark 8 : 33— "But he turning about, and seeing his disciples, 
rebuked Peter, and saith, Get thee behind me, Satan " ; 1 Cor. 12 : 12 — " For as the body is one and hath many members, 
and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." cf. Gen. 41 : 26— "Th9 seven good 
kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one" ; 1 Cor. 10 : 4 — "they drank of a 
spiritual rock that followed them : and the rock was Christ." 

(6) It contradicts the evidence of the senses, as well as of all scientific 
tests that can be applied. If we cannot trust our senses as to the unchanged 
material qualities of bread and wine, we cannot trust them when they 
report to us the words of Christ. 

Gibbon was rejoiced at the discovery that, while the real presence is attested by only 
a single sense — our sight [as employed in reading the words of Christ]— the real 
presence is disproved by three of our senses, sight, touch, and taste. It is not well to 
purchase faith in this dogma at the price of absolute scepticism. Stanley, on Baptism, 
in his Christian Institutions, tells us that, in the third and fourth centuries, the belief 
that the water of baptism was changed into the blood of Christ was nearly as firmly and 
widely fixed as the belief that the bread and wine of the communion were changed into 
his flesh and blood. 

( c ) It involves the denial of the completeness of Christ's past sacrifice, 
and the assumption that a human priest can repeat or add to the atonement 
made by Christ once for all (Heb. 9 : 28 — aira% Trpooevexdeig). The Lord's 
Supper is never called a sacrifice, nor are altars, priests, or consecrations 
ever spoken of, in the New Testament. The priests of the old dispensation 
are expressly contrasted with the ministers of the new. The former 
"ministered about sacred things," i. e., performed sacred rites and waited 
at the altar ; but the latter "preach the gospel" (1 Cor. 9 : 13, 14). 

Heb. 9 : 28 — " so Christ also, having been once offered ' ' — here anal- means ' once for all,' as in Jude 3 — 
"the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints"; 1 Cor. 9 : 13, 14 — "Know ye not that they which 
minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they which wait upon the altar have their portion with 
the altar ? Even so did the Lord ordain that they which proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel." Bomanism 
introduces a mediator between the soul and Christ, namely, bread and wine,— and the 
priest besides. 

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2 : 680-687 (Syst. Doct., 4 : 146-153) —"Christ is thought of as at 
a distance, and as represented only by the priest who offers anew his sacrifice. But 
Protestant doctrine holds to a perfect Christ, applying the benefits of the work which 
he long ago and once for all completed upon the cross." Chillingworth : " Bomanists 
hold that the validity of every sacrament but baptism depends upon its administration 
by a priest ; and without priestly absolution there is no assurance of forgiveness. But 
the intention of the priest is essential in pronouncing absolution, and the intention of 
the bishop is essential in consecrating the priest. How can any human being know that 
these conditions are fulfilled?" In the New Testament, on the other hand, Christ 
appears as the only priest, and each human soul has direct access to him. 

(d) It destroys Christianity by externalizing it. Romanists make all 
other service a mere appendage to the communion. Physical and magical 
salvation is not Christianity, but is essential paganism. 



545 

Council of Trent, Session vn, On Sacraments in General, Canon iv : " If any one saith 
that the sacraments of the New Testament are not necessary to salvation, but are super- 
fluous, and that without them, and without the desire thereof, men attain of God, 
through faith alone, the grace of justification; though all [the sacraments] are not 
indeed necessary for every individual : let him be anathema." On Baptism, Canon iv : 
" If any one saith that the baptism which is even given by heretics in the name of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with the intention of doing what the church doth, is not 
true baptism, let him be anathema." v : "If any man saith that baptism is free, i. e., 
not necessary to salvation : let him be anathema." Baptism, in the Romanist system, is 
necessary to salvation : and baptism, even though administered by heretics, is an admis- 
sion to the church. All baptized persons who, through no fault of their own, but from 
lack of knowledge or opportunity, are not connected outwardly with the true church, 
though they are apparently attached to some sect, yet in reality belong to the soul of the 
true church. Many belong merely to the body of the Catholic church, and are counted 
as its members, but do not belong to its soul. So says Archbishop Lynch, of Toronto ; 
and Pius IX extended the doctrine of invincible ignorance, so as to cover the case of 
every dissentient from the church whose fife shows faith working by love. 

Adoration of the Host (Latin hostia, victim) is a regular part of the service of the 
Mass. If the Romanist view were correct that the bread and wine were actually 
changed into the body and blood of Christ, we could not call this worship idolatry. 
Christ's body in the sepulchre could not have been a proper object of worship, but 
it was so after his resurrection, when it became animated with a new and divine 
life. The Romanist error is that of holding that the priest has power to transform the 
elements ; the worship of them follows as a natural consequence, and is none the less 
idolatrous for being based upon the false assumption that the bread and wine are really 
Christ's body and blood. For the Romanist view, see Council of Trent, Session xiii, 
Canon in ; per contra, see Calvin, Institutes, 2 : 585-602 ; C. Hebert, The Lord's Supper : 
History of Uninspired Teaching. 

B. The Lutheran and High Church view, — that the communicant, in 
j3artaking of the consecrated elements, eats the veritable body and drinks 
the veritable blood of Christ in and with the bread and wine, although the 
elements themselves do not cease to be material. To this doctrine of "con- 
substantiation" we object : 

(a) That the view is not required by Scripture. — All the passages cited 
in its support may be better interpreted as referring to a partaking of the 
elements as symbols. If Christ's body be ubiquitous, as this theory holds, 
we partake of it at every meal, as really as at the Lord's Supper. 

( b ) That the view is inseparable from the general sacramental system of 
which it forms a part. — In imposing physical and material conditions of 
receiving Christ, it contradicts the doctrine of justification only by faith; 
changes the ordinance from a sign, into a means, of salvation ; involves the 
necessity of a sacerdotal order for the sake of properly consecrating the ele- 
ments; and logically tends to the Romanist conclusions of ritualism, and 
idolatry. 

( c ) That it holds each communicant to be a partaker of Christ's veritable 
body and blood, whether he be a believer or not, — the result, in the absence 
of faith, being condemnation instead of salvation. Thus the whole char- 
acter of the ordinance is changed from a festival occasion to one of mystery 
and fear, and the whole gospel method of salvation is obscured. 

For the view here combated, see Gerhard, x : 352— " The bread, apart from the sacra- 
ment instituted by Christ, is not the body of Christ, and therefore it is aproKarpia ( bread- 
worship) to adore the bread in those solemn processions" (of the Roman Catholic 
church). 397— "Faith does not belong to the substance of the Eucharist; hence it is 
not the faith of him who partakes that makes the bread a communication of the body 
of Christ ; nor on account of unbelief in him who partakes does the bread cease to be a 
35 



546 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

communication of the body of Christ." See also Sadler, Church Doctrine, 124^199; 
Pusey, Tract No. 90, of the Tractarian Series ; Wilberf orce, New Birth ; Nevins, Mys- 
tical Presence. 

Per contra, see Calvin, Institutes, 2 : 535-584 ; G. P. Fisher, in Independent, May 1, 1884 
— " Calvin differed from Luther, in holding that Christ is received only by the believer. 
He differed from Zwingle, in holding that Christ is truly, though spiritually, received." 
See also E. G. Robinson, in Baptist Quarterly, 1869 : 85-109 ; Rogers, Priests and Sacra- 
ments. Consubstantiation accounts for the doctrine of apostolic succession and for 
the universal ritualism of the Lutheran church. Bowing at the name of Jesus, how- 
ever, is not, as has been sometimes maintained, a relic of the Papal worship of the Real 
Presence, but is rather a reminiscence of the fourth century, when controversies about 
the person of Christ rendered orthodox Christians peculiarly anxious to recognize 
Christ's deity. 

5. Prerequisites to Participation in the Lord's Supper. 

A. There are prerequisites. This we argue from the fact : 

(a) That Christ enjoined the celebration of the Supper, not upon the 
world at large, but only upon his disciples ; ( b ) that the apostolic injunc- 
tions to Christians, to separate themselves from certain of their number, 
imply a limitation of the Lord's Supper to a narrower body, even among 
professed believers ; ( c ) that the analogy of Baptism, as belonging only to 
a specified class of persons, leads us to believe that the same is true of the 
Lord's Supper. 

B. The prerequisites are those only which are expressly or implicitly 
laid down by Christ and his apostles. 

{a) The church, as possessing executive but not legislative power, is 
charged with the duty, not of framing rules for the administering and 
guarding of the ordinance, but of discovering and applying the rules given 
it in the New Testament. No church has a right to establish any terms of 
communion ; it is responsible only for making known the terms established 
by Christ and his apostles. (6) These terms, however, are to be ascer- 
tained not only from the injunctions, but also from the precedents, of the 
New Testament. Since the apostles were inspired, New Testament prece- 
dent is the "common law" of the church. 

English law consists mainly of precedent, that is, past decisions of the courts. Imme- 
morial customs may be as binding as are the formal enactments of a legislature. 

C. On examining the New Testament, we find that the prerequisites to 
participation in the Lord's Supper are four, namely : 

First, — Regeneration. 

The Lord's Supper is the outward expression of a life in the believer, 
nourished and sustained by the life of Christ. It cannot therefore be par- 
taken of by one who is "dead through .... trespasses and sins." We 
give no food to a corpse. The Lord's Supper was never offered by the 
apostles to unbelievers. On the contrary, the injunction that each com- 
municant "examine himself" implies that faith which will enable the com- 
municant to "discern the Lord's body" is a prerequisite to participation. 

1 Cor. 11 : 27-29 — "Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, 
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and 
drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the- 



THE lord's supper. 547 

Lords body." Schaff, in his Church History, 2 : 517, tells us that in the Greek church, in the 
seventh and eighth centuries, the bread was dipped in the wine, and both elements were 
delivered in a spoon. See Edwards, on Qualifications for Full Communion, in Works, 
1:81. 

Secondly, — Baptism. 

In proof that baptism is a prerequisite to the Lord's Supper, we urge the 
following considerations : 

(a) The ordinance of baptism was instituted and administered long 
before the Supper. 

Mat. 21 : 25— "The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men?"— Christ here intimates 
that John's baptism had been instituted by God before his own. 

(6) The apostles who first celebrated it had, in all probability, been 
baptized. 

Acts 1 : 21, 22 — "Of the men therefore which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and 
out among us, beginning from the baptism of John .... of these must one become a witness with us of his resur- 
rection" ; 19 : 4 — "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on 
him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus." 

Several of the apostles were certainly disciples of John. If Christ was baptized, 
much more his disciples. Jesus recognized John's baptism as obligatory, and it is not 
probable that he would take his apostles from among those who had not submitted to it. 
John the Baptist himself, the first administrator of baptism, must have been himself 
unbaptized. But the twelve could fitly administer it, because they had themselves 
received it at John's hands. See Arnold, Terms of Communion, 17. 

( c ) The command of Christ fixes the place of baptism as first in order 
after discipleship. 

Mat. 28 : 19, 20— "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of ail the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you" — here 
the first duty is to make disciples, the second to baptize, the third to instruct in right 
Christian living. Is it said that there is no formal command to admit only baptized 
persons to the Lord's Supper? We reply that there is no formal command to admit 
only regenerate persons to baptism. In both cases, the practice of the apostles and the 
general connections of Christian doctrine are sufficient to determine our duty. 

( d ) All the recorded cases show this to have been the order observed by 
the first Christians and sanctioned by the apostles. 

Acts 2 : 41, 46 — "Then they that received his word were baptized .... And day by day, continuing steadfastly with 
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home [ rather, ' in various worship-rooms ' ] they did take their food 
with gladness and singleness of heart" ; 8 : 12— "And when they believed Philip .... they were baptized" ; 10 : 
47, 48— "Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well 
as we ? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ " ; 22 : 16 — " And now why tarriest thou ? 
Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name." 

( e ) The symbolism of the ordinances requires that baptism should pre- 
cede the Lord's Supper. The order of the facts signified must be expressed 
in the order of the ordinances which signify them ; else the world is taught 
that sanctification may take place without regeneration. Birth must come 
before sustenance — 'nascimur, pascwvur.' To enjoy ceremonial jjrivi- 
leges, there must be ceremonial qualifications. As none but the circum- 
cised could eat the passover, so before eating with the Christian family 
must come adoption into the Christian family. 

As one must be "born of the Spirit" before he can experience the sustaining influence of 
Christ, so he must be " born of water " before he can properly be nourished by the Lord's 
Supper. Neither the unborn nor the dead can eat bread or drink wine. Only when 
Christ had raised the daughter of the Jewish ruler to life, did he say : " Give her to eat." The 
ordinance which symbolizes regeneration, or the impartation of new life, must precede 
the ordinance which symbolizes the strengthening and perfecting of the life already 
1 c; un- 



548 ECCLESIOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

(/) The standards of all evangelical denominations, with unimportant 
exceptions, confirm the view that this is the natural interpretation of the 
Scripture requirements respecting the order of the ordinances. 

"The only protest of note has been made by a portion of the English Baptists." To 
these should he added the comparatively small body of the Tree Will Baptists in Amer- 
ica. Pedobaptist churches in general refuse full membership, office-holding, and the 
ministry, to unbaptized persons. The Presbyterian church does not admit to the com- 
munion members of the Society of Friends. Not one of the great evangelical denom- 
inations accepts Robert Hall's maxim that the only terms of communion are terms of 
salvation. If individual ministers announce this principle and conform their practice 
to it, it is only because they transgress the standards of the churches to which they 
belong. 

See Tyerman's Oxford Methodists, preface, page vi— "Even in Georgia, Wesley 
excluded dissenters from the Holy Communion, on the ground that they had not been 
properly baptized ; and he would himself baptize only by immersion, unless the child 
or person was in a weak state of health." Baptist Noel gave it as his reason for sub- 
mitting to baptism, that to approach the Lord's Supper conscious of not being baptized 
would be to act contrary to all the precedents of Scripture. See Curtis, Progress of 
Baptist Principles, 304. 

(g) The practical results of the opposite view are convincing proof that 
the order here insisted on is the order of nature as well as of Scripture. 
The admission of unbaptized persons to the communion tends always to, 
and has frequently resulted in, the disuse of baptism itself, the obscuring 
of the truth which it symbolizes, the transformation of scripturally constiv 
tuted churches into bodies organized after methods of human invention, 
and the complete destruction of both church and ordinances as Christ 
originally constituted them. 

Arnold, Terms of Communion, 76: The steps of departure from Scriptural prece- 
dent have not unfrequently been the following: (1) administration of baptism on a 
week-day evening, to avoid giving offence ; ( 2 ) reception, without baptism, of persons 
renouncing belief in the baptism of their infancy; (3) giving up of the Lord's Supper 
as non-essential, — to be observed or not observed by each individual, according as he 
finds it useful ; ( 4 ) choice of a pastor who will not advocate Baptist views ; ( 5 ) adop- 
tion of Congregational articles of faith ; ( 6 ) discipline and exclusion of members for 
propagating Baptist doctrine. John Bunyan's church, once either an open communion 
church or a mixed church both of baptized and unbaptized believers, is now a regular 
Congregational body. Armitage, History of the Baptists, 482 sg., claims that it was orig- 
inally a Baptist church. Vedder, however, in Bap. Quar. Rev., 1886 : 289, says that " The 
church at Bedford is proved by indisputable documentary evidence never to have been 
a Baptist church in any strict sense." The results of the principle of open communion 
are certainly seen in the Regent's Park church in London, where some of the deacons 
have never been baptized in any form. See also Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 
296-298. 

Thirdly, — Church membership. 

( a ) The Lord's Supper is a church ordinance, observed by churches of 
Christ as such. For this reason, membership in the church naturally pre- 
cedes communion. Since communion is a family rite, the participant 
should first be a member of the family. 

Acts 2 : 46, 47 — "breaking bread at home [rather, 'in various worship-rooms'] " (see Com. of Meyer) ; 
20 : 7 — "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" ; 1 Cor. 11 : 18, 22 — "when 
je come together in the church .... have ye not houses to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the church of God, and 
put them to shame that have not? " 

(6) The Lord's Supper is a symbol of church fellowship. Excommuni- 
cation implies nothing, if it does not imply exclusion from the communion. 
If the Supper is simply communion of the individual with Christ, then the 
church has no right to exclude any from it. 



THE loed's suppee. 549 

1 Cor. 10 : 17 — " we, -who are many, are one bread, one body : for we all partake of the one bread." Though the 
Lord's Supper primarily symbolizes fellowship with Christ, it symbolizes secondarily 
fellowship with the church of Christ. Not all believers in Christ were present at the 
first celebration of the Supper, but only those organized into a body —the apostles. I 
can invite proper persons to my tea-table, but that does not give them the right to come 
uninvited. Each church, therefore, should invite visiting members of sister churches 
to partake with it. The Lord's Supper is an ordinance by itself, and should not be 
celebrated at conventions and associations, simply to lend dignity to something else. 

The Panpresbyterian Council at Philadelphia, in 1880, refused to observe the Lord's 
Supper together, upon the ground that the Supper is a church ordinance, to be observed 
only by those who are amenable to the discipline of the body, and therefore not to be 
observed by separate church organizations acting together. Substantially upon this 
ground, the Old School General Assembly long before, being invited to unite at the 
Lord's table with the Xew School body with whom they had dissolved ecclesiastical 
relations, declined to do so. See Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 304; Arnold, 
Terms of Communion, 36. 

Fourthly, — An orderly walk. 

Disorderly walking designates a course of life in a church member which 
is contrary to the precepts of the gospel. It is a bar to participation in the 
Lord's Supper, the sign of church fellowship. "With Arnold, we may class 
disorderly walking under four heads : — 

(a) Immoral conduct. 

1 Cor. 5 : 1-13— Paul commands the Corinthian church to exclude the incestuous person : 
" I wrote unto you in my epistle to hare no company with fornicators .... but now I write unto you, not to keep 
company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or 

an eitortioner ; with such a one no, not to eat Put away the wicked man from among yourselves."— Here 

it is evident that the most serious forms of disorderly walking require. exclusion not 
only from church fellowship but from Christian fellowship as well. 

( b ) Disobedience to the commands of Christ. 

1 Cor. 14 : 37 — "If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things 
which I write unto you, that they are the commandments of the Lord " ; 2 Thess. 3 : 6, 11, 15 — "Now we command you, 
brethren, .... that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition 

which they received of us For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are 

busy bodies And if any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man, that ye have no company with 

him, to the end that he may be ashamed. And yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." 
— Here is exclusion from church fellowship, and from the Lord's Supper its sign, while 
yet the offender is not excluded from Christian fellowship, but is still counted "a brother." 
Versus G. B. Stevens, in N. Englander, 1887 : 40-47. 

In these passages Paul intimates that "not to walk after the tradition received from 
him, not to obey the word contained in his epistles, is the same as disobedience to the 
commands of Christ, and as such involves the forfeiture of church fellowship and its 
privileged tokens" (Arnold, Prerequisities to Communion, 68). Since Baptism is a 
command of Christ, it follows that we cannot properly commune with the unbaptized. 
To admit such to the Lord's Supper is to give the symbol of church fellowship to those 
who, in spite of the fact that they are Christian brethren, are. though perhaps uncon- 
sciously, violating the fundamental law of the church. To withhold protest against 
plain disobedience to Christ's commands is to that extent to countenance such disobedi- 
ence. The same disobedience which in the church member we should denominate 
disorderly walking must a fortiori destroy all right to the Lord's Supper on the part of 
those who are not members of the church. 

( c ) Heresy, or the holding aud teaching of false doctrine. 

Titus 3 : 10 — " i man that is heretical [ Am. Revisers : ' a factious man ' ] after a first and second admonition 
refuse" ; see Ellicott, Com. in loco: " aipenxos avflpamo? = one who gives rise to divisions by 
erroneous teaching, not necessarily of a fundamentally heterodox nature, but of the 
kind just described in verse 9." Cf. Acts 20 : 30— "Prom among your own selves shall men arise, speaking 
perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them " 1 John 4 : 2, 3—" Hereby know ye the Spirit of God : every 
spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not 
of God : and this is the spirit of the antichrist." 



550 ECCLESIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 

The Panpresbyterian Council, mentioned above, refused to admit to their body the 
Cumberland Presbyterians, because, though the latter adhere to the Presbyterian form 
of church government, they are Arminian in their views of the doctrines of grace. As 
we have seen, on page 527, that Baptism is a confession of evangelical faith, so here we 
see that the Lord's Supper also is a confession of evangelical faith, and that no one can 
properly participate in it who denies the doctrines of sin, of the deity, incarnation and 
atonement of Christ, and of justification by faith, which the Lord's Supper symbolizes. 
Such denial should exclude from all Christian fellowship as well. 

There is a heresy which involves exclusion only from church fellowship. Since pedo- 
baptists hold and propagate false doctrine with regard to the church and its ordinances 
— doctrine which endangers the spirituality of the church, the sufficiency of the 
Scriptures, and the lordship of Christ — we cannot properly admit them to the Lord's 
Supper. To admit them or to partake with them, would be to treat falsehood as if it 
were truth. Arnold, Prerequisites to Communion, 73— "Pedobaptists are guilty of 
teaching that the baptized are not members of the church, or that membership in the 
church is not voluntary; that there are two sorts of baptism, one of which is a 
profession of faith of the person baptized, and the other is profession of faith of another 
person ; that regeneration is given in and by baptism, or that the church is composed in 
great part of persons who do not give, and were never supposed to give, any evidence of 
regeneration ; that the church has a right to change essentially one of Christ's institu- 
tions, or that it is unessential whether it be observed as he ordained it or in some other 
manner ; that baptism may be rightfully administered in a way which makes much of 
the language in which it is described in the Scriptures wholly unsuitable and inapplicable, 
and which does not at all represent the facts and doctrines which baptism is declared in 
the Scriptures to represent; that the Scriptures are not in all religious matters the 
sufficient and only binding rule of faith and practice." 

(d) Schism, or the promotion of division and dissension in the church. 
— This also requires exclusion from church fellowship, and from the Lord's 
Supper which is its appointed sign. 

Rom. 16 : 17 — "Now I beseech you, brethren, mari them which are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, 
contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them." Since pedobaptists, by their 
teaching and practice, draw many away from scripturally constituted churches,— thus 
dividing true believers from each other and weakening the bodies organized after the 
model of the New Testament,— it is imperative upon us to separate ourselves from 
them, so far as regards that communion at the Lord's table which is the sign of church 
fellowship. Mr. Spurgeon admits pedobaptists to commune with his church "for two 
or three months." Then they are kindly asked whether they are pleased with the 
church, its preaching, doctrine, form of government, etc. If they say they are pleased, 
they are asked if they are not disposed to be baptized and become members? If so 
inclined, all is well ; but if not, they are kindly told that it is not desirable for them to 
commune longer. Thus baptism is held to precede church membership and permanent 
communion, although temporary communion is permitted without it. 

Arnold, Prerequisites to Communion, 80— "It may perhaps be objected that the pas- 
sages cited under the four preceding subdivisions refer to church fellowship in a general 
way, without any specific reference to the Lord's Supper. In reply to this objection, I 
would answer, in the first place, that having endeavored previously to establish the 
position that the Lord's Supper is an ordinance to be celebrated in the church, and 
expressive of church fellowship, I felt at liberty to use the passages that enjoin the with- 
drawal of that fellowship as constructively enjoining exclusion from the Communion, 
which is its chief token. I answer, secondly, that the principle ,here assumed seems 
to me to pervade the Scriptural teachings so thoroughly that it is next to impossible 
to lay down any Scriptural terms of communion at the Lord's table, except upon the 
admission that the ordinance is inseparably connected with church fellowship. To treat 
the subject otherwise, would be, as it appears to me, a violent putting asunder of what 
the Lord has joined together. The objection suggests an additional argument in favor 
of our position that the Lord's Supper is a church ordinance." , 

D. The local church is the judge whether these prerequisites are 
fulfilled in the case of persons desiring to partake of the Lord's Supper. — 
This is evident from the following considerations : 



THE LORD'S SUPPER. 551 

( a ) The command to observe the ordinance was given, not to individuals, 
but to a company. 

(6) Obedience to this command is not an individual act, but is the joint 
act of many. 

( c ) The regular observance of the Lord's Supper cannot be secured, nor 
the qualifications of persons desiring to participate in it be scrutinized, 
unless some distinct organized body is charged with this responsibility. 

"What is everybody's business is nobody's business." If there be any power of 
effective scrutiny, it must be lodged in the local church. 

(d) The only organized body known to the New Testament is the local 
church, and this is the only body, of any sort, competent to have charge of 
the ordinances. The invisible church has no officers. 

(e) The New Testament accounts indicate that the Lord's Supper was 
observed only at regular appointed meetings of local churches, and was 
observed by these churches as regularly organized bodies. 

Acts 20 : 7 — " AM upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread " ; 1 Cor. 11 : 18,. 
-20, 22, 33 — " When ye come together in the church .... When therefore ye assemble yourselves together .... 
Despise ye the church of God ? ... . When ye come together to eat." 

(/) Since the duty of examining the qualifications of candidates for 
baptism and for membership is vested in the local church and is essential 
to its distinct existence, the analogy of the ordinances would lead us to 
believe that the scrutiny of qualifications for participation in the Lord's 
Supper rests with the same body. 

The minister is not to administer the ordinance of the Lord's Supper at his own option, 
any more than the ordinance of Baptism. He is simply the organ of the church. He is 
to follow the rules of the church as to invitations and as to the mode of celebrating the 
ordinance, of course instructing the church as to the order of the New Testament. In 
case of sick members who desire to communicate, brethren may be deputed by the 
church to hold a special meeting of the church at the private house or sick-room, and 
then only may the pastor officiate. On the whole subject, see Madison Avenue Lec- 
tures, 217-260; A. H. Strong, on Christian Truth and its Keepers, in Philosophy and 
Religion, 238-244. 

E. Special objections to open communion. 

The advocates of this view claim that baptism, as not being an indispen- 
sable term of salvation, cannot properly be made an indispensable term of 
communion. 

Robert Hall, Works, 1 : 285, held that there can be no proper terms of communion 
which are not also terms of salvation. He claims that " we are expressly commanded 
to tolerate in the church all those diversities of opinion which are not inconsistent with 
salvation." For the open communion view, see also John M. Mason, Works, 1 : 3-369; 
Princeton Review, Oct., 1850 ; Bib. Sac, 21 : 449 ; 24 : 482 ; 25 : 401 ; Spirit of the Pilgrims, 
6 : 103, 142. But, as Curtis remarks, in his Progress of Baptist Principles, 292, this prin- 
ciple would utterly frustrate the very objects for which visible churches were founded 
— to be " the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3 : 15 ); for truth is set forth as forcibly in 
ordinances as in doctrine. 

In addition to what has already been said, we reply : 

( a ) This view is contrary to the belief and practice of all but an insig- 
nificant fragment of organized Christendom. 

A portion of the English Baptists, and the Free Will Baptists in America, are the only 
bodies which in their standards of faith accept and maintain the principle of open com- 
munion. 

( b ) It assumes an unscriptural inequality between the two ordinances. 



552 ECCLESIOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHUKCH. 

The Lord's Supper holds no higher rank in Scripture than does baptism.. 
The obligation to commune is no more binding than the obligation to pro- 
fess faith by being baptized. Open communion, however, treats baptism 
as if it were optional, while it insists upon communion as indispensable. 

Robert Hall should rather have said : " No church has a right to establish terms of 
baptism which are not also terms of salvation," for baptism is most frequently in 
Scripture connected with the things that accompany salvation. We believe faith to be 
one prerequisite, but not the only one. "We may hold a person to be a Christian without 
thinking him entitled to commune unless he has been also baptized. 

( c ) It tends to do away with baptism altogether. If the highest privi- 
lege of church membership may be enjoyed without baptism, baptism loses 
its place and importance as the initiatory ordinance of the church. 

Robert Hall would admit to the Lord's Supper those who deny baptism to be perpetu- 
ally binding on the church. A foreigner may love this country, but he cannot vote 
at our elections unless he has been naturalized. Ceremonial rites imply ceremonial 
qualifications. 

(<2) It tends to do away with all discipline. When Christians offend, 
the church must withdraw its fellowship from them. But upon the prin- 
ciple of open communion, such withdrawal is impossible, since the Lord's 
Supper, the highest expression of church fellowship, is open to every 
person who regards himself as a Christian. 

H. E. Colby : " Ought we to acknowledge that evangelical pedobaptists are qualified 
to partake of the Lord's Supper ? We are ready to admit them on precisely the same 
terms on which we admit ourselves. Our communion bars come to be a protest, but 
from no plan of ours. They become a protest merely as every act of loyality to truth 
becomes a protest against error." 

( e ) It tends to do away with the visible church altogether. For no 
visible church is possible, unless some sign of membership be required, in 
addition to the signs of membership in the invisible church. Open 
communion logically leads to open church membership, and a church 
membership open to all, without reference to the qualifications required 
in Scripture, or without examination on the part of the church as to the 
existence of these qualifications in those who unite with it, is virtually an 
identification of the church with the world, and, without protest from 
scripturally constituted bodies, would finally result in its actual extinction. 

At the Free Will Baptist Convention at Providence, Oct., 1874, the question came up 
of admitting pedobaptists to membership. This was disposed of by resolving that 
" Christian baptism is a personal act of public consecration to Christ, and that believers' 
baptism and immersion alone, as baptism, are fundamental principles of the denomina- 
tion." In other words, unimmersed believers would not be admitted to membership. 
But is it not the Lord's church ? Have we a right to exclude ? Is this not bigotry ? 
The Free Will Baptist answers : " No, it is only loyalty to truth." 

We claim that, upon the same principle, he should go further, and refuse to admit to 
the communion those whom he refuses to admit to church membership. The reasons 
assigned for acting upon the opposite principle are sentimental rather than rational. 
See John Stuart Mill's definition of sentimentality, quoted in Martineau's Essays, 1 : 94 
— *' Sentimentality consists in setting the sympathetic aspect of things, or their love- 
ableness, above their aesthetic aspect, their beauty ; or above the moral aspect of them, 
their right or wrong." 

Objections to Strict Communion, and Answers to them (condensed from 
Arnold, Terms of Communion, 82 ) : 

" 1st. Primitive rules are not applicable now. Reply : ( 1 ) The laws of Christ are 
unchangeable. (2) The primitive order ought to be restored. 

"2nd. Baptism, as an external rite, is of less importance than love. Reply: (1) It is 



THE lord's suppee. 553 

not inconsistent with love, but the mark of love, to keep Christ's commandments. 

(2) Love for our brethren requires protest against their errors. 

"3rd. Pedobaptists think themselves baptized. Reply: (1) This is a reason why they 
should act as if they believed it, not a reason why we should act as if it were so. ( 2 ) We 
cannot submit our consciences to their views of truth without harming ourselves and 
them. 

" 4th. Strict communion is a hindrance to union among Christians. Reply : ( 1 ) Christ 
desires only union in the truth. (2) Baptists are not responsible for the separation. 

(3) Mixed communion is not a cure but a cause of disunion. 

" 5th. The rule excludes from the communion baptized members of pedobaptist churches. 
Reply: (1) These persons are walking disorderly, in promoting error. (2) The Lord's 
Supper is a symbol of church fellowship, not of fellowship for individuals, apart from 
their church relations. 

"6th. A plea for dispensing uMh the rule exists in extreme cases where persons must 
commune with us or not at all. Reply : (1 ) It is hard to fix limits to these exceptions : 
they would be likely to encroach more and more, till the rule became merely nominal. 
(2) It is a greater privilege and means of grace, in such circumstances, to abstain from 
communing, than contrary to principle to participate. ( 3 ) It is not right to participate 
with others, where we cannot invite them reciprocally. 

"7th. Alleged inconsistency of our practice,— ( a) Since we expect to commune in 
heaven. Reply: This confounds Christian fellowship with church fellowship. "We do 
commune with pedobaptists spiritually, here as hereafter. We do not expect to par- 
take of the Lord's Supper with them, or with others, in heaven. ( b ) Since we reject the 
better and receive the worse. Reply : We are not at liberty to refuse to apply Christ's 
outward rule, because we cannot equally apply his inward spiritual rule of character. 
Pedobaptists withhold communion from those they regard as unbaptized, though they 
may be more spiritual than some in the church. ( c ) Since we recognize pedobaptists as 
brethren in union meetings, exchange of pulpits, etc. Reply : None of these acts of 
fraternal fellowship imply the church communion which admission to the Lord's table 
would imply. This last would recognize them as baptized : the former do not. 

"8th. Alleged impolicy of our practice. Reply: ( 1 ) This consideration would be per- 
tinent, only if we were at liberty to change our practice when it was expedient, or was 
thought to be so. ( 2 ) Any particular truth will inspire respect in others in proportion 
as its advocates show that they respect it. In England our numbers have diminished, 
compared with the population, in the ratio of 33 per cent. ; here we have increased 50 
per cent., in proportion to the ratio of population. 

"Summary. Open communion must be justified, if at all, on one of four grounds: 
First, that baptism is not prerequisite to communion. But this is opposed to the belief 
and practice of all churches. Secondly, that immersion on profession of faith is not 
essential to baptism. But this is renouncing Baptist principles altogether. Thirdly, that 
the individual, and not the church, is to be the judge of his qualifications for admission 
to the communion. But this is contrary to sound reason, and fatal to the ends for which 
the church is instituted. For, if the conscience of the individual is to be the rule of the 
action of the church in regard to his admission to the Lord's Supper, why not also with 
regard to his regeneration, his doctrinal belief, and his obedience to Christ's commands 
generally? Fourthly, that the church has no responsibility in regard to the qualifica- 
tions of those who come to her communion. But this is abandoning the principle of the 
independence of the churches, and their accountableness to Christ, and it overthrows all 
church discipline." 

See also Hovey, in Bib. Sac, 1862 : 133 ; Pepper, in Bap. Quar., 1867 : 216 ; Curtis on 
Communion, 292 ; Howell, Terms of Communion ; Williams, The Lord's Supper ; Theo- 
dosia Ernest, pub. by Am. Bap. Pub. Soc. ; Wilkinson, The Baptist Principle. In con- 
cluding our treatment of Ecclesiology, we desire to call attention to the fact that Jacob, 
the English Churchman, in his Ecclesiastical Polity of the N. T., and Cunningham, the 
Scotch Presbyterian, in his Croall Lectures for 1886, have furnished Baptists with much 
valuable material for the defence of the New Testament doctrine of the Church and its 
Ordinances. In fact, a complete statement of the Baptist positions might easily be con- 
structed from the concessions of their various opponents. See A. H. Strong, on Uncon- 
scious Assumptions of Communion Polemics, in Philosophy and Religion, 245-249. 



PAET VIII. 

ESCHATOLOGY, OB THE DOCTEINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

Neither the individual Christian character, nor the Christian church as a 
whole, attains its destined perfection in this life (Bom. 8 : 24). This per- 
fection is reached in the world to come (1 Cor. 13 : 10). As preparing the 
way for the kingdom of God in its completeness, certain events are to take 
place, such as death, Christ's second coming, the resurrection of the body, 
the general judgment. As stages in the future condition of men, there is 
to be an intermediate and an ultimate state, both for the righteous and for 
the wicked. We discuss these events and states in what appears from 
Scripture to be the order of their occurrence. 

Rom. 8 : 24 —"in hope were we saved : but hope that is seen is not hope : for who hopeth for that which he seeth ? " 
1 Cor. 13 : 10— "when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away." Original sin is 
not wholly eradicated from the Christian, and the Holy Spirit is not yet sole ruler. So, 
too, the church is still in a state of conflict, and victory is hereafter. But as the Christian 
life attains its completeness only in the future, so with the life of sin. Death begins 
here, but culminates hereafter. James 1 : 15 — "the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death." 
The wicked man here has only a foretaste of " the wrath to come " ( Mat. 3:7). We may "lay up 
.... treasures in heaven" (Mat. 6 : 20), but we may also "treasure up for ourselves wrath" (Rom. 2:5), 
i. e., lay up treasure in hell. 

Dorner : " To the actuality of the consummation of the church belongs a cessation of 
reproduction through which there is constantly renewed a world which the church 

must subdue The mutually external existence of spirit and nature must give 

way to a perfect internal existence. Their externality to each other is the ground of 
the mortality of the natural side, and of its being a means of temptation to the spirit- 
ual side. Tor in this externality the natural side has still too great independence and 
exerts a determining power over the personality .... Art, the beautiful, receives in 
the future state its special place ; for it is the way of art to delight in visible presenta- 
tion, to achieve the classical and perfect with unfettered play of its powers. Every one 
morally perfect will thus wed the good to the beautiful. In the rest, there will be no 
inactivity; and in the activity also, no unrest." 

Schleiermacher : "Eschatology is essentially prophetic; and is therefore vague and 
indefinite, like all unfulfilled prophecy." Schiller's Thekla : " Every thought of beauti- 
ful, trustful seeming Stands fulfilled in heaven's eternal day ; Shrink not then from 
erring and from dreaming, — Lofty sense lies oft in childish play." Frances Power Cobbe, 
Peak of Darien, 265 — "Human nature is a ship with the tide out; when the tide of 
eternity comes in, we shall see the purpose of the ship." See, on the whole subject of 
Eschatology, Luthardt, Lehre von den letzten Dingen, and Saving Truths of Christian- 
ity ; Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 : 713-880 ; Hovey, Biblical Eschatology. 

I. Physical Death. 

Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. We distin- 
guish it from spiritual death, or the separation of the soul from God ; and 
from the second death, or the banishment from God and final misery of the 
reunited soul and body of the wicked. 

554 









PHYSICAL DEATH. 555 

Spiritual death : Is. 59 : 2 — " But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have 
hid his face from you, that he will not hear " ; Rom. 7 : 24 — " wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me out of 
the body of this death?" Eph. 2 : 1 — "dead through your trespasses and sins." The second death: Rev. 2: 
11— "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death " ; 20 : 14 — "And death and Hades were cast into the 
lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire " ; 21 : 8 — "But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abom- 
inable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that 
burneth with fire and brimstone ; which is the second death." 

Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, 2 : 303— " Spiritual death, the inner discord and enslave- 
ment of the soul, and the misery resulting therefrom, to which belongs that other death, 
the second death, an outward condition corresponding to that inner slavery." Trench, 
Epistles to the Seven Churches, 151 — " This phrase [ ' second death ' ] is itself a solem protest 
against the Sadduceeism and Epicureanism which would make natural death the be-all 
and end-all of existence. As there is a life beyond the present life for the faithful, so 
there is a death beyond that which falls under our eyes for the wicked." 

Although physical death falls upon the unbeliever as the original penalty 
of sin, to all who are united to Christ it loses its aspect of penalty, and 
becomes a means of discipline and of entrance into eternal life. 

To the Christian physical death is not a penalty : see Ps. 116 : 15 — " Precious in the sight of the 
lord is the death of his saints " ; Rom. 8 : 10 — " And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit 
is life because of righteousness" ; 14 : 8 — "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; or whether we die, we die 
unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's" ; 1 Cor. 3 : 22 — "whether Paul, or Apollos, or 
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours" ; 15 : 55— "0 death, where 
is thy victory ? death, where is thy sting ? " 1 Pet. 4 : 6 — " For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the 
dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit" ; c/. Rom. 1 : 
18 — " For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the 
truth in unrighteousness" ; 8 : 1, 2— "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For 
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death " ; Heb. 12 : 6 — " For whom 
the Lord loveth he chasteneth." 

Dr. Hovey says that "the present sufferings of believers are in the nature of disci- 
pline, with an aspect of retribution; while the present sufferings of unbelievers are 
retributive, with a glance toward reformation." We prefer to say that all penalty has 
been borne by Christ, and that, for him who is justified in Christ, suffering of whatever 
kind is of the nature of fatherly chastening, never of judicial retribution ; see our dis- 
cussion of the Penalty of Sin, page 354. 

To neither saint nor sinner is death a cessation of being. This we main- 
tain, against the advocates of annihilation : 

1. Upon rational grounds. 

(a) The metaphysical argument. — The soul is simple, not compounded. 
Death, in matter, is the separation of parts. But in the soul there are no 
parts to be separated. The dissolution of the body, therefore, does not 
necessarily work a dissolution of the soul. But, since there is an immaterial 
principle in the brute, and this argument taken by itself might seem to 
prove the immortality of the animal creation equally with that of man, we 
pass to consider the next argument. 

The immateriality of the brute mind was probably the consideration which led Bishop 
Butler, John Wesley, and Louis Agassiz to encourage the belief in animal immortality. 
See Bp. Butler, Analogy, part i, chap, i ( Bonn's ed., 81-91 ) ; Agassiz, Essay on Classifica- 
tion, 99— "Most of the arguments for the immortality of man apply equally to the per- 
manency of this principle in other living beings." St. Francis of Assisi preached to birds, 
and called the cricket his sister. " If death dissipates the sagacity of the elephant, why 
not that of his captor ? " It is better, therefore, to regard this argument as simply show- 
ing the inconclusiveness of materialism, and as leaving the matter open for positive 
proof from revelation. 

Mansel, Metaphysics, 371, maintains that all this argument proves is that the objector 
cannot show the soul to be compound, and so cannot show that it is destructible. Calder- 
wood, Moral Philosophy, 259 — " The facts which point toward the termination of our 
present state of existence are connected with our physical nature, not with our men- 
tal." John Fiske, Destiny of the Creature, 110— "With his illegitimate hypothesis of 






556 ESCHATOLOGY, OK THE DOCTKINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

annihilation, the materialist transgresses the bounds of experience quite as widely as 
the poet who sings of the New Jerusalem, with its river of life and its streets of gold. 
Scientifically speaking, there is not a particle of evidence for either view." On the 
theory that the soul's consciousness is dependent on its vital connection with the brain, 
see Hovey, Bib. Eschatology, 19 — " If I am in a house, I can look upon the surrounding 
objects only through its windows ; but open the door and let me go out of the house, 
and the windows are no longer of any use to me." See also Martineau, Study, 2 : 333, 
337, 363-365. 

It may be further objected to our argument, that death is not, as we define it, a sepa- 
ration of parts, but rather a cessation of consciousness ; and that therefore, while the 
substance of human nature may endure, mankind may ever develop into new forms, 
without individual immortality. To this we reply, that man's self-consciousness and 
self-determination are different in kind from the consciousness and determination of 
the brute. As man can direct his self -consciousness and self-determination to immortal 
ends, we have the right to believe this self -consciousness and self-determination to be 
immortal. This leads us to the next argument. 

(6) The teleological argument. — Man, as an intellectual, moral, and 
religious being, does not attain the end of his existence on earth. His 
development is imperfect here. Divine wisdom will not leave its work 
incomplete. There must oe a hereafter for the full growth of man's powers, 
and for the satisfaction of his aspirations. Created, unlike the brute, with 
infinite capacities for moral progress, there must be an immortal existence 
in which those capacities shall be brought into exercise. Though the wicked 
forfeit all claim to this future, we have here an argument from God's love 
and wisdom to the immortality of the righteous. 

In reply to this argument, it has been said that many right wishes are vain. Mill, 
Essays on Religion, 294—" Desire for food implies enough to eat, now and forever ? hence 
an eternal supply of cabbage?" But our argument proceeds upon three presupposi- 
tions: (1) that a holy and benevolent God exists ; (2) that he has made man in his 
image; (3) that man's true end is holiness and likeness to God. Therefore, what will 
answer the true end of man will be furnished; but that is not cabbage— it is holiness 
and love, i. e., God himself. See Martineau, Study, 2 : 370-381. 

The argument, however, is valuable only in its application to the righteous. God will 
not treat the righteous as the tyrant of Florence treated Michael Angelo, when he bade 
him carve out of ice a statue, which would melt under the first rays of the sun. In the 
case of the wicked, the other law of retribution comes in — the taking away of "even that 
which he hath " (Mat. 25 : 29 ). Since we are all wicked, the argument is not satisfactory, unless 
we take into account the further facts of atonement and justification — facts of which 
we learn from revelation alone. 

But while, taken by itself, this rational argument might be called defective, and could 
never prove that man may not attain his end in the continued existence of the race, 
rather than in that of the individual, the argument appears more valuable as a rational 
supplement to the facts already mentioned, and seems to render certain at least the 
immortality of those upon whom God has set his love, and in whom he has wrought the 
beginnings of righteousness. 

(c) The ethical argument. — Man is not, in this world, adequately pun- 
ished for his evil deeds. Our sense of justice leads us to believe that God's 
moral administration will be vindicated in a life to come, Mere extinction 
of being would not be a sufficient penalty, nor would it permit degrees of 
punishment corresponding to degrees of guilt. This is therefore an argu- 
ment from God's justice to the immortality of the wicked. The guilty con- 
science demands a state after death for punishment. 

This is an argument from God's justice to the immortality of the wicked, as the pre- 
ceding was an argument from God's love to the immortality of the righteous. " History 
defies our moral sense by giving a peaceful end to Sulla." Louis XV and Madame Pom- 
padour died in their beds, after a life of extreme luxury. Louis XVI and his queen, 
though far more just and pure, perished by an appalling tragedy. The fates of these 
four cannot be explained by the wickedness of the latter pair and the virtue of the 






PHYSICAL DEATH. 55 T 

former. Since there is not always an execution of justice here, we feel that there must 
be a "judgment to come," such as that which terrified Felix ( Acts 24 : 25 ). Martineau, Study. 
2 : 383-388. Stopford A. Brooke, Justice : "Three men went out one summer night, Xo 
care had they or aim, And dined and drank. k 'Ere we go home We'll have,' they said, 
'a game.' Three girls began that summer night A life of endless shame, And went 
through drink, disease, and death As swift as racing flame. Lawless and homeless, 
foul, they died; Rich, loved, and praised, the men; But when they all shall meet with 
God, And Justice speaks,— what then?" 

This argument has probably more power over the minds of men than any other. Men 
believe in Minos and Rhadamanthus, if not in the Elysian Fields. But even here it may 
be replied that the judgment which conscience threatens, may be, not immortality, but 
extinction of being. We shall see, however, in our discussion of the endlessness of 
future punishment, that mere annihilation cannot satisfy the moral instinct which lies 
at the basis of this argument. That demands a punishment proportioned in each case 
to the guilt incurred by transgression. Extinction of being would be the same to all. 
As it would not admit of degrees, so it would not, in any case, sufficiently vindicate 
God's righteousness. 

But while this argument proves life and punishment for the wicked after death, it 
leaves us dependent on revelation for our knowledge how long that life and punishment 
will be. Kant's argument is that man strives equally for morality and for well-being ; 
but morality often requires the sacrifice of well-being ; hence there must be a future 
reconciliation of the two in the well-being or reward of virtue. To all of which it might 
be answered, first, that there is no virtue so perfect as to merit reward ; and secondly, 
that virtue is its own reward, and so fa well-being. 

(d) The historical argument. — The popular belief of all nations and ages 
shows that the idea of immortality is natural to the human mind. It is not 
sufficient to say that this indicates only such desire for continued earthly 
existence as is necessary to self-preservation ; for multitudes expect a life 
beyond death without desiring it, and multitudes desire a heavenly life 
-without caring for the earthly. This testimony of man's nature to immor- 
tality may be regarded as the testimony of the God who made the nature. 

Testimonies to this popular belief are given in Bartlett, Life and Death Eternal, pref- 
ace : The arrow-heads and earthen vessels laid by the side of the dead Indian ; the silver 
obolus put in the mouth of the dead Greek to pay Charon's passage money ; the furnish- 
ing of the Egyptian corpse with the Book of the Dead, the papyrus-roll containing the 
prayer he is to offer and the chart of his journey through the unseen world. 

But it may be replied, that many universal popular impressions have proved false, 
such as belief in ghosts, and in the moving of the sun round the earth. While the mass 
of men have believed in immortality, some of the wisest have been doubters. Cyrus 
said : "I cannot imagine that the soul lives only while it remains in this mortal body." 
But the dying words of Socrates were : " We part ; I am going to die, and you to five ; 
which of us goes the better way is known to God alone." Cicero declared : " Upon this 
subject I entertain no more than conjectures;" and said that, when he was reading 
Plato's argument for immortality, he seemed to himself convinced, but when he laid 
down the book he found that all his doubts returned. 

Aristotle, Nic. Ethics, 3 : 9, calls death "the most to be feared of all things .... for it 
appears to be the end of everything ; and for the deceased there appears to be no longer 
either any good or any evil." uEschylus : " Of one once dead there is no resurrection." 
Catullus: "When once our brief day has set, we must sleep one everlasting night.'' 
Tacitus : " If there is a place for the spirits of the pious ; if, as the wise suppose, great 
souls do not become extinct with their bodies." "In that If" says Uhlhorn, "lies the 
whole torturing uncertainty of heathenism." 

The most that can be claimed for this fourth argument from popular belief is that it 
indicates a general appetency for continued existence after death, and that the idea is 
congruous with our nature. W. E. Forster said to Harriet Martineau that he would 
rather be damned than be annihilated ; see F. P. Cobbe, Peak of Darien, 4t. But it may 
be replied that there is reason enough for this desire for life in the fact that it ensures 
the earthly existence of the race, which might commit universal suicide without it. 
There is reason enough in the present life for its existence, and we are not necessitated 
to infer a future life therefrom. This objection cannot be fully answered from reason 
alone. But if we take our argument in connection with the Scriptural revelation con- 



558 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

cermng God's making: of man in his image, we may regard the testimony of man's 
nature as the testimony of the God who made it. 

We conclude our statement of these rational proofs with the acknowledg- 
ment that they rest upon the presupposition that there exists a God of truth, 
wisdom, justice, and love, who has made man in his image, and who desires 
to commune with his creatures. We acknowledge, moreover, that these 
proofs give us, not an absolute demonstration, but only a balance of proba- 
bility, in favor of man's immortality. We turn therefore to Scripture for 
the clear revelation of a fact of which reason furnishes us little more than a 
presumption. 

Dorner : " There is no rational evidence which compels belief in immortality. Immor- 
tality has its pledge in God's making man in his image, and in God's will of love for 
communion with men." Luthardt, Compendium, 289—" The truth in these proofs from 
reason is the idea of human personality and its relation to God. Belief in God is the 
universal presupposition and foundation of the universal belief in immortality." 
Strauss declared that this belief in immortality is the last enemy which is to be 
destroyed. He forgot that belief in God is more ineradicable still. 

Hadley, Essays, Philological and Critical, 373-379— "The claim of immortality may be 
based on one or the other of two assumptions : ( 1 ) The same organism will be repro- 
duced hereafter, and the same functions, or part of them, again manifested in connec- 
tion with it, and accompanied with consciousness of continued identity; or, (2) The 
same functions may be exercised and accompanied with consciousness of identity, 
though not connected with the same organism as before ; may in fact go on without 
interruption, without being even suspended by death, though no longer manifested to 
us." The conclusion is : " The light of nature, when all directed to this question, does 
furnish a presumption in favor of immortality, but not so strong a presumption as to 
exclude great and reasonable doubts upon the subject." 

For an excellent synopsis of arguments and objections, see Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, 
276. See also Bowen, Metaph. and Ethics, 417-441 ; A. M. Fairbairn, on Idea of Immor- 
tality, in Studies in Philos. of Religion and of History; Wordsworth, Intimations of 
Immortality; Tennyson, Two Voices; Alger, Critical History of Doctrine of Future 
Life, with Appendix by Ezra Abbot, containing a Catalogue of Works relating to the 
Nature, Origin, and Destiny of the Soul. 

2. Upon Scriptural grounds. 

( a ) The account of man's creation, and the subsequent allusions to it in 
Scripture, show that, while the body was made corruptible and subject to 
death, the soul w r as made in the image of God, incorruptible and immortal. 

Gen. 1 : 26, 27 — "Let us make man in our image" ; 2 • 7— "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" — here, as was shown 
in our treatment of Man's Original State, page 267, it is not the divine image, but the 
body, that is formed of dust ; and into this body the soul that possesses the divine image 
is breathed. In the Hebrew records, the animating soul is everywhere distinguished 
from the earthly body. Gen. 3 : 22, 23 — "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; 
and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ; therefore the Lord 
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden" — man had immortality of soul, and now, lest to this 
he add immortality of body, he is expelled from the tree of life. Eccl. 12: 7— "the dust 
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it " ; Zech. 12 : 1 — " The Lord, which stretcheth 
forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." 

Mat. 10 : 28 — " And be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him 
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" ; Acts 7 : 59 — "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, 
and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" ; 2 Cor. 12 : 2 — "I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago ( whether in 
the body, I know not ; or whether out of the body, I know not ; God knoweth ), such a one caught up even to the third 
heaven" ; 1 Cor. 15 : 45, 46 — "The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit, 
lowbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual "= the first 
Adam was made a being whose body was psychical and mortal — a body of flesh and 
blood, that could not inherit the kingdom of God. So Paul says the spiritual is not first, 
but the psychical ; but there is no intimation that - the soul also was created mortal, and 
needed external appliances, like the tree of life, before it could enter upon immortality.. 



PHYSICAL DEATH. 559 

But it may be asked: Is not all this, in 1 Cor. 15, spoken of the regenerate — those to 
whom a new principle of life has been communicated ? We answer, yes ; but that does 
not prevent us from learning- from the passage the natural immortality of the soul ; for 
in regeneration the essence is not changed, no new substance is imparted, no new 
faculty or constitutive element is added, and no new principle of holiness is infused. 
The truth is simply that the spirit is morally readjusted. For substatice of the above 
remarks, see Hovey, State of Impenitent Dead, 1-37. 

( b ) The account of the curse in Genesis, and the subsequent allusions to 
it in Scripture, show that, while the death then incurred includes the 
dissolution of the body, it does not include cessation of being on the part 
of the soul, but only designates that state of the soul which is the opposite 
of true life, viz., a state of banishment from God, of unholiness, and of 
misery. 

Gen. 2 : 17 — "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die " ; c/. 3 : 8— "the man and his wife hid 
themselves from the presence of the Lord God ' ' ; 16-19 — the curse of pain and toil ; 22-24 — banishment 
from the garden of Eden and from the tree of life. Mat. 8 : 22— "Follow me ; and leave the dead 
to bury their own dead" ; 25 : 41, 46 — "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire ... . These shall go away 
into eternal punishment " ; Luke 15 : 32 — " this thy brother was dead, and is alive again ; and was lost, and is found " ; 
John 5 : 24 — "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judg- 
ment, but hath passed out of death into life" ; 6 : 47, 53, 63— "He that believeth hath eternal life ... . Except ye eat 
the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves .... the words that I have spoken unto 
you are spirit, and are life " ; 8 : 51 — "If a man keep my word, he shall never see death." 

Rom. 5 : 21 — "that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life" ; 
8 : 13— "if ye live after the flesh, ye must die ; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall 
live" ; Eph. 2 : 1 — "dead through your trespasses and sins" ; 5 : 14 — "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the 
dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee " ; 1 Tim. 5 : 6 — " she that giveth herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth " ; 
James 5 : 20 — " he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a 
multitude of sins"; 1 John 3: 4 — "We know that we have passed out of death unto life, because we love the 
brethren " ; Rev. 3 : 1 — " I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." 

"We are to interpret O. T. terms by the X. T. meaning put into them. We are to inter- 
pret the Hebrew by the Greek, not the Greek by the Hebrew. It never would do to 
interpret our missionaries' use of the Chinese words for " God," "spirit," "holiness," by 
the use of those words among the Chinese before the missionaries came. By the later 
usage of the N. T., the Holy Spirit shows us what he meant by the usage of the O. T. 

(c) The Scriptural expressions, held by annihilationists to imply cessa- 
tion of being on the part of the wicked, are used not only in connections 
where they cannot bear this meaning (Esther 4 : 16), but in connections 
where they imply the opposite. 

Esther 4 : 16— "if I perish, I perish" ; Gen. 6 : 11— "the earth also was corrupt before God"— here, in the 
LXX, the word e<Map>?, translated "was corrupt," is the same word which in other places is 
interpreted by annihilationists as meaning extinction of being. In Ps. 119 : 176, " I have gone 
astray like a lost sheep " cannot mean " I have gone astray like an annihilated sheep." Is. 49 : 17 
—"thy destroyers [ annihilators ? ] and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee" ; 57 : 1, 2— "The 
righteous perisheth [ is annihilated ? ] and no man layeth it to heart : and merciful men are taken away, none 
considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He entereth into peace : they rest in their beds, 
each one that walketh in his uprightness " ; Dan. 9 : 26— "And after three score and two weeks shall the anointed one 
be cut off [ annihiliated ? ] ". 

Mat. 10 : 6, 39, 43 — " the lost sheep of the house of Israel . . he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it ... . 
he shall in no wise lose his reward" — in these verses we cannot substitute "annihilate" for 
"lose" ; Acts 13: 41 — "Behold, yedespisers, and wonder, and perish " ; cf. Mat. 6: 16 — " for they disfigure their faces " — 
where the same word a<f>avi£u> is used. 1 Cor. 3 : 17— "If any man destroyeth [annihilates?] the 
temple of God, him shall God destroy " ; 2 Cor. 7 : 2— "we corrupted no man"— where the same word <f>dei'pu> 
is used. 2 Thess. 1 : 9 — " who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from 
the glory of his might "= the wicked shall be driven out from the presence of Christ. 
Destruction is not annihilation. "Destruction from "= separation; (per contra, see Prof. 
W. A. Stevens, Com. in loco: " from "= the source from which the "destruction" proceeds). 
" A ship engulfed in quicksands is destroyed ; a temple broken down and deserted is 
destroyed " ; see Lilhe, Com. in loco. 2 Pet. 3:7—" day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men " — 
here the word " destruction " ( airwAeias ) is the same with that used of the end of the present 



560 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

order of things, and translated "perished" (a7ru>AeTo) in verse 6. "We cannot accordingly 
infer from it that the ungodly will cease to exist, but only that there will be a great and 
penal change in their condition " ( Plumptre, Com. in loco ). 

(d) The passages held to prove the annihilation of the wicked at death 
cannot have this meaning, since the Scriptures foretell a resurrection of the 
unjust as well as of the just ; and a second death, or a misery of the reunited 
soul and body, in the case of the wicked. 

Acts 24 : 15— "there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust" ; Rev. 2 : 11 — "He that overcometh shall 
not be hurt of the second death " ; 20 : 14, 15 — " And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire " ; 
21 : 8— "their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." The 
"second death" is the first death intensified. Having one's "part in the lake of fire" is not 
annihilation. 

( e ) The words used in Scripture to denote the place of departed spirits 
have in them no implication of annihilation, and the allusions to the condi- 
tion of the departed show that death, to the writers of the Old and the New 
Testaments, although it was the termination of man's earthly existence, was 
not an extinction of his being or his consciousness. 

On *71K!#, Sheol, Gesenius, Lexicon, 10th ed., says that, though SlXt? is commonly 
explained as infinitive of /JW, to demand, it is undoubtedly allied to SjJty (root *7BO, 
to be sunk, and = l sinking ', l depth ', or ' the sunken, deep, place '. "AiS-qs, Hades, = not 
'hell,' but the 'unseen world,' conceived by the Greeks as a shadowy, but not as an 
unconscious, state of being. 

Gen. 25 : 8, 9 — Abraham " was gathered to his people. And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of 
Machpelah." " Yet Abraham's father was buried in Haran, and his more remote ancestors 
in Ur of the Chaldees. So Joshua's generation is said to be 'gathered to their fathers,' though 
the generation that preceded them perished in the wilderness, and previous generations 
died in Egypt " ( W. H. Green, in S. S. Times ). So of Isaac in Gen. 35 : 29, and of Jacob in 
49 : 29, 33 — all of whom were gathered to their fathers before they were buried. Num. 20 : 
24 — "Aaron shall be gathered unto his people "— since Aaron was not buried at all, being "gathered 
unto his people " was something different from burial. Job 3 : 13, 18 — " For now should I have lien down 
and been quiet ; I should have slept : then had I been at rest .... There the prisoners are at ease together ; They hear 
not the voice of the taskmaster " ; 7 : 9 — " As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, So he that goeth down to the 
grave shall come up no more " ; 14 : 22 — "But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth." 

Ez. 32 : 21 — " The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell " ; Luke 16 : 23 — " And in 
Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" ; 23 : 43 — 
" To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" ; cf. 1 Sam. 28 : 19 — Samuel said to Saul in the cave of 
Endor : "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me" — evidently not in an unconscious state. 
Many of these passages intimate a continuity of consciousness after death. Though 
Sheol is unknown to man, it is naked and open to G od ( Job 26 : 6 ) ; he can find men there 
to redeem them from thence (Ps. 49:15) — proof that death is not annihilation. See 
Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms, 447. 

(/) The terms and phrases which have been held to declare absolute 
cessation of existence at death are frequently metaphorical, and an examina- 
tion of them in connection with the context and with other Scriptures is 
sufficient to show the untenableness of the literal interpretation put upon 
them by the annihilationists, and to prove that the language is merely the 
language of appearance. 

Death is often designated as a "sleeping" or a "falling asleep" ; see John 11 : 11, 14 — "Our friend 
Lazarus is fallen asleep ; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep .... Then Jesus therefore said unto them plainly 
Lazarus is dead." Here the language of appearance is used ; yet this language could not 
have been used, if the soul had not been conceived of as alive, though sundered from the 
body ; see Meyer on 1 Cor. 1 : 18. So the language of appearance is used in Eccl. 9 .- 10 — " there 
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest" — and in Ps. 146 : 4— "His 
breath goeth forth ; in that very day his thoughts perish." 

See Mozley, Essays, 2 : 171— "These passages often describe the phenomena of death 
as it presents itself to our eyes, and so do not enter into the reality which takes place 



PHYSICAL DEATH. 561 

beneath it." Bartlett, Life and Death Eternal, 189-358 — " Because the same Hebrew 
word is used for 'spirit' and 'breath,' shall we say that the spirit is only breath? 
' Heart ' in English might in like manner be made to mean only the material organ ; and 
David's heart, panting, thirsting, melting within him, would have to be interpreted 
literally. So a man may be ' eaten up with avarice,' while yet his being is not only not 
extinct, but is in a state of frightful activity." 

(g) The Jewish belief in a conscious existence after death is proof that 
the theory of annihilation rests upon a misinterpretation of Scripture. 
That such a belief in the immortality of the soul existed among the Jews is 
abundantly evident : from the knowledge of a future state possessed by the 
Egyptians ( Acts 7 : 22 ) ; from the accounts of the translation of Enoch 
and of Elijah (Gen. 5 : 24 ; c/. Heb. 11 : 5. 2 K. 2 : 11 ) ; from the invoca- 
tion of the dead which was practiced, although forbidden by the law (1 
Sam. 28 : 7-14 ; cf. Lev. 20 : 27 ; Deut. 18 : 10, 11) ; from allusions in the 
O. T. to resurrection, future retribution, and life beyond the grave (Job 
19 : 25-27; Ps. 16 : 9-11 ; Is. 26 : 19 ; Ez. 37 : 1-14 ; Dan. 12 : 2, 3, 13) ; 
and from distinct declarations of such faith by Philo and Josephus, as well 
as by the writers of the N. T. (Mat. 22 : 31, 32; Acts 23 : 6; 26 : 6-8; 
Heb. 11 : 13-16). 

The Egyptian coffin was called " the chest of the living." See the Book of the Dead, 
translated by Birch, in Bunsen's Egypt's Place, 123-333 : The principal ideas of the first 
part of the Book of the Dead are " living again after death, and being born again as the 
sun," which typified the Egyptian resurrection (138). "The deceased lived again 
after death" (134). "The Osiris lives after he dies, like the sun daily ; for as the sun 
died and was born yesterday, so the Osiris is born " ( 164). Yet the immortal part, in its 
continued existence, was dependent for its blessedness upon the preservation of the 
body ; and for this reason the body was embalmed. Immortality of the body is as 
important as the passage of the soul. Growth or natural reparation of the body is 
invoked as earnestly as the passage of the soul to the upper regions. " There is not a 
limb of him without a god ; Thoth is vivifying his limbs " ( 197 ). See TJarda, by Ebers ; 
Dr. Howard Osgood on Resurrection among the Egyptians, in Hebrew Student, Feb., 
1885. The Egyptians, however, recognized no transmigration of souls; see Renouf, 
Hibbert Lectures, 181-184. 

It is morally impossible that Moses should not have known the Egyptian doctrine of 
immortality : Acts 7 : 22 — " And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." That Moses did 
not make the doctrine more prominent in his teachings, may be for the reason that it 
was so connected with Egyptian superstitions with regard to Osiris. Yet the Jews 
believed in immortality : Gen. 5 : 24 — " And Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for God took him " ; 
cf. Heb. 11 : 5 — " By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death " ; 2 Kings 2 : 11 — " Elijah went up by 
a whirlwind into heaven " ; 1 Sam. 28 : 7-14 — the invocation of Samuel by the woman of Endor; 
■cf. Lev. 20 : 27 — " A man also, or woman, that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to 
death ; " Deut. 18 : 10, 11 — " There shall not be found among you .... a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, 
or a necromancer." 

Job 19 : 25-27— "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth : and 
after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes 
shall behold, and not another. My reins are consumed within me " ; Ps. 16 : 9-11 — " Therefore my heart is glad, and 
my glory rejoiceth : My flesh also shall dwell in safety. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; Neither wilt thou 
suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life : In thy presence is fulness of joy ; In thy 
right hand there are pleasures for evermore " ; Is. 26 : 19 — " Thy dead shall live ; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake 
and sing, ye that dwell in the dust : for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead " ; Ez. 
37 : 1-14 — the valley of dry bones— "I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, 
my people"— a prophecy of restoration based upon the idea of immortality and resur- 
rection ; Dan. 12 : 2, 3, 13 — " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever .... But go thou thy way till the end be: 
for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the days." 

Josephus, on the doctrine of the Pharisees, in Antiquities, xvm : 1 : 3, and Ware of the 
Jews, n : 8 : 10-14 — " Souls have an immortal vigor. Under the earth are rewards and 
36 



562 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

punishments. The wicked are detained in an everlasting prison. The righteous shall 
have power to revive and live again. Bodies are indeed corruptible, but souls remain 
exempt from death forever. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is that souls die with 
their bodies." Mat. 22 : 31, 32 — "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was 
spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? God is not the 
God of the dead, but of the living." 

Christ's argument, in the passage last quoted, rests upon the two implied assump- 
tions : first, that love will never suffer the object of its affection to die ; beings who 
have ever been the objects of God's love will be so forever— for "Life is ever Lord of 
death, And love can never lose its own" (Tennyson, In Memoriam); secondly, that 
body and soul belong normally together ; if body and soul are temporarily separated, 
they shall be united ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living, and therefore they shall 
rise again. It was only an application of the same principle, when Robert Hall gave up 
his early materialism as he looked down into his father's grave : he felt that this could 
not be the end; c/.Ps. 22 : 26— "Your heart shall live forever." Acts 23 : 6— "I am a Pharisee, a son of 
Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question" ; 26 : 7, 8— "And concerning this 
hope I am accused by the Jews, king! Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?" Heb. 
11 : 13-16 — the present life was reckoned as a pilgrimage; the patriarchs sought "a better 
country, that is, a heavenly" ; c/. Gen. 47 : 9. 

Mozley, Lectures, 26-59, and Essays, 2 : 169— "True religion among the Jews had an 
evidence of immortality in its possession of God. Paganism was hopeless in its loss of 
friends, because affection never advanced beyond its earthly object, and therefore, in 
losing it, lost all. But religious love, which loves the creature in the Creator, has that 
on which to fall back, when its earthly object is removed." 

(h) The most impressive and conclusive of all proofs of immortality, 
however, is afforded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, — a work accom- 
plished by his own power, and demonstrating that the spirit lived after its 
separation from the body (John 2 : 19, 21 ; 10 : 17, 18). By coming back 
from the tomb, he proves that death is not annihilation (2 Tim. 1 : 10). 

John 2 : 19, 21 —"Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up ... . 
But he spake of the temple of his body " ; 10 : 17, 18 — " Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, 
that I may take it again .... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" ; 2 Tim. 1 : 10 — 
" our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel " — that 
is, immortality had been a truth dimly recognized, suspected, longed for, before Christ 
came ; but it was he who first brought it out from obscurity and uncertainty into clear 
daylight and convincing power. Christ's resurrection, moreover, carries with it the 
resurrection of his people : " We two are so joined, He '11 not be in glory and leave me 
behind." 

Christ taught immortality: (1) By exhibiting himself the perfect conception of a 
human life. Who could believe that Christ could become forever extinct? (2) By 
actually coming back from beyond the grave. There were many speculations about a 
trans-Atlantic continent before 1492, but these were of little worth compared with the 
actual word which Columbus brought of a new world beyond the sea. (3) By provid- 
ing a way through which his own spiritual life and victory may be ours; so that, 
though we pass through the valley of the shadow of death, we may fear no evil. 
(4) By thus gaining authority to teach us of the resurrection of the righteous and of 
the wicked, as he actually does. Christ's resurrection is not only the best proof of 
immortality, but we have no certain evidence of immortality without it. Hume held 
that the same logic which proved immortality from reason alone, would also prove 
preexistence. "In reality," he said, "it is the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, that has 
brought immortality to light." It was truth, though possibly spoken in jest. 

For the annihilation theory, see Hudson, Debt and Grace, and Christ, Our Life ; also 
Dobney, Future Punishment. Per contra, see Hovey, State of the Impenitent Dead, 
1-27, and Manual of Theology and Ethics, 153-168; Luthardt, Compendium, 289-292; 
Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., 397-407 ; Herzog, Encyclop., art. : Tod ; Splittgerber, Schlaf und 
Tod ; Estes, Christian Doctrine of the Soul ; Baptist Review, 1879 : 411-439 ; Presb. Rev., 
Jan., 1882 : 203. 

II. The Intekmediate State. 

The Scriptures affirm the conscious existence of both the righteous and 
the wicked, after death, and prior to the resurrection. In the intermediate 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 563 

state the soul is without a body, yet this state is for the righteous a state of 
conscious joy, and for the wicked a state of conscious suffering. 

That the righteous do not receive the spiritual body at death, is plain 
from 1 Thess. 4 : 16, 17 and 1 Cor. 15 : 52, where an interval is intimated 
between Paul's time and the rising of those who slept. This rising was to 
occur in the future, "at the last trump." So the resurrection of the wicked 
had not yet occurred in any single case, but was yet future (John 5 : 28-30 — 
epxerai cjpa, not ml vvv ecriv, as in verse 25 ; Acts 24 : 15 — avacraoiv /iDSaelv 
eceo&ai). Christ was the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15 : 20, 23). If the saints had 
received the spiritual body at death, the patriarchs would have been raised 
before Christ. 

1. Of the righteous, it is declared: 

(a) That the soul of the believer, at its separation from the body, enters 
the presence of Christ. 

2 Cor. 5 : 1-8 — "If the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which 
is from heaven : if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do 
groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal 
may be swallowed up of life ... . willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord"— 
Paul hopes to escape the violent separation of soul and body — the being " unclothed— " by- 
living till the coming of the Lord, and then putting on the heavenly body, as it were, 
over the present one ( inevSvcrao-dai ) ; yet whether he lived till Christ's coming or not, he 
knew that the soul, when it left the body, would be at home with the Lord. 

Luke 23 : 43 — "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise"; John 14 : 3 — "And if I go and prepare a place for 
you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" ; 2 Tim. 4 : 18— "The 
Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto [ or, ' into ' ] his heavenly kingdom "= will save 
me and put me into his heavenly kingdom ( EUicott ), the characteristic of which is the 
visible presence of the King with his subjects. 

( b ) That the spirits of departed believers are with God. 

Heb. 12 : 23 — Ye are come "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, 
and to God the Judge of all " ; cf. Eccl. 12 : 7 — " the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit return unto 
God who gave it" ; John 20 : 17 — "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto the Father "— probably means: 
"my body has not yet ascended." The soul had gone to God during the interval 
between death and the resurrection, as is evident from Luke 23 : 43, 46 — "with me in Para- 
dise ... . Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." 

( c ) That believers at death enter paradise. 

Luke 23 : 42, 43 — " And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him, 
Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" ; cf. 2 Cor. 12 : 4 — "caught up into Paradise, and 
heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" ; Rev. 2 : 7 — "To him that overcometh, to him 
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" ; Gen. 2 : 8— "And the Lord planted a garden 
eastward, in Eden ; and there he put the man whom he had formed." Paradise is none other than the 
abode of God and the blessed, of which the primeval Eden was the type. 

( d ) That their state, immediately after death, is greatly to be preferred 
to that of faithful and successful laborers for Christ here. 

Phil. 1 : 22, 23 — " I am in a strait betwiit the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ ; for it is very far 
better "—here Hackett says : " avakvaai = departing, cutting loose, as if to put to sea, fol- 
lowed by avv Xpio-Tip eli/ai, as if Paul regarded one event as immediately subsequent to 
the other." Paul, with his burning desire to preach Christ, would certainly have pre- 
ferred to live and labor, even amid great suffering, rather than to die, if death to him 
had been a state of unconsciousness and inaction. See Edwards the younger, Works, 
2 : 530, 531 ; Hovey, Impenitent Dead, 61. 

(e) That departed saints are truly alive and conscious. 

Mat. 22 : 32 — " God is not the God of the dead, but of the living " ; Luke 16 : 22 — " Carried away by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom" ; 23 : 43— "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise "—" with me"=in the same state,— 



564 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

unless Christ slept in unconsciousness, we cannot think that the penitent thief did; 
John 11 : 26 — "whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die" ; 1 Thess. 5 : 10 — "who died for us, that 
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him " ; Rom. 8 : 10 — " And if Christ is in you, the body is dead 
because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." Life and consciousness clearly belong to 
the "souls under the altar" mentioned under the next head. 

(/) That they are at rest and blessed. 

Rev. 6 : 9-11 — "I saw under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testi- 
mony which they held : and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, Master, the holy and true, dost thou not 
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth. And there was given them to each one a white robe ; and 
it was said unto them, that they should rest yet a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, which 
should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled in number " ; 14 : 13 — " Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; for their works follow with them" ; 
20 : 14— "And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire"— see Evans, in Presb. Rev., 1883 : 303 — 
"The shadow of death lying- upon Hades is the penumbra of Hell. Hence Hades is 
associated with death in the final doom." 

2. Of the wicked, it is declared: 

(a) That they are in prison, — that is, under constraint and guard (1 
Pet. 3 : 19 — tyvlany ). 

1 Pet. 3 : 19— "In which [spirit] also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" — there is no need 
of putting- unconscious spirits under guard. Hovey: "Restraint implies power of 
action, and suffering implies consciousness." 

( b ) That they are in torment, or conscious suffering ( Luke 16 : 23 — 

ev j3aoavotg). 

Luke 16 : 23 — "And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in 
his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of 
his finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am in anguish in this flame." 

Here many unanswerable questions may be asked : Had the rich man a body bef ore 
the resurrection, or is this representation of a body only figurative ? Did the soul still 
feel the body from which it was temporarily separated, or have souls in the interme- 
diate state temporary bodies ? However we may answer these questions, it is certain 
that the rich man suffers, while probation still lasts for his brethren on earth. Fire is 
here the source of suffering, but not of annihilation. Even though this be a parable, it 
proves conscious existence after death to have been the common view of the Jews, and 
to have been a view sanctioned by Christ. 

(c) That they are under punishment ( 2 Pet. 2:9 — KoXa^oftivovg). 

2 Pet. 2:9 — "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under 
punishment unto the day of judgment" — here "the unrighteous "= not only evil angels, but ungodly 
men ; cf. verse 4 — " For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed 
them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." 

The passages cited enable us properly to estimate two opposite errors. 

A. They refute, on the one hand, the view that the souls of both right- 
eous and wicked sleep between death and the resurrection. 

This view is based upon the assumption that the possession of a physical 
organism is indispensable to activity and consciousness — an assumption 
which the existence of a God who is pure spirit (John 4 : 24), and the 
existence of angels who are probably pure spirits (Heb. 1 : 14), show to be 
erroneous. Although the departed are characterized as ' spirits ' ( Eccl. 12 : 
7 ; Acts 7 : 59 ; Heb. 12 : 23 ; 1 Pet. 3 : 19), there is nothing in this ' absence 
from the body' (2 Cor. 5:8) inconsistent with the activity and conscious- 
ness ascribed to them in the Scriptures above referred to. When the dead 
are spoken of as 'sleeping' (Dan. 12 : 2; Mat. 9 : 24; John 11 : 11 ; 1 Cor. 
11 : 30 ; 15 : 51 ; 1 Thess. 4 : 14 ; 5 : 10), we are to regard this as simply the 
language of appearance, and as literally applicable only to the body. 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 565 

John 4 : 24— "God is a Spirit [or rather, as margin, 'God is spirit' ] " ; leb. 1 : 14— "Are they [angels] 
not all ministering spirits?" Eccl. 12 : 7— "the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit return unto God 
who gave it" ; Acts 7 : 59— "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit"; leb. 12 : 23— "to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect"; 1 Pet. 3:19— "in 
which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" ; 2 Cor. 5 : 8— "We are of good courage, I say, and are 
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord " ; Dan. 12 : 2 — " many of them that sleep 
in the dust of the earth shall awake " ; Mat. 9 : 24 — "the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth ' ' ; John 11:11 — "Our friend 
Lazarus is fallen asleep ; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep " ; 1 Cor. 11 : 30 — "For this cause many among 
you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep " ; 1 Thess. 4 : 14— "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him " ; 5 : 10 — " who died for us that whether 
we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." 

B. The passages first cited refute, on the other hand, the view that the 
suffering of the intermediate state is purgatorial. 

According to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, "all who die 
at peace with the church, but are not perfect, pass into purgatory." Here 
they make satisfaction for the sins committed after baptism by suffering a 
longer or shorter time, according to the degree of their guilt. The church 
on earth, however, has power, by prayers and the sacrifice of the Mass, to 
shorten these sufferings or to remit them altogether. But we urge, in 
reply, that the passages referring to suffering in the intermediate state give 
no indication that any true believer is subject to this suffering, or that the 
church has any power to relieve from the consequences of sin, either in this 
world or in the world to come. Only God can forgive, and the church is 
simply empowered to declare that, upon the fulfi l lment of the appointed 
conditions of repentance and faith, he does actually forgive. This theory, 
moreover, is inconsistent with any proper view of the completeness of 
Christ's satisfaction ( Gal. 2 : 21 ; Heb. 9 : 28 ) ; of justification through faith 
alone ( Rom. 3 : 28 ) ; and of the condition after death, of both righteous 
and wicked, as determined in this life (Eccl. 11 : 3 ; Mat. 25 : 10; Luke 16 : 
26; Heb. 9:27; Rev. 22:11). 

Against this doctrine we quote the following texts : Gal. 2 : 21 — "I do not make void the grace 
of God: for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nought" ; Heb. 9 : 28— "so Christ also, having 
been once [ or, ' once for all ' ] offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that 
wait for him, unto salvation" ; Rom. 3 : 28— "We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith, apart from the 
works of the law " ; Eccl. 11 : 3 — " If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree 
falleth there it shall be" ; Mat. 25 : 10 — "And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that 
were ready went in with him to the marriage feast: and the door was shut" ; Luke 16 : 26 — "And beside all this, 
between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that 
none may cross over from thence to us" ; Heb. 9 : 27— "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh 
judgment" ; Rev. 22 : 11— "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be 
made filthy still : and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still : and he that is holy, let him be made holy 
still." 

For the Romanist doctrine, see Perrone, Praelectiones Theologicae, 2 : 391-430. Per 
contra, see Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 : 743-770 ; Barrows, Purgatory. Augustine, 
Encheiridion, 69, suggests the possibility of purgatorial fire in the future for some 
believers. Whiton, Is Eternal Punishment Endless ? page 69, says that Tertullian held 
to a delay of resurrection in the case of faulty Christians; Cyprian first stated the 
notion of a middle state of purification; Augustine thought it "not incredible"; 
Gregory the Great called it " worthy of belief " ; it is now one of the most potent 
doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church ; that church has been, from the third century, 
for all souls who accept her last consolations, practically restorationist. 

Elliott, Horae Apocalypticse, 1 : 410, adopts Hume's simile, and says that purgatory 
gave the Roman Catholic Church what Archimedes wanted, another world on which to 
fix its lever, that so fixed, the church might with it move this world. We must 
remember, howevei% that the Roman church teaches no radical change of character in 
purgatory,— purgatory is only a purifying process for believers. The true purgatory is 
only in this world.— for only here are sins purged away by God's sanctifying Spirit ; and 



566 ESCHATOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF FIKAL THIKGS. 

in this process of purification, though G-od chastises, there is no element of penalty. On 
Dante's Purgatory, see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 515-518. 

We close our discussion of this subject with a single, but an important, 
remark, — this, namely, that while the Scriptures represent the intermediate 
state to be one of conscious joy to the righteous, and of conscious pain to 
the wicked, they also represent this state to be one of incompleteness. The 
perfect joy of the saints, and the utter misery of the wicked, begin only 
with the resurrection and general judgment. 

That the intermediate state is one of incompleteness, appears from the following 
passages : Mat. 8 : 29 — " What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God ? art thou come hither to torment us before 
the time ? " 2 Cor. 5 : 3, 4 — " if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this 
tabernacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what 
is mortal may be swallowed up of life " ; cf. Rom. 8 : 23 — " And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the first- 
fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our 
body " ; Phil. 3 : 11 — "if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead" ; 2 Pet. 2 : 9 — "the Lord 
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of 
judgment " ; Rev. 6 : 10 — " and they [ the souls underneath the altar ] cried with a great voice, saying, How 
long, Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell'on the earth ? " 

In opposition to Locke, Human Understanding, 2 : 1 : 10, who said that " the soul thinks 
not always"; and to Turner, Wish and Will, 48, who declares that "the soul need not 
always think, any more than the body always move ; the essence of the soul is poten- 
tiality for activity " ; Descartes, Kant, Jouffroy, Sir Wm. Hamilton, all maintain that it 
belongs to mental existence continuously to think. Upon this view, the intermediate 
state would be necessarily a state of thought. As to the nature of that thought, Dorner 
remarks in his Eschatology that " in this relatively bodiless state, a still life begins, a 
sinking of the soul into itself and into the ground of its being,— what Steffens calls 
'involution,' and Martensen 'self -brooding.' In this state, spiritual things are the only 
realities. In the unbelieving, their impurity, discord, alienation from God, are laid 
bare. If they still prefer sin, its form becomes more spiritual, more demoniacal, and so 
ripens for the judgment." 

Even here, Dorner deals in speculation rather than in Scripture. But he goes further, 
and regards the intermediate state as one, not only of moral progress, but of elimination 
of evil ; and holds the end of probation to be, not at death, but at the judgment, at least 
in the case of all non-believers who are not incorrigible. We must regard this as a 
practical revival of the Romanist theory of purgatory, and as contradicted not only by 
all the considerations already urged, but also by the general tenor of Scriptural repre- 
sentation that the decisions of this life are final, and that character is fixed here for 
eternity. This is the solemnity of preaching, that the gospel is " a savor from life unto life," or 
" a savor from death unto death " ( 2 Cor. 2:16). 

On the whole subject, see Hovey, State of Man after Death ; Savage, Souls of the 
Righteous ; Julius Miiller, Doct. Sin, 2 : 304-306 ; Neander, Planting and Training, 482- 
484; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, 407-448; Bib. Sac, 13:153; Methodist Rev., 34:240; 
Christian Rev., 20 : 381 ; Herzog, Encyclop., art. : Hades ; Stuart, Essays on Future 
Punishment ; Whately, Future State ; Hovey, Biblical Eschatology, 79-144. 

III. The Second Coming op Christ. 

While the Scriptures represent great events in the history of the indi- 
vidual Christian, like death, and great events in the history of the church, 
like the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and the destruction of 
Jerusalem, as comings of Christ for deliverance or judgment, they also 
declare that these partial and typical comings shall be concluded by a final, 
triumphant return of Christ, to punish the wicked and to complete the 
salvation of his people. 

Temporal comings of Christ are indicated in : Mat. 24 : 23, 27, 34—" Then if any man shall say unto 
you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here ; believe it not ... . For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is 
seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man .... Verily I say unto you, This generation shall 
not pass away, till all these things be accomplished" ; 16 : 28— "Verily I say unto you, There be some of them that 
stand here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in, his kingdom " ; John 14 : 3, 18 
— "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. 567 

may be also .... I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you" ; Rev. 3 : 20 — "Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock : if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 
So the Protestant Reformation, the modern missionary enterprise, the battle against 
papacy in Europe and against slavery in this country, the great revivals under White- 
field in England and under Edwards in America, were all preliminary and typical 
comings of Christ. 

The final coming of Christ is referred to in : Mat. 24 : 30 — " they shall see the Son of man coming 
on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a 
trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other " ; 25 : 31 — 
" But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his 
glory " ; Acts 1 : 11 — " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven ? this Jesus, which was received up from 
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven" ; 1 Thess. 4 : 16 — "For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God " ; 2 Thess. 
1 : 7, 10 — "the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power .... when he shall come to be 
glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed " ; leb. 9 : 28—" so Christ also, having been 
once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salva- 
tion " ; Rev. 1 : 7 — "Behold, he cometh with the clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him ; and 
all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him." 

1. The nature of this coming. 

Although without doubt accompanied, in the case of the regenerate, by- 
inward and invisible influences of the Holy Spirit, the second advent is to 
be outward and visible. This we argue : 

(a) From the objects to be secured by Christ's return. These are 
partly external (Eom. 8 : 21, 23). Nature and the body are both to be 
glorified. These external changes may well be accompanied by a visible 
manifestation of him who 'makes all things new' (Rev. 21 : 5). 

Rom. 8 : 21, 23 —"in hope that the creation also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of 
the glory of the children of God . . . waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body " ; Rev. 21 : 5 — 
"Behold, I make all things new." 

(6) From the Scriptural comparison of the manner of Christ's return 
with the manner of his departure (Acts 1 : 11) — see Com. of Hackett, in 
loco: — "6v rpoirov = visibly, and in the air. The expression is never em- 
ployed to affirm merely the certainty of one event as compared with 
another. The assertion that the meaning is simply that, as Christ had 
departed, so also he would return, is contradicted by every passage in 
which the phrase occurs." 

Acts 1 : 11 — " this Jesus, which was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him 
going into heaven" ; c/. Acts 7 : 28— "Wouldest thou kill me, as [01/ rpoirov] thou killedst the Egyptian yester- 
day ? " Mat. 23 : 37 — " how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as [ bv rpoirov ] a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings " ; 2 Tim. 3:8—" like as [ bv rpoirov ] Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these 
also withstand the truth." 

( c ) From the analogy of Christ's first coming. If this was a literal and 
visible coming, we may expect the second coming to be literal and visible 
also. 

1 Thess. 4 : 16— "For the Lord himself [ = in his own person] shall descend from heaven, with a shout 
[something heard], with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God"— see Com. of Prof. 
W. A. Stevens : " So different from Luke 17 : 20, where " the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.' 
The 'shout' is not necessarily the voice of Christ himself (lit. 'in a shout,' or 'in shouting'). 
' Voice of the archangel ' and ' trump of God ' are appositional, not additional." Rev. 1:7—" every eye 
shall see him" ; as every ear shall hear him: John 5 : 28, 29— "all that are in the tombs shall hear his 
voice" ; 2 Thess. 2 : 2— "to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled .... as 
that the day of the Lord is now present"— they may have "thought that the first gathering of the 
saints to Christ was a quiet, invisible one — a stealthy advent, like a thief in the night **■ 



568 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

( Lillie ). 2 John 7 — " For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ 
cometh in the flesh"— here denial of a future second coming of Christ is declared to be the 
mark of a deceiver. 

Alf ord and Alexander, in their Commentaries on Acts 1 : 11, agree with the view of 
Hackett quoted above. Warren, Parousia, 61-65, 106-114, controverts this view and says 
that "an omnipresent divine being can come, only in the sense of manifestation.'' 1 He 
regards the parousia, or coming of Christ, as nothing but Christ's spiritual presence. A 
writer in the Presb. Review, 1883 : 221, replies that Warren's view is contradicted "by 
the fact that the apostles often spoke of the parousia as an event yet future, long after 
the promise of the Redeemer's spiritual presence with his church had begun to be 
fulfilled, and by the fact that Paul expressly cautions the Thessalonians against the 
belief that the parousia was just at hand." We do not know how all men at one time 
can see a bodily Christ ; but we also do not know the nature of Christ's body. The day 
exists undivided in many places at the same time. The telephone has made it possible 
for men widely separated to hear the same voice,— it is equally possible that all men 
may see the same Christ coming in the clouds. 

2. The time of Christ's coming. 

(a) Although Christ's prophecy of this event, in the twenty-fifth chapter 
of Matthew, so connects it with the destruction of Jerusalem that the apos- 
tles and the early Christians seem to have hoped for its occurrence during 
their life-time, yet neither Christ nor the apostles definitely taught when 
the end should be, but rather declared the knowledge of it to be reserved 
in the counsels of God, that men might ever recognize it as possibly at 
hand, and so might live in the attitude of constant expectation. 

1 Cor. 15 : 51 — " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed " ; 1 Thess. 4 : 17 — " then we that are alive, 
that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord" ; 2 Tim. 4 : 8 —"henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous judge, shall give to me at that day : and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved his appearing " ; 
James 5 : 7 — "Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord " ; 1 Pet. 4 : 7 — "But the end of all things 
is at hand : be ye therefore of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer " ; 1 John 2 : 18 — " Little children, it is the last 
hour : and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there risen many antichrists ; whereby we know that it is 
the last hour." 

Phil. 4 : 5 — " The Lord is at hand ( (=771/5 ). In nothing be anxious "— may mean " the Lord is near " 
(in space), without any reference to the second coming. The passages quoted above, 
expressing as they do the surmises of the apostles that Christ's coming was near, while 
yet abstaining from all definite fixing of the time, are at least sufficient proof that 
Christ's advent may not be near to our time. We should be no more warranted than 
they were, in inferring from these passages alone the immediate coming of the Lord. 

( b ) Hence we find, in immediate connection with many of these predic- 
tions of the end, a reference to intervening events and to the eternity of 
God which shows that the prophecies themselves are expressed in a large 
way which befits the greatness of the divine plans. 

Mat. 24 : 36— "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the 
Father " ; Mark 13 : 32 — " But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, 
but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray : for ye know not when the time is " ; Acts 1 : 7 — " And he said unto 
them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority " ; 1 Cor. 10 : 11 
— " Now those things happened unto them by way of example ; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom 
the ends of the ages are come"; 16:22 — "Maran atha [marg. : that is, 'Our Lord cometh']"; 2 Thess. 2:1-3 
— "Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him ; 
to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled .... as that the day of the Lord is now 
present [ Am. Rev. : ' is just at hand ' ] ; let no man beguile you in any wise : for it will not be, except the falling 
away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.' ' 

James 5 : 8, 9 — " Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts : for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Murmur not. 
brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged : behold the judge standeth before the doors " ; 2 Pet. 3 : 3-12 — 
"in the last days mockers shall come .... saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the day that the 
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they wilfully forget, 
that there were heavens from of old ... . But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise .... But the day of 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 569 

the Lord will come as a thief .... what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for 
and earnestly desiring [ marg. : ' hastening ' ] the coming of the day of God " — awaiting it, and hastening 1 its 
coming by your prayer and labor. 

fiev. 1 : 3 —"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are 
written therein : for the time is at hand " ; 22 : 12, 20 — " Behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, to render 
to each man according as his work is . . He which testifieth these things saith, Yea : I come quickly. Amen : come, 
Lord Jesus." From these passages it is evident that the apostles did not know the time of 
the end, and that it was hidden from Christ himself while here in the flesh. He, there- 
fore, who assumes to know, assumes to know more than Christ or his apostles — assumes 
to know the very thing which Christ declared it was not for us to know. 

(c) In this we discern a striking parallel between the predictions of 
Christ's first, and the predictions of his second, advent. In both cases the 
event was more distant and more grand than those imagined to whom the 
prophecies first came. Under both dispensations, patient waiting for Christ 
was intended to discipline the faith, and to enlarge the conceptions, of God's 
true servants. The fact that every age since Christ ascended has had its 
Chiliasts and Second Adventists should turn our thoughts away from 
curious and fruitless prying into the time of Christ's coming, and set ns at 
immediate and constant endeavor to be ready, at whatsoever hour he may 
appear. 

Gen. 4 : 1 — " And the man knew Eve his wife ; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man 
with the help of the Lord [ lit. : ' I have gotten a man, even Jehovah ' ] — an intimation that Eve fancied 
her first-born to be already the promised seed, the coming deliverer ; see MacWhorter, 
Jahveh Christ. Deut. 18 : 15 — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken" — here is a prophecy which Moses may have 
expected to be fulfilled in Joshua, but which God designed to be fulfilled only in Christ. 
Is. 7 : 14, 16 — " Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign ; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and 
shall call his name Immanuel .... For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land 
whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken" — a prophecy which the prophet may have 
expected to be fulfilled in his own time, and which was partly so fulfilled, but which 
God intended to be fulfilled ages thereafter. 

Luke 2 : 25 — "Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel "— Simeon 
was the type of holy men, in every age of Jewish history, who were waiting for the ful- 
fillment of God's promise, and for the coming of the deliverer. So under the Christian 
dispensation. Luther, near the time of his death, said : " God forbid that the world 
should last fifty years longer. Let him cut matters short with his last judgment." 
Melancthon put the end less than two hundred years from his time. Calvin's motto 
was : " Domine, quousque ? "— " O Lord, how long ? " On the whole subject, see Hovey, in 
Baptist Quarterly, Oct., 1877 : 416-432, and notes upon our next section, pages 569-574. 

3. The precursors of Christ's coming. 

(a) Through the preaching of the gospel in all the world, the kingdom 
of Christ is steadily to enlarge its boundaries, until Jews and Gentiles alike 
become possessed of its blessings, and a millennial period is introduced in 
which Christianity generally prevails throughout the earth. 

Dan. 2 : 44, 45— "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be 
destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people ; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without 
hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, the gold ; the great God hath made known to 
the king what shall come to pass hereafter : and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." 

Mat. 13 : 31, 32— "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed .... which indeed is less than all 
seeds ; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and 
lodge in the branches thereof"— the parable of the leaven, which follows, apparently illustrates 
the intensive, as that of the mustard-seed illustrates the extensive, development of the 
kingdom of God ; and it is as impossible to confine the reference of the leaven to the 



570 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

spread of evil as it is impossible to confine the reference of the mustard-seed to the 
spread of evil. 

Mat. 24 : 14 — "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the 
nations; and then shall the end come" ; Rom. 11 : 25, 26— "a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness 
of the Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved " ; Rev. 20 : 4-6 — " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon 
them, and judgment was given unto them : and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of 
Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon 
their forehead and upon their hand ; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years." 

( b ) There will be a corresponding development of evil, either extensive 
or intensive, whose true character shall be manifest not only in deceiving 
many professed followers of Christ and in persecuting true believers, but in 
constituting a personal Antichrist as its representative and object of worship. 
This rapid growth shall continue until the millennium, during which evil, 
in the person of its chief, shall be temporarily restrained. 

Mat. 13 : 30, 38 — " Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 
Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn .... The field 
is the world ; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom ; and the tares are the sons of the evil one " ; 24 : 5, 
11, 12, 24— "For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray .... And many 
false prophets shall arise and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many 
shall wax cold .... For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders ; so 
as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." 

Luke 21 : 12— "But before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you 
up to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake " ; 2 Thess. 2 : 3, 4, 7, 8 
— "it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that 
opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped ; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, 
setting himself forth as God .... For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work : only that there is one that 
restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall 
slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming." 

Elliott, Horse Apocalypticae, 1 : 65, holds that " Antichrist means another Christ, a 
pro-Christ, a vice-Christ, a pretender to the name of Christ, and in that character, an 
usurper and adversary. The principle of Antichrist was already sown in the time of 
Paul. But a certain hindrance, i. e., the Roman Empire as then constituted, needed 
first to be removed out of the way, before room could be made for Antichrist's devel- 
opment." Antichrist, according to this view, is the hierarchical spirit, which found its 
final and most complete expression in the Papacy. Dante, Hell, 19 : 106-117, speaks of 
the Papacy, or rather the temporal power of the Popes, as Antichrist : " To you St. John 
referred, O shepherds vile, "When she who sits on many waters, had Been seen with kings 
her person to defile " ; see A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 507. 

(c) At the close of this millennial period, evil shall again be permitted 
to exert its utmost power in a final conflict with righteousness. This spir- 
itual struggle, moreover, shall be accompanied and symbolized by political 
convulsions, and by fearful indications of desolation in the natural world. 

Mat. 24 : 29, 30 — " But immediately, after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon 
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken ; and then 
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven " ; Luke 21 : 8-28 — false prophets ; wars and tumults ; 
earthquakes ; pestilences ; persecutions ; signs in the sun, moon, and stars ; " and then shall 
they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to come to pass, 
look up, and lift up your heads ; because you redemption draweth nigh." 

Interpretations of the book of Revelation are divided into three classes: (1) the 
Prceterist (held by Grotius, Moses Stuart, and Warren), which regards the prophecy as 
mainly fulfilled in the age immediately succeeding the time of the apostles ( 666 = Neron 
Kaisar); (2) the Continuous (held by Isaac Newton, Vitringa, Bengel, Elliott, Kelly, 
and Cumming), which regards the whole as a continuous prophetical history, extending 
from the first age until the end of all things ( 666 = Lateinos ) ; Hengstenberg and Alf ord 
hold substantially this view, though they regard the seven seals, trumpets, and vials as 
synchronological, each succeeding set going over the same ground and exhibiting it in 
some special aspect ; (3) the Futurist (held by Maitland and Todd), which considers the 
book as describing events yet to occur, during, the times immediately preceding and 
following the coming of the Lord. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHKIST. 571 

Of all these interpretations, the most learned and exhaustive is that of Elliott, in his 
four volumes entitled Horae Apocalypticae. The basis of his interpretation is the "time 
and times and half a time " of Dan. 7 : 25, which according to the year-day theory means 1260 
years— the year, according to ancient reckoning, containing 360 days, and the "time" 
being therefore 360 years [360-f(2X360) + 180 = 1260 ]. This phrase we find recurring 
with regard to the woman nourished in the wilderness (Rev. 12 : 14). The blasphemy of 
the beast for forty and two months ( Rev. 13 : 5 ) seems to refer to the same period ( 42 X 30 
= 1260, as before]. The two witnesses prophesy 1260 days (Rev. 11 : 3) ; and the woman's 
time in the wilderness is stated (Rev. 12 : 6 ) as 1260 days. This period of 1260 years is 
regarded by Elliott as the time of the temporal power of the Papacy. 

There is a twofold terminus a quo, and correspondingly a twofold terminus ad quern. 
The first commencement is A. D. 531, when in the edict of Justinian the dragon of the 
Roman Empire gives its power to the beast of the Papacy, and resigns its throne to the 
rising Antichrist, giving opportunity for the rise of the ten horns as European kings 
(Rom. 13 : 1-3 ). The second commencement, adding the seventy -five supplementary years 
of Daniel 12 : 12 [1335— 1260 = 75], is A. D. 606, when the Emperor Phocas acknowledges the 
Primacy of Rome, and the ten horns, or kings, now diademed, submit to the Papacy 
(Rev. 17 : 12, 13). The first ending-point is A. D. 1791, when the French Revolution struck 
the first blow at the independence of the Pope [531-1- 1260 = 1791 ]. The second ending- 
point is A. D. 1866, when the temporal power of the Pope was abolished at the unifica- 
tion of the kingdom of Italy [606 + 1260 = 1866]. Elliott regards the two-horned beast 
(Rev. 13 : 11 ) as representing the Papal clergy, and the image of the beast (Rev. 13 : 14, 15 ) as 
representing the Papal Councils. 

Unlike Hengstenberg and A If ord, who consider the seals, trumpets, and vials as syn- 
chronological, Elliott makes the seven trumpets to be an unfolding of the seventh seal, 
and the seven vials to be an unfolding of the seventh trumpet. Like other advocates 
of the prenullennial advent of Christ, Elliott regards the four chief signs of Christ's 
near approach as being : ( 1 ) the decay of the Turkish Empire ( the drying up of the 
river Euphrates— Rev. 16 : 12); (2) the Pope's loss of temporal power — (the destruction 
of Babylon— Rev. 17-19) ; (3) the conversion of the Jews and their return to their own 
land (Ez. 37; Rom. 11 : 12-15, 25-27— but on this last, see Meyer) ; (4) the pouring out of the 
Holy Spirit and the conversion of the Gentiles (the way of the kings of the East — Rev. 
16 : 12; the fullness of the Gentiles — Rom. 11 : 25). 

Elliott's whole scheme, however, is vitiated by the fact that he wrongly assumes the 
book of Revelation to have been written under JDomitian (94 or 96), instead of under 
Nero (67 or 68). His terminus a quo is therefore incorrect, and his interpretation of 
chapters 5-9 is rendered very precarious. The year 1866, moreover, should have been the 
time of the end, and so the terminus ad quern seems to be clearly misunderstood— unless 
indeed the seventy-five supplementary years of Daniel are to be added to 1866. We 
regard the failure of this most ingenious scheme of Apocalyptic interpretation as a 
practical demonstration that a clear understanding of the meaning of prophecy is, 
before the event, impossible, and we are confirmed in this view by the utterly untenable 
nature of the theory of the millennium which is commonly held by so-called Second 
Adventists, a theory which we now proceed to examine. 

4. Relation of Christ's second coming to the millennium. 

The Scripture foretells a period, called in the language of prophecy "a 
thousand years," when Satan shall be restrained and the saints shall reign 
with Christ on the earth. A comparison of the passages bearing on this 
subject leads us to the conclusion that this millennial blessedness and 
dominion is prior to the second advent. One passage only seems at first 
sight to teach the contrary, viz. : Eev. 20 : 4-10. But this supports the 
theory of a premillennial advent only when the passage is interpreted 
with the barest literalness. A better view of its meaning will be gained by 
considering : 

( a ) That it constitutes a part, and confessedly an obscure part, of one 
of the most figurative books of Scripture, and therefore ought to be inter- 
preted by the plainer statements of the other Scriptures. 



572 ESCHATOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

We quote here the passage alluded to : Rev. 20 : 4-10—" And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, 
and judgment was given unto them : and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and 
for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their 
forehead and upon their hand ; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived 
not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in 
the first resurrection : over these the second death hath no power ; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and 
shall reign with him a thousand years." 

( b ) That the other Scriptures contain nothing with regard to a resurrec- 
tion of the righteous which is widely separated in time from that of the 
wicked, but rather declare distinctly that the second coming of Christ 
is immediately connected both with the resurrection of the just and the 
unjust and with the general judgment. 

Mat. 16 : 27 — "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render 
unto every man according to his deeds " ; 25 : 31-33 — " But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the 
angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered all the nations ; and he 
shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats " ; John 5 : 28, 29 — " Marvel 
not at this : for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment " ; 2 Cor. 
5 : 10 — "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things 
done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad " ; 2 Thess. 1 : 6-10 — "if so be that it is 
a righteous thing with Gcd to recompense aflliction to them which afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at 
the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them 
that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus : who shall suffer punishment, even eternal 
destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, 
and to be marvelled at in all them that believed." 

2 Pet. 3 : 7, 10 — " the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men .... But the day of the Lord will come as 
a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent 
heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up " ; Rev. 20 : 11-15 — " And I saw a great white 
throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fied away ; and there was found no place for 
them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne ; and books were opened : and another 
book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of the things that were written in the books, 
according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and Bades gave up the dead which 
were in them ; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Bades were cast into the lake 
of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was 
cast into the lake of fire." % 

Here is abundant evidence that there is no interval of a thousand years between the 
second coming of Christ and the resurrection, general judgment, and end of all things. 
All these events come together. The only answer of the premillennialists to this 
objection to their theory is, that the day of judgment and the millennium may be 
contemporaneous,— in other words, the day of judgment may be a thousand years 
long. Elliott holds to a conflagration, partial at the beginning of this period, complete 
at its close,— Peter's prophecy treating the two conflagrations as one, while the book of 
Revelation separates them ; so a nearer view resolves binary stars into two. But we 
reply that, if the judgment occupies the whole period of a thousand years, then the 
coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the final conflagration should all be a thousand 
years long also. It is indeed possible that, in this case, as Peter says in connection with 
his prophecy of judgment, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" 
(2 Pet. 3:8). But if we make the word "day" so indefinite in connection with the judg- 
ment, why should we regard it as so definite, when we come to interpret the 1260 days ? 

(c) That the literal interpretation of the passage — holding, as if does, 
to a resurrection of bodies of flesh and blood, and to a reign of the risen 
saints in the flesh, and in the world as at present constituted — is inconsist- 
ent with other Scriptural declarations with regard to the spiritual nature 
of the resurrection-body and of the coming reign of Christ. 

1 Cor. 15 : 44, 50— ""it is sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body .... Now this I say, brethren, that 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." These passages 
are inconsistent with the view that the resurrection is a physical resurrection at the 
beginning of the thousand years — a resurrection' to be followed by a second fife of the 



THE SECOND COMIXG OF CHRIST. 573 

saints in bodies of flesh and blood. They are not, however, inconsistent with the true 
view, soon to be mentioned, that "the first resurrection " is simply the raising of the church 
to a new life and zeal. "Westcott, Bib. Com. on John 14 : 18, 19— "I will not leaTe you desolate 
[ marg. : ' orphans ' "] : I come unto you. Yet a little 'while and the world beholdeth me no more ; but ye behold me " : — 
"The words exclude the error of those who suppose that Christ will ' come ' under the 
same conditions of earthly existence as those to which he submitted at his first co min g-''' 1 
See Hovey, Bib. Eschatology, 66-78. 

(d) That the literal interpretation is generally and naturally connected 
with the expectation of a gradual and necessary decline of Christ's kingdom 
upon earth, until Christ comes to bind Satan and to introduce the millen- 
nium. This view not only contradicts such passages as Dan. 2 : 34, 35, and 
Mat. 13 : 31, 32, but it begets a passive and hopeless endurance of evil, 
whereas the Scriptures enjoin a constant and aggressive warfare against it, 
upon the very ground that God's power shall assure to the church a gradual 
but constant progress in the face of it, even to the time of the end. 

Dan. 2 : 34, 35 — " Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that 
were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, 
broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and the wind carried them away, 
that no place was found for them : and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth " ; Mat 13 : 31, 32 — " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed 
in his field : which indeed is less than all seeds ; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a 
tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof." In both these figures there is 
no sign of cessation or of backward movement, but rather every indication of con- 
tinuous advance to complete victory and dominion. The premillennial theory supposes 
that for the principle of development under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, God 
will substitute a reign of mere power and violence. J. B. Thomas : " The kingdom of 
heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, not like a can of nitro-glycerine." 

The theory also divests Christ of all kingly power until the millennium, or, rather, 
maintains that the kingdom has not yet been given to him ; see Elliott, Horae Apoca- 
rypticae, 1 : 94 — where Luke 19 : 12— "A. certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a 
kingdom, and to return" — is interpreted as follows: "Subordinate kings went to Rome to 
receive the investiture to their kingdoms from the Roman Emperor, and then returned 
to occupy them and reign. So Christ received from his Father, after his ascension, the 
investiture to his kingdom ; but with the intention not to occupy it, till his return at his 
second coming. In token of this investiture he takes his seat as the Lamb on the divine 
throne " ( Rev. 5:6-8). But this interpretation contradicts Mat 28 : 18, 20 — " All authority hath been 
given unto me in heaven and on earth .... lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." See Presb. 
Rev., 1883 : 238. On the effects of the premillennial view in weakening Christian 
endeavor, see J. H. Seelye, Christian Missions, 94-127; per contra, see A. J. Gordon, 
in Independent, Feb., 1886. 

(e) We may therefore best interpret Rev. 20 : 4-10 as teaching in highly 
figurative language, not a preliminary resurrection of the body, in the case 
of departed saints, but a period in the later days of the church militant 
when, under special influence of the Holy Ghost, the spirit of the martyrs 
shall appear again, true religion be greatly quickened and revived, and the 
members of Christ's churches become so conscious of their strength in 
Christ that they shall, to an extent unknown before, triumph over the 
powers of evil both within and without. So the spirit of Elijah appeared 
again in John the Baptist (Mai. 4:5; cf. Mat. 11 : 13, 14). The fact that 
only the spirit of sacrifice and faith is to be revived is figuratively indicated 
in the phrase: "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand 
years should be finished" = the spirit of persecution and unbelief shall be, 
as it were, laid to sleep. Since resurrection, like the coming of Christ 
and the judgment, is twofold, first, spiritual (the raising of the soul to 
spiritual life), and secondly, physical (the raising of the body from the 
grave), the words in Rev. 20 : 5 — "this is the first resurrection" — seem 



574 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

intended distinctly to preclude the literal interpretation we are combating. 
In short, we hold that Rev. 20 : 4-10 does not describe the events com- 
monly called the second advent and resurrection, but rather describes 
great spiritual changes in the later history of the church, which are typical 
of, and preliminary to, the second advent and the resurrection, and there- 
fore, after the prophetic method, are foretold in language literally applicable 
only to those final events themselves ( cf. Ez. 37 : 1-14 ; Luke 15 : 32 ). 

Mai. 4 : 5— "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come " ; cf. Mat. 
11 : 13, 14— "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, 
which is to come " ; Ez. 37 : 1-14 — the vision of the valley of dry bones = either the political or 
the religious resuscitation of the Jews ; Luke 15 : 32— "this thy brother was dead, and is alive again"— 
of the prodigal son. It will help us in our interpretation of Rev. 20 : 4-10 to notice that 
death, judgment, the coming of Christ, and the resurrection, are all of two kinds, the 
first spiritual, and the second literal : 

( 1 ) First, a spiritual death ( Eph. 2:1—" dead through your trespasses and sins " ) ; and secondly, a 
physical and literal death, whose culmination is found in the second death (Rev. 20 : 14 — 
" And death and lades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire " ). 

(2) First, a spiritual judgment (Is. 26 : 9— "when thy judgments are in the earth " ; John 12 : 31 — 
"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" ; 3 : 18— "he that believeth not 
hath been judged already") ; and secondly, an outward and literal judgment (Acts 17 : 31— "hath 
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained " ). 

(3) First, the spiritual and invisible coming of Christ (Mat. 16 : 28— "shall in no wise taste of 
death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom "—at the destruction of Jerusalem ; John 14 : 16, 
18 — "another Comforter .... I come unto you" — at Pentecost ; 14 : 3 — "And if I go and prepare a place for 
you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself" — at death); and secondly, a visible literal 
coming ( Mat. 25 : 31 — " the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him " ). 

(4) First, a spiritual resurrection ( John 5 : 25 — " The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear 
the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live " ) ; and secondly, a physical and literal resur- 
rection (John 5 : 28, 29 — "the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of 
judgment"). 

This twofoldness of each of the four terms, death, judgment, coming of Christ, resur- 
rection, is so obvious a teaching of Scripture, that the apostle's remark in Rev. 20 : 5 — 
"This is the first resurrection" — seems distinctly intended to warn the reader against drawing 
the premillenarian inference, and to make clear the fact that the resurrection spoken of 
is the first or spiritual resurrection, — an interpretation which is made indubitable by 
his proceeding, further on, to describe the outward and literal resurrection in verse 13 — 
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them." 

This interpretion suggests a possible way of reconciling the premillenarian and post- 
millenarian theories, without sacrificing any of the truth in either of them. Christ may 
come again, at the beginning of the millennium, in a spiritual way, and his saints may 
reign with him spiritually, in the wonderful advances of his kingdom ; while the visible, 
literal coming may take place at the end of the thousand years. Domer's view is post- 
millennial, in this sense, that the visible coming of Christ will be after the thousand 
years. Hengstenberg curiously regards the millennium as having begun in the Middle 
Ages (800—1800 A. D. ). This strange view of an able interpreter, as well as the extra- 
ordinary diversity of explanations given by others, convinces us that no exegete has yet 
found the key to the mysteries of the Apocalypse. Until we know whether the preach- 
ing of the gospel in the whole world ( Mat. 24 : 14 ) is to be a preaching to nations as a whole, 
or to each individual in each nation, we cannot determine whether the millennium has 
already begun, or whether it is yet far in the future. 

Our own interpretation of Rev. 20 : 1-10, was first given, for substance, by Whitby. He 
was followed by Vitringa and Faber. For a fuller elaboration of it, see Brown, Second 
Advent, 206-259 ; Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 447-453. For the postmillennial view 
generally, see Kendrick, in Bap. Quar., Jan., 18T0 ; New Englander, 1874 : 356 ; 1879 : 47-49, 
114-147; Pepper, in Bap. Rev., 1880 : 15; Princeton Review, March, 1879 : 415^34; Presb. 
Rev., 1883 : 221-252; Bib. Sac, 15 : 381, 625; 17 : 111; Harris, Kingdom of Christ, 220-237; 
Waldegrave, Bampton Lectures for 1854, on the Millennium ; Neander, Planting and 
Training, 526, 527 ; Cowles, Dissertation on Premillennial Advent, in Com. on Jeremiah 
and Ezekiel;- Weiss, Premillennial Advent; Crosby, Second Advent; Fairbairn on 
Prophecy, 432-480; Woods, Works, 3 : 267; Abp. Whately, Essays on Future State. For 



THE RESURRECTION". 575 

the premiUennial view, see Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae, 4 : 140-196 ; William Kelly, Advent 
of Christ PremiUennial ; Taylor, Voice of the Church on the Coming' and Kingdom of 
the Redeemer ; Litch, Christ Yet to Come. 

IV. The Keshrkection. 

While the Scriptures describe the impartation of new life to the soul in 
regeneration as a spiritual resurrection, they also declare that, at the second 
coming of Christ, there shall be a resurrection of the body, and a reunion 
of the body to the soul from which, during the intermediate state, it has 
been separated. Both the just and the unjust shall have part in the resur- 
rection. To the just, it shall be a resurrection unto life ; and the body 
shall be a body like Christ's — a body fitted for the uses of the sanctified 
spirit. To the unjust, it shall be a resurrection unto condemnation ; and 
analogy would seem to indicate that, here also, the outward form will fitly 
represent the inward state of the soul — being corrupt and deformed as is 
the soul which inhabits it. Those who are living at Christ's coming shall 
receive spiritual bodies without passing through death. As the body after 
corruption and dissolution, so the outward world after destruction by fire, 
shall be rehabilitated and fitted for the abode of the saints. 

Passages describing a spiritual resurrection are : John 5 : 24-27, especially 25 — " The hour 
cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live " ; Rom. 6 : 4, 
5 — "as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For 
if we have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection " ; 
Eph. 2 : 1, 5, 6 — "And you did he quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins .... even when we 
were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ .... and raised us up with him, and made us to 
sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus" ; 5 : 14 — "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and 
Christ shall shine upon thee." PhiL 3 : 10 — "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection" ; Col. 2 : 12, 
13 — "having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of 
God, who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your iesh, 
you, I say, did he quicken together with him" ; cf. Is. 26 : 19 — "Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. 
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust : for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead " ; 
Ez. 37 : 1-14 — the valley of dry bones: "I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your 
graves, my people ; and I will bring you into the land of Israel." 

Passages describing a literal and physical resurrection are : Job 14 : 12-15 — " So man lieth down 
and riseth not : Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh that thou wouldest 
hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, 
and remember me ! If a man die, shall he live again ? All the days of my warfare would I wait, till my release should 
come. Thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee : thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thine hands " ; John 
5 : 28, 29— "the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that 
have done good unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment." 

Acts 24 : 15 — " having hope toward God ... . that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust " ; 1 Cor. 
15 : 13, 17, 22, 43, 51, 52 — "if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised .... and if Christ 
hath not been raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins .... as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all 
be made alive .... it is sown in corruption : it is raised in incorruption .... We shall not all sleep, but we shall 
all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptible " ; Phil. 3 : 21 — " who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be con- 
formed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself" ; 
1 Thess. 4 : 14-16— "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus 
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto 
the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first." 

2 Pet. 3 : 7, 10, 13 — " the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being 
reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men .... But the day of the Lord will come as a 
thief ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent 
heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up ... . But, according to his promise, we look for 
new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" ; Rev. 20 : 13—" And the sea gave up the dead which 
were in it ; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them " ; 21 : 1, 5 — " And I saw a new heaven and a 



576 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away ; and the sea is no more .... And he that sitteth 
on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." 

The smooth face of death with the lost youth restored, and the pure white glow of the 
marble statue with all passion gone and the lofty and heroic only visible, are indications 
of what is to be. Art, in its representations alike of the human form, and of an ideal 
earth and society in landscape and poem, is prophetic of the future, — it suggests the 
glorious possibilities of the resurrection-morning. Nicoll, Life of Christ: "The river 
runs through the lake and pursues its way beyond. So the life of faith passes through 
death and is only purified thereby. As to the body, all that is worth saving will be 
saved. Other resurrections [such as that of Lazarus] were resurrections to the old 
conditions of earthly life ; the resurrection of Christ was the revelation of a new life." 
A. J. Gordon : " Here then is where the lines of Christ's ministry terminate, — in sancti- 
fication, the perfection of the spirit's holiness ; and in resurrection, the perfection of the 
body's health." 

Upon the subject of the resurrection, our positive information is derived 
wholly from the word of God. Further discussion of it may be most 
naturally arranged in a series of answers to objections. The objections 
commonly urged against the doctrine, as above propounded, may be reduced 
to two : 

1. The exegetical objection, — that it rests upon a literalizing of meta- 
phorical language, and has no sufficient support in Scripture. To this we 
answer : 

(a) That, though the phrase "resurrection of the body" does not occur 
in the New Testament, the passages which describe the event indicate a 
physical, as distinguished from a spiritual, change ( John 5 : 28 ; Phil. 3 : 
21 ; 1 Thess. 4 : 13-17). The phrase "spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15 : 44) is a 
contradiction in terms, if it be understood as signifying 'a body which is 
simple spirit. ' It can only be interpreted as meaning a material organism, 
perfectly adapted to be the outward expression and vehicle of the purified 
soul. The purely spiritual interpretation is, moreover, expressly excluded 
by the apostlic denial that "the resurrection is past already" (2 Tim. 2 : 
18), and by the fact that there is a resurrection of the unjust, as well as of 
the just (Acts 24: 15). 

John 5 : 28 — " all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth " ; Phil. 3 : 21 — " who shall fashion 
anew the body of our humiliation " ; 1 Thess. 4 : 16, 17 — "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first" ; 1 Cor. 15 : 44 — 
"it is sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body " ; 2 Tim. 2 : 17, 18 — "Bymenaeus and Philetus; men who 
concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some" ; Acts 
24 : 15 — "Having hope toward God ... . that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust." 

D. R. Goodwin, Journ. Soc. Bib. Exegesis, 1881 : 84— "The spiritual body is body, and 
not spirit, and therefore must come under the definition of body. If it were to be mere 
spirit, then every man in the future state would have two spirits— the spirit that he has 
here and another spirit received at the resurrection." 

(6) That the redemption of Christ is declared to include the body as 
well as the soul (Horn. 8 : 23; 1 Cor. 6 : 13-20). The indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost has put such honor upon the frail mortal tenement which he 
has made his temple, that God would not permit even this wholly to perish 
(Rom. 8 : 11 — 6 id to evomovv avrov nvev/ia ev vuiv, i. e., because of his indwell- 
ing Spirit, God will raise up the mortal body). It is this belief which 
forms the basis of Christian care for the dead (Phil. 3 : 21 ; c/. Mat. 22 : 32). 

Rom. 8 : 23 — " waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body " ; 1 Cor. 6 : 13-20 — " Meats for the belly 
and the belly for meats: but God shall bring to nought both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for 
the Lord ; and the Lord for the body : and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through his power .... But 
he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit .... Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is 
in you, which ye have from God ... . glorify God therefore in your body " ; Rom. 8 : 11 — " But if the Spirit of him 



THE RESURRECTION. 577 

that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth ia you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your 
mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you"— here the Revised Version follows Tisch., 8th 
ed., and Westcott and Hort's reading of 5ta rod Zvolkovvtos avrov irvev^aro^. Tregelles, 
Tisch., 7th ed., and Meyer, have Sia. to Zvoikovv avrov irvevna, and this reading we regard 
as, on the whole, the best supported. Phil. 3 : 21 — " will fashion anew the body of our humiliation." 

Dr. R. D. Hitchcock, in South Church Lectures, 338, says that " there is no Scripture 
declaration of the resurrection of the flesh, nor even of the resurrection of the body." 
While this is literally true, it conveys a false idea. The passages just cited f oreteU a 
quickening of our mortal bodies, a raising of them up, a changing of them into the 
likeness of Christ's body. Dorner, Eschatology : " The New Testament is not contented 
with a bodiless immortality. It is opposed to a naked spiritualism, and accords com- 
pletely with a deeper philosophy which discerns in the body, not merely the sheath or 
garment of the soul, but a side of the person belonging to his full idea, his mirror and 
organ, of the greatest importance for his activity and history." 

Christ's proof of the resurrection in Mat. 22 : 32—" God is not the God of the dead, but of the living"— 
has for its basis this very assumption that soul and body belong normally together, and 
that since they are temporally separated in the case of the saints who live with God, 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shall rise again. The idealistic philosophy of thirty years 
ago led to a contempt of the body; the recent materialism has done at least this 
service, that it has reasserted the claims of the body to be a proper part of man. 

(c) That the nature of Christ's resurrection, as literal and physical, 
determines the nature of the resurrection in the case of believers ( Luke 
24 : 39 ; John 20 : 27). As, in the case of Christ, the same body that was 
laid in the tomb was raised again, although possessed of new and sur- 
prising powers, so the Scriptures intimate, not simply that the saints shall 
have bodies, but that these bodies shall be in some proper sense an 
outgrowth or transformation of the very bodies that slept in the dust 
(Dan. 12 : 2 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 53, 54). The denial of the resurrection of the 
body, in the case of believers, leads naturally to a denial of the reality of 
Christ's resurrection (1 Cor. 15 : 13). 

Luke 24 : 39 — "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see me having" ; John 20 : 27 — "Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; 
and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing " ; Dan. 12 : 2 — " And many of 
them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt" ; 1 Cor. 15 : 53, 54 — " For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
But when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come 
to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory " ; 13 — " But if there is no resurrection of the dead, 
neither hath Christ been raised." 

Sadducean materialism and Gnostic dualism, which last held matter to be evil, both 
denied the resurrection. Paul shows that to deny it is to deny that Christ rose ; since, if 
it were impossible in the case of his followers, it must have been impossible in his own 
case. As believers, we are vitally connected with him ; and his resurrection could not 
have taken place without drawing in its train the resurrection of all of us. Having 
denied that Christ rose, where is the prof that he is not still under the bond and curse 
of death? Surely then our preaching is vain. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians was 
written before the Gospels ; and is therefore, as Hanna says, the earliest written account 
of the resurrection. Christ's transfiguration was a prophecy of his resurrection. 

(d) That the accompanying events, as the second coming and the judg- 
ment, since they are themselves literal, imply that the resurrection is also 
literal. 

Rom. 8 : 19-23— "For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God the 

whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now .... even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
'waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body "—here man's body is regarded as a part of 
nature, or the "creation," and as partaking in Christ of its deliverance from the curse; 
Rev. 21 : 4, 5 —"he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more .... and he that sitteth 
on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new"— a declaration applicable to the body, the seat of 
pain and the avenue of temptation, as well as to outward nature. See Hanna, The 
Resurrection, 28 ; Fuller, Works, 3 : 291 ; Boston, Fourfold State, in Works, 8 : 271-289. 
37 



578 ESCHATOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

On Olshausen's view of immortality as inseparable from body, see Aids to the Study of 
German Theology, 63. On resurrection of the flesh, see Jahrbuch f . d. TheoL, 1 : 289-317. 

2. The scientific objection. — This is threefold : 

(a) That a resurrection of the particles which compose the body at 
death is impossible, since they enter into new combinations, and not 
unfrequently become parts of other bodies which the doctrine holds to be 
raised at the same time. 

We reply that the Scripture not only does not compel us to hold, but it 
distinctly denies, that all the particles which exist in the body at death are 
present in the resurrection-body (1 Cor. 15 : 37 — ov to otijua to yev?jc6fj,evov ; 
50). The Scripture seems only to indicate a certain physical connection 
between the new and the old, although the nature of this connection is not 
revealed. So long as this physical connection is maintained, it is not 
necessary to suppose that even a germ or particle that belonged to the old 
body exists in the new. 

1 Cor. 15 : 37 — "that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of 
wheat, or of some other kind ; but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own." 
The view of the resurrection held a century ago was exposed to the objection men- 
tioned above. Pollok's Course of Time represented the day of resurrection as a day on 
which the limbs that had been torn asunder on earth hurtled through the air to join 
one another once more. The amputated arm that had been buried in China must 
traverse thousands of miles to meet the body of its former owner, as it rose from the 
place of its burial in England. 

There are serious difficulties attending this view. The bodies of the dead fertilized 
the field of Waterloo. The wheat'grown there has been ground and made into bread, 
and eaten by thousands of living men. Particles of one human body have become 
incorporated with the bodies of many others. " The Avon to the Severn runs, The 
Severn to the sea, And Wy cliff e's dust shall spread abroad, Wide as the waters be." 
Through the clouds and the rain, particles of Wycliffe's body may have entered into the 
water which other men have drunk from their wells and fountains. There is a propa- 
gation of disease by contagion, or the transmission of infinitesimal germs from one 
body to another, sometimes by infection of the living from contact with the body of a 
friend just dead. In these various ways, the same particle might, in the course of 
history, enter into the constitution of a hundred living men. How can this one par- 
ticle, at the resurrection, be in a hundred places at the same time ? " Like the woman 
who had seven husbands, the same matter may belong in succession to many bodies, for 
* they all had it ' " ( Smyth ). The cannibal and his victim cannot both possess the same 
body at the resurrection. 

These considerations have led some, like Origen, to call the doctrine of a literal resur- 
rection of the flesh "the foolishness of beggarly minds," and to say that resurrection 
may be only " the gathering round the spirit of new materials, and the vitalizing them 
into a new body by the spirit's God-given power " ; see Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in a 
New Light, 349-391; Porter, Human Intellect, 39. But this view seems as great an 
extreme as that from which it was a reaction. It gives up all idea of unity between 
the new and the old. If my body were this instant annihilated, and if then, an hour 
hence, God should create a second body, precisely like the present, I could not call it 
the same with the present body, even though it were animated by the same informing 
soul, and that soul had maintained an uninterrupted existence between the time of the 
annihilation of the first body and the creation of the second. So, if the body laid in 
the tomb were wholly dissipated among the elements, and God created at the end of 
the world a wholly new body, it would be impossible for Paul to say : "this corruptible must 
put on incorruption " (1 Cor. 15 : 53), or : " it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory " ( verse 43). In short, 
there is a physical connection between the old and the new, which is intimated by» 
Scripture, but which this theory denies. 

Paul himself gives us an illustration which shows that his view was midway between 
the two extremes: "that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be" (1 Cor. 15 : 37). On 
the one hand, the wheat that springs up does not contain the precise particles, perhaps 
does not contain any particles, that were in the seed. On the other hand, there has been 
a continuous physical connection between the seed sown and the ripened grain at the 



THE RESURRECTION. 579 

harvest. If the seed had been annihilated, and then ripe grain created, we cotild not 
speak of identity between the one and the other. But, because there has been a constant 
flux, the old particles pressed out by new, and these new in their turn succeeded by 
others that take their places, we can say : " the wheat has come up." 

Or, to use another illustration nearer to the thing- we desire to illustrate : My body is 
the same that it was ten years ago, although physiologists declare that every particle of 
the body is changed, not simply once in seven years, but once in a single year. Life is 
preserved only by the constant throwing off of dead matter and the introduction of 
new. There is indeed a unity of consciousness and personality, without which I should 
not be able to say at intervals of years: "this body is the same; this body is mine." 
But a physical connection between the old and the new is necessary in addition. 

The North River is the same to-day that it was when Hendrick Hudson first discov- 
ered it ; yet not a particle of its current, nor a particle of the banks which that current 
touches now, is the same that it was then. Two things make the present river identical 
with the river of the past. The first is, that the same formative principle is at work, — 
the trend of the banks is the same, and there is the same general effect in the flow and 
direction of the waters drained from a large area of country. The second is, the fact 
that, ever since Hendrick Hudson's time, there has been a physical connection, old par- 
ticles in continuous succession having been replaced by new. 

So there are two things requisite to make our future bodies one with the bodies we 
now inhabit : first, that the same formative principle be at work in them ; and secondly, 
that there be some sort of physical connection between the body that now is and the 
body that shall be. What that physical connection is, it is vain to speculate. We only 
teach that, though there may not be a single material particle in the new that was 
present in the old, there yet will be such a physical connection that it can be said : "the 
new has grown out of the old " ; " that which was in the grave has come forth " ; " this 
mortal has put on immortality." 

( b ) That a resurrection-body, having such a remote physical connection 
with the present body, cannot be recognized by the inhabiting soul or by 
other witnessing spirits as the same with that which was laid in the grave. 

To this we reply that bodily identity does not consist in absolute sameness 
of particles, during the whole history of the body, but in the organizing 
force, which, even in the flux and displacement of physical particles, makes 
the old the basis of the new, and binds both together in the unity of a single 
consciousness. In our recognition of friends, moreover, we are not wholly 
dependent, even in this world, upon our perception of bodily form ; and we 
have reason to believe that in the future state there may be methods of 
communication far more direct and intuitive than those with which we are 
familiar here. 

Cf. Mat. 17 : 3, 4 — " And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter answered, 
and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to he here : if thou wilt, I will make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, 
and one for Moses, and one for Elijah " — here there is no mention of information given to Peter as 
to the names of the celestial visitants ; it would seem that, in his state of exalted sensi- 
bility, he at once knew them. The recent proceedings of the English Society for 
Psychical Research seem to indicate the possibility of communication between two 
minds without physical intermediaries. 

With regard to the meaning of the term 'identity,' as applied to material things, see 
Porter, Human Intellect, 631 — " Here the substance is called the same, by a loose anal- 
ogy taken from living agents and their gradual accretion and growth." The Euphrates 
is the same stream that flowed, "When high in Paradise By the four rivers the first 
roses blew," even though after that time the flood, or deluge, stopped its flow and 
obliterated all the natural features of the landscape. So this flowing organism which 
we call the body may be the same, after the deluge of death has passed away. 

A different and less satisfactory view is presented in Dorner's Eschatology : " Identity 
involves: 1. Plastic form, which for the earthly body had its moulding principle in 
the soul. That principle could effect nothing permanent in the intermediate state ; but 
with the spiritual consummation of the soul, it attains the full power which can appro- 
priate to itself the heavenly body, accompanied by a cosmical process, made like Christ. 
2. Appropriation, from the world of elements, of what it needs. The elements into 



580 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

which everything bodily of earth is dissolved, are an essentially uniform mass, like an 
ocean ; and it is indifferent what parts of this are assigned to each individual man. The 
whole world of substance, which makes the constant change of substance possible, is 
made over to humanity as a common possession (Acts 4 : 32— 'not one of them said that aught of 
the things which he possessed was his own ; but they had all things common.' )." 

( c ) That a material organism can only be regarded as a hindrance to the 
free activity of the spirit, and that the assumption of such an organism by 
the soul, which, during the intermediate state, had been separated from the 
body, would indicate a decline in dignity and power rather than a progress. 

We reply that we cannot estimate the powers and capacities of matter, 
when brought by God into complete subjection to the spirit. The bodies 
of the saints may be more ethereal than the air, and capable of swifter 
motion than the light, and yet be material in their substance. That the 
soul, clothed with its spiritual body, will have more exalted powers and 
enjoy a more complete felicity than would be possible while it maintained 
a purely spiritual existence, is evident from the fact that Paul represents 
the culmination of the soul's blessedness as occurring, not at death, but at 
the resurrection of the body. 

Rom. 8 : 23 — " waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 4—" not for that we would 
be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life" ; Phil. 3 : 11 — "if 
by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead." Even Ps. 86 : 11 — "Unite my heart to fear thy 
name"— may mean the collecting of all the powers of body as well as soul. In this 
respect for the body, as a normal part of man's being, Scripture is based upon the 
truest philosophy. Plotinus gave thanks that he was not tied to an immortal body, and 
refused to have his portrait taken because the body was too contemptible a thing to 
have its image perpetuated. But this is not natural, nor is it probably anything more 
than a whim or affectation. Eph. 5 : 29— "no man ever hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and cherisheth 
it." "What we desire is not the annihilation of the body, but its perfection. 

Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 188— "In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the soul reunites 
itself to the body, with the assurance that they shall never again be separated." 
McCosh, Intuitions, 213— "The essential thing about the resurrection is the develop- 
ment, out of the dead body, of an organ for the communion and activity of the spirit- 
ual life." Ebrard, Dogmatik, 2 : 226-234, has interesting remarks upon the relation of 
the resurrection-body to the present body. The essential difference he considers to be 
this, that whereas, in the present body, matter is master of the spirit, in the resur-^ 
rection-body spirit will be the master of matter, needing no reparation by food, and 
having control of material laws. Ebrard adds striking speculations with regard to the 
glorified body of Christ. 

On the spiritual body as possibly evolved by will, see Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 
386. On the nature of the resurrection-body, see Burnet, State of the Departed, chaps. 
7 and 8 ; Cudworth, Intell. System, 3 : 310 sq. ; Splittgerber, Tod, Fortleben und Aufer- 
stehung. On the doctrine of the Resurrection among the Egyptians, see Dr. Howard 
Osgood, in Hebrew Student, Feb., 1885 ; among the Jews, see Grobler, in Studien und 
Kritiken, 1879 : Heft 4; DeWunsche, in Jahrbuch f. prot. Theol., 1880 : Heft 2 and 4; 
Revue Theologique, 1881 : 1-17. For the view that the resurrection is wholly spiritual 
and takes place at death, see Willmarth, in Bap. Quar., Oct., 1868, and April, 1870 ; Ladd, 
in New Englander, April, 1874 ; Crosby, Second Advent. 

On the whole subject, see Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, 280; Herzog, Encyclop., art.: 
Auferstehung ; Goulburn, Bampton Lectures for 1850, on the Resurrection ; Cox, The 
Resurrection ; Neander, Planting and Training, 479-487, 524-526 ; Naville, La Vie Eter- 
nelle, 253, 254 ; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, 453-463 ; Moorhouse, Nature and Revelation, 
87-112; Unseen Universe, 33; Hovey, in Baptist Quarterly, Oct., 1867; Westcott, Reve- 
lation of the Risen Lord, and in Contemporary Review, vol. 30 ; R. W. Macan, Resurrec- 
tion of Christ ; Cremer, Beyond the Grave. 

V. The Last Judgment. 

"While the Scriptures represent all punishment of individual transgressors 
and all manifestations of God's vindicatory justice in the history of nations 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 581 

as acts or processes of judgment, they also intimate that these temporal 
judgments are only partial and imperfect, and that they are therefore to be 
concluded with a final and complete vindication of God's righteousness. 
This will be accomplished by making known to the universe the characters 
of all men, and by awarding to them corresponding destinies. 

Passages describing temporal or spiritual judgment are: Ps. 9:7— "He hath prepared his 
throne for judgment" ; Is. 26 : 9 — "when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the earth will learn 
righteousness " ; Mat, 16 : 27, 28— "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and 
then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds. Verily I say unto you, There be some of them that stand 
here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom " ; John 3 : 18, 19— "He 
that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. 
And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light ; for their 
works were evil" ; 9 : 39 — "For judgment came I into this world, that they which see not may see: and that they 
which see may become blind" ; 12 : 31 — "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be 
cast out." 

Passages describing the final judgment are : Mat, 25 : 31-46 — " But when the Son of man shall come 
in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered 
all the nations : and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats ..." 
Acts 17 : 31 — " he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he 
hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead " ; Rom. 2 : 16 
"in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 10 — " For we 
must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, 
according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad " ; Heb. 9 : 27, 28 — "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto 
men once to die, and after this cometh judgment ; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall 
appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation " ; Rev. 20 : 12 — " And I saw the dead, 
the great and the small, standing before the throne ; and books were opened : and another book was opened, which is the 
book of life : and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works." 

1. The nature of the final judgment. 

The final judgment is not a spiritual, invisible, endless process, identical 
with God's providence in history, but is an outward and visible event, 
occurring at a definite period in the future. This we argue from the fol- 
lowing considerations : 

(a) The judgment is something for which the evil are "reserved" (2 
Peter 2 : 4, 9 ) ; something to be expected in the future ( Acts 24 : 25 ; Heb. 
10 : 27) ; something after death (Heb. 9 : 27) ; something for which the 
resurrection is a preparation (John 5 : 29). 

2 Pet. 2 : 4, 9 — " God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell .... reserved unto judgment 
. . . . the Lord knoweth how .... to keep the unrighteous unto punishment unto the day of judgment " ; Acts 24 : 25 
— "as he reasoned of righteousness, and temperance, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified" ; Heb. 10 : 27 — 
"a certain fearful expectation of judgment" ; 9 : 27 — "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judg- 
ment" ; John 5 : 29— "the resurrection of judgment." 

( b ) The accompaniments of the judgment, such as the second coming of 
Christ, the resurrection, and the outward changes of the earth, are events 
which have an outward and visible, as well as an inward and spiritual, 
aspect. We are compelled to interpret the predictions of the last judg- 
ment upon the same principle. 

John 5 : 28, 29 — " Marvel not at this : for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done ill, unto the resurrec- 
tion of judgment" ; 2 Pet. 3 : 7, 10— "the day of judgment .... the day of the Lord .... in the which the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with a fervent heat" ; 2 Thess. 1 : 7, 8— "the 
revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that 
know not God ... . when he shall come .... in that day." 

(c) God's justice, in the historical and imperfect work of judgment, 
needs a final outward judgment as its vindication. "A perfect justice must 



582 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

judge, not only moral units, but moral aggregates ; not only the particulars 
of life, but the life as a whole." The crime that is hidden and triumphant 
here, and the goodness that is here maligned and oppressed, must be 
brought to light and fitly recompensed. "Otherwise man is a Tantalus — 
longing but never satisfied"; and God's justice, of which his outward 
administration is the expression, can only be regarded as approximate. 

Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 194— "The Egyptian Book of the Dead represents the 
deceased person as standing in the presence of the goddess MaSt, who is distinguished 
by the ostrich-feather on her head ; she holds the sceptre, in one hand and the symbol of 
life in the other. The man's heart, which represents his entire moral nature, is being 
weighed in the balance in the presence of Osiris, seated upon his throne as judge of the 
dead." Rationalism believes in only present and temporal judgment ; and this it regards 
as but the reaction of natural law: "Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht,— the 
world's history is the world's judgment." But there is an inner connection between 
present, temporal, spiritual judgments, and the final, outward, complete judgment of 
God. 

Dorner : " With Christ's appearance, faith sees that the beginning of the judgment 
and of the end has come. Christians are a prophetic race. Without judgment, Chris- 
tianity would involve a sort of dualism : evil and good would be of equal might and 
worth. Christianity cannot always remain a historic principle alongside of the contrary 
principle of evil. It is the only reality." God will show or make known his righteous- 
ness with regard to: (1) the disparity of lots among men; (2) the prosperity of the 
wicked ; ( 3 ) the permission of moral evil in general ; ( 4 ) the consistency of atonement 
with justice. "The o-uvreAeia tov eutovos ('end of the -world,' Mat. 13 : 39) = stripping hostile 
powers of their usurped might, revelation of their falsity and impotence, consigning 
them to the past. Evil shall be utterly cut off, given over to its own nothingness, or 
made a subordinate element." 

2. The object of the final judgment. 

The object of the final judgment is not the ascertainment, but the mani- 
festation, of character, and the assignment of outward condition corre- 
sponding to it. 

(a) To the omniscient Judge, the condition of all moral creatures is 
already and fully known. The last day will be only ' ' the revelation of the 
righteous judgment of God." 

They are inwardly judged when they die, and before they die ; they are outwardly 
judged at the last day : Rom. 2 : 5, 6 — " treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of 
the righteous judgment of God ; who will render to every man according to his works "— see Meyer on this pas- 
sage: not "against the day of wrath," but "in the day of wrath "= wrath existing before- 
hand, but breaking out on that day. 1 Tim. 5 : 24, 25 — "Some men's sins are evident, going before unto 
judgment ; and some men also they follow after. In like manner also, there are good works that are evident : and such 
as are otherwise cannot be hid" ; Rev. 14 : 13 — "for their works follow with them" — as close companions, 
into God's presence and judgment (Ann. Par. Bible ). 

( b ) In the nature of man, there are evidences and preparations for this 
final disclosure. Among these may be mentioned the law of memory, by 
which the soul preserves the record of its acts, both good and evil (Luke 
16 : 25 ) ; the law of conscience, by which men involuntarily anticipate pun- 
ishment for their own sins (Eom. 2 : 15, 16; Heb. 10 : 27) ; the law of 
character, by which every thought and deed makes indelible impress upon 
the moral nature (Heb. 3 : 8, 15). 

Luke 16: 25— "Son, remember!" See MacLaren's Sermons (1 : 109-122) — Memory (1) will 
embrace all the events of the past life ; ( 2 ) will embrace them all at the same moment ; 
( 3 ) will embrace them continuously and continually. Rom. 2 : 15, 16 — " they shew the work of the 
law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 583 

-else excusing them; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ"; 
Heb. 10 : 27 — "a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire -which shall devour the adversaries." 
Heb. 3 : 8, 15 — " Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the temptation in the wilderness 
.... To-day, if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." 

A man who afterwards became a Methodist preacher was converted in "Whitefield's 
time by a vision of the judgment, in which he saw all men gathered before the throne, 
and each one coming- up to the book of God's law, tearing open his heart before it " as 
one would tear open the bosom of his shirt," comparing his heart with the things 
written in the book, and according as they agreed or disagreed with that standard, 
either passing triumphant to the company of the blest, or going with howling to the 
company of the damned. No word was spoken; the Judge sat silent; the judgment 
was one of self-revelation and self-condemnation. See Autobiography of John Nel- 
son ( quoted in the Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevytyan, 207, by Mrs. E. Charles, the author 
of The Schonberg-Cotta Family ). 

(c) Single acts and words, therefore, are to be brought into the judgment 
only as indications of the moral condition of the soul. This manifestation 
of all hearts will vindicate not only God's past dealings, but his determi- 
nation of future destinies. 

Mat. 12 : 36 — " And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the 
day of judgment" ; Luke 12 : 2, 8, 9 —"there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall no* 
be known. .... Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of 
God : but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of- the angels of God " ; John 3 : 18 — 
"He that believeth on him is not judged : he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed 
on the name of the only begotten Son of God " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 10 — " For we must all be made manifest [ not : ' must all 
appear,' as in A. Vers.] before the judgment-seat of Christ." 

Even the human judge, in passing sentence, commonly endeavors so to set forth the 
guilt of the criminal that he shall see his doom to be just. So God will awaken the 
consciences of the lost, and lead them to pass judgment on themselves. Each lost soul 
can say as Byron's Manfred said to the fiend that tortured his closing hour : " I have 
not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey, But was my own destroyer." Thus God's final 
judgment will be only the culmination of a process of natural selection, by which the 
unfit are ehminated, and the fit are caused to survive. 

3. The Judge in the final judgment. 

God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is to be the judge. Though God is 
the judge of all (Heb. 12 : 23), yet this judicial activity is exercised through 
Christ, at the last day, as well as in the present state (John 5 : 22, 27). 

Heb. 12 : 23 — "to God the Judge of all " ; John 5 : 22, 27 — " For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath 
given all judgment unto the Son ... . and he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man." 

This, for three reasons : 

(a) Christ's human nature enables men to understand both the law and 
the love of God, and so makes intelligible the grounds on which judgment 
is passed. 

Whoever says that God is too distant and great to be understood may be pointed to 
Christ, in whose human life the divine "law appears, drawn out in living characters," 
and the divine love is manifest, as suffering upon the cross to save men from their sins. 

(b) The perfect human nature of Christ, united as it is to the divine, 
ensures all that is needful in true judgment, viz. : that it be both merciful 
and just. 

As F. W. Robertson has shown in his sermon on "The Sympathy of Christ" (vol. 1 : 
sermon vii ), it is not sin that most sympathizes with sin. Sin blinds and hardens. Only 
the pure can appreciate the needs of the impure, and feel for them. 

(c) Human nature, sitting upon the throne of judgment, will afford con- 



584 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

vincing proof that Christ has received the reward of his sufferings, and 
that humanity has been perfectly redeemed. The saints shall ' ' judge the 
world " only as they are one with Christ. 

The lowly Son of man shall sit upon the throne of judgment. And with himself he 
will join all believers. Mat. 19 : 28 — "ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man 
shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" ; Luke 
22 : 28-30 — "But ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations ; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, 
flven as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom ; and ye shall sit on 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" ; 1 Cor. 6 : 2, 3— "know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? 
.... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Rev. 3 : 21 — "He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down 
with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne." 

4. The subjects of the final judgment. 

The persons upon whose characters and conduct this judgment shall be 
passed are of two great classes : 

(a) All men — each possessed of body as well as soul, — the dead having 
been raised, and the living having been changed. 

1 Cor. 15 : 51, 52 — " "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at 
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" ; 
1 Thess. 4 : 16, 17 — "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with 
them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 

(b) All evil angels, — good angels appearing only as attendants and min- 
isters of the Judge. 

Evil angels : 2 Pet. 2 : 4 — "For if God spared not angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed 
them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment " ; Jude 6 — " And angels which kept not their own principality, 
but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day " ; 
Good angels: Mat. 13 : 41, 42 — "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his 
kingdom all things that shall cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire : 
there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth " ; 25 : 31— "But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and 
all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered all the nations." 

5. The grounds of the final judgment. 

These will be two in number : 

(a) The law of God, — as made known in conscience and in Scripture. 

John 12 : 48 — " He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I spake, 
the same shall judge him in the last day " ; Rom. 2 : 12 — " For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish 
without law : and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged by law." 

(6) The grace of Christ (Rev. 20 : 12), — those whose names are found 
" written in the book of life " being approved, simply because of their union 
with Christ and participation in his righteousness. Their good works shall 
be brought into judgment only as proofs of this relation to the Redeemer. 
Those not found "written in the book of life " will be judged by the law of 
God, as God has made it known to each individual. 

Rev. 20 : 12 — "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne ; and books were opened: and 
another book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in 
the books, according to their works." The "book of life"= the book of justification, in which are 
written the names of those who are united to Christ by faith ; as the " book of death " 
would = the book of condemnation, in which are written the names of those who stand 
in their sins, as unrepentant and unforgiven transgressors of God's law. 

On the whole subject, see Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 456, 457 ; Martensen, Christian 
Dogmatics, 465, 466 ; Neander, Planting and Training, 524-526 ; Edwards, Works, 2 : 499, 
600; 4 : 202-225; Pox, in Lutheran Review, 1887 :. 206-226. 



FIXAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 585 
YL The Fixax, States of the Righteous and of the Wicked. 
1. Of the righteous. 

The final state of the righteous is described as eternal life (Mat. 25 : 46), 
glory (2 Cor. 4 : 17), rest (Heb. 4:9), knowledge (1 Cor. 13 : 8-10), holi- 
ness (Rev. 21:27), service (Rev. 22:3), worship (Rev. 19:1), society 
(Heb. 12 : 23), communion with God (Rev. 21 : 3). 

Mat 25 : 46 — " And these shall go away into eternal punishment : but the righteous into eternal life" ; 2 Cor. 4 : 17 
— " For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of 
glory " ; Heb. 4 : 9 — "There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God " ; 1 Cor. 13 : 8-10 — " Love never 
faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether 
there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part : but when that which is 
perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away"' ; Rev. 21 : 27 — "and there shall in no wise enter into it 
anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie : but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of 
life " ; 22 : 3 — "and his servants shall do him service " ; 19 : 1 — " After these things I heard as it were a great voice 
of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah ; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God ; for true and 
righteous are his judgments'' ; Heb. 12 : 23 — "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in 
heaven " ; Rev. 21 : 3 — " And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." 

Summing up all these, we may say that it is the fullness and perfection of 
holy life, in communion with God and with sanctified spirits. Although 
there will be degrees of blessedness and honor, proportioned to the capacity 
and fidelity of each soul (Luke 19 : 17, 19 ; 1 Cor. 3 : 14, 15), each shall 
receive as great a measure of reward as it can contain (1 Cor. 2:9), and 
this final state, once entered upon, shall be unchanging in kind and endless 
in duration (Rev. 3 : 12 ; 22 : 15). 

Luke 19 : 17, 19 — " Well done, thou good servant : because thou wast found faithful in a very little, have thou author- 
ity over ten cities .... Be thou also over five cities" ; 1 Cor. 3 : 14, 15— "If any man's work shall abide which he 
built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself shall be 
saved ; yet so as through fire " ; 2:9 — " Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which entered not into the 
heart of man, Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him " ; Rev. 3 : 12 — " He that overcometh, I will make 
him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more " ; 22 : 15 — "Without are the dogs, and the 
sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie." 

In the parable of the laborers ( Mat. 20 : 1-16 ), each receives a penny. Rewards in heaven 
will be equal, in the sense that each saved soul will be filled with good. But rewards 
will vary, in the sense that the capacity of one will be greater than that of another ; 
and this capacity will be in part the result of our improvement of God's gifts in the 
present life. The relative value of the penny may in this way vary from a single unit 
to a number indefinitely great, according to the work and spirit of the recipient. 
Heaven will involve rest from defective physical organization and surroundings, as well 
as from the remains of evil in our hearts. It will be a rest consistent with service, an 
activity without weariness, a service which is perfect freedom. 

Plato's Republic and More's Utopia are only earthly adumbrations of St. John's City 
of God. The representation of heaven as a city seems intended to suggest intensity of 
life, variety of occupation, and closeness of relation to others. Brotherly love in the 
next world implies knowing those we love, and loving those we know. We certainly 
shall not know less there than here. If we know our friends here, we shall know them 
there. And as love to Christ here draws us nearer to each other, so there we shall love 
friends, not less but more, because of our greater nearness to Christ. 

With regard to heaven, two questions present themselves, namely : 

(a) Is heaven a place, as well as a state ? 

We answer that this is probable, for the reason that the presence of 
Christ's human body is essential to heaven, and that this body must be 
confined to place. Since deity and humanity are indissolubly united in 



586 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

Christ's single person, we cannot regard Christ's human soul as limited to 
place without vacating his person of its divinity. But we cannot conceive 
of his human body as thus omnipresent. As the new bodies of the saints 
are confined to place, so, it would seem, must be the body of their Lord. 
But, though heaven be the place where Christ manifests his glory through 
the human body which he assumed in the incarnation, our ruling concep- 
tion of heaven must be something higher even than this, namely, that of a 
state of holy communion with God. 

John 14 : 2, 3 — " la my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you ; for I go to pre- 
pare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that 
where I am, there ye may be also" ; Heb. 12 : 14 — "Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without 
which no man shall see the Lord." 

Although heaven is probably a place, we are by no means to allow this conception to 
become the preponderant one in our minds. Milton : " The mind is its own place, and 
in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." As he goes through the gates of 
death, every Christian can say, as Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon : " Omnia 
mea mecum porto." The hymn " O sing to me of heaven, When I am called to die " is 
not true to Christian experience. In that hour the soul sings, not of heaven, but of 
Jesus and his cross. As houses on river-flats, accessible in time of flood by boats, keep 
safe only goods in the upper story, so only the treasure laid up above escapes the 
destroying floods of the last day. Dorner : " The soul will possess true freedom, in that 
it can no more become unf ree ; and that through the indestructible love-energy springing 
from union with God." 

( b ) Is this earth to be the heaven of the saints ? We answer : 

First, — that the earth is to be purified by fire, and perhaps prepared to 

be the abode of the saints, — although this last is not rendered certain by 

the Scriptures. 

Rom. 8 : 19-23 — " For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the 
creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation 
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we 
know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, 
which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the 
redemption of our body" ; 2 Pet. 3 : 12, 13 — "looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by 
reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. But accord- 
ing to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" ; Rev. 21 : 1 —"And I 
saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away ; and the sea is no more." 
Dorner: "Without loss of substantiality, matter will have exchanged its darkness, 
hardness, heaviness, inertia, and impenetrableness for clearness, radiance, elasticity, 
and transparency. A new stadium will begin — God's advance to new creations, with 
the cooperation of perfected mankind." 

Secondly, — that this fitting-up of the earth for man's abode, even if it 
were declared in Scripture, would not render it certain that the saints are 
to be confined to these narrow limits (John 14 : 2). It seems rather to be 
intimated that the effect of Christ's work will be to bring the redeemed into 
union and intercourse with other orders of intelligence, from communion 
with whom they are now shut out by sin (Eph. 1 : 20 ; Col. 1 : 20). 

John 14 : 2 — "In my Father's house are many mansions" ; Eph. 1 : 10— "unto a dispensation of the fulness of the 
times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth " ; Col. 1 : 20 — " through 
him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross ; through him, I say, whether 
things upon the earth, or things in the heavens." 

See Dr. A. C. Kendrick, in Bap. Quarterly, Jan., 1870. Dr. Kendrick thinks we need 
local associations. Earth may be our home, yet from this home we may set out on 
excursions throug-h the universe, after a time returning again to our earthly abodes. 
So Chalmers, interpreting literally 2 Pet. 3. We certainly are in a prison here, and look 
out through the bars as the Prison of Chillon looked over the lake to the green isle 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 587 

and the singing' birds. Why are we shut out from intercourse with other worlds and 
other orders of intelligence ? Apparently it is the effect of sin. We are in an abnormal 
state of durance and probation. Earth is out of harmony with God. The great harp of 
the universe has one of its strings out of tune, and that one discordant string makes a 
jar through the whole. All things in heaven and earth shall be reconciled when this 
one jarring string is keyed aright and set in tune by the hand of love and mercy. See 
Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 307-330. 

2. Of the wicked. 

The final state of the wicked is described under the figures of eternal fire 
(Mat. 25 : 41) ; the pit of the abyss (Eev. 9 : 2, 11) ; outer darkness (Mat. 

8 : 12) ; torment (Eev. 14 : 10-12) ; eternal punishment (Mat. 25 : 46) ; 
wrath of God (Eom. 2:5); second death (Rev. 21 : 8); eternal destruc- 
tion from the face of the Lord (2 Thess. 1:9); eternal sin (Mark 3 : 29). 

Mat. 25 : 41 — " Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels " ; Rev. 

9 : 2, 11 — " And he opened the pit of the abyss ; and there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great 
furnace .... They have over them as king the angel of the abyss : his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek 
tongue he hath the name Apollyon " ; Mat. 8 : 12 — " but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer dark- 
ness: there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth " ; Rev. 14 : 10-12— "he also shall drink of the wine of the 
wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in 
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb : and the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and 
ever " ; Mat. 25 : 46 — " And these shall go away into eternal punishment." 

Rom. 2 : 5 — "after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and 
revelation of the righteous judgment of God " ; Rev. 21 : 8 — " But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and 
murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with 
fire and brimstone ; which is the second death " ; 2 Thess. 1:9—" who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction 
from the face of the lord and from the glory of his might"— here ano, from, = not separation, but 
" proceeding from," and indicates that the everlasting presence of Christ, once realized, 
ensures everlasting destruction ; Mark 3 : 29 — " whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath 
never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— a text which implies that (1) some will never 
cease to sin; (2) this eternal sinning will involve eternal misery; (3) this eternal 
misery, as the appointed vindication of law, will be eternal punishment. As TJzziah, 
when smitten with leprosy, did not need to be thrust out of the temple, but "himself 
hasted .... to go out "( 2 Chron. 26 : 20 ), so Judas is said to go " to his own place " ( Acts 1 : 25 ; cf . 4 : 23 
— where Peter and John, " being let go, they came to their own company " ). Cf. John 8 : 35 — " the servant 
abideth not in the house forever "= whatever be his outward connection with God, it can be only 
for a time ; 15 : 2 — "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away "—at death. 

Summing up all, we may say that it is the loss of all good, whether 
physical or spiritual, and the misery of an evil conscience banished from 
God and from the society of the holy and dwelling under God's positive 
curse forever. Here we are to remember, as in the case of the final state 
of the righteous, that the decisive and controlling element is not the 
outward, but the inward. If hell be a place, it is only that the outward 
may correspond to the inward. If there be outward torments, it is only 
because these will be fit, though subordinate, accompaniments of the 
inward state of the soul. 

Every living creature will have an environment suited to its character— "its own 
place." " I know of the future judgment, How dreadful so e'er it be, That to sit alone 
with my conscience Will be judgment enough for me." Calvin : " The wicked have the 
seeds of hell in their own hearts." Chrysostom, commenting on the words " Depart, ye 
cursed," says : '* Their own works brought the punishment on them ; the fire was not 
prepared for them, but for Satan ; yet, since they cast themselves into it, ' Impute it to 
yourselves,' he says, 'that you are there.'" Milton, Par. Lost, 4 : 75— Satan: " Which 
way I fly is hell ; myself am hell." Byron : "There is no power in holy men, Nor charm 
in prayer, nor purifying form Of penitence, nor outward look, nor fust, Nor agony, nor 
greater than all these, The innate torture of that deep despair Would make a hell of 
heaven, can exorcise From out the unbounded spirit the quick sense Of its own sins." 

Phelps, English Style, 228, speaks of " a law of the divine government, by which the 



588 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

body symbolizes, in its experience, the moral condition of its spiritual inhabitant. The 
drift of sin is to physical suffering. Moral depravity tends always to a corrupt and 
tortured body. Certain diseases are the product of certain crimes. The whole cata- 
logue of human pains, from a toothache to the angina pectoris, is but a witness to a 
state of sin expressed by an experience of suffering. Carry this law into the experience 
of eternal sin. The bodies of the wicked live again, as well as those of the righteous. 
You have therefore a spiritual body, inhabited and used, and therefore tortured, by 
a guilty soul,— a body, perfected in its sensibilities, inclosing and expressing a soul 
matured in its depravity." Augustine, Confessions, 25—" Each man's sin is the instru- 
ment of his punishment, and his iniquity is turned into his torment." Lord Bacon: 
" Being, without well-being, is a curse, and the greater the being, the greater the curse." 
The figurative language of Scripture is a miniature representation of what cannot be 
fully described in words. The symbol is a symbol ; yet it is less, not greater, than the 
thing symbolized. It is sometimes fancied that Jonathan Edwards, when, in his sermon 
on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," he represented the sinner as a worm 
shriveling in the eternal fire, supposed that hell consisted mainly of such physical 
torments. But this is a misinterpretation of Edwards. As he did not fancy heaven 
essentially to consist in streets of gold or pearly gates, but rather in holiness and 
communion with Christ, of which these are the symbols, so he did not regard hell as 
consisting in fire and brimstone, but rather in the unholiness and separation from God 
of a guilty and accusing conscience, of which the fire and brimstone were symbols. He 
used the material imagery, because he thought that this best answered to the methods 
of Scripture. He probably went beyond the simplicity of the Scripture statements, and 
did not sufficiently explain the spiritual meaning of the symbols he used ; but we are 
persuaded that he neither understood them literally himself, nor meant them to be so 
understood by others. 

In order, however, to meet opposing views, and to forestall the common 
objections, we proceed to state the doctrine of future punishment in greater 
detail : 

A. The future punishment of the wicked is not annihilation. — In our 
discussion of Physical Death, we have shown that, by virtue of its original 
creation in the image of God, the human soul is naturally immortal ; that 
neither for the righteous nor the wicked is death a cessation of being; 
that on the contrary, the wicked enter at death upon a state of conscious 
suffering which the resurrection and the judgment only augment and 
render permanent. It is plain, moreover, that if annihilation took place 
at death, there could be no degrees in future punishment, — a conclusion 
itself at variance with express statements of Scripture. 

The old annihilationism is represented by Hudson, Debt and Grace, and Christ our 
Life; also by Dobney, Future Punishment. It maintains that /e6Aa<ri?, "punishment" (in 
Mat. 25 : 46— "eternal punishment" ), means etymologically an everlasting " cutting-off ." But 
we reply that the word had to a great degree lost its etymological significance, as is 
evident from the only other passage where it occurs in the New Testament, namely, 
1 John 4 : 18 — " fear hath punishment " ( A. V. : " fear hath torment " ). For full answer to the old 
statements of the annihilation-theory, see under Physical Death, pages 558-562. 

That there are degrees of punishment in God's administration is evident from Luke 12: 
47, 48— "And that servant, which knew his Lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be 
beaten with many stripes ; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes ; " 
Rom. 2 : 5, 6 — "after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and 
revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; who will render to every man according to his works " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 10 — 
"For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ ; that each one may receive the things done in the 
body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad" ; 11 : 15— "whose end shall be according to their 
works" ; 2 Tim. 4 : 14 — "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord will render to him according to his 
works" ; Rev. 2 : 23 —"I will give unto each one of you according to your works " ; 18 : 5, 6— "her sins have reached 
even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Render unto her even as she rendered, and double unto her 
the double according to her works : in the cup which she mingled, mingle unto her double." 

There are two forms of the annihilation theory which are more plausible, 
and which in recent times find a larger number of advocates, namely : 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 589 

(a) That the powers of the wicked are gradually weakened, as the 
natural result of sin, so that they finally cease to be. We reply, first, that 
moral evil does not, in this present life, seem to be incompatible with a 
constant growth of the intellectual powers, at least in certain directions, 
and we have no reason to believe the fact to be different in the world 
to come ; secondly, that if this theory were true, the greater the sin, the 
speedier would be the relief from punishment. 

This form of the annihilation theory is suggested by Bushnell, in his Forgiveness and 
Law, 146, 147, and by Martineau, Study, 2 : 114. Dorner also, in his Eschatology, seems 
to favor it as one of the possible methods of future punishment. He says : " To the 
ethical also pertains ontological significance. The ' second death ' may be the dissolving 
of the soul itself into nothing. Estrangement from God, the source of life, ends in 
extinction of life. The orthodox talk about demented beings, raging in impotent fury, 
amounts to the same — annihilation of their human character. Evil is never the sub- 
stance of the soul, — this remains metaphysically good." It is argued that even for 
saved sinners there is a loss. The prodigal regained his father's favor, but he could not 
regain his lost patrimony. We cannot get back the lost time, nor the lost growth. 
Much more, then, in the case of the wicked, will there be perpetual loss. Draper: "At 
every return to the sun, comets lose a portion of their size and brightness, stretching 
out until the nucleus loses control, the mass breaks up, and the greater portion navi- 
gates the sky, in the shape of disconnected meteorites." 

But a sufficient answer to this view is that certain minds grow in their powers, at 
least in certain directions, in spite of the fact of sin. Napoleon's military genius greAV 
with experience ; and Satan's cunning and daring seem to be on the increase from the 
first mention of him in Scripture to its end. See Princeton Review, 1872 : 673-694. This 
view, moreover, would seem to be not simply defective, in its award of retribution, but 
to be glaringly unjust, in making the greatest sinner the least sufferer; since to him 
relief, in the way of annihilation, comes the soonest. 

(6) That there is for the wicked, certainly after death, and possibly 
between death and the judgment, a positive punishment proportioned to 
their deeds, but that this punishment issues in, or is followed by, anni- 
hilation. We reply, first, that upon this view, as upon any theory of 
annihilation, future punishment is a matter of grace as well as of justice — 
a notion for which Scripture affords no warrant ; secondly, that Scripture 
not only gives no hint of the cessation of this punishment, but declares in 
the strongest terms its endlessness. 

The second form of the annihilation-theory seems to have been held by Justin Martyr 
(Trypho, Edinb. transl., 93-95 )— " Some, who have appeared worthy of God, never die; 
but others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and be punished." The soul 
exists because God wills, and no longer than he wills. "Whenever it is necessary that 
the soul should cease to exist, the spirit of life is removed from it, and there is no more 
soul, but it goes back to the place from which it was taken." 

A modern advocate of this view is White, in his Life in Christ. He favors a conditional 
immortality, belonging only to those who are joined to Christ by faith ; but he makes a 
retributive punishment and pain fall upon the godless, before their annihilation. The 
roots of this view he in a false conception of holiness as a form or manifestation of 
benevolence, and of punishment as deterrent and preventive instead of vindicative of 
righteousness. To the minds of its advocates, extinction of being is a comparative 
blessing; and they, for this reason, prefer it to the common view. See Whiton, Is 
Eternal Punishment Endless? 

More rational and Scriptural is the saying of Tower : " Sin is God's foe. He does not 
annihilate it, but he makes it the means of displaying his holiness ; as the Romans did 
not slay their captured enemies, but made them their servants." The terms aldjv and 
ailii'ios, which we have still to consider, afford additional Scripture testimony against 
annihilation. See also the argument from the divine justice, pages 594-597 ; article on 
! ^e Doctrine of Extinction, in N. Englander, March, 1879 : 201-224 ; Hovey, Manual of 
Theology and Ethics, 153-168 ; J. S. Barlow, Endless Being ; W. H. Robinson, on Condi- 
tional Immortality, in Report of Baptist Congress for 1886. 



590 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRIHE OF FINAL THINGS. 

B. Punishment after death excludes new probation and ultimate restora- 
tion of the wicked. — Some have maintained the ultimate restoration of all 
human beings, by appeal to such passages as the following : 

Mat. 19 : 28 —"in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory " ; Acts 3 : 21 —Jesus, 
"whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things" ; 1 Cor. 15 : 26—" The last enemy that 
shall be abolished is death " ; Eph. 1 : 9, 10 — "according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him unto a dispen- 
sation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the 
earth " ; Phil. 2 : 10, 11 —"that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth 
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father" ; 2 Pet. 3 : 9, 13— "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance .... But, 
according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 

For advocacy of a second probation for those who have not consciously rejected 
Christ in this life, see Newman Smyth's edition of Dorner's Esehatology. For the 
theory of restoration, see Farrar, Eternal Hope; Birks, Victory of Divine Goodness; 
Jukes, Restitution of All Things ; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, 469-476 ; Robert Brown- 
ing-, Apparent Failure; Tennyson, In Memoriam, § liv. Per contra, see Hovey, Bib. 
Eschatolog-y, 95-144. 

(a) These passages, as obscure, are to be interpreted in the light of 
those plainer ones which we have already cited. Thus interpreted, they 
foretell only the absolute triumph of the divine kingdom, and the subjec- 
tion of all evil to God. 

The true interpretation of the passages above mentioned is indicated in Meyer's note 
on Eph. 1 : 9, 10— this namely, that "the allusion is not to the restoration of fallen indi- 
viduals, but to the restoration of universal harmony, implying- that the wicked are to be 
excluded from the kingdom of God." That there is no allusion to a probation after 
this life, is clear from Luke 16: 19-31— the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Here 
penalty is inflicted for the sins done "in thy lifetime" ( v. 25) ; this penalty is unchangeable 
—"there is a great gulf fixed " ( v. 26) ; the rich man asks favors for his brethren who still live 
on the earth, but none for himself ( v. 27, 28 ). John 5 : 25-29 — " The hour cometh, and now is, when the 
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, even 
so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son 
of man. Marvel not at this : for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of 
judgment"— here it is declared that, while for those who have done good there is a resur- 
rection of life, there is for those who have done ill only a resurrection of judgment. 
John 8 : 21, 24 — "shall die in your sin: whither I go ye cannot come .... except ye believe that I am he, ve shall 
die in your sins "— sayings which indicate finality in the decisions of this life. 

Rom. 1 : 18-28 — there is probation under the light of nature as well as under the g-ospel, 
and under the law of nature as well as under the gospel men may be given up "unto a 
reprobate mind" ; 2 : 6-16 — Gentiles shall be judged, not by the gospel, but by the law of 
nature, and shall "perish without law .... in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men." 2 Cor. 5 : 10 
— " For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ ; [ not that each may have a new 
opportunity to secure salvation, but ] that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to 
what he hath done, whether it be good or bad " ; Heb. 6 : 8 — " •whose end is to be burned " — not to be quickened 
again ; 9 : 27 — "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh [not a second 
probation, but] judgment." 

For an able review of the Scripture testimony against a second probation, see G. F. 
Wright, Relation of Death to Probation, iv. Emerson, the most recent advocate of 
restorationism, in his Doctrine of Probation Examined, 43, is able to evade these latter 
passages only by assuming that they are to be spiritually interpreted, and that there is 
to be no literal outward day of judgment — an error which we have previously dis- 
cussed and refuted,— see pages 581, 582. 

( b ) The advocates of universal restoration are commonly the most stren- 
uous defenders of the inalienable freedom of the human will to make 
choices contrary to its past character and to all the motives which are or 
can be brought to bear upon it. As a matter of fact, we find in this world 
that men choose sin in spite of infinite motives to the contrary. Upon the 
theory of human freedom just mentioned; no motives which God can use 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 591 

will certainly accomplish the salvation of all moral creatures. The soul 
which resists Christ here may resist him forever. 

Emerson, in the book just referred to, says : " The truth that sin is in its permanent 
essence a free choice, however for a time it may he held in mechanical combination 
with the notion of moral opportunity arbitrarily closed, can never mingle with it, and 
must in the logical outcome permanently cast it off. Scripture presumes and teaches 
the constant capability of souls to obey as well as to be disobedient." Emerson is 
correct. If the doctrine of the unlimited ability of the human will be a true one, then 
restoration in the future world is possible. Clement and Origen founded on this theory 
of will their denial of f utui*e punishment. If will be essentially the power of contrary 
choice, and if will may act independently of all character and motive, there can be no 
objective certainty that the lost will remain sinful. In short, there can be no finality, 
even to God's allotments, nor is any last judgment possible. Upon this view, regenera- 
tion and conversion are as possible at any time in the future as they are to-day. 

But those who hold to this defective philosophy of the will should remember that 
unlimited freedom is unlimited freedom to sin, as well as unlimited freedom to turn to 
God. If restoration is possible, endless persistence in evil is possible also ; and this last 
the Scripture predicts. Whittier: "The sweet persuasion of His voice Respects the 
sanctity of will ; He giveth day : thou hast thy choice To walk in darkness still. What 
if thine eye refuse to see, Thine ear of heaven's free welcome fail ; And thou a willing 
captive be, Thyself thine own dark jail?" Swedenborg says that the man who obsti- 
nately refuses the inheritance of the sons of God is allowed the pleasures of the beast, 
and enjoys in his own low way the hell to which he has confined himself. Every 
occupant of hell prefers it to heaven. Dante, Hell, iv — " All here together come from 
every clime, And to o'erpass the river are not loth, For so heaven's justice goads them 
on, that fear Is turned into desire. Hence never passed good spirit." The lost are 
Heautontimoroumenoi, or self-tormentors, to adopt the title of Terence's play. See 
Whedon, in Meth. Quar. Rev., Jan., 1884; Robbins, in Bib. Sac, 1881 : 460-507. 

( c ) Upon the more correct view of the will which we have advocated, the 
case is more hopeless still. Upon this view, the sinful soul, in its very 
sinning, gives to itself a sinful bent of intellect, affection, and will ; in 
other words, makes for itself a character, which, though it does not render 
necessary, yet does render certain, apart from divine grace, the continuance 
of sinful action. In itself it finds a self-formed motive to evil strong 
enough to prevail over all inducements to holiness which God sees it wise to 
bring to bear. It is in the next world, indeed, subjected to suffering. But 
suffering has in itself no reforming power. Unless accompanied by special 
renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, it only hardens and embitters the 
soul. "We have no Scripture evidence that such influences of the Spirit are 
exerted, after death, upon the still impenitent ; but abundant evidence, on 
the contrary, that the moral condition in which death finds men is their 
condition forever. 

See Bushnell's " One Trial Better than Many," in Sermons on Living Subjects ; also 
see his Forgiveness and Law, 146, 147. Bushnell argues that God would give us fifty 
trials, if that would do us good. But there is no possibility of such result. The first 
decision adverse to God renders it more difficult to make a right decision upon the next 
opportunity. Character tends to fixity, and each new opportunity may only harden the 
heart and increase its guilt and condemnation. We should have no better chance of 
salvation if our lives were lengthened to the term of the sinners before the flood. Mere 
suffering does not convert the soul ; see Martineau, Study, 2 : 100. A life of pain did not 
make Blanco White a believer ; see Mozley, Hist, and Theol. Essays, vol. 2, essay 1. 

Edward A. Lawrence, Does Everlasting Punishment Last Forever? : " If the deeds of 
the law do not justify here, how can the penalties of the law hereafter ? The pain from 
a broken limb does nothing to mend the break, and the suffering from disease does 
nothing to cure it. Penalty pays no debts,— it only shows the outstanding and unsettled 
accounts." If the will does not act without motive, then it is certain that without 
motives men will never repent. To an impenitent and rebellious sinner the motive 
must come, not from within, but from without. Such motives God presents by his 
Spirit in this life ; but when this life ends and God's Spirit is withdrawn, no motives to 



592 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

repentance will be presented. The soul's dislike for God will issue only in complaint 
and resistance. " Try what repentance can ? what can it not ? Yet what can it, when 
one cannot repent? " Marlowe, Faustus : " Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In 
one self place ; for where we are is hell, And where hell is, there we must ever be." 

( d ) The declaration as to Judas, in Mat. 26 : 24, could not be true upon 
the hypothesis of a final restoration. If at any time, even after the lapse of 
ages, Judas be redeemed, his subsequent infinite duration of blessedness 
must outweigh all the finite suffering through which he has passed. The 
Scripture statement that "good were it for that man if he had not been 
born " must be regarded as a refutation of the theory of universal restora- 
tion. 

Mat. 26 : 24 — " The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him : but woe unto that man through whom the Son of 
man is betrayed ! good were it for that man if he had not been born." G. F. Wright, Relation of Death 
to Probation: "As Christ of old healed only those who came or were brought to him, 
so now he waits for the cooperation of human agency. God has limited himself to an 
orderly method in human salvation. The consuming missionary zeal of the apostles 
and the early church shows that they believed the decisions of this life to be final 
decisions. The early church not only thought the heathen world would perish without 
the gospel, but they found a conscience in the heathen answering to this belief . The 
solicitude drawn out by this responsibility for our fellows may be one means of securing 
the moral stability of the future. What is bound on earth is bound in heaven ; else why 
not pray for the wicked dead?" It is certainly a remarkable fact, if this theory be 
true, that we have in Scripture not a single instance of prayer for the dead. 

The theory of a second probation, as recently advocated, is not only a logical result of 
that defective view of the will already mentioned, but it is also in part a consequence of 
denying the old orthodox and Pauline doctrine of the organic unity of the race in 
Adam's first transgression. New School Theology has been inclined to deride the notion 
of a fair probation of humanity in our first father, and of a common sin and guilt of 
mankind in him. It cannot find what it regards as a fair probation for each individual 
since that first sin ; and the conclusion is easy that there must be such a fan- probation 
for each individual in the world to come. But we may advise those who take this view 
to return to the old theology. Grant a fair probation for the whole race already passed, 
and the condition of mankind is no longer that of mere unfortunates unjustly circum- 
stanced, but rather that of beings guilty and condemned, to whom present opportunity, 
and even present existence, is matter of pure grace,— much more the general provision 
of a salvation, and the offer of it to any human soul. This world is already a place of 
second probation ; and since the second probation is due wholly to God's mercy, no 
probation after death is needed to vindicate either the justice or the goodness of God. 
See Kellogg, in Presb. Rev., April, 1885 : 226-256; Cremer, Beyond the Grave, preface by 
A. A. Hodge, xxxvi sq. ; E. D. Morris, Is there Salvation After Death ? A. H. Strong, on 
The New Theology, in Bap. Quar. Rev., Jan., 1888,— reprinted in Philosophy and Religion, 
164-179. 

C. Scripture declares this future punishment of the wicked to be ever- 
lasting. It does this by its use of the terms ai&v, aluvtoc. — Some, however, 
maintain that these terms do not necessarily imply eternal duration. We 
reply : 

(a) It must be conceded that these words do not etymologically neces- 
sitate the idea of eternity ; and that, as expressing the idea of "age-long," 
they are sometimes used in a limited or rhetorical sense. 

2 Tim. 1 : 9 — "his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal" — but the 
past duration of the world is limited; Heb. 9 : 26 — "now once at the end of the ages hath he been 
manifested " — here the alwes have an end. 

(6) They do, however, express the longest possible duration of which 

the subject to which they are attributed is capable ; so that, if the soul is 

immortal, its punishment must be without end. 

Gen. 49 : 26— "the everlasting hills" ; 17 : 8, 13— "I will give unto thee .... all the land of Canaan, for an 
everlasting possession .... my covenant [ of circumcision ] shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant " ; 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 593 

Ex. 21 : 6— "he [the slave] shall serve him [his master] for ever" ; 2 Chron. 6 : 2— "Bat I have built thee 
an house of habitation, and a place for thee to dwell in for ever "—of the temple at Jerusalem ; Jude 6, 7— 
" angels .... he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom 
and Gomorrah .... are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire "— here in Jude 6, bonds 
which endure only to the judgment day are called iMiots ( the same word which is used 
in Rom. 1 : 20— "his everlasting power and divinity" ), and fire which lasts only till Sodom and 
Gomorrah are consumed is called aluviov. 

In all the passages cited above, the condition denoted by aiwvio? lasts as long as the 
object endures of which it is predicated. But we have seen ( pages 554-562) that physical 
death is not the end of man's existence, and that the soul, made in the image of God, is 
immortal. A punishment, therefore, that lasts as long as the soul, must be an everlast- 
ing punishment. Another interpretation of the passages in Jude is, however, entirely 
possible. It is maintained by many that the "everlasting bonds" of the fallen angels do not 
cease at the judgment, and that Sodom and Gomorrah suffer "the punishment of eternal fire" 
in the sense that their sentence at the judgment will be a continuation of that begun in 
the time of Lot ( see Mat. 10 : 15 — " It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gemorrah in the day 
of judgment, than for that city " ). 

(c) If, when used to describe the future punishment of the wicked, they 
do not declare the endlessness of that punishment, there are no words in 
the Greek language which could express that meaning. 

G. F. Wright, Relation of Death to Probation : M The Bible writers speak of eternity 
in terms of time, and make the impression more vivid by reduplicating the longest 
time-words they had [ e. g., ei? tous aiuivas tuv a.iwvu>v =' unto the ages of the ages ' ]. Plato 
contrasts xp° vo * and aluiv, as we do time and eternity, and Aristotle says that eternity 
[aici»>] belongs to God The Scriptures have taught the doctrine of eternal pun- 
ishment as clearly as their general style allows." 

(d) In the great majority of Scripture passages where they occur, they 
have unmistakably the signification "everlasting." They are used to 
express the eternal duration of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 
(Rom. 16 : 26; 1 Tim. 1 : 17; Heb. 9 : 14; Rev. 1 : 18) ; the abiding pres- 
ence of the Holy Ghost with all true believers (John 14 : 17) ; and the 
endlessness of the future happiness of the saints ( Mat. 19 : 29 ; John 6 : 
54, 58; 2 Cor. 9:9). 

Rom. 16 : 26 — "the commandment of the eternal God" ; 1 Tim. 1 : 17 — "Now unto the King eternal, incorruptible, 
invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever" ; Heb. 9 : 14— "the eternal Spirit"; Rev. 1 : 18 — "I 
am the first and the last, and the Living one ; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore " ; John 14 : 16, 17 — 
" And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit 
of truth" ; Mat 19 : 29 — "every one that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters .... for my name's sake, shall 
receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life"; John 6 : 54, 58— "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood hath eternal life .... he that eateth this bread shall live for ever" ; 2 Cor. 9 : 9 — "lis righteousness abideth 
for ever" ; cf. Dan. 7 : 18 — "But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for 
ever, even for ever and ever." 

Everlasting punishment is sometimes said to be the punishment which takes place 
in, and belongs to, an aJuav, with no reference to duration. But President Woolsey 
declares, on the other hand, that "aioiyios cannot denote 'pertaining to an aid>v, or 
world-period.' " The punishment of the wicked cannot cease, any more than Christ 
can cease to live, or the Holy Spirit to abide with believers ; for all these are described 
in the same terms; "aiwiao? is used in the N. T. G6 times,— 51 times of the happiness 
of the righteous, 2 times of the duration of God and his glory, 6 times where there is 
no doubt as to its meaning 'eternal,' 7 times of the punishment of the wicked; tdvv 
is used 95 times,— 55 times of unlimited duration, 31 times of duration that has limits, 9 
times to denote the duration of future punishment." See Joseph Angus, in Expositor, 
Oct., 1887 : 274-286. 

( e ) The fact that the same word is used in Mat. 25 : 46 to describe both 
the sufferings of the wicked and the happiness of the righteous shows that 
the misery of the lost is eternal, in the same sense as the life of God or the 
blessedness of the saved. 

Mat 25 : 46— "And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life." On this 

38 



594 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

passage see Meyer : " The absolute idea of eternity, in respect to the punishments of 
hell, is not to be set aside, either by an appeal to the popular use of aiwvio?, or by an 
appeal to the figurative term ' fire ' ; to the incompatibility of the idea of the eternal 
with that of moral evil and its punishment, or to the warning design of the repre- 
sentation; but it stands fast exegetically, by means of the contrasted C<^w aiwviov, 
which signifies the endless Messianic life." 

(/) Other descriptions of the condemnation and suffering of the lost, 
excluding, as they do, all hope of repentance or forgiveness, render it cer- 
tain that alcjv and ai&viog, in the passages referred to, describe a punishment 
that is without end. 

Mat. 12 : 31, 32— "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall 
not be forgiven .... it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come" ; 25 : 10 — 
"And the door was shut" ; Mark 3 : 29 — "whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, 
but is guilty of an eternal sin"; 9 : 43, 48 — "to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire ... . where their worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched " ; Luke 3:17—" the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire " ; 16 : 26 — 
" between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and 
that none may cross over from thence to us" ; John 3 : 36— "he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." 

Review of Farrar's Eternal Hope, in Bib. Sac, Oct., 1878 : 782— "The original meaning 
of the English word * hell ' and ' damn ' was precisely that of the Greek words for which 
they stand. Their present meaning is widely different, but from what did it arise? It 
arose from the connotation imposed on those words by the impression the Scriptures 
made on the popular mind. The present meaning of these words is involved in the 
Scripture, and cannot be removed by any mechanical process. Change the words, and 
in a few years ' judge ' will have in the Bible the same force that ' damn ' has at present. 
In fact, the words were not mistranslated, but the connotation of which Dr. Farrar 
complains has come upon them since, and that through the Scriptures. This proves 
what the general impression of Scripture upon the mind is, and shows how far Dr. 
Farrar has gone astray." 

For the view that aiwi'io? and aluv are used in a limited sense, see DeQuincey, Theo- 
logical Essays, 1 : 126-146 ; Maurice, Essays, 436 ; Farrar, Eternal Hope, 200 ; Smyth, 
Orthodox Theology of To-day, 118-123; Whiton, Is Eternal Punishment Endless? For 
the common orthodox view, see Fisher and Tyler, in New Englander, March, 1878; 
Gould, in Bib. Sac, 1880 : 221-248; Princeton Review, 1873 : 620; Shedd, Doctrine of End- 
less Punishment, 12-117 ; Broadus, Com. on Mat. 25 : 46. 

D. This everlasting punishment of the wicked is not inconsistent with 
God's justice, but is rather a revelation of that justice. 

( a ) We have seen in our discussion of Penalty ( pages 350-352 ) that its 
object is neither reformatory nor deterrent, but simply vindicatory ; in other 
words, that it primarily aims, not at the good of the offender, nor at the wel- 
fare of society, but at the vindication of law. We have also seen (pages 129, 
138) that justice is not a form of benevolence, but is the expression and* 
manifestation of God's holiness. Punishment, therefore, as the inevitable 
and constant reaction of that holiness against its moral opposite, cannot 
come to an end until guilt and sin come to an end. 

The fundamental error of Universalism is its denial that penalty is vindicatory, and 
that justice is distinct from benevolence. See article on Universalism, in Johnson's 
Cyclopaedia: "The punishment of the wicked, however severe or terrible it may be, 
is but a means to a benificent end; not revengeful, but remedial; not for its own 
sake, but for the good of those who suffer its infliction." With this agrees Rev. H. W. 
Beecher : M I believe that punishment exists, both here and hereafter ; but it will not 
continue after it ceases to do good. With a God who could give pain for pain's sake, 
this world would go out like a candle." But we reply that the doctrine of eternal pun- 
ishment is not a doctrine of "pain for pain's sake," but of pain for holiness' sake. 
Punishment could have no beneficial effect upon the universe, or even upon the 
offender, unless it were just and right in itself. And if just and right in itself, then the 
reason for its continuance lies, not in any benefit to the universe, or to the sufferer, to 
accrue therefrom. 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 595 

F. L. Fatton, in Brit, and For. Ev. Rev., Jan., 1878 : 126-139, on the Philosophy of Pun- 
ishment — "If the Universalist's position were true, we should expect to find some 
manifestations of love and pity and sympathy in the infliction of the dreadful punish- 
ments of the future. We look in vain for this, however. We read of God's anger, of 
his judgments, of his fury, of his taking vengeance ; but we get no hint, in any passage 
which describes the sufferings of the next world, that they are designed to work the 
redemption and recovery of the soul. If the punishments of the wicked were chastise- 
ments, we should expect to see some bright outlook in the Bible-picture of the place of 
doom. A gleam of light, one might suppose, might make its way from the celestial city 
to this dark abode. The sufferers would catch some sweet refrain of heavenly music 
which would be a promise and prophecy of a far-off but coming glory. But there is a 
finality about the Scripture statements as to the condition of the lost, which is simply 
terrible." 

The reason for punishment lies not in the benevolence, but in the holiness, of God. 
That holiness reveals itself in the moral constitution of the universe. It makes itself 
felt in conscience— imperfectly here, fully hereafter. The wrong merits punishment. 
The right binds, not because it is the expedient, but because it is the very nature of 
God. "But the great ethical significance of this word right will not be known," (we 
quote again from Dr. Patton,) "its imperative claims, its sovereign behests, its holy 
and imperious sway over the moral creation will not be understood, until we witness, 
during the lapse of the judgment hours, the terrible retribution which measures the 
ill-desert of wrong." When Dr. Johnson seemed overfearf ul as to his future, Boswell 
said to him : " Think of the mercy of your Savior." " Sir," replied Johnson, " My Savior 
has said that he will place some on his right hand, and some on his left." 

( b ) But guilt, or ill-desert, is endless. However long the sinner may- 
be punished, he never ceases to be ill-deserving. Justice, therefore, which 
gives to all according to their deserts, cannot cease to punish. Since the 
reason for punishment is endless, the punishment itself must be endless. 
Even past sins involve an endless guilt, to which endless punishment is 
simply the inevitable correlate. 

For full statement of this argument that guilt, as never coming to an end, demands 
endless punishment, see Shedd, Doctrine of Endless Punishment, 118-163— "Suffering 
that is penal can never come to an end, because guilt is the reason for its infliction, and 
guilt, once incurred, never ceases to be ... . One sin makes guilt, and guilt makes 
hell." Man does not punish endlessly, because he does not take account of God. 
" Human punishment is only approximate and imperfect, not absolute and perfect like 
the divine. It is not adjusted exactly and precisely to the whole guilt of the offence, 
but is more or less modified, first, by not considering its relation to God's honor and 
majesty; secondly, by human ignorance of inward motives; and thirdly, by social 
expediency." But "hell is not a penitentiary .... The Lamb of God is also Lion of 

the tribe of Judah The human penalty that approaches nearest to the divine is 

capital punishment. This punishment has a kind of endlessness. Death is a finality. 
It forever separates the murderer from earthly society, even as future punishment 
separates forever from the society of God and heaven." See Martineau, Types, 2 : 65-69. 

( c ) Not only eternal guilt, but eternal sin, demands eternal punishment. 
So long as moral creatures are opposed to God, they deserve punish- 
ment. Since we cannot measure the power of the depraved will to resist 
God, we cannot deny the possibility of endless sinning. Sin tends ever- 
more to reproduce itself. The Scriptures speak of "an eternal sin" (Mark 
3 : 29). But it is just in God to visit endless sinning with endless punish- 
ment. Sin, moreover, is not only an act, but also a condition or state, of 
the soul ; this state, as impure and abnormal, involves misery ; this misery, 
as appointed by God to vindicate law and holiness, is punishment ; this 
punishment is the necessary manifestation of God's justice. Not the 
punishing, but the not-punishing, would impugn his justice ; for if it is just 
to punish sin at all, it is just to punish it as long as it exists. 

Mark 3 : 29 — " Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal 






596 ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

sin " ; Rev. 22 : 11 — "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still : and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy 
still." Calvin: "God has the best reason for punishing everlasting sin everlastingly." 
President D wight : " Every sinner is condemned for his first sin, and for every 3in chat 
follows, though they continue forever." What Martineau (Study, 2 : 106) says of this 
fife, we may apply to the next : " Sin being there, it would be simply monstrous that 
there should be no suffering." 

But we must remember that men are finally condemned, not merely for sins, but for 
sin; they are punished, not simply for acts of disobedience, but for evil character. The 
judgment is essentially a remanding of men to their " own place " ( Acts i : 25 ). The soul that 
is permanently unlike God cannot dwell with God. The consciences of the wicked will 
justify their doom, and they will themselves prefer hell to heaven. He who does not 
love God is at war with himself, as well as with God, and cannot be at peace. Even 
though there were no positive inflictions from God's hand, the impure soul that has 
banished itself from the presence of God and from the society of the holy has in its 
own evil conscience a source of torment. 

And conscience gives us a pledge of the eternity of this suffering. Remorse has no 
tendency to exhaust itself. The memory of an evil deed grows not less but more keen 
with time, and self-reproach grows not less but more bitter. Ever renewed affirmation 
of its evil decision presents to the soul forever new occasion for conviction and shame. 
F. W. Robertson speaks of "the infinite maddening of remorse." And Dr. Shedd, in 
the book above quoted, remarks : " Though the will to resist sin may die out of a man, 
the conscience to condemn it never can. This remains eternally. And when the 
process is complete ; when the responsible creature, in the abuse of free agency, has 
perfected his ruin; when his will to good is all gone; there remain these two in his 
immortal spirit — sin and conscience, 'brimstone and fire' (Rev. 21 : 8)." 

( d ) The actual facts of human life and the tendencies of modern science 
show that this principle of retributive justice is inwrought into the elements 
and forces of the physical and moral universe. On the one hand, habit 
begets fixity of character, and in the spiritual world sinful acts, often 
repeated, produce a permanent state of sin, which the soul, unaided, cannot 
change. On the other hand, organism and environment are correlated 
to each other ; and in the spiritual world, the selfish and impure find 
surroundings corresponding to their nature, while the surroundings react 
upon them and confirm their evil character. These principles, if they act 
in the next life as they do in this, will ensure increasing and unending 
punishment. 

Gal. 6 : 7, 8 — " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he 
that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption " ; Rev. 22 : 11 — " He that is unrighteous, let him do 
unrighteousness still : and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still." Dr. Heman Lincoln, in an article 
on Future Retribution ( Examiner, April 2, 1885 ) —speaks of two great laws of nature 
which confirm the Scripture doctrine of retribution. The first is that " the tendency of 
habit is towards a permanent state. The occasional drinker becomes a confirmed drunk- 
ard. One who indulges in oaths passes into a reckless blasphemer. The gambler who 
has wasted a fortune, and ruined his family, is a slave to the card-table. The Scripture 
doctrine of retribution is only an extension of this well-known law to the future life." 

The second of these laws is that " organism and environment must be in harmony. 
Through the vast domain of nature, every plant and tree and reptile and bird and mam- 
mal has organs and functions fitted to the climate and atmosphere of its habitat. If a 
sudden change occur in climate, from torrid to temperate, or from temperate to arctic ; 
if the atmosphere change from dry to humid, or from carbonic vapors to a pure oxygen, 
sudden death is certain to overtake the entire fauna and flora of the region affected, 
unless plastic nature changes the organism to conform to the new environment. The 
interpreters of the Bible find the same law ordained for the world to come. Surround- 
ings must correspond to character. A soul in love with sin can find no place in a holy 
heaven. If the environment be holy, the character of the beings assigned to it must be 
holy also. Nature and Revelation are in perfect accord. " See Drummond, Natural Law 
in the Spiritual world, chapters Environment, Persistence of Type, and Degradation. 

(e) As there are degrees of human guilt, so future punishment may 
admit of degrees, and yet in all those degrees be infinite in duration. The 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 597 

doctrine of everlasting punishment does not imply that, at each instant of 
the future existence of the lost, there is infinite pain. A line is infinite in 
length, but it is far from being infinite in breadth or thickness. "An infi- 
nite series may make only a finite sum ; and infinite series may differ infi- 
nitely in their total amount." The Scriptures recognize such degrees in 
future punishment, while at the same time they declare it to be endless 
(Luke 12 : 47, 48; Eev. 20 : 12, 13). 

Luke 12 : 47, 48— "And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, 
shall be beaten with many stripes ; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few 
stripes " ; Rev. 20 : 12, 13 — " And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne ; and books were 
opened : and another book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of the things which were 
written in the books, according to their works .... judged every man according to their works." 

(/) We know the enormity of sin only by God's own declarations with 
regard to it, and by the sacrifice which he has made to redeem us from it. 
As committed against an infinite God, and as having in itself infinite possi- 
bilities of evil, it may itself be infinite, and may deserve infinite punish- 
ment. Hell, as well as the Cross, indicates God's estimate of sin. 

Cf. Ez. 14 : 23— "ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord God." 
Valuable as the vine is for its fruit, it is fit only for fuel when it is barren. Every sin- 
gle sin, apart from the action of divine grace, is the sign of pervading and permanent 
apostasy. But there is no single sin. Sin is a germ of infinite expansion. The single 
sin, left to itself, would never cease in its effects of evil,— it would dethrone God. " The 
idea of disproportion between sin and its punishment grows out of a belittling of sin and 
its guilt. One who regards murder as a slight offence will think hanging an outrageous 
injustice. Theodore Parker hated the doctrine of eternal punishment, because he con- 
sidered sin as only a provocation to virtue, a step toward triumph, a fall upwards, good 
in the making." But it is only when we regard its relation to God that we can estimate 
sin's ill desert. Dr. Shedd : " The guilt of sin is infinite, because it is measured, not 
by the powers of the offender, but by the majesty of the God against whom it is com- 
mitted." See Edwards the Younger, Works, 1 : 1-294. 

E. This everlasting punishment of the wicked is not inconsistent with 
God's benevolence. — It is maintained, however, by many who object to 
eternal retribution, that benevolence requires God not to inflict punishment 
upon his creatures except as a means of attaining some higher good. We 
reply : 

(a) God is not only benevolent but holy, and holiness is his ruling 
attribute. The vindication of God's holiness is the primary and sufficient 
object of punishment. This constitutes a good which fully justifies the 
infliction. 

Even love has dignity, and rejected love may turn blessing into cursing. Love for 
holiness involves hatred of unholiness. The love of God is not a love without character. 
Dorner : "Love may not throw itself away .... We have no right to say that punish- 
ment is just only when it is the means of amendment." We must remember that holi- 
ness conditions love (see pages 140, 141 ). 

(b) In this life, God's justice does involve certain of his creatures in 
sufferings which are of no advantage to the individuals who suffer ; as in 
the case of penalties which do not reform, and of afflictions which only 
harden and embitter. If this be a fact here, it may be a fact hereafter. 

There are many sufferers on earth, in prisons and on sick-beds, whose suffering results 
in hardness of heart and enmity to God. The question is not a question of quantity, but 
of quality. It is a question whether any punishment at all is consistent with God's 
benevolence,— any punishment, that is to say, which does not result in good to the 
punished. This we maintain ; and claim that God is bound to punish moral impurity. 



598 ESCHATOLOGY, OK THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

whether any good comes therefrom to the impure or not. Archbishop Whately says it 
is as difficult to change one atom of lead to silver as it is to change a whole mountain. 
If the punishment of many incorrigibly impenitent persons is inconsistent with God's 
benevolence, so is the punishment of one incorrigibly impenitent person ; if the punish- 
ment of incorrigibly impenitent persons for eternity is inconsistent with God's benevo- 
lence, so is the punishment of such persons for a limited time, or for any time at all. 

( c ) The benevolence of God, as concerned for the general good of the 
universe, requires the execution of the full penalty of the law upon all who 
reject Christ's salvation. The Scriptures intimate that God's treatment of 
human sin is matter of instruction to all moral beings. The self-chosen 
ruin of the few may be the salvation of the many. 

Dr. Joel Parker, Lectures on Universalism, speaks of the security of free creatures as 
attained through a gratitude for deliverance " kept alive by a constant example of some 
who are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Our own race may be the only race 
( of course the angels are not a " race " ) that has fallen away from God. As through 
the church the manifold wisdom of God is made manifest " to principalities and powers in the 
heavenly places" (Eph. 3 : 19) ; so, through the punishment of the lost, God's holiness may be 
made known to a universe that without it might have no proof so striking, that sin is 
moral suicide and ruin, and that God's holiness is its irreconcilable antagonist. 

With regard to the extent and scope of hell, we quote the words of Dr. Shedd, in the 
book already mentioned : " Hell is only a spot in the universe of God. Compared with 
heaven, hell is narrow and limited. The kingdom of Satan is insignificant, in contrast 
with the kingdom of Christ. In the immense range of God's dominion, good is the rule 
and evil is the exception. Sin is a speck upon the infinite azure of eternity ; a spot on 
the sun. Hell is only a corner of the universe. The Gothic etymon denotes a covered- 
up hole. In Scripture, hell is a 'pit,' a 'lake' ; not an ocean. It is 'bottomless,' not bound- 
less. The Gnostic and Dualistic theories which make God, and Satan or the Demiurge, 
nearly equal in power and dominion, find no support in Revelation. The Bible teaches 
that there will always be some sin and death in the universe. Some angels and men will 
forever be the enemies of God. But their number, compared with that of unfallen 
angels and redeemed men, is small. They are not described in the glowing language and 
metaphors by which the immensity of the holy and blessed is delineated ( Ps. 68 : 17 ; Deut. 
32 : 2; Ps. 103 : 21; Mat. 6 : 13; 1 Cor. 15 : 25; Rev. 14 : 1; 21 : 16, 24, 25.) The number of the lost 
spirits is never thus emphasized and enlarged upon. The brief, stern statement is, that 
' the fearful and unbelieving .... their part shall be in the lake that bnrneth with fire and brimstone ' ( Rev. 21 : 8 ). 
No metaphors and amplifications are added to make the impression of an immense 
'multitude which no man can number.' " Dr. Hodge: "We have reason to believe that the lost 
will bear to the saved no greater proportion than the inmates of a prison do to the mass 
of a community." 

(d) The present existence of sin and punishment is commonly admitted 
to be in some way consistent with God's benevolence, in that it is made the 
means of revealing God's justice and mercy. If the temporary existence of 
sin and punishment lead to good, it is entirely possible that their eternal 
existence may lead to yet greater good. 

A priori, we should have thought it impossible for God to permit moral evil. But sin 
is a fact. Who can say how long it will be a fact ? Why not forever ? The benevolence 
that permits it now may permit it through eternity. And yet, if permitted through 
eternity, it can be made harmless only by visiting it with eternal punishment. Lillie on 
Thessalonians, 457— "If the temporary existence of sin and punishment lead to good, 
how can we prove that their eternal existence may not lead to greater good ? " We need 
not deny that it causes God real sorrow to banish the lost. Christ's weeping over Jeru- 
salem expresses the feelings of God's heart: Mat. 23 : 37, 38 — "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth 
the prophets and stoneth them that are sent unto her ! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a 
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate " ; cf. 
losea 11 : 8 — " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee as Admah? 
how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? mine heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together." Dante, 
Hell, iii— the inscription over the gate of hell: "Justice the founder of my fabric 
moved; To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom and primeval 
love." 



FINAL STATES OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED. 599 

(e) As benevolence in God seems in the beginning to have permitted 
moral evil, not because sin was desirable in itself, but only because it was 
incident to a system which provided for the highest possible freedom and 
holiness in the creature ; so benevolence in God may to the end permit the 
existence of sin and may continue to punish the sinner, undesirable as these 
things are in themselves, because they are incidents of a system which pro- 
vides for the highest possible freedom and holiness in the creature through 
eternity. 

But the condition of the lost is only made more hopeless by the difficulty with which 
God brings himself to this, his "strange work" of punishment (Is. 28:21). The sentence 
which the judge pronounces with tears is indicative of a tender and suffering heart, but 
it also indicates that there can be no recall. By the very exhibition of " eternal judgment " 
(Heb. 6:2), not only may a greater number be kept true to God, but a higher degree of 
holiness among that number be forever assured. The Endless Future, published by 
South. Meth. Pub. House, supposes the universe yet in its infancy, an eternal liability to 
rebellion, an ever-growing creation kept from sin by one example of punishment. Mat. 
7 : 13, 14— "few there be that find it"— "seems to have been intended to describe the conduct of 
men then living, rather than to foreshadow the two opposite currents of human life to 
the end of time " ; see Hovey, Bib. Eschatology, 167. See Goulburn, Everlasting Punish- 
ment ; Haley, The Hereafter of Sin. 

F. The proper preaching of the doctrine of everlasting punishment is 
not a hindrance to the success of the gospel, but is one of its chief and 
indispensable auxiliaries. — It is maintained by some, however, that, because 
men are naturally repelled by it, it cannot be a part of the preacher's 
message. We reply : 

(a) If the doctrine be true, and clearly taught in Scripture, no fear of 
consequences to ourselves or to others can absolve us from the duty of 
preaching it. The minister of Christ is under obligation to preach the 
whole truth of God ; if he does this, God will care for the results. 

Ez. 2 : 7— "And thoa shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear" ; 
3 : 10, 11, 18, 19 — "Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine 
heart, and hear with thine ears. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak 
unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God ; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear .... When 
I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from 
his wicked way, to save his life ; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine 
hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his 
iniquity : but thou hast delivered thy souL" 

(6) All preaching which ignores the doctrine of eternal punishment 
just so far lowers the holiness of God, of which eternal punishment is an 
expression, and degrades the work of Christ, which was needful to save us 
from it. The success of such preaching can be but temporary, and must 
be followed by a disastrous reaction toward rationalism and immorality. 

Much apostasy from the faith begins with refusal to accept the doctrine of eternal 
punishment. Theodore Parker, while he acknowledged that the doctrine was taught 
in the New Testament, rejected it, and came at last to say of the whole theology which 
includes this idea of endless punishment, that it M sneers at common sense, spits upon 
reason, and makes God a devil." 

But, if there be no eternal punishment, then man's danger was not great enough to 
require an infinite sacrifice ; and we are compelled to give up the doctrine of atonement. 
If there was no atonement, there was no need that man's Savior should himself be more 
than man ; and we are compelled to give up the doctrine of the deity of Christ, and with 
this that of the Trinity. If punishment is not eternal, then God's holiness is but another 
name for benevolence ; all proper foundation for morality is gone, and God's law ceases 
to inspire reverence and awe. If punishment is not eternal, then the Scripture writers 



600 ESCHATOLOGY, OE THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS. 

who believed and taught this were fallible men who were not above the prejudices and 
errors of their times ; and we lose all evidence of the divine inspiration of the Bible. 
With this goes the doctrine of miracles ; God is identified with nature, and becomes the 
impersonal God of pantheism. 

Theodore Parker passed through this process, and so did Francis W. Newman. Logic- 
ally, every one who denies the everlasting punishment of the wicked ought to reach a 
like result ; and we need only a superficial observation of countries like India, where 
pantheism is rife, to see how deplorable is the result in the decline of public and of 
private virtue. 

(c) The fear of future punishment, though not the highest motive, is yet 
a proper motive, for the renunciation of sin and the turning to Christ. It 
must therefore be appealed to, in the hope that the seeking of salvation 
which begins in fear of God's anger may end in the service of faith and love. 

Luke 12 : 4, 5— "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them which kill the body, and after that have 
no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom ye shall fear : Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to 
cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him" ; Jude 23— "and some save, snatching them out of the fire." It is 
noteworthy that the Old Testament, which is sometimes regarded, though incorrectly, 
as a teacher of fear, has no such revelations of hell as are found in the New. Only when 
God's mercy was displayed in the Cross were there opened to men's view the depths of 
the abyss from which the Cross was to save them. And it is not Peter or Paul, but our 
Lord himself, who gives us the most fearful descriptions of the suffering of the lost, and 
the clearest assertions of its eternal duration. 

(d) In preaching this doctrine, while we grant that the material images 
used in Scripture to set forth the sufferings of the lost are to be spiritually 
and not literally interpreted, we should still insist that the misery of the 
soul which eternally hates God is greater than the physical pains which are 
used to symbolize it. Although a hard and mechanical statement of the 
truth may only awaken opposition, a solemn and feeling presentation of it 
upon proper occasions, and in its due relation to the work of Christ and the 
offers of the gospel, cannot fail to accomplish God's purpose in preaching, 
and to be the means of saving some who hear. 

Acts 20 : 31 — " Wherefore watch ye, remembering that by the space of three years I ceased not to admonish every 
one night and day with tsars" ; 2 Cor. 2 : 14-17— "But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in 
Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place. For we are a sweet savor of Christ 
unto God, in them that are being saved, and in them that are perishing ; to the one a savor from death unto death ; to 
the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things ? For we are not as the many, corrupting 
the word of God : but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ " ; 5 : 11 — " Knowing there- 
fore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God ; and I hope that we are made manifest 
also in your consciences " ; 1 Tim. 4 : 16 — " Take heed to thyself and to thy teaching. Continue in these things ; for in 
so doing thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee." 

So Richard Baxter wrote : " I preached as never sure to preach again, And as a dying 
man to dying men." It was Robert McCheyne who said that the preacher ought never 
to speak of everlasting punishment without tears. McCheyne's tearful preaching of it 
prevailed upon many to break from their sins and to accept the pardon and renewal 
that are offered in Christ. Such preaching of judgment and punishment were never 
needed more than now, when lax and unscriptural views with regard to law and sin 
break the force of the preacher's appeals. Let there be such preaching, and then many 
a hearer will utter the thought, if not the words, of the Dies Irae, 8-10—" Rex tremenda? 
majestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, f oris pietatis. Recordare, Jesu pie, 
Quod sum causa tuae viae : Ne me perdas ilia die. Quasrens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti 
crucem passus : Tantus labor non sit cassus." See Edwards, Works, 4 : 226-321 ; Hodge, 
Outlines of Theology, 459-468; Murphy, Scientific Bases of Faith, 310, 319, 464; Dexter, 
Verdict of Reason ; George, Universalism not of the Bible ; Angus, Future Punishment ; 
Jackson, Bampton Lectures for 1875, on the Doctrine of Retribution ; Shedd, Doctrine 
of Endless Punishment, preface, and Dogm. Theol., 2 : 667-754. 



INDEXES 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Abelard's use of the term ' theology, ' . . . 1 

his relation to Scholasticism, 23 

his view of the atonement, - 400 

Abel's gifts, God testifies of, 479 

his sacrifice, how better than Cain's,. 396 
Abiding- in Christ, its nature and obli- 
gation, 447 

Ability, gracious, 315, 343 

not ground of sinner's responsibility, 315 

list of authors, for and against,. 345 

Ability, natural, of New School theo- 
logians, 342 

as designating the sinner's possession 
of the constituent faculties of hu- 
man nature, objected to, 343 

the phrase is misleading, 343 

it does not consist in a power of con- 
trary choice in single volitions, but 

in a bias of affections and will, 343 

it is not a matter of experience, 344 

preaching of it is attended with evil 

results, 344 

Ability, Pelagian, 342 

Ability to fulfill law not required to 

constitute non-fulfillment sin, 289 

not the measure of obligation, 313 

Abiogenesis denied by Huxley, 191 

1 Above reason ' not ' against reason,' . . . 16 

Abraham, date of call of, 107 

Absolute, expresses a positive idea, 6 

the, is it a negation of the thinkable ? 6 
explanation of term as applied to the 

attributes, 120 

related to finite dynamically or ra- 
tionally, 123 

Absolute and Infinite, complemental of 
our consciousness of relative and 

finite, 32 

Absolute Being, intuition of, 29 

Absolute Reason, intuition of, basis of 

all logical thought, 33 

necessary to all other knowledge, 33 

Abydos, triad of, 170 

Abyss, pit of the, final state of wicked 

in, 587 

Acceptilatio, according to Grotius, 403 

Accommodation, in Scriptural argu- 
ments, 109 



Accretion, theory of, cannot account 
for internal characteristics of Chris- 
tian documents, 81 

Achan, his sin visited upon his children, 338 

Acorns, crop of, illustration from, 10 

Acquittal of the ungodly who believe 

in Christ, what ? 474 

of sinner,its ground, 474 

of proved transgressors, impossible in 

earthly tribunals, 474 

of believer, a judicial proceeding 475 

Action, divine, not in distaiis, 207 

human, not simply expression of pre- 
viously dominant affections, 178 

uniformity of, rests on character, 260 

Actions, evil, in them God gives natural 

powers, men evil direction 207 

Activity, human, largely automatic and 

continuous, 283 

Acts, outward, condemned by men as 

symptomatic of disposition, 285 

Acts 6 : 1-4, is it institution of Christian 

ministry? 512 

Actual sin more guilty than original sin, 310 
Adam, members of the race had no per- 
sonal existence in him, 249 

only he had a right to be a creatianist, 252 

his righteousness not immutable, 264 

possessed power of contrary choice, 264 

not created undecided,. 264 

in him love an inborn impulse which 

he could affirm or deny, 264 

his exercise of holy will, was it meri- 
torious? 265 

the recipient of special grace in his 
unfallen state, according to Roman- 
ist theologians, 265 

the recipient of no supernatural gift 
not belonging originally to his na- 
ture, according to Scripture, 265 

his physical perfection admitted of 

progress, 2t>7 

his unfallen nature, notions of Fath- 
ers and Scholastics regarding, 268 

a philosopher, according to South, 268 

inexperienced, according to Scripture, 268 
his insight into nature analogous to 
that of susceptible childhood, 268 



604 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Adam, his naming- animals implied in- 
sight into their nature, 268 

his native insight capable of develop- 
ments of science and culture, 268 

his enjoyment of divine presence and 
teaching, 268 

his surroundings and society, 268 

his virtue, provision for trying, 269 

his innocence only to be perfected 
through temptation, 269 

his temptation did not necessitate a 
fall, 269 

his temptation if resisted would have 
strengthened virtue, 269 

his opportunity of securing physical 
immortality, 269 

his body mortal, 269 

his sin, its imputation to his posterity, 308 

his sin, how can this be justly charged 
to his posterity? 308 

his descendants, according to Pela- 
gius, not weaker but stronger than 
he, 311 

probation in, most accordant with our 
ideas of justice, 321 

his natural headship, theory of, 328 

his natural headship, explained in de- 
tail, 329 

the universal man, how, 329 

his natural headship in harmony with 
doctrine of heredity, 329 

his personality once contained the 
whole of human nature, 335 

his sin, in what sense we repent of it, 335 

his first sin, why men are responsible 
only for, 336 

the preaching of organic unity of race 
with, does not neutralize appeal to 
conscience,.. 338 

Augustinian theory of connection 
with, does not exclude separate pro- 
bation of individuals, 338 

our connection with, how it should be 
preached, 338 

Scriptural view of organic connection 
with, enhances the impression of 
man's absolute ruin, 338 

that his sin should affect the nature 
of his descendants, not contrary to 
divine justice, 339 

our connection with, in the first sin, 
not an act of divine sovereignty but 
of justice, 339 

probation of common nature in, more 
consistent with justice than indi- 
vidual probation, 339 

fall in, perhaps needful to a common 
salvation, 339 

connection with, cannot be unjust, 
since an analogous connection with 
Christ secures salvation 339 

inbeing in, not unjust if inbeing in 
Christ is just, 339 



Adam, and Christ, parallel between, one 

of analogy, not of identity, 340 

men as connected with, compared to 
leaves on a tree, each of which may 
wither by itself, but all of which 

wither by disease of root, 340 

consequences of his sin to his poster- 
ity, 340 

as a result of his transgression, all his 
posterity born into the same state 

into which he fell, 340 

his sin, its threefold consequence to 

himself and his posterity, 340, 412 

race fell in, not as a person foreign to 

us,.... 346 

the 'natural,' 'earthly,' might, had 
he continued in innocence, have at- 
tained the 'spiritual' and 'heav- 
enly ' without dying, 354 

was Christ in? 413 

the last, its implication, 366 

the second, a source of spiritual life,. 367 
created by Holy Ghost, Dorner on,... 370 

Ad aperturamlibri, 17 

Adaptation = the special order of or- 
ganic nature, 43 

Adoption, 475 

Adoration of the Host, -545 

Adultery, story of woman taken in, 
though not Johannine, yet apos- 
tolic, 341 

Adventists, Second, 569 

Advocacy of Christ and of the Holy 

Spirit, 164 

JEquale temperamentum of unfallen 

state, 267 

iEschylus, his reference to substitu- 
tion, 394 

on death, 557 

^Esthetics, conditioned by a capacity 

and love for the beautiful, 3 

'Affection, expulsive power of a new,'. 446 
Affections, occasions but not causes of 

volitions, 178 

man's, according to Calvin, runaway 

horses, 450 

holy, proper spring of holy action, 

authors on, 458 

Affliction, Greek proverb on, 220 

After-influence after death, and after- 
activity, 424 

Agamemnon blames, not himself, but 

Jupiter, 292 

Agassiz, Louis, on man the purpose of 

animal creation, 195 

on the number of human races, 241 

his theory of different centres of crea- 
tion 242 

a believer in brute immortality, 555 

Agency, free, defined, 176 

not inconsistent with certainty, 176 

Agnosticism, is it the highest achieve- 
ment of science ? 3 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



605 



Agricola, the Antinomian, 487 

Ahasuerus, sleeplessness of, 313 

Ahura Mazda, 188 

Aim of theology as a science, 1 

A Kempis, Thomas, illustrates nature 

of worship, 13 

mystical tendency in, 17 

Albertus Magnus, on the first man, .... 268 
Alexander, the unifier of the Greek East, 360 
Alexander, Archibald, on ground of 

moral obligation, 143 

on dispositions as voluntary, 288 

Alexander, J. "W., on union with Christ, 438 

his view of saving faith, 468 

Alexandrian philosophy, an ineffectual 

attempt to combine Judaism and 

pantheism, 361 

Alford, on 'My Lord and my God,' 148 

on 'angels of the seven churches,' 226 

his method of interpreting the book 

of Revelation, 570 

Allegorical method of theology, 27 

Allceosis, Luther's opinion of, 370 

Allusions in New Testament to all the 

books of Old Testament save six, ... 80 
Alphonso of Castile and the Ptolemaic 

system, 43 

' Altar-forms, ' Bushnell on, 402 

Alternative presented to New School 

theorists, 322 

Altruism, 142 

Ambition, what? 293 

Ambrose on giving credit to God, 14 

America, Indian races of, from Eastern 

Asia, 239 

American theology, 26 

Ammon, a rationalistic theologian, 24 

Amos Lawrence, as an illustration, 419 

Amount of testimony necessary to 

prove a miracle, 64 

Amsdorf , the Antinomian, 487 

on good works being hurtful to sal- 
vation, 487 

Amyraldus of Saumur, 24 

Anacoloulha of Paul, 101 

Analogies of Christ's relation to race, 

their weakness, 414 

Analytic theology, 23 

Analytical method of theology, 27 

Ancestor, common, of man and apes, 

yet to be found, 237 

Ancestors, immediate, imputation of 

their sins, views on, 336 

their sins not propagated, 323 

Ancestry of race, a common, in Central 

Asia, supported by history, 239 

Anchitherium, the three-toed horse,... 237 

Anderson on regeneration, 456 

Andre, Major, 213 

Andrews, E. Benj., on ' church ' as prim 

of 'churches,' 496 

Angelo, Michael, required to make an 

ice-statue, 556 



' Angel of the church ' probably mean- 
ing pastor, ..226, 510 

Angel of the Lord, passages relating to, 

quoted and classified, 153 

in Old Testament, the pre-incarnate 

Logos, 153 

in N. T. does not permit, in O. T. re- 
quires, worship, 153 

list of authorities on, 153 

Angelology of Scripture not derived 
from Babylonian or Persian sources, 224 

' Angels' food, ' its meaning, 222 

Angels, general statement respecting,. 221 

good and evil, 221 

scholastic subtleties regarding, 221 

Dante on their creation and fall, 221 

possibility of their existence inferable 

from analogy, 221 

doctrine of, modifies our conceptions 

of the universe, 221 

list of authors on general subject of,. 221 
Scriptural statements and intimations 

regarding, 221 

their nature and attributes, 221 

are created beings, 221 

are incorporeal beings, 222 

have no bodily organism, 222 

without distinction of sex, 222 

incapable of growth, age, or death,.. 222 

are personal agents, 222 

are possessed of superhuman yet finite 

power, 222 

are distinct from and older than 

man, 222 

Fathers' opinion upon their creation, 222 
not a personification of good and evil 

principles,.. 222 

Christ's testimony to their existence, 223 
Paul's testimony to their existence,.. 223 

their number and organization, 223 

are a great multitude, 223 

are a company as distinguished from 

a race, 223 

possess no common nature, 223 

fell individually, 223 

are of various ranks and endowments, 223 

have an organization, 224 

their moral character, 225 

were all created holy, 225 

hada probation, 225 

some preserved their integrity, 225 

some fell, 225 

the good are confirmed in good, 225 

the evil are confirmed in evil, 225 

revelation of God in Christ an object 

of interest to, 225 

Angels, good, employments of, 225 

they worship God, 225 

they rejoice in God's works, 225 

they execute God's will in nature, 226 

they guide the affairs of nations, 226 

they watch over interests of particu- 
lar churches, 226 



606 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Angels, of the seven churches, meaning 

of the designation, 226 

they assist and protect individual be- 
lievers, 226 

guardian, 226 

they punish God's enemies, 226 

are ministers of God's special provi- 
dence for moral ends, 226 

appearances of, mark God's entrance 
on new epochs of unfolding his 

plans, 227 

invisible, perhaps to prevent idolatry, 227 
their power exercised in accordance 
with laws of spiritual and natural 

world, 227 

may, perhaps, attract men to holiness, 227 
their invisible presence not constant, 227 
their appearances dependent on the 

will of God, 227 

objections to doctrine of, 230 

free from laws of matter and space,. . 231 
alleged to be opposed to scientific 
view of world as a system of defi- 
nite forces and laws, 230 

alleged to be opposed to the doc- 
trine of infinite space peopled with 

worlds,.. 230 

practical use of the doctrine in gen- 
eral, f 232 

gives an enlarged idea of the divine 

resources, 232 

strengthens our faith in God's provi- 
dence, 233 

teaches us humility, 233 

helps us in our struggles against sin,. 233 
enlarges our conceptions of the dig- 
nity of our being, 233 

instances of appearances of , 233 

Angels, evil, employments of, 227 

they oppose God, 227 

hinder man's welfare, 228 

execute, in spite of themselves, God's 

plans, 229 

power of, over men, not independent 

of the human will, 230 

power of, limited by permissive will 

of God, 230 

objections to doctrine of , 231 

their fall self -contradictory ? 231 

they probably had a period of proba- 
tion, 225 

no salvation for, perhaps on account 
of absence of common nature which 

Christ could take, 223 

uses of the doctrine, 233 

illustrates the nature of sin, 233 

inspires a salutary fear, 233 

shuts us up to Christ, 233 

teaches us salvation is wholly of grace, 233 

Anger, a duty of man, 139 

Animal characteristics in man 224 

Annihilation, of wicked, does not satis- 
fy our moral sense, ... 557 



Annihilation, of wicked, does not per- 
mit of degrees of punishment, 557 

at death, disproved by Scripture,. .558-562 
terms which seemingly teach, em- 
ployed in connections where they 

cannot bear this meaning, 559 

disproved by words used to describe 

the place of departed spirits, 560 

terms and phrases adduced to prove, 
metaphorical and merely language 

of appearance, 560 

advocates of, 562 

at death, inconsistent with degrees in 

future punishment, 588 

as the result of the gradual weaken- 
ing and extinction of sinful powers, 

doctrine of, 589 

objections to this theory, 589 

Bushnell's view of, 589 

Dorner's view of, 589 

theory that it follows positive punish- 
ment after death, 589 

Justin Martyr's theory of, 589 

Edward White's theory of, 589 

Annihilation of infants, Emmons on,.. 320 

Annihilationism, old, 588 

authors who maintain the old view of, 588 
Annihilationist view of the irvevfia as 
lost in the Fall and restored in 

Christ,.... 247 

Anselm of Canterbury, 23, 407 

his form of the anthropological ar- 
gument, 48 

examined, 49 

objections to, 49 

leads only to an ideal conclusion, 49 

on God's containing all things, 132 

his idea concerning lost angels, 223 

adichotomist, 247 

on human nature in Adam, 323 

on the sin of Adam as a person and as 

a man, 336 

on Christ's growth in wisdom, 365 

on Christ's state of humiliation, 382 

his 'Cur Deus Homo' characterized,. 408 

his theory of atonement,.. 407 

advocates of, 408 

objections to, 408 

its origin in exaggerated notions of 

regal dignity, 409 

it limits atonement to the elect, 409 

on justification, 471 

' Answer [interrogation] of a good con- 
science, ' phrase examined, 455 

Answers decreed to prayer, 179 

Ant, according to Lubbock, next to man 

in intelligence, .. 236 

Anthropology, 234 

in theology, what ? 45 

Anthropological method of theology, . . 27 

Anthropological argument, 45 

an application to man of the cosmo- 
logical and teleological arguments, 45 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



607 



Anthropological argument, its defects, 47 

its value, * 7 

most important among arguments 

for existence of God,. 47 

a development of our intuitive idea 

of God, - « 

Anthropomorphic representations of 

God, 124 

Anthropomorphism, 63, 130 

' Anthropomorphism, inverse, 1 235 

Anthropomorphism repressed by con- 
nected declarations, 120 

Anthropomorphites, . 267 

Antichrist, its meaning, 570 

the personal, his power restrained 
during millennium, 570 

* Anticipative consequence,' 353 

• Anticipative consequences,' 199 

Antigone, her expiation, 419 

Antinomianism, 487 

Antiquity of race, relation of Bible to, 106 
Anti-trinitarianism leads to pantheism, 168 
Apocalypse, no exegete has yet found 

key to, 574 

Apocrypha, - 60 

excluded by Melito, 74 

teaches that alms make atonement for 

sin, 481 

Apocryphal New Testament, 60 

Apollinaris, -- - - - 362 

Apollinarian view of a trichotomy in 

the person of Christ, 247 

Apollinarians, their views on the person 

of Christ, 362 

their mistake a fondness for the Pla- 
tonic trichotomy, 362 

the Logos with them an eternal, arch- 
etypal man, 362 

destroy the symmetry of Christ, 362 

Appollinarism denies that Christ be- 
came man, 362 

was a reaction against Arian theory 
of two finite souls in one Christ, ... 362 

Justin Martyr inclined to, 362 

Apollos probable author of Hebrews, . . 75 

Apologies of Justin Martyr, 73 

Apostasy, man's state of, 273 

Apostasy of outwardly reformed, in- 
stances of, 493 

apparent, of regenerate, cases of tem- 
porary sin, 493 

of saint, apostasy forever, 493 

A posteriori argument cannot demon- 
strate the existence of the Infinite, 36 
A posteriori, Descartes' form of the 

ontological argument,. 48 

Apostle, qualifications of an, 507 

Apostles claim to speak by the promised 
Spirit and put their writings on a 
level with Old Testament Scriptures, 96 
received from Jesus promises like 
those made to Old Testament 
prophets, 96 



Apostles, reasons for believing that they 

were baptized, 547 

Apostles' Creed, not earlier than fifth 

century, 23 

Apostolic Fathers witness to genuine- 
ness of New Testament, 74 

Apotelesmaticum, genus, 370 

Apperites,how subdued in regeneration, 446 
Appleton on providence as founded on 

divine benevolence, 211 

Application of redemption, 426 

its three stages, 426 

in its preparation, 426 

in its actual beginning, 436 

in its continuation, 483 

Appropriation as an element of identi- 
ty, 580 

Approximation of Calvinistic and Ar- 

minian views of will, 177 

A priori argument for divine exist- 
ence, - 48 

A priori argument for God's existence 
conducts to an abstract proposition, 

not to a real being, 36 

A priori judgments are not simply 

'regulative, ' 6 

A priori reasons for expecting a reve- 
lation from God, . 58, 59 

Aprons of fig-leaves, man's, before 

God's coats of skin, 481 

Aptness and ableness distinguished by 

Hooker, 263 

Aquinas, Thomas, 23 

on the essence of sin, 293 

his explanation of imputation of sin 

to third and fourth generation, 336 

on Christ's preaching to the dead, 386 

his query, was Christ slain by himself 

or by another? 407 

on union of believer with Christ, 409 

Arbitrium, 288 

Archangel, only one in Scripture, 223 

Argument does not furnish us all we 

know of God, 36 

Argument for resurrection, Christ's 

suppressed premise in, 109 

Argument of Descartes distinguished 

from that of Anselm, 48 

Arguments for God's existence, merely 
efforts of the mind to give a formal 

account of a prior conviction, 39 

purpose served by, 50 

not a bridge, but guys to support the 

suspension-bridge of intuition, 50 

Argumentum ad hominem in Scripture? 109 
Argyll, Duke of, on savagery and civil- 
ization as both results of evolution, 270 
Arianism, statement of, and list of au- 
thorities on, 159 

Arian theory opposed to Scripture, 159 

misinterprets Scripture, 361, 362 

a reaction from Sabellianism, 362 

Arians, their view regarding the Logos, 361 



608 



ItfDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Arians, mistook a temporary for an 
original and permanent inequality,. 361 
held a generation in time and subor- 
dination of the Son, 362 

Aristotle quoted, 21 

his relation to Scholasticism, 23 

his view of morality, - 88 

on science of the unique impossible,. 116 

on life, 121 

on one God under many names, 125 

a creatianist, 250 

on sin,.. 301 

his definition of friends,. 441 

on man's dependence on God, 449 

on death, 557 

Arius and his views, 159, 361, 362 

Armada, Spanish, 213 

Arminian and Calvinistic views of will, 
close approximation of, 177 

Arminianism, its conception of free- 
dom, 177 

theory of imputation, 314 

Wesley's modifications of, 314 

objections to, __ 315 

extra-Scriptural, 315 

contradicts Scripture, 316 

Dorner on, 316, 442 

order of salvation, 316 

rests on false philosophical principles, 317 
renders uncertain universality of sin, 317 
renders uncertain man's responsibili- 
ty for depravity, 317 

its view of election, 430 

its view of union with Christ, 441 

makes man a mere tangent to divine 

circle, 442 

its view of regeneration, 450, 451 

Arminians and Calvinists pray and sing 
alike, 181 

Arminians, some deny absolute divine 
foreknowledge, 134 

Arminius, 25, 314 

his view of Adamic unity of race, 314 

expounders of his system,.. 314 

Arnold, Matthew, on religion, 12 

on the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, 122 

Arnold, Dr. Thomas, of Rugby, 68 

q uoted on the mythical theory, 79 

his teachings contrasted with Matthew 

Arnold's, his son,. 100 

his opinion on the book of Revelation, 112 

on a sense of moral evil, 287 

on the wish to believe, 467 

on expecting to succeed, 490 

Arnold, Albert N., on the steps of de- 
parture from Scriptural precedent, 548 

on errors of Pedobaptists, 549 

on church fellowship and Lord's Sup- 
per, 549, 550 

on objections to strict communion, . . 552 

Arnot, on death's new name, 354 

Arrangement of theological facts not 
optional, 2 



Arrangement of topics in a theological 

system,. 27 

Art prophetic of the future, 576 

Art, rude, often debasement of a higher, 271 
Art, rudest, may coexist with the high- 
est, 271 

Aryan and Semitic languages, relations 

between, list of authorities on, 240 

Ascension of Christ, 386 

relation of humanity to Logos in, 386 

Asceticism absurd, 290 

Aseity, the divine, what? 123 

does not belong only to Father, 166 

Asia, cradle of European nations, 239 

Aspirations imply a sphere for their 

gratification, 556 

Assembly, Old School General, its ac- 
tion in relation to observance of the 

Lord's Supper, 548 

Assensus, an element in faith, 465 

Association, natural tendency to, C. H. 

M. on, 499 

Assumption in Paul's reasoning in Rom. 
5: 12-19, explicated in Augustinian 

theory of depravity, 331 

Assurance of faith, 466 

its ground,. 468 

doctrine of to be guarded from mys- 
ticism, 469 

Assurance of salvation, founded on con- 
sciousness of union with Christ, 447 

our duty, 447 

Assyrian accounts of creation, Sabbath 

in, 201 

' Asymptote of God, ' man the, 291 

Athanasian creed, 159 

At hanasi us' comparison of Trinity, 167 

view of Christ's death as due to God, 408 
Atmosphere, according to some, abode 

of angelic spirits, 231 

Ato m, materialistic view of, 54 

Atomism is egotistic, 339 

Atomistic view of human nature, 313 

Atoms, as 'manufactured articles,' 184 

Atonement as ab intra, 141 

a divine self -oblation, 141 

according to ' pattern on high, ' 141 

Atonement, doctrine of, 390 

Scriptural representations of, 390 

described in Scripture by moral anal- 
ogies, 390 

a provision originating in God's love, 390 

an example of disinterested love, 391 

described in Scripture by commercial 

analogies, 391 

a ransom, 391 

described in Scripture by legal anal- 
ogies, 391 

an act of obedience to law, 391 

a penalty borne, 391 

an exhibition of God's righteousness, 392 
described in Scripture by sacrificial 
analogies, 392 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



609 



Atonement, a work of priestly media- 
tion, .... 392 

a sin-offering 1 , 392 

a propitiation, 392 

a substitution,. 393 

not offering of a feast to Deity, 393 

not a symbol of renewed fellowship,. 394 
not an offering of life and being of 

worshiper, 394 

theories of, 397 

Example theory of, 397 

objections to, 398 

Socinian theory of, 397 

objections to, 398 

founded on false philosophical prin- 
ciples, 398 

its origin and tendency, 398 

contradictory to fundamental Scrip- 
tural teachings, 398 

furnishes no explanation of the suf- 
ferings and death of Christ,. 399 

imperfect in influence, 399 

Bushnellian or Moral-influence theory 

of, 400 

embraces a valuable element of truth, 401 

objections to, 401 

primarily an offering to God, 401 

necessary to satisfy God's justice, 401 

priestly and judicial, 402 

limits its influence, 402 

Grotian, or Governmental theory of, 403 

contains an element of truth, 403 

objections to,. 403 

allied to Example and Moral-influence 

theories, 403 

leads to idea that nothing is good in 

itself, 404 

leads to doctrine of indulgences and 

supererogation, 404 

not a mere scenic representation, 404 

Irvingian theory or theory of grad- 
ually extirpated depravity, 405 

embraces an important truth, 406 

objections to, 406 

Anselmic, or commercial theory of,.. 407 
superseded the patristic or military 

theory of, 408 

theories of its relation to Satan, 408 

objections to Anselmic theory of, 408 

4 criminal theory' of, 409 

does not duly emphasize union of be- 
liever with Christ, 409 

limited by Anselm and Augustine to 

the elect, 409 

Romanist in tendency, 409 

Ethical theory of, 409 

furnishes solution of two problems, . . 409 
tells us what was the object of Christ's 



tells us what it accomplished, 409 

tells us what were the means used in 

its accomplishment, 409 

tells us how Christ could justly die, . . 409 
39 



Atonement, an ethical principle in di- 
vine nature demands it, 410 

an ethical need of mans nature de- 
mands it, 410 

security of interests of divine gov- 
ernment a subordinate result of,... 410 
provision for human needs a subor- 
dinate result of , 410 

primarily a necessity to God, 411 

divine self -substitution in, 411 

how God can justly demand satisfac- 
tion in, _. 412 

how Christ can justly make satisfac- 
tion in, 412 

as related to humanity in Christ, 412 

truth in Bushnell's theory of , 414 

Campbell's theory of, the truth in,... 414 
its retroactive influence on Christ's 

humanity, 416 

Ethical theory of, philosophically cor- 
rect, 416 

combines all valuable elements in 

other theories, 417 

holds the necessity of atonement aris- 
ing from immanent holiness of God, 417 
most satisfactory explanation of how 
demands of holiness are met by work 

of Christ, 417 

explains sacrificial rites and language, 417 
gives proper place to death of Christ, 417 
best explanation of sufferings of 

Christ, 417 

satisfies ethical demand of human nat- 
ure, 417 

highest exhibition of God's love, 418 

objections to,.. 418 

doctrine of, not immoral, 420 

faith in, its influence,. 420 

Christ's, not complete since it requires 

faith; this objection answered, 420 

only ground of acceptance with God, 421 
main outlines of, given in Scripture,.. 421 
our ignorance of its method, Butler 

and Stearns on, 421 

illustrated by amnesty, 421 

compared to bread, 421 

saves though accepter knows not 

how, 421 

likened to wheat vs. sand, 421 

Atonement, extent of, 421 

unlimited, 421 

inwhatsense for all, 421 

application of, limited,.. 421 

passages which assert Christ's death is 

for all,... 421 

passages which assert a special effica- 
cy in case of the elect, 421 

secures for all men delay in execution 

of sentence against sin, 421 

secures continuance of the common 

blessings of life, 422 

has made objective provision for the 
salvation of all, 422 



610 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Atonement, has procured for all men 
incentives to repentance and the 

agency of church and Spirit, 422 

compared to sun and rain,. 422 

work of, distinguished from applica- 
tion of , 422 

sufferings of Christ in, no more if all 

were saved, - - 422 

justice in. permits but does not re- 
quire sinner's discharge,. 422 

limited, Owen on, - 422 

limited, advocates of, 422 

universal, advocates of , . - . - 422 

Attribute, its synonyms,. 115 

Attributes, divine, see God. 

Attributes, divine, definition of , 115 

have an objective existence, 116 

how related to essence, 116 

inhere in divine essence, 116 

belong to divine essence as such, 117 

manifest divine essence,... 117 

rational method of determining the,. 118 
Biblical method of determining the,. 118 

classification of the, 118, 119 

absolute or immanent, 119, 120-130 

involved in spirituality, 120 

involved in infinity, 122 

involved in perfection, 125 

relative or transitive, 119, 130-140 

having relation to time and space, 130 

having relation to creation, 132 

having relation to moral beings, 137 

their rank and relation, 140 

moral, relation to natural, 140 

holiness, fundamental, 140 

divine, to give up, is to give up divine 

substance, 380 

immanent involve the relative, 381 

Attributes of mind being higher than 
those of matter, the substance of 
the one higher than that of the 

other, 52 

Auerbach, tendency of his writings, 484 

Augustine, on rest in God, 46 

on definition of Trinity, 167 

his analogue of Trinity, 167 

a traducian,.. 252 

reasons why he wavered in his tradu- 

cianism, 253 

on the sinfulness of a mere capacity 

for good or evil, 265 

his teaching as to Adam's unfallen 

state, 266 

on Adam's intellect,... 268 

on the will of God constituting nature, 275 

the dying, and the 32nd Psalm, 287 

on will being the man himself, 288 

on the essence of sin, 293 

on virtues of the heathen, 294 

on human nature,... 311 

on our relation to Adam, 328 

his double view of Adam,., , 329 

recognized free personal decision, 329 



Augustine, on imputation of sins of im- 
mediate ancestors, 336 

on the seeds sown without husks pro- 
ducing husks, 337 

on Ezekiel 18, 337 

view that the corrupt tree of man's 
nature may produce the wild fruit 

of morality, 338 

on Christ's preaching to the dead, 386 

on divine choice to faith, 431 

on why God does not teach all, 431 

limits atonement to the elect, 499 

on post mortem punishment for be- 
lievers, 565 

on sin the instrument of its own pun- 
ishment, 588 

Augustinian theory, of original sin, 328 

of depravity, 328 

Aurignac Cave, its evidence doubtful,. 272 

Austin's definition of law, 273 

his defective view of law of nature,. 274 

on Hooker's description of law, 274 

on Ulpian's explanation of law of na- 
ture, 274 

Australian languages resemble those of 

Eastern and Southern Asia, 240 

Automatic activity, 283 

'Automatic excellence or badness,' 

Raymond on, 321 

Avarice, what? 293 

Avatars, Hindu, 89 

Christ's incarnation unlike, 379 

Average moral life a failure, 279 

Ayat of the Koran, what ? 103 

Baader, von, quoted, . 14 

Baalim, 152 

Babylon, the mystical, significance of 

its destruction, 571 

Bacon, Lord, on the dangers of 'a little 

philosophy,' 39 

on prophecy, 68 

on Adam's sin, 126 

on ' the sparkle of the purity of man's 

first estate,' 261 

regula enim legem indicat, non statuit, 275 
on conquering nature by obedience,. 278 
on dealings of God with spirits as not 

included in nature, 281 

on revenge,. 352 

Bahr's theory of atonement, 394 

Baird, Samuel J., 26 

on the Fall, 303 

on Edwards, - 319 

on la w as addressing nature, 320 

on punishment implying desert, 321 

on the Federal theory, 325 

on imputation of sin of immediate 

ancestors, 336 

Baldwin, C. J., on 'Adam, where art 

thou?' 307 

on potency of divine love in atone- 
ment, 405 

Balaam, inspired, yet unholy, 100- 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



611 



Bancroft, Bishop, the first to claim di- 
vine right of Episcopacy, 500 

Bancroft, George, on Roger Williams 
the first assertor of religious liberty, 501 

on freedom of conscience a trophy of 

the Baptists, 501 

Baptism, and Lord's Supper, monu- 
ments of historical facts, 77 

in formula of, Christ's name associa- 
ted with that of God on footing of 
equality, 148 

its influence according to the Church 
of Rome, 267 

of Jesus, its import, 415, 528 

Christian, definition of, 520 

an ordinance of Christ, 520 

instituted by Christ, 520 

of universal and perpetual obligation, 521 

of John, not likely to have been bor- 
rowed by Jew from Christian, 521 

of John, an adaptation of an old Jew- 
ish rite, 521 

of John, recognized by Christ as from 
heaven, 521 

of John, Christ's submission to, 521 

of John, essentially Christian bap- 
tism, 521 

of John and baptism of apostles, only 
difference between, 521 

proselyte, authors who deny its ex- 
istence among Jews before time of 
John, 521 

proselyte, authors who assert its ex- 
istence among Jews before time of 
John, 521 

its practice continued by Christ, 
through his disciples, 521 

its analogy to Lord's Supper evidence 
of its continuance to Christ's second 
coming, 522 

no evidence of its limitation or repeal, 522 
Baptism, its mode, immersion, 522 

N. T. circumstances which attended 
prove it immersion, 524 

of Holy Spirit, its meaning, 524 

figurative allusions to, prove it to 
have been immersion,... 524 

doctrine and practice of, in Greek 
Church, 525 

mode of, according to Westminster 
Assembly, 525 

by aspersion, occasionally practiced, 
early in post-apostolic period, 525 

clinic, in time of Novatian, 525 

mode of, according to Prayer-book of 
Edward VI, 525 

mode of, according to Salisbury use,. 525 

affusion in, according to English 
church only for weak, 525 

sprinkling in, never sanctioned by 
English church,.. 525 

of early Church, immersion, 525 

list of authors on, 526 



Baptism, its law fundamental and there- 
fore unalterable save by the Law- 
giver,.... 526 

for church to modify its law implies 
unwisdom in the Lawgiver,... 526 

as immersion, the only adequate sym- 
bol of Gospel truths,.. 526 

any change in its mode vacates ordi- 
nance of its symbolic meaning, 526 

its observance by immersion, objec- 
tions replied to, 527 

if impracticable, no duty, 527 

seldom dangerous, 527 

if dangerous, no duty, 527 

by immersion, not indecent, 527 

as a symbol of death, may be expected 
to involve some inconvenience, 527 

unscriptural methods of its adminis- 
tration, divine blessing on, not di- 
vine sanction, 527 

Baptism, its symbolism, 527 

a symbol of the death and resurrec- 
tion of Christ, 527 

a symbol of the purpose of Christ's 
death and resurrection, 527 

a symbol of the believer's death to 
sin and resurrection to spiritual 
life, 527 

a symbol of union with Christ, 528 

a symbol of the union of all believers 
in Christ, 528 

a symbol of the death and resurrection 
of the body, 528 

is a confession of evangelical faith, 527 

its central truth the death and resur- 
rection of Christ, 528 

Christ's, at the hands of John, its sym- 
bolism, 528 

a symbol of sufferings and death, be- 
cause a complete submersion,. 528 

of repentance, Christ's submission to, 
how explained, 415,416, 528 

Christ's, in what sense a fulfillment of 
righteousness, 529 

Christ's, prefigurative of what? 529 

Christian, to what it refers back, 529 

what is implied in its symbolism, 529 

its meaning has become obscured by 
a false mode of administration, 529 

President Woolsey 's views on, 529 

symbolizes the method of Christian 
purification, 529 

and Lord's Supper, their related sym- 
bolic reference to the Christian's 
union with Christ, 529 

nothing but immersion will satisfy 
design of the ordinance, 530 

destroyed, if its symbolic reference 
be excluded, 530 

a witness to the facts and doctrines 
of Christianity, 530 

a historical monument, 530 

a pictorial expression of doctrine, 530 



612 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Baptism, to change its form, a blow at 
Christianity and Christ, 530 

Ebrard's view of, 530 

Olshausen's view of, 530 

Baptism, subjects of, 530 

command and example of Christ and 
his apostles as to subjects of bap- 
tism, 530 

its subjects determined from nature 
of church, 531 

its subjects determined from its sym- 
bolism, 531 

Bean Stanley on, 531 

inferences from the fact that only re- 
generate persons are its subjects,.. 531 

if regenerate persons its subjects, can- 
not be a means of regeneration, 531 

the sign, but not the condition, of 
forgiveness of sins, 531 

how passages which seem to teach 
baptismal regeneration are to be 
explained, 531 

relation of symbol and thing symbol- 
ized in, Kendrick on, 532 

view of Campbellites, 532 

for remission of sins, list of authors 
on, 532 

High Church view of, authors on, 532 

John the Baptist's view of, from Jo- 
sephus, 532 

primarily the act of the person bap- 
tized, 532 

no lack <of qualification in adminis- 
trator invalidates, 532 

credible evidence of regeneration to 
be required of candidate by church, 533 

'the door into the church,' the phrase 
criticized, 533 

first in point of time of all outward 
duties, 533 

should follow regeneration with the 
least possible delay, 533 

a candidate for, should not be en- 
couraged to wait for others' com- 
pany, - 533 

not to be repeated, 533 

in what it differs from Lord's Supper, 534 

administered by a Campbellite, when 
valid,. 534 

its accessories matters of individual 
judgment, 534 

its formula, 534 

arguments to show that its law is not 
that of circumcision,. 537 

water in, believed in third and fourth 
centuries to be changed into blood 
of Christ, 544 

administered by heretics, Council of 
Trent on, 545 

of less importance than love, this 

statement replied to, 552 

Baptism, infant, ^ 534 

without warrant, 534 



Baptism, infant, no express command 
. for, 534 

no clear example of , 535 

passages supposed to imply it really 
contain no reference to it, 535 

contradicted by prerequisites of or- 
dinance, 535 

contradicted by Scriptural symbolism 
of ordinance, 535 

contradicted by Scriptural constitu- 
tion of church, 535 

contradicted by prerequisites for par- 
ticipation in Lord's Supper, 535 

in Greek church has led to infant 
communion, 535 

to what its rise is due,.. 536 

Neander's view as to its origin, 536 

4 Teaching of Apostles ' knows noth- 
ing of, 536 

reasoning by which supported un- 
sound and dangerous, 536 

supported by reasoning which 
assumes power of church to ab- 
rogate or modify Christ's com- 
mands, 536 

supported by a vicious reasoning 
from the Abrahamic covenant, 536 

supported by a vicious assumption of 
an organic union between child and 
parent, 536 

lack of agreement among its support- 
ers, an argument against, 537 

its decline, 537 

its evil effects, 537 

forestalls the voluntary act of the 
child baptized, 537 

injurious as inducing confidence in an 
outward rite, 538 

injurious as obscuring important 
Christian truths, 538 

in England followed as a matter of 
course by confirmation, 538 

its influence in Germany, 538 

as an obstacle to evangelical preach- 
ing, 538 

destroys spirituality of the church, 538 

injurious as putting in placeof Christ's 
command a commandment of men, 538 
Baptismal Regeneration, 454, 531 

Alexander Campbell, his views of, 532 

High Church views of , 532 

Robertson, F. W., his views of, 532 

Baptist and Romanist positions, no halt- 
ing place between, 538 

Baptist apostolical succession unneces- 
sary, 533 

Baptist denomination, its progress in 
England and America contrasted, . . 552 

Baptist theology, 25 

Baptisteries, natural and artificial, 534 

Baptists, English, 551 

the views of a portion on communion, 548 
Baptists, FreeWill, 551 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



613 



Baptists, Free Will, their views on com- 
munion, 548 

admit the unbaptized to communion 

but not to membership, __ 552 

convention of, their action as to mem- 
bership of pedobaptists, 552 

Baptists, High Church, their anxieties 

and efforts, 532 

Baptists, their unity maintained with- 
out episcopal or presbyterial organ- 
ization, 509 

Baptize, the command to, a command 

to immerse, 522 

used with iv, 524 

used with el?, 524 

never used in passive voice with ' wa- 
ter,' 524 

Baptized members of Pedobaptist 
churches, why excluded from com- 
munion? 552 

B&ra in Gen. 1 : 27, 28, may mean medi- 
ate creation, or creation bylaw, 192 

Barbarism, recovered from only 

through outward influences, 270 

probably a broken-down civilization, 271 

Bardesanes of Edessa, 189 

Baring-Gould, theory of atonement, . . . 393 

Barnabas, in what sense an apostle, 507 

Bartlett, exposition of 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20,... 386 
on figurative force of certain Scrip- 
ture terms relating to future state 

of the wicked, 560 

Basilides, quotes from John's Gospel, . . 75 

a representative of dualism, 187 

his view of the person of Christ, 361 

his followers become Docetae, 361 

Bastian held spontaneous generation,.. 191 

Baur's theory of origin of Gospels, 77 

his statement of his theory, 78 

his dates of the Gospels, 78 

his theory examined, 78 

his method would render history im- 
possible,. 78 

he exaggerates apparent differences 

in Gospels, 78 

his theory morally anomalous, 78 

his theory fails to account for early 

acceptance of Gospels, 79 

his admissions fatal to his theory, 79 

Baxter, Richard, 25 

on man growing as a tree, 485 

Beal on Buddhism and Nirvana, 87 

Beast, blasphemy of, 571 

Beatitudes respect dispositions, 285 

'Became God' to make Christ suffer, 

why? 411 

Bee, working, its origin from queen- 
bee and drone inexplicable, 236 

an example of unconscious final- 
ity, 44 

Beecher, Edward, on preexistence of 

human soul, 248 

his view of baptism as purification, . . 529 



Beecher, H. W., on miracles as midwives 

of great moral truths, 65 

his definition of holiness, 128 

his inaccurate view of Christ's hu- 
manity, 370 

on ' flesh ' in John 1 : 14, 371 

on punishment ceasing so soon as it 

ceases to do good, 594 

Beecher, Lyman, his views of regenera- 
tion, 452 

how he met perfectionism, 490 

Begun existence must have a cause, ... 40 
Beings, the highest, need most tending, 485 

Bel and the Dragon, 60 

Believe, how to, no man can teach an- 
other, 483 

Believers, in them the ' old man ' grad- 
ually dies, 484 

their souls at death enter into pres- 
ence of Christ, 563 

spirits of departed, are with God, 563 

at death enter Paradise, 563 

state after death preferable to pres- 
ent, 563 

departed, alive and conscious, 563 

their souls after death at rest and 

blessed, 564 

Bellamy, Joseph,. 26 

how related to New School theology, 318 

his exercise of pastoral authority, 511 

Bellarmine, .' 25 

on the difference between ' imago' 

and ' similitudo,' 266 

his idea of original righteousness, 266 

Benediction founded on intercession,.. 423 
Benedictions, apostolic, in them name 
of Christ associated with that of 

Father on footing of equality, 148 

why ' God ' instead of ' Father 'in, 148 

Benevolence and love distinguished,... 293 

Bengel, his faith in the Bible, 105 

on withholding wine from laity in 

Lord's Supper, 540 

his 'continuous' interpretation of 

Revelation, 570 

Bentham on nature of virtue, 142 

Berber language, Semitic in vocabulary 

and Aryan in grammar, 240 

Berkleyanism, Edwards inclined to, 

26,206,318 

Berkeley, on the universe, God's con- 
versation with his creatures, 217 

Berkeley's idealism, 53, 55 

Bernard on impossibility of burning out 

' image of God ' even in hell, 262 

Bersier on 'our neighbor,' 330 

Beryl of Arabia, his view of Trinity,... 158 

Bewusstsein=B. ' be-knowing, ' 35 

Beza, Theodore, 24 

his supralapsarianism, 426 

Bible, set aside by Roman Church, 18 

the work of one mind, 84 

the mind that made it made the soul, 85 



614 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Bible, its silence on many questions 
about which human writings deal,. 85 
its infinite depth of meaning points to 

a divine origin, 86 

4 the word made flesh,' 103 

humanity of, a proof of its divinity,. 103 
errors in secular teachings do not ex- 
ist in it, 105 

its aim, 105 

difficulties in, analogy between them 
and the disorder and mystery in na- 
ture, 105 

insoluble difficulties in connection 

therewith to be expected, 105 

difficulties in, many removed or less- 
ened by time, 105 

difficult to separate between its his- 
toric and scientific, and its religious, 

credibility,. 105 

explanation of seeming scientific er- 
rors in, 105 

permanent difficulties in, have a moral 

intention, 105 

apparent historical errors in, often 

due to errors in transcription, 107 

its various readings, their number, 

value, and probable origin, 107 

due to use of round numbers, 107 

due to meagreness of narrative, 107 

they are dissipated by increasing his- 
torical and archaeological research, 108 

alleged errors in morality, 108 

sources of such allegations, 108, 109 

alleged errors of reasoning in, 109 

alleged errors in quoting or interpret- 
ing theO. T., 110 

alleged errors in prophecy, Ill 

certain books of, said to be unworthy 

of place in, Ill 

ground of this statement, Ill, 112 

portions of its books alleged to be 
written by others than the persons 

to whom ascribed, 112 

introduction of a document into its 
historical books does not vouch for 
statements contained in documents, 113 
introduction into it of sceptical or 

fictitious narratives, 113 

defence of such introductions, 113 

contains illustrations, from human 
experience, of struggles and needs 

of the soul, 113 

contains dramatic statements in which 
are words of Satan and wicked men, 113 

its variety a stimulus to inquiry, 113 

said to disclaim inspiration, 113 

misinterpretations on which this as- 
sertion rests, 113 

not primarily a book of poetry, 157 

does it recognize other revelations 

among the heathen? 359 

speaks little of things not of immedi- 
ate practical advantage, 387 



Bible Commentary on the symbolism 

of the tree of life, 302 

Biedermann, 25 

Binary stare, certain prophetic state- 
ments compared to, 572 

Birds, their creation on fifth day, 195 

their ancestry, 195 

they are sea-productions, 195 

Birks, on creation from eternity, 190 

on the design of provision of human 

body, 248 

on the tree of knowledge of good and 

evil, 305 

on imputatio metaphysica, . . 325 

on original sin not doing away with 
significance of our personal trans- 
gression, 348 

Birth, no knowledge possessed at, 30 

into kingdom, according to God's will, 429 
Christ in his, how related to maternal 

body,.. 361 

Bishop, ordaining, Episcopal qualifica- 
tions of, .' 508 

' Bishop,' ' presbyter,' and l pastor ' des- 
ignate same office and order, 509 

testimony of Jerome, 509 

Dexter's argument on, 509 

'Bishop,' the word indicates duties of 

the pastor, 509 

Black, on what constitutes a sufficient 

antiquity, 508 

Blake, William, his saying to Crabbe 

Robinson, 362 

Blanco White, Mozley on, .294, 591 

Bledsoe's denial of created virtue or 

vice, 265 

Blessedness, what?.. 127 

and glory contrasted, 127 

Blind man, one or two, 108 

Blunt on emanation, 189 

Boardman's comparison of Trinity, 167 

Bodies, new, of saints, confined to 

place,.. 586 

Body, called by Scholastics 4 image of 

God significative,' 267 

first, if annihilated and a second cre- 
ated, these bodies though informed 

by same spirit not the same, 578 

the particles of one human, may be- 
come incorporated with the bodies 

of many others, 578 

human, why given? 248 

immortality of, described by Egyp- 
tians, . 561 

not essential to activity and conscious- 
ness, 564 

of man, honorable, 247 

same, though changed annually, 579 

a "flowing organism," 579 

a normal part of man's being, at once 

Scriptural and philosophical, 580 

Christ's glorified, Ebrard's specula- 
tions on, 580 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



615 



Body, spiritual, as evolved by will, 580 

Boehme, Jacob, on the infinity of God, 123 
on intestinal canal a result of the Fall, 268 
Boethius, his definition of personality, 

122, 377 

1 Bond-servant of sin, ' what ? _ 258 

Book may be called by name of chief 

author,. 112 

Book of life, = book of justification, . . . 584 

Book of Mormon, 69 

of Enoch, its date, 80 

of Judges, its silence on Mosaic ritual 

explained, 81 

Books of O. T. quoted by Jesus, 96 

of X. T. acknowledged in second cen- 
tury, 72 

Books written by ' laws of spelling and 

grammar'? 43 

Borgia, Caesar, 292 

Bossuet, 25 

his description of heathendom, 292 

Boston, Thomas, - 26 

Bourdaloue, anecdote of, 484 

Bowne on 'geographers of the divine 

nature,' 6 

o n ' ethical trust in the infinite, ' 34 

on 'the experience-philosophy,' 35 

on reason as never asking a cause for 

mere being, 40 

on the possibility of an odor and a 
flavor constituting the yellow color 

of an orange, 54 

on personality, 55 

his phenomenalism = objective ideal- 
ism, 55 

his theory differs from Berkeley's, ... 55 

his conception of space, 55 

on finite things as modes of infinite,. . 132 

od heredity, 251 

on freedom, 259 

on the ground of an event,. 437 

Brace on the effect of Christianity on 

society, 93 

Brahma, that of which all things are a 

manifestation, 87 

Brahmanism, pantheistic, 55 

its date, 87 

its nature, 87 

its trinity, 170 

Bread in Lord's Supper expressive of 

unity, 542 

Bread of life, transforms me, not I it, . . 542 

Breckinridge, R. J., 26 

Brethren, Plymouth, their doctrines, . . 499 

Bretschneider, 24 

on 'image of God,' 267 

Bride-catching not primeval, 270 

4 Brimstone and fire,'Shedd on, 596 

Brooke, Stopford A., poem on God's 

justice, 557 

Brooks, Phillips, on apostolic succession, 508 
Brougham's examination of Clarke's 
argument, 48 



Brown, Dr. J., on mystery of permission 

of moral evil, 181 

Browning, Mrs., on Christ giving life 

with law,. 279 

Browning, Robert, on right, 129 

on God's plana perfect whole, 182 

on 'God the perfect poet,' 197 

a trichotomist, 247 

on all that 'mark God's verdict in 

determinable words,' 280 

on love and law, 282 

his expression ' healing in God's shad- 
ow,' in what sense true, 354 

on Christ the solution of all mysteries, 375 

on God likest God in being born, 382 

on need of supernatural regeneration, 450 

Bruce on ' redemption by sample, ' 406 

Bruch and Austin on rewards, 139 

Brute, the, has no personality, 121 

is not self-conscious, 235 

cannot objectify self, 235 

has no concepts, 235 

has no language, 235 

forms no judgments, 235 

has no reasoning, 235 

association of ideas typical process of 

brute mind, 235 

has no general ideas or intuitions, 235 

has no conscience,... 235 

has no religious nature, 235 

has no self-determination, 235 

lives whollyin present, 235 

wholly submerged in nature, 235 

cannot choose between motives, 235 

obeys motives, 235 

Brutes, from immateriality of their 

minds, their immortality argued,.. 555 
Bryennios' date for 'Teaching of the 

Twelve Apostles,' 536 

Buckle's theory of history, 218 

Buddeus, 24 

his definition of holiness criticised,128, 129 

Buddha, his date, 87 

meaning of the name, 87 

a reformer, 87 

compared with Christ, 87 

Buddhism, its nature, 87 

triad of,... 170 

essentially pessimistic, 200 

Buddhist proverb on law, 281 

Biichner, a materialist, 52 

'Buncombe,' 10 

Bunker Hill, no battle there at all, 107 

Bunsen on Asiatic origin of North 

American Indians, 239 

Bunyan, John, 25 

on words but ' holding the truth,' 160 

his story of Christian's release from 

his burden, 405 

left off swearing before hisconversion, 459 

his church, its history, 548 

Burgesse on imputation of sin of imme- 
diate ancestors, 336 



616 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Burgesse on the transmissibility of or- 
iginal sin and non-transmissibility 

of personal excellence, 337 

Burial of food and weapons with the 
dead proves faith in spiritual being 

and future state, 272 

Burke, Edmund, on human laws as only 

declaratory, .. 275 

Burke on the number of human races, 241 

Burnet, Gilbert, 26 

Burnt-offering, its character, 396 

Burton, Prof. E. D., on the Vedas and 

creation, 185 

Burton, N. S., on law and divine inter- 
vention, referred to, . 282 

on union with Christ, symbolized in 

baptism, . 528 

Bushnell on nature and the supernat- 
ural, 14 

on character of Christ, 90 

on righteousness and benevolence, . . . 116 

his definition of holiness, 129 

verges toward Sabellianism, 158 

on the Logos, 162 

on sacrifice, replied to, 397 

on atonement, 400 

his modification of his views, 400 

on Mat. 8: 17...... 402 

his change of front in later writings, 402 
his view of character of child in char- 
acter of parent as seed in capsule,.. 536 

on ' sensible experiences, ' 537 

his enumeration of grounds on which 

infant baptism is supported, 537 

denies hereditary guilt yet maintains 

hereditary holiness, 537 

suggests a form of annihilationism, . . 589 

on ' one trial better than many, ' 591 

Butler, Bishop, 16 

quoted on reason, 16 

his doctrine of conscience helpful to 

theology, 18 

on probable evidence, 39 

discoverer of supremacy of con- 
science, 46 

on possibility of a priori conjectures 
as to how a divine revelation may 

be given, 60 

on the mystery of Christ's satisfac- 
tion,. 421 

believed in brute immortality, 555 

Buttmann on avrC, 391 

Byron on ' 'T is something better not 

to be,' 200 

on the impossibility of exorcizing 
from 'the unbounded spirit the 

quick sense of its own sins,'... 587 

Byzantine and Italian painters, their 

dominant ideas in portraying Christ, 366 
Cabanis' remark that brain secretes 

thought as liver bile, 52 

Caesar, the unifier of the Latin West,.. 360 
his words on crossing the Rubicon, .. 586 



'Caged-eagle theory' of man's exist- 
ence, 290 

Caiaphas inspired, yet unholy, 100 

Cain, his marriage, and his fear, 239 

his gift why rejected?. 396 

Calderwood, his illustration of the office 

of reason by the " blazed " path, 16 

his view of Clarke's and Gillespie's ar- 
gument, 48 

on ground of moral obligation, 143 

his inaccurate definition of con- 
science, 255 

on facts only pointing to termination 

of physical existence, 356 

Calixtus, and his analytic method in 

systematic theology, 23,24, 27 

Call, made to individuals, 429 

the general or external, ... 434 

its sincerity, 435 

the special, or efficacious, 435, 436 

Call to ministry, candidate should be 

assured of, 513 

of candidate for ordination, church 

should be assured of, 513 

Calling logically subsequent to redemp- 
tion, 426 

its nature, 434 

effectual, A. A. Hodge on, 437 

Calovius, 24 

his definition of God, 29 

Calvin, John, 23, 24 

onSatanas a theologian,... 20 

on the 'indelible sense of divinity,'.. 30 

on preservation, 207 

on impiety of not being satisfied with 
being made after similitude of 

God,. 261 

on the essence of sin, 293 

on imputation of the first sin, 323 

an Augustinian and realist, 329 

on men guilty through their own 

fault, 346 

on regeneration coming through par- 

ticipationin Christ, 438 

on union with Christ, 447 

onlTim. 5:17, 509 

on withholding wine in Lord's Supper 

from laity, 540 

how he differed from Luther on 

Lord's Supper, 546 

how he differed from Z wingle, 546 

his motto, 569 

on seeds of hell in the hearts of the 

wicked, 587 

on the justice of punishing everlast- 
ing sin everlastingly, 596 

Calvinism, great religious movements 

have originated in, 181 

advocacy of civil liberty connected 

with, 181 

Calvinistic and Arminian views of the 

will, approximation of, 17r 

Cambridge Platform, inadequate, 516. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



617 



Campbell, Alexander, confines work of 

the Spirit to the word, 455 

on the forgiveness of sins received in 

baptism, _ 532 

Campbell, J. M., his distinction between 
origin of moral and physical laws,.. 275 
on two regions of divine self -mani- 
festation, --. 282 

on atonement, 400 

his view of atonement examined, 402 

his theory of atonement, the truth in, 414 
Canaan, his children visited on account 

of his sins, 338 

Cannibalism not primeval according to 

Lubbock, 270 

Canon, what? 72 

doctrine of, 72 

of Marcion, 73 

Canus, Melchior, 25 

Capacity for good or evil, a simple, a sin, 265 
Careless, the, are to be awakened by 

presentation of claims of God's law, 483 
Carlstadt's opinion as to administration 

of Lord's Supper, 541 

Carlyle, Thomas, change in his style, ... 113 

on 'an absentee God,' 204 

variations in his teaching, 291 

Froude's opinion of, 291 

disgusted with his heroes before biog- 
raphies finished, 297 

on Coleridge, 486 

Carman, A. S., on divine knowledge 
caused from eternity by something 

in time, 174 

on Edwards' view of continuous cre- 
ation, 205 

'Carnal mind,' its meaning, 290 

Caro's sarcasm, 56 

Carthage, third Council of, recognizes 

Hebrews, 75 

Synod of, condemns Pelagius, 310 

Casket (symbol) must be heeded, if gem 
(truth symbolized) would not be lost, 530 

Caste, what? 87 

Christianity the foe of , 500 

Casualism, 212 

Casuistry, often unscriptural in its dis- 
tinctions, 347 

Catacombs, the, 92 

character of the excavations, 92 

Encyclopaedia Britannica on, 92 

many paintings in them of late date,. 92 
Northcote's estimate of their extent, 92 
DeMarchi's estimate of their extent,. 92 
Rawlinson's estimate of their extent, 92 
bottles of eucharistic wine found in,. 92 
Catechism, Roman, its teaching on the 
gift added to original righteousness, 
originalis justitUB donum addidit,... 266 
Catechism, Westminster Assembly's, 

on decrees, 176 

on infant baptism, 538 

Catullus on death, 557 



Causa sui, 41 

Causality, its law defined, 40 

its principle does not require neces- 
sarily a first cause, 41 

Causation, free, involves acting without 

means, 62 

in man's will, leads him to see more 
than mere antecedence and conse- 
quence in external phenomena, 273 

Cause and effect, their simultaneity, 
how reconciled with idea of time,.. 437 

their simultaneity, Hazard on, 437 

Cause, equivalent to 'requisite,' 23 

an infinite, cannot be inferred from a 

finite universe, 41 

efficient, gives place to final, 63 

various definitions of, 450 

determines the indeterminate, 450 

Causes, Aristotle's four, 23 

formal,... 23 

material, 23 

efficient,. 23 

final, 23 

Causes, an infinite series of, does not re- 
quire a beginning or a cause of it- 
self, 41 

Celsus, on Christianity, 'a religion of 

the rabble,'.. 92 

on the impossibility of one system of 

religion for different peoples, 93 

Ceremonial rites, imply ceremonial 

qualifications, 551 

Certainty not necessity, 178 

Chalcedon symbol on Mary as ' mother 

of God,' 362, 370 

its date, 362, 363 

its formula with a single exception 

negative,. 363 

it condemned Eutychianism, 362 

promulgated orthodox doctrine, 363 

Chaldean monarchy, its date, 107 

Chalmers, Thomas, 26 

his anthropological method in theol- 
ogy, 27 

on ground of moral obligation, 14£ 

on 2Peter3, 586 

Chamier, 24 

Chance, in what sense term allowable,. 212 
in what sense not inconsistent with 

providence, 212 

as a name for human ignorance, 212 

as absence of causal connection, 212 

as undesigning cause, 212 

Janet on, 212 

Chances, not of equal importance, — 212 
Change, orderly, requires intelligent 

cause, 42 

Channing, on Christ as more than hu- 
man, 368 

Character, wholesomely affected by 

systematic truth,. 9 

changed, rather than expressed, by 
some actions, 177 



818 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Character, what it is, 257, 312 

how a man can change his, 258 

Harrison, 260 

what a man will grant as to his own,. 297 
extent of responsibility for, accord- 
ing to Raymond, 317 

sinning makes for itself a, 591 

sinful, renders certain continuance in 

sinful action, 591 

dependent on habit, 596 

Charles the Fifth, illustration of humili- 
ation of Christ from his abdica- 
tion, 384 

Charnock on the divine essence, 116 

on will, 178 

Chastisement distinguished from pun- 
ishment, ___.351, 418 

Chemnitz, . 24 

on human nature in Christ, 377 

Cherubim, their significance, .. 224 

represent man, as image of God and 

priest of nature, 224 

never found with angels, 224 

at the gates of Eden, 308 

Child, and two oranges, 18 

man, though a, not necessarily a bar- 
barian, 271 

unborn, has promise and potency of 

spiritual manhood, 357 

Children, individuality of, how best ex- 
plained, 251 

of Gehazi and others, visited with sins 

of their fathers, 338 

Chiliasts in every age since Christ as- 
cended, 569 

Chilling worth's maxim inaccurate, 12 

Chillon, prisoner of, used as an illustra- 
tion, 586 

Chinese, their religion, a survival of the 

patriarchical family worship, . 86 

their history, its commencement, 107 

their trinity, . 170 

perhaps left primitive abodes while 

language still monosyllabic, 240 

proverb quoted, 297 

Chitty, anecdote of , 20 

Choice, not creation, the office of will,. 259 

what, according to New School, 283 

evil, uniformity of, implies tendency 

or determination, 321 

of individuals to salvation, Scriptural 

statements of , 428 

God's, a matter of grace in eternity 

past, Scriptural proofs of, 429 

God has reasons for his,... 432 

Christ, the organ of external revelation, 8 
his person and character historical 

realities, 89 

conception of, no sources open to 
evangelists whence they might de- 
rive it,. 89 

conception of, beyond human genius, 89 
character of, B ushnell on, 90 



Christ, descriptions of, their general 
acceptance a proof of actual exist- 
ence, 90 

if his person and character real, Chris- 
tianity a revelation from God, 90 

Mill on his lif e and sayings, 90 

his testimony to himself, 91 

expressly claims equality with God,. 91 

not an intentional deceiver, 91 

not self-deceived, 91 

revealer of God's feelings, 128 

the whole, present in each believer,.. 133 
his divinity, some passages once re- 
lied on as proving, now given up,.. 146 
Old Testament descriptions are ap- 
plied to him, 146 

possesses attributes of God, ..147, 367 

undelegated works of God are attribu- 
ted to, 147 

receives honor and worship due only 

to God, 148 

his name associated with that of God 

on footing of equality, 148 

equality with God, expressly claimed 

for him, 149 

si nonDeus, nonbonus, 149 

proofs of his divinity in certain 

phrases applied to him, 149 

his divinity corroborated by Christian 

experience, ...149, 368 

his divinity exhibited in hymns and 

prayers of church, 150 

his divinity, passages which seem in- 
consistent with, how to be regarded, 150 

the perfect 'image of God,' 162 

the centrifugal action of Deity, 163 

and Spirit, characteristic differences 

of their work, 164 

his Sonship eternal, 164 

his Sonship unique, 164 

if not God, cannot reveal God, 169 

the orders of creation to be united in, 221 

his human soul, Dorner on, 251 

his character convicts of sin, 277 

he is both the ideal and the way to the 

ideal, 279 

not law, the ' perfect image ' of God,. 282 

his holiness, in what it consisted, 294 

in Gethsemane felt for race, 339 

believers not in, as to substance of 

their souls, when atonement made, 340 
the life of, which makes us Christians, 
the same which died and rose from 

the grave, 340 

human nature in, may have guilt 

without depravity, 346 

Christ, the person of, doctrine of, . .360-380 
historical survey of views respecting, 360 
according to Ebionites, as distinct 
from Jesus, a preexisting hyposta- 
sis, 361 

a • moral person ' according to Nesto- 
rius, 362 



lndex of subjects. 



619 



Christ, his two natures, 364 

the reality of his humanity, 364 

expressly called 'a man,' 364 

his royal descent proved in genealogy 
of Matthew, 364 

the son of Abraham in Matthew's 
genealogy, 364 

a natural descendant of David, proved 
in Luke's genealogy, 364 

the son of Adam in Luke's genealogy, 364 

possessed essential elements of human 
nature, 364 

had the instincts and powers of a 
normal and developed humanity,.. 364 

subject to laws of human develop- 
ment,. 364 

in twelfth year appears to enter on 
consciousness of his divine Sonship, 364 

sufferedand died, 364 

his death, according to Stroud, from a 
broken heart, 364 

only ' seemed ' to develop his human- 
ity, danger of such an explanation 
of the phenomena, 365 

said by Justin Martyr to have been an 
apprentice to carpentry, 365 

lived a life of faith and prayer under 
the self -chosen limitations of his hu- 
miliation, 365 

dependent as we are on Scripture, 
much of which was written f or him, 365 

' the prince and perf ecter of our faith,' 
as actually exercising it,.. 365 

the integrity of his humanity, 365 

his humanity not merely complete but 
perfect, 365 

was supernaturally conceived, 365 

his birth ' a creative act of God break- 
ing through the chain of human 
generation,' 365 

his birth, light thrown on it by science 
which recognizes many methods of 
propagation even in same species,.. 365 

free, both from hereditary depravity 
and from actual sin, 365 

his freedom from an evil inclination 
on which temptation could lay hold, 365 

his immaculate conception, 365 

had he been only human nature, 
would not have been sinless,... 365 

his divine life appropriates the human, 365 

his incarnation corresponded to be- 
liever's regeneration, 365 

his assumption of human nature of 
such a kind that, without sin, it bore 
the consequences of sin, 365 

if pure from sin and tendency to sin, 
how open to temptation ? 365 

tempted as Adam was, 365 

not omniscient in temptation, 365 

had keenest susceptibility to innocent 
desire,.. 365 

and to fear, 366 



Christ, in and after his scenes of temp- 
tation never prays for forgive- 
ness,.. 366 

possessed ideal human nature, 366 

had no perfection of physical form,.. 366 

took our average humanity, 366 

sometimes appearing prematurely 
aged, 366 

sometimes revealing an attractive and 
awful grace, 36*3 

perhaps illustrating at different times 
the ideas of the Byzantine and of the 
Italian painters, 366 

the spirituality of his human nature 
perfect, 366 

united in himself the excellencies of 
every temperament, nationality, 
and character, 366 

passively innocent yet positively 
holy, 366 

so lovable that k love can never love 
too much,' 366 

his nature the basis of ethics and the- 
ology, 366 

his nature not a natural but a miracu- 
lous product, 366 

his human nature impersonal prior to 
its union with the divine na- 
ture, 366 

finds its personality in union with the 
divine nature, 366 

had no consciousness or will apart 
from personality of the Logos, 366 

was not taken into union by the divine 
nature as an already developed per- 
son, 367 

not two persons in, a human person 
and a divine, 367 

his human nature capable of self- 
com m unication, 367 

makes him spiritual head of a new 
race, 367 

makes him a vine-man, 367 

this new race propagated after analo- 
gy of old, 367 

this new relationship to be preferred 
to old natural ancestry, 367 

his deity in relation to his earthly 
ministry, 367 

instances in which he possessed a con- 
sciousness of deity, 367 

instances in which he exercised divine 
attributes and prerogatives, . 367 

there were in him a knowledge and a 
power which belong only to God, . . 368 

the exhibitions of deity in his human 
life have elicited testimonies that he 
was more than man, 368 

his deity recognized by Christian ex- 
perience, 368 

has elevated the conception of child- 
hood and womanhood and of human 
life in general, 368 



620 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Christ, his humanity, neglect of the 
fact of, has led to the acceptance of 
such substitutes as mariolatry, saint 
invocation, and the 'real pres- 
ence,' - 368 

Christ, union of two natures in one 
person, 368-380 

possesses a perfect divine and a per- 
fect human nature, 368 

the two natures in, united by a bond 
unique and inscrutable, 368 

though possessed of two natures, is a 
single undivided personality,. 368 

possessed of a single consciousness 
and will,. — . 368 

uniformly speaks of himself, and is 
spoken of, as a single person, 368 

attributes of both his natures inter- 
changeably ascribed to one person,. 369 

infinite value of his atonement and 
of the union of race with God in 
him founded on union of two na- 
tures in one personality, 369 

his undivided personality recognized 
by universal Christian conscious- 
ness, 369 

in him neither contraction of divini- 
ty or humanity, 370 

Lutheran doctrine of a communion 
of natures in,. 370 

modern misrepresentations of the 
union of the natures in, 370 

his humanity not a contracted and 
metamorphosed Deity, 370 

his humanity, Gess's view, 370 

his humanity, Hofmaan's view, 370 

his humanity, Ebrard's view, 370 

his humanity, Beech er's view, 370 

substance of God cannot be in Christ 
without correlative attributes, 371 

doctrine that his humanity is a meta- 
morphosed Deity leads to panthe- 
ism, 371, 372 

theory that his humanity is but met- 
amorphosed Deity destructive of 
Scriptural scheme of salvation, 372 

theory that the union between his di- 
vine and human natures is not com- 
pleted in the incarnating act, 372 

his human consciousness mediating 
between divine and human, 373 

Dorner's view of the union of the di- 
vine and human in him,.. 373 

Rothe's view of the union of the di- 
vine and human in him,. 373 

union between his divine and human 
natures gradual, objections to the- 
ory, 373 

natures in, theory of the gradual in- 
tercommunication of, Nestorian- 
ism, 374 

union of natures in, Thomasius on 
Dorner's view of, 374 



Christ, natures in, theory of gradual 
intercommunication of, a merging 

of persons rather than natures, 374 

personality, double, never hinted at 

in his language, 374 

the real nature of this union, 374 

union of natures in his person the 

crowning Christian mystery, 374 

person of, chief problems in regard 

to, 375 

union of natures in him, why mys- 
terious, 375 

illustrations of union of natures in 

him imperfect,... 375 

person of, a unique fact, 375 

union of natures in him, how possi- 
ble, 375 

union of natures set forth typically 

in marriage,. 376 

how both Creator and creature? 376 

union of natures in, does not involve 

a double personality, 376 

consciousness and will both single in 

him, _• 376 

consciousness and will both thean- 

thropic in him, 376 

divine nature, its attributes imparted 

to human nature in him, 377 

Spirit mediates communication of di- 
vine to human nature in his humil- 
iation, 377 

Kahnis on human nature in, 377 

Philippi on human nature in, 377 

in his humiliation subject to Spirit,.. 378 

Servant of Jehovah, 378 

' Lord of the Spirit ' in his exaltation, 378 
divine nature, effect upon it of union 

of natures, 378 

natures, the, derivatively possessed of 

their mutual attributes, 378 

union of Deity and humanity in, illus- 
trated by union of soul and body,.. 378 
natures, necessity of union of, in him, 378 

union of natures in him eternal, 379 

Christ, the two states of, 380-387 

humiliation, his state of, 380 

no co-existence of two souls in, 381 

his humiliation consisted in surrender 
of independent exercise of divine 

attributes, 382 

submission of, to laws which regulate 
origin of souls from a pre-existing 

sinfulstock, 383 

reached consciousness of Sonship at 

twelve years old, 383 

his subordination to control of Holy 

Spirit, 383 

omnipresence a key to understanding 

of his humiliation,.. 383 

whole, present in every believer, 383 

would he have become man, had there 

been no sin? 384 

exaltation, his state of, 384 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



621 



Christ, his body not necessarily sub- 
ject to death, - 385 

his resurrection a natural necessity,. 385 
his descent into hell, Calvin's view,.. 385 
his presence with his people discussed, 386 

his human soul ubiquitous, 387 

his offices, 387 

Christ, the prophetic office of, 388-390 

his teaching as preincarnate Logos, - . 388 
in his earthly ministry like and unlike 

O. T. prophets,.... 389 

his activity prophetic since ascension, 389 
his revelation of the Father in glory, 

prophetic, 389 

Christ, the priestly office of,.... 390-424 

his sacrificial work, or work of atone- 
ment, 390 

as a martyr, 399 

his death set forth both in Baptism 

and Lord's Supper, 400 

the great Penitent, 400 

his sufferings propitiatory and penal, 401 
his sacrifice propitiates human con- 
science, 401 

his work and that of the Spirit....... 402 

his obedience, active and passive, 

needed in salvation, 409 

his union with humanity involves ob- 
ligation to suffer for men, 412 

in womb of "Virgin purged from de- 
pravity, 412 

by his birth exposed to guilt and pen- 
alty, 412 

his guilt, what?. 412 

his complicity in sin of race but a sub- 
jective ground for laying on him sin 

of all, 413 

his identification with humanity, 

views of, 413 

his humanity not pre-natal, 413 

not responsible for sins of men merely 
as upholder and life of all and spirit- 
ually one with belie ver, 413 

'a sinner in Adam,' 413 

not constructive, but natural heir of 

guilt of the race, 413 

substance of his being derived by nat- 
ural generation from Adam, 413 

in Adam just as we are, 413 

has same race- responsibilities as we,. 413 
took not sin, but its consequen- 
ces, 413 

his obligation to suffer,. 413 

his sufferings, their justice, imperfect 

illustrations of, 413 

bore an imparted, as well as an impu- 
ted, guilt, 414 

his longing to suffer, 414 

his sufferings, their ine vitableness, . . . 414 
suffered as the only healthy member 

of the race,... 414 

his whole life propitiatory, 415 

inherited penalty, 415 



Christ, inherited guilt, 415 

his circumcision, its import, 415 

his ritual purification, its import, 415 

his legal redemption, its import, 415 

his baptism, its import, 415 

till resurrection, under race-guilt,. .. 416 
his atonement, its retroactive influ- 
ence on his humanity, 416 

his cross, where his guilt was first 

purged, 416 

satisfaction penal, not pecuniary, 418 

his propitiation real, though judge 

and sacrifice are one, 419 

his satisfaction not rendered to a part 

of the Godhead, 419 

responsible because organically one 

with humanity,.. 419 

his sacrifice does not extend to angels, 419 
his sufferings may have included re- 
morse, 420 

his sufferings though finite in time are 

infinite satisfaction, 420 

his sufferings equivalent but not iden- 
tical with those due by sinner, 420 

extent of his atonement,... 421 

Savior of all, in what sense, 421 

how specially the Savior of those who 

believe, 422 

his priesthood continues forever, 422 

his priesthood, work of interces- 
sion, 422 

his intercession, nature of, 422 

his intercession, objects of, 423 

his general intercession,... 423 

his special intercession, 423 

his intercession, its relation to that of 

Holy Spirit, 423 

his intercession, relation of, to that of 

saints, ..424 

Christ, the kingly office of, 424, 425 

his kingship respects the universe,... 424 
his kingship respects his militant 

church, 424 

his kingship respects his church tri- 
umphant, 425 

must be our king as well as our proph- 
et and priest, 425 

on throne, an important subject of 

meditation, 425 

Christ, union with, reasons for neglect 

of doctrine, 438 

Scriptural representations of , 438 

'in him,' its meaning, 440 

union with, its nature, 441 

may be banished to remotest room of 
believer's soul, but still its inhabit- 
ant, 443 

his union with race secures objective 

reconciliation, 444 

his union with believer secures sub- 
jective reconciliation,... 444 

ascended, communicates life to 
church, 446 



622 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Christ, may be received by those who 
have not heard of his manifesta- 
tion in the flesh, 468 

his sufferings ground of acquittal 

from penalty of law, 476 

his obedience, ground of rewards, 476 

union with, secures his life as domi- 
nant principle in believer, 478 

his life in believer gradually extir- 
pates depravity, 478 

we in, = justification, 479 

in us = sanctification, 479 

his work for us and in us, 483 

becomes a new object of attention to 

the believer, 486 

union with, secures impartation of 

Christ's Spirit to believer, 487 

command of, cannot be modified or 

dispensed with by church, 526 

submitted to Mosaic rites appointed 

for sinners, 529 

God's judicial activity exercised 

through him, 583 

his human body confined to place,... 585 
his human soul not confined to place, 586 
Christendom, its forward-looking spirit 

owed to Scriptures, 85 

Christian, his experience in Pilgrim's 

Progress, 232, 405 

Christian, the, abandons self, 294 

has broken through race-connection, 354 

is chastised, but never punished, 354 

makes progressive conquest of sin- 
fulness of his nature, 484 

Christianity, in what sense a supple- 
mentary dispensation, 15 

alone shows steady progress in idea 

of God, 60 

its triumph over paganism the won- 
der of history, 91 

obstacles to its progress, 92 

the natural insufficiency of means 

used to secure its progress, 92 

influence on civilization, 93 

influence on individuals, 93 

how it supplements pantheism, 133 

circumstances in Roman civilization 

favoring its spread, 360 

Japanese objection to its doctrine of 

brotherhood, 500 

Christological method of theology, 27 

Christology, ' __ 358 

Chronicles incorporates different docu- 
ments, 112 

Chronology, Hebrew, _ 106 

Septuagint, .._ 106 

of the Fathers, 106 

Usher's,. 106 

Hales's, 106 

Chrysostom, on men casting themselves 

into hell, 587 

Church, its effectiveness dependent on 
correct doctrine, ^. 10 



Ch urch, unwritten truth before it, 18 

wasit before Bible,. 18 

prefigured, 68 

polity and ordinances, their design,.. 280 

a prophetic institution, 389 

of England, its views of relation of 

regeneration and baptism, 454 

doctrine of the, 494-553 

constitution of the, or church polity, 

494-519 

its largest signification, 494 

and kingdom, distinction between,. .. 494 
visible and invisible, distinction be- 
tween, _ 494 

invisible, distinguished from the in- 
dividual church, 494 

the individual, defined, 495 

laws of Christ as to, summarized, 495 

its derivation,.. 495 

the term sometimes applied in a loose 

sense, 495 

designating a popular assembly, 495 

used in a generic or collective sense,. 495 
local, always of a number that could 

assemble in one place, 496 

of New York, the Baptist, in what 

sense used, 496 

of divine appointment, 496 

its oecumenical-local sense, 496 

local, a microcosm, 496 

a voluntary society, 497 

membership in, not hereditary or 

compulsory, 497 

an outgrowth of regeneration, 497 

involuntary, an absurdity, 497 

union with, follows soul's spiritual 

union with Christ, 497 

Dorner on doctrine of, .. 497 

organization of,. 497 

its informal organization, 497 

its formal organization, 497 

formally organized in New Testament, 497 
progress in its development indicated 

by names given to Christians, 498 

not an exclusively spiritual body, 498 

theory of Friends and Plymouth 

Brethren regarding, 498 

its organization not a matter of expe- 
diency, 499 

organization, the, in existence before 
close of Canon, binding as an ex- 
ample, 499 

absurdity of moulding its order to 
suit countries in which established, 500 

nature of its organization, 500 

members of the local, must first be 

members of the universal, 500 

its members regenerate persons, 500 

recognizes Christ as only law -giver,.. 500 
its members on footing of equality,.. 500 
no jurisdiction of one over another,. . 501 

independent of civil power, 501 

the local, its sole object, 501 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



623 



Church, the local, methods of promot- 
ing its object, 501 

the local, united worship a duty of,.. 501 
the local, mutual watch-care and ex- 
hortation, a duty of, 501 

the local, common labors for recla- 
mation of impenitent, 501 

its law the will of Christ, 501 

qualifications for its membership, 501 

duties of its members,. - 501 

its genesis,.. 502 

existed in germ before Pentecost, 502 

provision for offices in, made as exi- 
gencies arose, 502 

Paul's teaching with regard to, pro- 
gressive, 502 

how far synagogue was model of, 503 

a, how constituted, 503 

at formation of a, a council impor- 
tant but not essential, 503 

its government, 503 

its government, as regards source, an 

absolute monarchy,. 504 

its government, as regards interpre- 
tation and execution of Christ's will, 

an absolute democracy, 504 

Free, of Scotland, a principle in its 

secession from Establishment, 504 

proof that its government is demo- 
cratic, or congregational, 504 

its duty to preserve unity of action, . . 504 
to seek to secure unanimity by moral 

suasion, 504 

willful and obstinate opposition to its 

decisions, schism, 504 

government proceeds upon supposi- 
tion that Christ dwells in all believ- 
ers, 504 

responsible as a whole for pure doc- 
trine and practice, 505 

ordinances committed to whole, to 

guard, 505 

the whole, elects its officers, 505 

the whole, exercises discipline, 506 

educational influence of devolving 

government on whole, 506 

pastor's duty to develop its self-gov- 
ernment, 506 

government, erroneous views of, 507 

the Romanist, or world-church theory 

of, 507 

hierarchical government of, corrupt- 
ing to it and dishonoring to Christ, 507 

Protestant, where before Luther ? 508 

national-church theory of,... 508 

national-church theory of, invidious, 508 
a spiritual, cannot be confined to geo- 
graphical lines,. 508 

national-church theory of, leads to a 

world-church or Romanism, 508 

Presbyterian system of, authors on,.. 508 
independence of, not given up till 
third or fourth century, 508 



Church, officers of, two, 509 

ordination of officers in, 512 

local, highest authority in New Tes- 
tament, 513 

discipline of the, 516 

local, only methods of exit from, 516 

in case of serious internal disagree- 
ments council called to advise, 

should not be ex parte, 519 

independence requires Christian co- 
operation of churches, 519 

list of authorities on general subject 

of, , .- 519 

ordinances of the, 520-553 

cannot modify or dispense with a 

command of Christ, 526 

local, not a legislative but executive 

body,. 526 

not above Christ and Scripture, 526 

to preserve its existence, must have 

control of its membership, 533 

either hereditary, or typified by Jew- 
ish people, 537 

the true, how according to Roman- 
ists one may belong to the soul 

of, 545- 

fellowship, distinct from Christian 

fellowship, 549 

Churches, Baptist, their essential prin- 
ciples, 495 

theory of provincial or national, 508 

of New Testament, held intercourse 

as independent bodies, 508 

relation to one another, 517 

equal fellowship of , 517 

fraternal and cooperative fellowship 

of, 517 

ought to consult on matters affecting 

their common interests, 518 

should seek advice of one another,... 518 
should take advice of one another,... 518 
their independence qualified by inter- 
dependence, 518 

regulated in their intercourse by same 
law which regulates individual be- 
lievers, 518 

how may fellowship between be bro- 
ken? 518 

Cicero, on what the eye sees, xxv 

on the idea of God as innate, 30 

on honestum and utile, 132 

on the gods governing the world, 211 

on the gods neglecting little things, . 213 

on man a mortal God, 262 

onsin, quoted, 297 

on culpability in trifles, 306 

onman's dependence on God, 449 

a saying of, applicable to the church 

invisible, 494 

could only conjecture as to immor- 
tality, 557 

Girculatio, 161 

Circumcision of Christ, its import, 415 



624 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Circumcision, arguments to show that 
its law and that of baptism are not 
the same, 537 

Circumincessio, 161 

City, why heaven represented as a, 585 

City of God, earthly adumbrations of,. 585 

Civilization, arts of, can be lost, 271 

hopefulness of modern, derived from 

Hebrew prophecy, 359 

Civil law, power of, not the ground of 

moral obligation, 141 

regards not merely act but motive or 

intent, _ 285 

Clan-relationship, an illustration of 

Christ's relations to race, 414 

Clarke, Samuel, ontological argument 

according to, 47 

his argument would prove God to be 

matter, 48 

his argument, Calderwood's criticism 

of, 48 

his argument, weakness of, 132 

his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 142 

Clarke, Dorus, on saying the catechism, 10 
Claudius Lysias, letter of, not correct 

in its statements,. 113 

Clement of Rome quotes from New Tes- 
tament writings,.. 74 

his epistle not a letter of the bishop, 

but of the church, 518 

the ground on which he denied future 

punishment, 591 

Clementines, pseudo-, their views, 361 

Closet, Christian's, Trinity present in, 424 

Cobbe, Frances Power, quoted, 43 

on Schopenhauer, 200 

her comparison of nature to a strand- 
ed ship, 554 

Cocceius, 24 

founder of the federal theology, 322 

Coffin, called by Egyptians 'chest of 

the living,' 561 

Cogito, ergo Deus est, 34 

Cogito, ergo sum = cogito, scilicet sum, ... 31 
Cognition of finiteness, dependence, 
etc., the occasion of direct cognition 

of the infinite, absolute, etc., 29 

Colby, H. F., on terms of communion, 552 

Coleridge on faith, 3 

on first truths, 30 

on experience, 63 

on children's education, 301 

on evil antecedent to personal trans- 
gression, 321 

on church's power to modify an ordi- 
nance, 526 

Collections of New Testament writings 

date back to first century, 72 

Columbus and the pigeons, 213 

Comets, an illustration from, 589 

Coming, second, of Christ, 566 

nature of 567 



Coming, second, of Christ, objects to be 

secured at,. 567 

to belike his departure, 567 

analogous to his first, 567 

Christ, how visible to all at his, 568 

hoped for by early Christians in their 

life-time, 568 

time of, hidden in God's counsels, 568 

prophecies of, expressed in a large 

way,. 568 

time of, not known to apostles, 569 

time of, hidden from Christ in the flesh, 569 
time of, presumption of pretending 

to know, 569 

parallel between first and, 569 

patient waiting for, disciplinary, 569 

precursors of , 569 

a general prevalence of Christianity, 

a precursor of,.. 569 

a deep and wide-spread development 

of evil, a precursor of, 570 

a personal antichrist, a precursor of, 570 

four signs of its near approach,. 571 

decay of Turkish Empire said to be 

sign of, 571 

Pope's loss of temporal power said to 

be sign of, 571 

conversion of Jews and their return 

to Holy Land, said to be sign of,... 571 
Holy Spirit and conversion of Gen- 
tiles said to be a sign of, 571 

its relation to millennium, 571 

millennium priorto, 571 

immediately connected with a gener- 
al resurrection and judgment, 572 

no thousand years between it and the 
resurrection of wicked and general 

judgment, 572 

of two kinds, 574 

a possible reconciliation of pre-mil- 
lenarian and post-millenarian the- 
ories Of, 574 

is the preaching which is to precede it 

to individuals or nations? 574 

the destiny of those living at, 575 

Comings of Christ, partial and typical,. 566 
Command, a slight, best test of obedi- 
ence, 306 

Commenting, its progress, 18 

Commercial analogies of atonement in 

Scripture, 391 

Commercial theory of atonement, 407 

Commission, Christ's final, not merely 

to eleven, 505 

Committee on discipline, its function,.. 517 
Common law of the church, N. T. prece- 
dent, 546 

Communion of natures in Christ, Luth- 
eran view of, 370 

Communion, terms of, church's duty in 

relation to, 546 

not terms of salvation, 551 

H..F. Colby on, 552 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



625 



Communion, a man may be a Christian 

and yet notentitled to, 551 

terms of, open, special objections to, 551 
open, the practice of but an insignifi- 
cant fragment of organized Chris- 
tianity, 551 

open, assumes an unscriptural ine- 
quality among the ordinances, 551 

open, tends to do away with baptism, 552 
open, tends to do away with all disci- 
pline, - 552 

open, tends to do away with visible 

church, 552 

open, the unsatisfactoriness of the 
only grounds on which it can be 

justified, 553 

strict, objections to, answered, 552 

strict, a hindrance to Christian union, 553 

strict, its alleged inconsistency, 553 

strict, its alleged impolicy, 553 

Communion with God, final state of,... 585 

Compact with Satan, 230 

Complex action, a part of, often men- 
tioned for its whole, 531 

Complexity marks elevation in the scale 

of being, 116 

Comte, his theory that all knowledge is 

phenomenal, 4 

his phrase 'positive philosophy,' 4 

his worship of universal humanity,.. 46 

its meaning, 292, 293 

his theory of progress, 271 

Conant on genealogies, 106 

on the description of Eden,.. 106 

OU /3a7m'£a>, 522 

Concept, is not a mental image, 5 

may exist without words, 103 

not possessed by the brute, 235 

Conception, immaculate, of Christ, 365 

of the Virgin, absurd,... 365 

Concepts in theology may be sufficient- 
ly defined to distinguish them from 

all others, 8 

Conceptualism, true of inorganic 

classes, 329 

Concessions of opponents to Baptists,. 553 

Concupiscence, what? 266 

Romanist doctrine of, 316 

Concurrence, divine, theory of, 202, 206 

with second causes, inscrutable, 207 

with evil actions, its limitations, 207 

Condemnation, for depravity, 325 

an act of justice, 427 

Condillac, a materialist, 52 

Conduct, immoral, a ground of exclu- 
sion from the Lord's Supper, 549 

'Confession,' meaning, 22 

not sufficient to take away sin, 402 

Romanist doctrine of, 463 

Confession, Westminster, on results of 

man's fall, 344, 345 

'Confessions of a beautiful Soul,' 

Goethe's,..-. 290 

40 



Conflagration, final, Peter's and John's 

descriptions reconciled, 572 

in two periods according to Elliott,.. 572 

Conflict in believer, 484 

Confucian morality, what ? 87 

Confucianism, sketch of, 86 

Confucius, his contemporaries, 86 

left religion as he found it, 86 

Ezra Abbot on, 87 

Congenitally cruel disposition not ad- 
mitted a plea for murderer, 286 

Congregational, government of the 
church is democratic or, proved,... 504 
churches, entrance of Unitarianism 
into, attributed to infant baptism,. 538 

Connate ideas, what? 30 

Conscience, what? 46 

proves personality in Law-giver, 46 

speaks not in indicative but impera- 
tive mood, 46 

atheist's view of, 46 

not a reflection of nature, 46 

its witness against pantheism, 56 

its thirst in man assuaged by atone- 
ment,. 141 

its nature, 254 

not a faculty but a mode, 254 

intellectual element in, 254 

emotional element in, 254 

discriminative, 254 

impulsive, 254 

does not include moral intuition, 254 

does not include accepted law, 254 

does not include remorse or approval, 255 

does not include fear or hope, 255 

distinguished from moral reason, 255 

distinguished from moral sentiment, 255 
Calderwood's inaccurate definition of, 255 

Wnewell inaccurate regarding, 255 

not law-book or sheriff but judge, ... 255 

uniform and infallible, 255 

in what sense capable of education,. 255 
this view of, reconciles the intuition- 
al and empirical theories, 256 

•weak,' 256 

•branded' or 'seared,' 256 

•sprinkled from an evil,'. 256 

when echo of God'svoice? 256 

its spontaneity and sovereignty, 256 

the authority of, explained, 256 

a witness to a personal, holy God, 256 

as primarily cognitive or intuitional. 

list of authors on, 256 

Hopkins on, 256 

Peabodyon, 257 

H. B. Smith on,. 257 

sin renders it less sensitive, but can 

never finally silence it, 347 

human, needs propitiation of Christ's 

sacrifice, 401 

human, demands vicariousness, 411 

absolute liberty of, a distinguishing 
tenet of Baptists, 501 



626 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Consciousness, Christian, not a norma 

normans, 15 

Christian, a norma normata, 15 

defined, 35 

in its strict sense cannot be a source 

of the idea of God, 35 

its mature deliverances to be regarded 
rather than blind stirrings of primi- 
tive pulp, Bowne on, 35 

called forth by presence of non- 
ego, 57 

the ethico-religious, its alleged func- 
tion in Biblical interpretation, 100 

brutes possess, 121 

Consistency among the evangelists, . ^ . . 82 
Constantinople, Synod of, condemned 
Origen's view of preexistence of 

soul, 248 

Council of, condemned Apollinar- 

ism,. 362 

Council of, sanctioned view of John 

of Damascus,... 377 

Constructive consent to Adam's sin, ... 323 

Consubstantiation, 545 

not required by Scripture,... 545 

contradicts justification by faith, 545 

requires a sacerdotal order, 545 

logical ly tends to Romanism, 545 

changes the ordinance to one of mys- 
tery and fear, 545 

Contents of the intuition of God, 37 

Continuist, or continuous interpreta- 
tion of Revelation, 68, 570 

Continuous creation, 205 

objections to, 205, 206 

list of authors on, 206 

Continuous development in God's reve- 
lation, instances of, 60 

Contrary choice, Adam possessed the 

power of, 264 

not essential to will,.. 312 

present power of, its limits, 317 

Contrition, Romish doctrine of, 463 

Controversies as to person of Christ, 

their results to the church, 11 

how conveniently classified, 363 

Conversion of Roman Empire to Chris- 
tianity, 91 

Conversion, God's act on the will in, . . 436 
sudden, Drummond on humaneness 

of, 459 

defined, 460 

includes repentance, 460 

includes faith, 460 

human side of regeneration, 460 

avoluntary activity, 460 

man's powers may be interpenetrated 
by the divine so as to make him 

truly free, 460 

divine and human activity in, not one 

of chronological succession, 460 

there must be an unconstrained move- 
ment of man's own will in, 460 



Conversion, as really man's own work 
as if there were no divine influence 

upon him, 461 

a view of the union of human and di- 
vine in, 461 

combination of human and divine in, 

illustrations of, 461 

a subordinate use of the term, 461 

subsequent to first, its character, 461 

Convicted sinner, in greatest danger, . . 483 
in first instance not to be directed to 
performance of external duties, ... 483 
Conviction of sin, ascribed to Holy 

Spirit, 151 

how much of it needed to secure sal- 
vation? 464 

Conybeare and Howson on ' bishop ' 

and 'elder,' in N. T., 509 

onRom.6 : 4, 524 

Cook, Joseph, on Trinity, 144 

on variability of species, 243 

on laws of nature the habits of God,. 275 

his comparison of man to sea, 288 

Coprolites of saurians, 198 

Copy, an evidence when original lost, . . 70 
Corinthians, Second, 5 : 4, exposition of, 415 
Corruption, moral, so settled that no 
power to do good remains, meets 

with deepest disapprobation, 286 

Corruption of moral nature, what, 340 

Corrupt nature universal among men,. 290 

Cosmogonies, unscientific, 106 

Biblical and heathen, comparison of, 

list of authors on, 193 

Cosmological argument, stated, 40 

an argument from change in nature, 40 

its advocates, 40 

its defects, 40 

cannot show that the substance of the 

universe had a beginning, 40 

cannot show that cause of universe 

may not be within itself , 40 

proves only force, 40 

cannot disprove an infinite series of 

dependent causes, 41 

cannot from a finite universe prove 

an infinite cause, 41 

merely proves existence of cause of 

universe indefinitely great, 41 

requires intuition of infinite as sup- 
plement, 41 

its value,.. 41 

Couches, immersion of, 523 

Council of churches, its place in ordi- 
nation, 514 

has no authority which does not re- 
side in the constituent churches,. .. 526 
Council of ordination, should be nu- 
merous and impartially constituted, 514 

presence of lay-delegates in, 514 

Councils did not claim authority till 

second century,.. 508 

'Counsel,' in Eph. 1 : 11, its meaning,.. . 171 



IXDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



627 



Counterfeit miracles, 66 

Covenant, condemnation by, theory of, 322 

what Cocceius meant by it, 323 

with Adam disproved,. 324 

Covetousness, what?.. 293 

Cranial capacity of man and apes com- 
pared, .-- 237 

Crawford on Abel's sacrifice,.. 396 

on Bushnell's view of atonement, 401 

Creare, its significance in dictator consu- 

les creavit,. 506 

Creatian theory of origin of soul, 250 

Creatianism, its advocates, 250 

proof alleged, 250 

modified by modern Reformed theolo- 
gians, 251 

reasons for its untenableness, 250 

not required by Scripture, 250 

strips man of noblest powers of prop- 
agation, 250 

does not explain children's likeness to 

parents, 251 

unphysiological, - 250 

makes God the author directly or in- 
directly of moral evil,-- 251 

Creatianists, most Reformed and Rom- 
an Catholic theologians, 250 

hold m'evixa to be direct creation of 

God, 250 

trichotomists usually are, 250 

Creation, attributed to Christ,. 147 

attributed to the Sp irit, 157 

the decree of, was the decree of its 

results, 174 

doctrine of, 183-202 

definition of, 183 

not a fashioning of pre-existing ma- 
terial, 183 

not an emanation from substance of 

deity, 183 

divine, as the origination of substance, 183 
not necessary, but the act of a free 

will, 183 

an act of the triune God, 183 

proof of doctrine of, 184 

a truth of Scripture, 184 

Scriptural revelation of, adds the one 
fact necessary to unity and ration- 
ality of science, 184 

direct Scriptural statements of, 184 

'created to make' (Gen. 2 : 3), its 

meaning, 185 

without preexisting materials, a He- 
brew idea, 185 

Hebrew can best of all ancient lan- 
guages express acts of God in, 185 

absolute, perhaps known only to He- 
brews, 185 

idea of, asserted by some to be known 
to other religions than the Hebrew, 185 

Rig Veda on, 185 

described in a papyrus in British Mu- 
seum, 185 



Creation, in heathen systems, authori- 
ties on, 185 

'out of nothing,' its origin as a 

phrase, 186 

indirect Scriptural evidence for, 186 

theories which oppose, 186 

dualistic conception of , 186 

out of nothing, no more inconceivable 

than eternity of matter, 187 

from eternity, 117, 190 

not a necessary result of God's omnip- 
otence, T 190 

from eternity a contradiction in 

terms, 190 

eternal, not required by God's immu- 
tability, .. 190 

eternal, not required by God's love, . . 190 
eternal, inconsistent with God's free 

will, 190 

infinite as well as eternal, required to 

satisfy God, 190 

continuous, 190 

brings forth something capable of 

self-development, 192 

lays foundation for cosmogony, 192 

Creation, Mosaic account of , 191-195 

unites ideas of creation and develop- 
ment, 191 

recognizes development, 192 

probably describes brute and human 
life as acts of absolute origination, 192 

not allegorical or mythical, 193 

not a vision granted to Moses, 193 

probably a revelation made to first- 
man and handed down to Moses' 

time, 193 

hyper-literal interpretation of , 193 

hyper-scientific interpretation of, 193 

in general, not precise, accord with 

geological history,.. 194 

pictorial-summary interpretation,... 194 

reduced to a tentative scheme, 194 

no scheme of reconciling it with geol- 
ogy a finality, 194 

Augustine on, 194 

Dana on succession in, 195 

list of authors on, 195 

Creation, God's end in, 195 

testimony of Scripture as to, 195 

testimony of reason regarding, 196 

God's glory the only end actually at- 
tained in, 196 

does not increase, but reveals the di- 
vine glory, 197 

God loves preeminently the manifes- 
tation of himself in, 197 

Creation, its relation to other doctrines, 198 
its relation to the holiness of God,. . . 198 
its relation to the benevolence of 

God, 198 

how ' good, ' though physical and 

moral evil exist, 198 

not perfect even at first, 199 



628 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Creation, its relation to the wisdom and 

free-will of God, 199 

cannot f ully express the perfections 

of God, 199 

God always had plan of, _ 199 

God has chosen best possible plan in, 199 
in relation to providence and redemp- 
tion, __ 200 

its logical alternative, pantheism, 200 

doctrine of, constitutes an antidote 
to most of false philosophy of the 

time, ._ 201 

the Sabbath as commemorating-, 201 

Assyrian accounts of , 201 

Creation, continuous, 205 

its principal advocates, 205 

objections to, 205 

contradicts our intuitions of sub- 
stance and causality, 205 

denies existence and efficiency of sec- 
ond causes,-.. 205 

involves all the difficulties of idealism, 205 
impugns the divine veracity, love, and 

holiness,. 206 

renders personal identity inexplica- 
ble, 206 

. intended by Edwards as a solution of 

problem of original sin, 206, 318 

tends to pantheism,. 206 

denies nature, 206 

renders everything— that is, nothing- 
supernatural, 206 

Dorner on, __ 206 

Creation, all the orders of, to be united 

in Christ,. 212 

of man, a fact of Scripture, 234 

of man, method of, not disclosed in 

Scripture, 234 

of man's soul determined by psychol- 
ogy to be immediate, 234 

of man's body, method of, whether 
mediate or immediate, not revealed 

in Scripture, 236 

of man's body to be preferably regard- 
ed as immediate, 236 

Agassiz's theory of different centres 

of, 242 

theory of separate centres of, science 

adverse to, 242 

man's, in harmony with his dichoto- 

mous nature,. 243 

of souls, passages adduced to prove 
direct divine agency in, can be as 
well understood on theory of medi- 
ate agency, 250 

of man, the lofty conception in the 

Protestant and Augustinian view, . . 266 
second, a point of distinction from 

first, 376 

body in, made corruptible, 558 

soul in, made incorruptible, - 558 

Creatura, 192 

Credere Deum, Deo, in Deum, 465 



Credibility of Old Testament follows 

from credibility of New, 82 

Credibility of writers of Scripture, 82 

Credo quia impossibile est, ... 18 

Creed, Apostles', 23 

'Creed,' meaning of, 22 

Creeds, how they sprang up, 10 

of third and fourth century, their na- 
ture, -. 11 

Cremer on tyvxy, - - 245 

On a vrd WayfjLa, 393 

on /3a7rri'£w, 523 

Cries of animals called by Cartesians 

' creaking of the machine, ' 53 

Crime prevented by conviction that it 

deserves punishment, 352 

Crimen Icesce majestatis, 409 

Crimes of passion and deliberation, 285 

Crippen on Athanasius' view that 

Christ's death was due to God, 408 

Criticism and speculation, period of , . . . 24 
Cromwell, restrained from sailing to 

America, 213 

on uniting trust in God with activity, 219 
Crosby, Dr. Howard, his view of Christ's 

humiliation, 380 

his interpretation of John 1 : 14, 380 

Cross, at it Christ's guilt first purged, . . 416 

Culpability in trifles often great, 306 

Cumming, John, a continuist interpret- 
er of Revelation, 570 

Cumulative arguments, illustrations of, 39 
Cunningham, on man as active and 

passive in regeneration, 456 

his concessions to Baptists, 553 

Cur Deus Homo, abridged, 408 

Curry on Irving's views, 406 

' Curse,' its meaning in Gal. 3 : 13, 415 

Curse on fallen man did not involve 

cessation of existence, 559 

Curtis on open communion frustrating 

purpose of visible church, 551 

Curtis, George William, change in his 

style, 113 

Custom due to commanding will, 275 

Customs, brutal, many of them result 

of corruption, 270 

'immemorial,' binding, 546 

Cuvier, his clue to discovery, 43 

Cyprian on progress to Episcopacy, 508 

on a middle state of purification, 565 

Cyril, on generation of the Son, 165 

Cyrus, mentioned in prophecy, 68 

on the soul living beyond this mortal 

body, 557 

Dabney on Arminianism, 315 

on soul defiled by imputation, 325 

Dale, on /BaTTTi^w, __ 522 

on /3a7rTto, 522 

Dale, R. W., his illustrations of moral- 
influence theory, 401 

his view of Christ's identification with 
humanity, 413 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



629 



Dalgairns on knowing something of the 

unknowable, 5 

Dalton's law of gases to an extent illus- 
trative of inspiration, 102 

Damascus, John of, on divine nature,,. 167 
on Trinity as midway between poly- 
theism and abstract monotheism,.. 169 
compares death of Christ to felling of 

a tree, 362 

on the person of Christ, 363 

on two consciousnesses and two wills 

in Christ, 377 

Damask, illustration from, . . 43 

Damasus, Pope, 90 

'Damn,' its present usual connotation 
imposed on it by the impressions 
the Scriptures made on the popular 

mind, 594 

'Damnation,' the word so rendered in 

1 Cor. 11 : 29, its meaning,.. 540 

Dana on the succession in the Mosaic 

account of creation, 195 

on diminution in number of species 

as we rise in scale, 241 

Danger, men instinctively cry for help 

in, 33 

Dannhauer, 24 

Dante on the impossibility of God 

writing his infinity on universe, 123 

on the creation and fall of angels, 221 

on human worth rarely transmitted,. 251 

on the papacy as antichrist, 570 

on the wicked desiring to enter hell,. 591 

inscription on gate of hell, 598 

Darkness, outer, final state of wicked 

in, - 587 

Darwin, his doctrine of heredity help- 
ful to theology, 18 

on the cause of variation being largely 

within the organism, 237 

Darwinism, a partial truth, 237 

a reversion to savage and heathen 

views, - - 237 

if true, only a method of divine intel- 
ligence and supplemented by acts of 

creation, 237 

Date of Luke, 74 

of Matthew and Mark, 74 

of the Gospels, according to Baur, ... 78 
Davidis, Francis, refuses prayer to 

Christ and is imprisoned till death,. 159 
David's sin of pride, all Israel punished 

for, 338 

Dawson on the innate power of expan- 
sion in species, -. 243 

Day, in Gen. 1, 18 

its meaning, 106, 193, 194 

cannot be rendered definitely and in- 
definitely in same scheme of pro- 
phecy, 572 

Day, Prof., on inspiration, quoted, 103 

Deacon, a bond of union between pas- 
tor and people, 511 



Deacons, best elected for a term of 

years, 512 

their duties, 511 

help church and pastor, 512 

ordination of, 515 

ordination of, requires no consulta- 
tion with other churches, 513 

Deaconess, the office of , 512 

Dead, preaching to, 386 

no instance in Scripture of a prayer 

for the, 592 

Dead, Egyptian Book of the, 561 

its ideas on future life, 561 

on resurrection, 580 

on judgment, 582 

'Deadly sins, seven,' in Roman Catho- 
lic doctrine, 294 

Deaf-mutes, their experience, 103 

Death, a consequence of the fall, 306 

physical, a consequence to Adam of 

the fall, 306 

spiritual, a consequence to Adam of 

the fall, 307 

spiritual, in what it consists, ..307, 354, 554 

physical, its nature, 352, 554 

a penalty of sin, proved from Scrip- 
ture, 352, 353 

proved from reason, 353 

and suffering, their universal preva- 

. lence only explicable as a judicial 

infliction on account of common 

sinfulness, 353 

among animals before fall on account 

of man'ssin, 353, 396 

not a necessary law of organized be- 
ing, shown in translation of Enoch 
and Elijah and of saints alive at 

second coming, 353 

to the saint the gateway to full divine 

communion, 354 

spiritual, its nature, 354 

the principal part of the penalty of 

sin, 354 

denounced in the garden, 354 

escaped by Christians, 355 

eternal, the culmination of spiritual 

death, 355 

initiated by a peculiar repellent ener- 
gy of divine holiness, 355 

involves positive retribution of God 

on body and soul, 355 

second, in Scripture referred to our 

personal guilt,.. 348 

second, its nature, 554, 555, 574 

second, final state of wicked called 

the, 587 

begins here, culminates hereafter, 554 

physical, to believer not a penalty,. . . 555 
physical, its relation to believer and 

to unbeliever, 555 

physical, not a cessation of being, 555-562 

maintained on rational grounds, 555 

metaphysical argument for, 655 



630 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Death, not a cessation of being, teleo- 

logical argument for, 556 

ethical argument for, 556 

historical argument for, 557 

theory that it may be a passage into a 
new form of consciousness, consid- 
ered, 556 

continuity of consciousness after, in- 
dicated in many Scriptures, 560 

maintained on Scriptural grounds,... 558 

a 'sleep,' what it implies, 560 

Jewish belief in conscious state after, 561 

of two kinds, - 574 

its passionless and statuesque tran- 
quillity, prophetic, 576 

Christian in, thinks more of Christ and 

his cross than of heaven, 586 

after, God's spirit withdrawn, 591 

Death of Christ, works temporal bene- 
fit even to those who have no faith, 395 
of Christ, set forth by Baptism and 

Lord's Supper, 400 

of Christ continuous, on Romanist 

view of justification, 481 

Decree, to act, not the act, 172 

permissive in case of evil, 172 

divine, nota cause, 176 

of the end and decree of means com- 
bined, 178 

no divine, to work evil desires or 

choices in men, 179 

to permit sin, permissive not efficient, 179 
to permit sin, no more difficulty at- 
taches to, than to actual permission 

.of sin, 179 

to initiate a system in which evil has 
a place, how consistent with God's 

holiness, 180 

Decrees of God, the, 171 

their definition,. 171 

are but one plan, 171 

have a logical relation,.. 171 

have no chronological relation, 171 

not the result of deliberation,. 171 

have origin in a freewill, 171 

not a necessary divine activity, 171 

relate to things outside of God, 171 

primarily respect acts of God himself, 172 

not addressed to creatures, 172 

cover all human acts, 172 

none of them reads 'you shall sin,'... 172 

sinful acts of men, how related to, 172 

proof of doctrine of, 172 

doctrine of, proved from Scripture,.. 172 

all things are included in, 172 

special things and events included in, 172 

proved from reason, 173 

proved from divine foreknowledge,.. 173 

proved from divine wisdom, 175 

proved from divine immutability, 175 

proved from divine benevolence, 175 

doctrine of, list of authors on, .... 175 

the ground of thanks to God, 176 



Decrees of God, objections to doctrine 
of, 176 

not inconsistent with man's free agen- 
cy, 176 

internal to divine nature and there- 
fore not inconsistent with free 

agency, 176 

do not decree efficiently to produce 

acts of the creature,. 177 

they may be executed by man's free 

causation, 177 

consciousness and conscience witness 

that they do not compel the free will, 177 
do not remove motive for exertion,.. 178 
cannot, influence action, since un- 
known at time of action, 178 

and fate differ in what ? 178 

as connecting means and ends, encour- 
age exertion,... 179 

harvest, wealth, salvation, etc., de- 
creed in use of suitable means, 179 

do not make God the author of sin,.. 179 
make God the author of free beings 

who are authors of sin, 179 

practical uses of the doctrine, 181 

the doctrine of, dear to the matured 

mind and deep experience, 181 

doctrine of, an incentive to effort,... 181 

method of preaching, 181 

execution of, 183 

supralapsarian order of, 426 

order of, according to sublapsarians 

who hold limited atonement, 427 

true order of, 427 

Deductive inference, what? 36 

Definition of theology, 1 

of science, 1 

of reason, 3 

of the term God,.... 29 

of holiness, Wardlaw's, 128 

Defoe, Daniel, on being fed more by 

miracle than was Elijah, 214 

Degeneration of races often as marked 

as their development, 270 

illustrations of, 270 

De Ira Dei, Lactantius', 1 

Deism, 204 

an exaggeration of the divine tran- 
scendence, 204 

rests on a false analogy, ...-. 204 

a system of anthropomorphism, 205 

saves dignity of God at expense of his 

infinity, 205 

denies all providential interference,.. 205 

tends to atheism, 205 

Deists, principal, 204 

Deity, indwelling, heathen on, 441 

Christ's, considered by Nestorians as 

impassible, 362 

Delitzsch on if/vxy, 245 

on personality as the basis of the im- 
age of God, 265 

on the blush of shame, 345 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



631 



Delitzsch, his view of Christ's humili- 
ation, 380 

* Delivering- to Satan,' what involved in, 229 

Delphic oracle, ,~ 67 

DeMarchi's estimate of the Catacombs, 92 

Democritus, a materialist, 52 

Demons, casting- out of, attributed to 

Holy Spirit, 151 

possession by, 228 

many in number, 228 

Christ's personal intercourse with, 

not metaphorical, 229 

their connection with idolatry, 229 

Denial of God's existence assumes his 

existence, 33 

Deno van on work of the Spirit, 164 

on justification by law,... 281 

on Christ's three-fold office, 387 

on Christ's teaching, 388 

on the natural heart, 453 

on two-fold aspect of justification, . . . 476 

on faith as a cheque, 478 

Depravity, consequent on a personal 
act of self-determination in a time- 
less state of being, theory of, objec- 
tions to, , 249 

of nature, experienced by saints, ex- 
amples of, 286 

of nature lying beneath consciousness 
a matter of penitence with Chris- 
tian, 286 

Arminian theory of , - 314 

theory of voluntarily appropriated,. 314 

New School theory of , 318 

universal, a reason for, 321 

Federal theory of, 322 

Augustinian theory of,. 328 

Augustinian theory of, its history,... 328 
Natural Headship theory of, grounds 

of its superior satisf actoriness, 330 

includes lack of original righteousness 

and corruption of moral nature, 340 

total, its explanation, 341 

subjective pollution,.. 346 

of will, requires special divine influ- 
ence, 431 

of universal humanity, 449 

Derivation of sapientia, 3 

of 'religion,' 11 

of 'experience,' 15 

of 'mystic,' 17 

of 'symbol,' 22 

Descartes teaches doctrine of innate 

ideas, 30 

his argument for existence of God 

both a priori and a posteriori, 48 

his argument, in what sense not a 
branch of the anthropological argu- 
ment, 48 

on origin of truth, 126 

his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 142 

on soul's continuously thinking, 566 



Descent, Christ's, into underworld, 385 

into Hades, Christ's, Luther's view, . . 385 
into Hades, Christ's, Dorner's view,.. 385 

Desert, moral, cannot be created, 265 

Design, objections to, whence arise, 43 

mistakes regarding 43 

not so much known as believed to 

be, 214 

Design implies designer, an identical 

proposition, 42 

' Desire, wrong, the cause of sin in un- 
holy beings,'. 335- 

Destruction, eternal, final state of 

wicked an, 587 

Determinative providence, 210 

Determination, brutes have, 122 

Determination of Canon, in what sense 

work of church, 72 

' Determinatio est negatio,' 6 

Determinism, 178 

theory of, 259 

a limited, present in acts, 259 

Determinists, their error, 260 

' Deus nescit se quid est, quia non est 

quid,' 116 

Deuteronomy, closing chapter added by 

another than Moses, 113 

Development of Christ's kingdom not 

one of power and violence, 573 

Devil, meaning of term,... 227 

but one, 228 

DeWette, 24 

his publication of Luther's letters, ... 76 
Dexter on 'bishop,' 'elder,' 'pastor,'... 509 
on immersion, a new thing in Eng- 
land in 1641 525 

Dextra Dei uMque est,.. 386 

Diabolus nullus, nullus Bedemptor, 232 

Diaconate should be representative, 512 

Diatessaron, Tatian's,. 75 

Diatoms, their beauty inexplicable on 

ground of ' natural selection, ' 236 

Dichotomous theory of man, 243 

list of advocates of, 244 

Dichotomy, its derivation, 243 

of man's nature, testified to by Scrip- 
ture and consciousness, 243 

of man's nature, supported by the ac- 
count of his creation, 243 

held by Western church, 247 

of man, as defined by Anselm, 247 

Dickens, Charles, does not sufficiently 

recognize heredity, 251 

Dick, John, 26 

his definition of holiness, 128 

Dickson on o-ap£, 291 

Dictation theory, what? 100 

its doctrinal connections, 100 

representatives of this view, 100 

portion of truth in, 101 

rests on a partial induction of facts,.. 101 
at variance with human element in 
Scripture, 101 



632 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Dictation theory, is inconsistent with 

wise economy of means, 101 

sets aside need of eye witnesses, 101 

contradicts plan of God's working in 

the soul, 101 

Dies IrcG, the, in Goethe's Faust, 346 

its prayer to Jesus quoted, 600 

Dignity, plural of, 152 

Dilemma for those who deny Christ's 

resurrection,. 66 

Diman on disproof of God, disproof of 

an external world,... 4 

on a conception of God as the ration- 
al explanation of the universe, 39 

his inference from ' gravitation ' ex- 
amined, 44 

on conscience, 46 

his view of the anthropological argu- 
ment, - 47 

on the connection of matter and force, 53 
on present dynamical theory of na- 
ture more in harmony with Script- 
ure than old mechanical theory, 204 

on science in history, 218 

on sharing, in Christ, the one omnipo- 
tent life of the spiritual universe,.. 443 
Dimmesdale in Hawthorne's Scarlet 

Letter, referred to, 346 

Dinah, in George Eliot's Adam Bede,.. 290 

Directive providence, 210 

Disciples or Campbellites, their views 
of relation of baptism and regener- 
ation, 454, 455 

their view of faith,. 466 

their views of baptism, 532 

Discipline, of twosorts, 516 

private offences, 516 

public offences, 516 

relation of pastor to, 517 

pastor organ and superintendent of 

activity of church in, 517 

Discrepancies of evangelists only dis- 
prove collusion, 82 

between evangelical narratives, how 

they arise, 82 

in Gospels, compared to diversities in 

stereoscopic pictures, 83 

Bartlett's illustration of,... 108 

Disobedience, not excused by f orgetf ul- 

ness,..- 289 

* Disobedience ' often substituted in 

R. V. for ' unbelief ' of A. V., 467 

Disobedience to Christ's commands, a 
ground of exclusion from Lord's 

Supper, 549 

Dispositions, predominate in lists of 
'works of flesh' and 'fruits of Spirit,' 285 
and states, regarded as virtuous or 

vicious by mankind, 285 

evil, the stronger they are, the more 

they are condemned, .... 285 

evil, condemned, though not trace- 
able to conscious acts of individual, 285 



Dispositions, not parts of, but effects 

of, will,. 288 

Disputed books, the value of the gener- 
al testimony to their profitableness, 112 
Dissipation of energy, modern views of, 

discredit deism,... 205 

Distinction between 'Scripture' and 

'Scriptures,' 60 

Distinctions in the divine nature may 
furnish conditions of consciousness 

from eternity, 57 

Divine will not ground of moral obli- 
gation, 142 

Divorce permitted by Moses, 108 

Docetae, derivation of name, 361 

their doctrines, 361 

their fundamental error, the inherent 

evil of matter, 361 

include Patripassians and Sabel- 

lians, 361 

pantheistic, 361 

Docetism, its early appearance owing 
to the superhuman impression of 
himself communicated by Christ,.. 361 

Doctor angelicus, 53 

Doctor subtilis, 23 

Doctrinal sermon recommended, once 

a month, 11 

one-third of it should be devoted to 

practical application, 11 

Doctrine, correct, advantageous to 

church, 10 

its history a subordinate source of 

theology, 17 

its inexplicable side, 18 

Documentary evidence, principles of, 

as applied to New Testament, 69 

of greater weight than oral testi m ony , 70 

Doddridge's dream, 227 

Dodge, E., on the tree and the command 

both ' central,' 306 

Doederlein, 24 

Dogmatic system implied in revelation, 9 

Dogmatic theology, what ? 22 

Dogmatism, what?. 22 

Dollinger on tbe Baptists being unas- 
sailable from Protestant point of 

view, 523 

Domine, quousque ? Calvin's motto, — 569 

Donum supernatural^, what ? 266 

Dorner on knowledge of God, 6 

on space and time as earlier than God, 130 
his account of Philo's doctrine of Lo- 
gos, 154 

on being power not belonging to im- 
personality, 156 

on a Trinity of nature, 159 

on divine personality, 160 

on intercommunion between persons 

of the Trinity, 161 

on n-pds in John 1 : 1, 163 

on impossibility of an infinite or eter- 
nal creation, 191 



I2TDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



633 



Dorner, on creation as opposed to pan- 
theism and deism, 201 

on creation and preservation, 202 

on rest of God, 202 

on 'law of preservation,'. 203 

on the world as dependent, 203 

on quietism,.. 219 

his view of creatianism, 251 

is his view of the natures in Christ 

pantheistic? 274 

onlawnot aplastic word, - 2^2 

on self-affirmation and self -surrender 

coordinate elements of sin, 293 

his exposition of Pelagianism, 311 

on race-responsibility, 313 

on Arminianism, ._ ...316, 442 

on Augustine's view of men's relation 

to Adam... - 329 

on Ex. 20 : 5,. 337 

his idea that sin against Holy Ghost is 
confined to Xew Testament times,-- 350 

on Arianism, 362 

on the oiigin of Mariolatry. saint- 
invocation and transubstantiation, 363 
on Christ's birth as illustrated by par- 
thenogenesis in natural science, 365 

on Christ's incarnation corresponding 

to believer 's regeneration, 365 

on Mary, the saints, and transubstan- 
tiation, taking place of Christ, 368 

on three ideas in incarnation, 370 

on Gess's view of the person of Christ, 372 
his view of the union of the divine 

and human in Christ, 373 

on marriage as a type of humanity 

and divinity in Christ, 376 

on the Son's will as mediator, 379 

on perpetuity of incarnation, 380 

on origin of Apollinarism, 381 

his view of ubiquity of Christ's hu- 
man body, 386 

on Mat. 20 : 28, 393 

on modified moral-influence theory,.. 402 

on acceptilatio, 404 

on Irving's views, 406 

on Christ's entering into our guilt- 
laden life as one belonging to it, 415 

on men's after-influence (after death), 
as distinguished from Christ's after- 
activity, 424 

on intermediacy of Holy Spirit,. 437 

on man's causality in regeneration,.. 451 

on God's act initiating action, 461 

on faith, ....467,468 

on Romanist doctrine of justification, 481 

on the doctrine of the church, 497 

on Christ's keeping Supper anew with 

us, 542 

on Romanist view of Lord's Supper,. 544 
on cessation of reproduction in fu- 
ture, 554 

on future relations of spirit and na- 
ture, 554 



Dorner on art in the future state, 554 

on the character of thought in the in- 
termediate state, 566 

on probation ending at judgment 566 

his view of Christ's second coming. .. 574 
on the absence of naked spiritualism 

in New Testament, 577 

his view of identity in the resurrec- 
tion, 579 

on the idea of judgment as involved 

in Christianity,. 582 

on soul's freedom in heaven founded 

on love-energy, 586 

on character of matter in new crea- 
tion, 586 

On dissolution of sinful soul into 

nothing,. 589 

on punishment as something more 

than a means of amendment,. 597 

Dort, Canons of, 324 

Synod of, adopts sublapsarianism 426 

Douay version, its unwarrantable alter- 
ation of tense in Mat. 26 : 28, 543 

Double sense of prophecy, 68 

Doxologies supposed by Meyer to be 

post-apostolic, 146 

Draper on comets 589 

'Dropping' of names from church- 
list improper,. 516 

Drummond on the word 'supernat- 
ural,' 14 

on Romanism, 18 

on mystery, 18 

on the visible created from invisible, 184 
on reversion to wild type as an illus- 
tration of spiritual degeneration, . . 350 

on embryology of new life, 446 

on the absence of abiogenesis in the 

spiritual world, 450 

on humaneness of sudden conversion, 459 
on natural man passing from life to 

death, 485 

on growing when in conditions of 

growth, 486 

Drunkard, is there a physical miracle 

wrought for him in regeneration ':.. 446 
Drunkard's children presumptively 

drunkards? 537 

Dryden's translation of Ovid quoted,.. 267 

Dualism, two forms of, 186 

first form, two self-existent princi- 
ples, 186 

objections to this view, 187 

second form, an evil and a good spirit, 188 

refutation of this view, 188 

Gnostic, holding matter to be evil, 

denied resurrection, 577 

Duality in Godhead, prevented by a 

third principle of unit}-, 163 

Ducit quemque volupta*, 142 

Duns Scotus, 23 

on origin of truth,. 126 

on ground of moral obligation, 142 



634 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Duties, all our, not disclosed in revela- 
tion, 280 

Dwight, Timothy, 26 

on foundation of virtue, 142 

his views on will, 319 

his form of the New School theory,., 319 
on every sinner condemned for every 
sin, though his sins continue for- 
ever, 596 

Dynamical theory of inspiration, 102 

holds inspiration to be supernatural,. 102 
holds written Scriptures to be in- 
spired, 102 

Dynamical theory of inspiration, holds 

a human and a divine element, 102 

Earth to be purified by fire, 586 

Ebionism, Judaism within Christian 

church, 360 

its radical misconception that God 
and man are necessarily external to 

each other, 361 

does away with worship of Christ and 

his mediatorship, 361 

Ebionites, derivation of their name, 360, 361 
their views of Christ's relation to 

divinity, 360 

their origin, 361 

Ebionitic view of Christ involved in 

Pelagianism, 312 

Ebony - tree, illustration from, 294 

Ebrard, 25 

his definition of G-od, 29 

his comparison of trivialities of 
Scripture to hairs and nails of body, 104 

on life-movement of Godhead,. 163 

his ' metaphysical generation ' of the 

soul, 251 

his view of humanity of Christ, 370 

on signification of baptism, 415 

his view of baptism,. 530 

on spirit as master of matter in resur- 
rection, 580 

Eccles, K. K., on originality, 19 

on capitalizing the words ' God ' and 

'I,' 47 

Ecclesiastes, its character, 113 

Ecclesiology, 494-553 

founded on union with Christ, 446 

Eden, its characteristics suitable to in- 
fantile and innocent man, 302 

Edersheim on congregational govern- 
ment in synagogue, 503 

on proselyte-baptism in time of Hillel 

and Shammai, 521 

Education, divine, includes impersonal 

law and personal dependence, 216 

Edwards, Jonathan, 26 

tended to idealism, 26,206 

his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 142 

on Son's being not inferior to Father, 166 
he, Alexander, and Charles Hodge, 
wrong in views of will, 178 



Edwards, Jonathan, on the sense in 

which God is the author of sin, 180 

his views of continuous creation,. 205, 318 

on personal identity, 206 

on ' that which truly is the substance 

of all bodies,' 206 

on ' the heart ' an element in guilt, ... 285 
on the infinite wickedness of the hu- 
man heart, 287 

on the affections as modes of exer- 
cise of the will, 288 

on original sin, 309 

his doctrine of man's identity with 

Adam,.. 318 

admitted a Placean element, 318 

not a traducianist, 318 

his philosophical opinions, 318 

a Berkeleyan, 318 

his position as to relation between 

race and Adam, 323 

do certain passages from, favor the 

theory of mediate imputation ? 327 

rather favor the theory of natural 

headship of Adam, 328 

on the two things which make Christ's 
sufferings a satisfaction for human 

guilt, 410 

does not assert Christ's endurance of 

penalty itself , 410 

on justification as entrance into com- 
munion with Christ, 445, 479 

on union with Christ,. 447 

on a speculative contemplation of 
divine things as inoperative to ex- 
cite holy affections, 452 

on faith, 466 

on witness of Spirit, 469 

on faith justifying, 480 

his style of address in the sermon 
' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 

God,' examined, 588 

Edwards the younger, on succession in 

the divine mind, 131 

'Effect must have cause,' an identical 

proposition, 40 

Efficacious call, its nature, 436 

Efficient cause, 23 

Efficient causes preceded by final 

causes, 43 

' Effulgence,' its significance, 162 

Ego, the cognition of it logically pre- 
cedes that of the non-ego, 57 

liveable before thinkable, 57 

Egypt, date of old empire of, 107 

Egyptian, language, old, connecting 
link between Semitic and Indo- 
European, 240 

notion of blessedness of future life 
dependent on preservation of the 

body, 561 

idea of permanent union of soul and 

body, 580 

Egyptians, how they represented God,. 134 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



635 



Egyptians, their trinity, 170 

had they the idea of absolute crea- 
tion? - 185 

possessed a knowledge of future state, 561 
Egyptology, an illustration of revela- 
tion, 8 

' Einzige, der,' every man is, 171 

'Elder' connotes 'rank,' 509 

Eldership, plural, in certain New Tes- 
tament churches,. - 510 

in some cases necessary, . 510 

not required in every case, 510 

in some cases impossible, 510 

advocates of, list of, - 510 

Elect and non-elect to be preached to,. 434 
Election, its relation to God's decrees,. 172 
Election, logically subsequent to re- 
demption, 426 

particular, regards not atonement but 

special influences of Spirit, 427 

doctrine of, . - 427-434 

its proof from Scripture, 427 

its reasons in the sovereign will and 

mercy of God, , 427 

particular, arrangement of proof 

texts, 428 

refuting the Lutheran view of , 430 

refuting the Arminian view of, 430 

its proof from reason, 430 

proceeds, not upon foreseen faith, 

but upon foreseen unbelief, 430 

stated in its simplest form, 431 

secures for an objective redemption 
its result in subjective salvation,... 431 

objections to doctrine of, 431 

not unjust to those not included in 

it,.. 431 

does not represent God as partial, 432 

does not represent God as arbitrary,. 432 
founded on reasons, though reasons 

unknown to us, 432 

does not tend to immorality, 432 

held by some whom it does not hold,. 433 

does not inspire pride, 433 

does not discourage the sinner in his 

efforts after salvation, 433 

does not discourage efforts for the 

salvation of the impenitent,... 433 

God's, does not exclude man's, 433 

decree of, wherein different from de- 
cree of reprobation,. 434 

general subject of, list of authors on, 434 
Electric light, dark against the sun, 

illustration from, 278 

Elemental law approximately revealed 

in special injunctions,. 280 

Elijah, translation of, a proof of future 

state, 353,561 ' 

John the Baptist as. 573 

Eliot, George, exaggerates heredity, . . . 251 

has no heroes, 297 

on justice being within, as a great 
yearning, 417 



Eliot, George, on reward of one duty 

being power to do another, 485 

Elizabeth, Queen, her gift of ring to 

Earl of Essex, 475 

immersed, 525 

Ellicott, a grammatical commentator,. 18 

a trichotomist, __ 245 

on meaning of ' heretic ' in Paul, 549 

Elliott, on antichrist, 570 

a continuous, or continuist, inter- 
preter of Revelation, 570 

his scheme of the Revelation, 570 

on temporal power of Papacy, 571 

his four chief signs of Christ's ap- 
proach, 571 

errors in his scheme of apocalyptic 

interpretation, 571 

on Christ's investiture with and act- 
ual assumption of kingdom, 573 

Ellis, on God the way to himself, 169 

Elohim, its use in Old Testament, 152 

is it analogous to Baalim? 152 

not a collective term, 152 

used of the Son,.. 152 

list of Fathers who saw in such plural 
forms an allusion to the Trinity,... 153 

Emanation, the doctrine of, 189 

objections to,.. 189 

derivation of the word, 189 

and generation, difference between,.. 189 
Emancipation, President's Proclama- 
tion of, feeling of country at, 214 

Emerson, G. H., defence of restoration- 
ism, 590 

on the notion of moral opportunity 

permanently closed, 591 

Emerson, R. W., on faith, 3 

on impossibility of freeing ourselves 

from God, 69 

on goodness with an edge, 140, 293 

on the fulfillment of God's will, 220 

heredity in the case of , 253 

his view of sin, 291 

his view of Jesus, 291 

his view of man's ' I can,' in reply to 

duty's 'Thou must,' 344 

on dying for truth, 399 

Emmons, Nathaniel, 26 

on continuous creation, 205 

on annihilation of infants, 320 

on our relation to Adam's sin, 323 

Emotional element in faith, 465 

Emotions, becoming strong become 

conscious, 469 

Empirical theory of morals, truth in, . . 256 

reconciled with intuitional, 256 

Encratites deny to women the image of 

God, 268 

Endor, woman of, 561 

'Enemies,' in Rom. 5 : 10, what ? 392 

Energy, dissipation of, 184 

Enghis skull, the, as large as that of a 
modern philosopher, 236 



636 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Enmity to God in its relation to sin, 293 

Enmity of sinner is against God, not 

merely against truth, .. 452 

Enoch, Apocryphal book of, 80 

Enoch, translation of, a proof of future 

state,. 353,561 

" Enthusiasm of humanity," the prob- 
lem, how to produce it? 450 

Environment and organism corre- 
lated, 596 

Environment in future state, suited to 

character, 587 

Environment, variety of, progress de- 
pendent on, 211 

Eophyte must in nature of things pre- 
cede Eozoon, 194 

Eozoon implies previous existence of 

Eophyte, 194 

Epictetus, his view of morality, 88 

on the gods' governing the world, 211 

Epicureanism, 88 

Epicurus, his materialism, 52 

his view of morality, . 88 

maxims,.. __ 142 

Episcopius, 25, 314 

Equivalency and identity, as to Christ's 

sufferings, 420 

Error, modern forms of, and heathen 
systems, indicate a superhuman in- 
telligence organizing against God, . . 229 
Errors, of Scripture, alleged, in science, 105 

alleged, in history, 107 

alleged, in morality, 108 

alleged, of reasoning, 109 

of N. T., alleged, in quoting or inter- 
preting the O. T., 110 

alleged, in prophecy, Ill 

Eschatology,.. 554-600 

authors on, 554 

Esprit gele, Schelling's matter, 189 

Essence, its synonyms, 115 

Essence of sin, views of Augustine, 
Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Kreibig, 

and others, - 293 

Essenes, the, 89 

Esther, book of, reverenced next to 

Pentateuch by the Jews, 112 

no mention of divine name in, 147 

'Eternal sin, an,' 587,595 

Eternity, of matter, held by many ante- 
Christian and Christian philoso- 
phers, 40 

infinity in relation to time, 130 

attributed to Christ, 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit, 151 

Ethica of Spinoza worthless, on morals, 

as Euclid's Elements, 56 

Ethics, conditioned by a capacity and 

love for the morally right, 3 

Christian, and Christian faith indis- 

solubly united, 340 

Eucharist, the Romanist view of tran- 
substantiation, 543 



Eucharist, the Lutheran and High 

Church view of consubstantiation, 545 
Eugene Aram, Bulwer's, referred to,.. 346 

Eutaxioiogy, 42 

Eutychians, their views, 363 

condemned at Chalcedon, 362 

called Monophysites, 362 

an Alexandrian school, 363 

denied any real becoming man on 

part of Logos, .. 363 

and by consequence, atonement, 363 

and the possibility of any real union 

of man with God, 363 

their tertium quid, formed by union 
of the divine and human in Christ, 

illustrated, 363 

Evangelists, independent witnesses, 82 

Evans on two stages of the humiliation, 384 

on ' the penumbra of hell,' 564 

Eve, and man's original state, 268, 269 

what the name implies,. 365 

Event or change, every, has a cause,... 40 
Events, great, arising from trifles, in- 
stances of, 213 

not left by divine Being to chance or 

human will,. 175 

Evidence, principles of, as applied to 

divine revelation, 69 

competent, what? 70 

satisfactory, what ? 70 

Evil, divine agency regarding, merely 

permissive, 172 

if permitted now, may be permitted 

forever, 598 

Evolution, not inconsistent with design, 43 
of universe, requires matter to be 

moved from without, 52 

implies preceding involution, 191, 193 

man not a product of, 234-238 

Exaltation of Christ, in what it consists, 384 

its stages, 385 

Examination of Liddon, 150 

Example, Christ did not simply set, 399 

Example theory of atonement, 397 

objections to, 398 

Examples of priority logical yet not 

chronological, 437 

Exclusion, form of church's resolution 

in case of, 517 

of members who have failed to com- 
municate with the church, 517 

instant, in what cases required, 516 

Exegesis based on trustworthiness of 

verbal vehicle of Scripture,.. 104 

Exercise-system of Emmons, 26, 319, 456 

an outgrowth of Edwards' idealism,.. 206 
as applied to regeneration, to be re- 
jected, 455 

Exile, time of, not favorable to the con- 
struction of a costly ceremonial,... 81 

the, its effect upon the Hebrews, 360 

Existence of God, doctrine of, 29-57 

origin of our idea of, 29 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



637 



Existence of God, a first truth, 29, 31 

knowledge of, universal, 31 

knowledge of, necessary, - 32 

knowledge of, logically independent 

and prior, 33 

presupposed in all other knowledge,. 33 
makes mental processes trustworthy, 33 

assumed in belief in final cause, 33 

incapable of logical demonstration,.. 34 
presupposed in logical demonstration, 36 

corroborative evidences of, 39 

cosmological argument for, 40 

teleogical argument for, 42 

anthropological argu ment for, 45 

ontological argument for, 47 

an Irypothesis necessary to account 

for universe, 50 

erroneous explanations of facts re- 
garding, 51 

Ex nihilo nihil fit, in what sense true?.. 187 
Experience, Christian, its relation to 

Scripture, 15 

Christian, recognizes Christ's God- 
head, 368 

Experience, derivation of word, - . 15 

not a source of the idea of God, 34 

its meaning, according to Locke, 35 

Expiation, and reparation, the demand 

of true penitence,. 418 

representative, recognized among 

Greeks, 394 

Explanations, erroneous, of facts of 

universe, .. 51 

Expositors of spirituality of decalogue, 

list of, 280 

Extent of the atonement, __ % . ._ 421 

Exterminating war, in case of Canaan- 

ites, a benevolent surgery, 109 

External revelation does not communi- 
cate idea of God's existence, 34 

Externality of spirit and nature to each 
other in future giving way to a per- 
fect internal existence, Dorner on, . 554 
Ezra, Old Testament probably collected 

in his time, 80 

Facing-both-ways, man a Mr ? 243 

Fact local, truth universal, 113 

Facts not to be set aside because their 

relations are obscure, 19 

Facts of science useful, though beyond 

full understanding, 19 

Faculties, man's three mental, 254 

Fairbairn on Koran, 89 

Fairchild on nature of virtue, 142 

Faith, a prerequisite in physical sci- 
ence, 2 

a higher knowledge 2, 3 

unverifiable certitude, 2, 3 

Christian, defined, 3 

synthesis of intellect and will, 3 

different from opinion or imagination, 3 

'unverified reason,' 3 

not blind, 3 



Faith, conditioned by holy affection, ... 3 
a work, according to Wesleyanism, . . . 317 
in a truth, possible in spite of insolu- 
ble difficulties,. 335 

does not save, but atonement which 

faith accepts, 421 

the gift of God, 430 

and salvation, analogous to prayer 

and its answer,.. 431 

union with Christ involves, 445 

an element in conversion, 460 

true, involves repentance, 464 

and repentance, different aspects of 

same act, 464 

its constituents, 465 

the intellectual element in, 465 

the emotional element in,. 465 

the voluntary element in, __. 465 

constituents in, illustrated, 465 

not purely intellectual, - 466 

distinguished from assurance, 466 

phrases descriptive of,. 466 

agivingas well as a taking, 466 

Romanist view of, 466 

Luther on, 466 

Edwards on, - 466 

an act of the affections and will, 466 

not destitute of moral quality, 466 

not chronologically subsequent to re- 
generation, - 467 

saving, its object, 467 

presonal trust in a pei'sonal Christ, ... 467 

possible to a child, 467 

penitent reliance on God as Savior, . . 468 

its ground, 468 

possible without assurance, 468 

distinguishable from feeling or joy,.. 469 

and feeling, illustrated, 469 

leads to good works, 469 

good works its evidence, 469 

not to be confounded with love or 

obedience, 469 

in what sense a 'work,' 469 

unconscious undeveloped tendency 

towards God precedes it, 470 

conscious and developed love to God 

follows it, 470 

instrumental cause of salvation, 470 

susceptible of increase, 470 

justifies, why rather than other 

graces? - 480 

Wesleyan scheme inclined to make it 

a work, 481 

its relation to justification, 481 

not, with the work of Christ, a joint 

cause of justification,.. 481 

Puritan doctrine of, 482 

sanctification by, 486 

Faithfulness, God's attribute of, 137 

secures fulfillment of promises, 137 

Fall, the, Scriptural account of, 302 

not mythical or allegorical, but his- 
torical, 302 



638 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Pall, the temptation and the resulting, 302 

man's, inward, before outward, 303 

difficulties connected with, , . 304 

of a holy being-, its possibility, 304 

recovery from, not in man's power,. 304 

Adam's, psychologically unique, 305 

H. B. Smith's view of, criticized, 305 

how could God permit temptation 

which led to, 305 

God's permission of temptation which 

led thereto, benevolent, 305 

evil objectified therein, an advantage, 305 
the greatness of the penalty and the 

slightness of the command, 306 

the divine command not arbitrary or 

insignificant, 306 

the act of disobedience the revelation 

of a corrupt will, 306 

its consequences in respect to Adam, 306 
physical death a consequence to Adam 

of his sin, 306 

its consequent death began in our 

first parents at once, 307 

man's existence continued, why ? 307 

spiritual death a consequence to 

Adam of his sin, 307 

involved positive and formal exclu- 
sion from God's presence, 307 

the, of human nature, could take 

place only in Adam,.. 335 

has weakened man's faculties, 343 

has given every faculty a bent away 

from God,.. 343 

Fallen condition of man, according to 

Romanist view, 266 

according to Protestant view, 266 

Falsehood, what? 293 

False religions, caricatures of the true, 13 
Farrar, denies existence of evil angels, 229 

on entrance of sin, 304 

Fatalism, 211 

contradicts consciousness, 211 

exalts divine power at expense of 

other attributes, 211 

inconsistent with personality and 

freedom of God, 212 

makes necessity the only God, 212 

list of authors on,. 212 

Fate and decrees differ, 178 

Father, the, recognized as God, 145 

and Son distinct persons, 155 

and Son distinct persons from Spirit, 155 
officially first, Son second, and Spirit 

third, 166 

'Father,' how employed for whole 

Godhead, 161 

its import in the Trinity, 161 

'our,' its import, 162 

Fatherhood of God, common, texts re- 
ferring to,.... 238 

special, texts referring to, 238 

relation of the common to the special, 238 
list of authors on, 238 



Fathers, their chronology, 106 

list of those who saw in plural terms 
applied to God in O. T. a reference 

to the Trinity, 153 

Faust, Goethe's, criticism upon in Lon- 
don Spectator, 291 

Favor, divine, restoration to rests on 

righteousness of Christ, 476 

Federal theology, 23, 24 

method of theology, 27 

theory of imputation, _ 322 

its rise, 323 

and Augustinian, compared, 323 

not ' immemorial doctrine of church 

of God,' 323 

its order, 324 

objections to, 324 

extra-scriptural, 324 

contradicts Scripture, 324 

impugns justice of God, 324 

men according to it are created sin- 
ners, 325 

Feeling, reasons for, required by a re- 
fined and reflective age, 10 

alone, is valueless, 12 

has logical priority in religion, 12 

Feelings have the same place in theolo- 
gy as in ethics or psychology, 8 

Felix of Urgella, 405 

Fellowship, Christian, distinguished 

from church fellowship, 552 

Fetich worship, 31 

never practised by Indo-Germanic or 

Semitic stocks, 272 

Fetichism, its nature,. 272 

Feuerbach, his view of religion, _ 8 

hisviewof God,... 46 

a materialist, 51 

Fichte, on being born in faith, 3 

on our opinion being the history of 

our hearts, 21 

on learning unbelief , 65 

on creation,. 200 

on the birthday of his child, 234 

Fiction, the truest, has no heroes, 297 

Final cause, 23, 29, 33, 34 

intuitive belief in, presupposed in in- 
duction and argument, 42 

Hicks's criticism upon, 42 

Final things, doctrine of, 554-600 

Finality a primitive conviction, 42 

immanent and unconscious, illustra- 
tions of, 44 

Finite suggests the Infinite, 32 

Finney, Charles G., 26 

on Song of Solomon, 112 

on God in relation to himself and in 

relation to finite beings, 131 

on nature of virtue, 142 

on God's foreknowing who would be 

saved, 430 

his view of efficient cause in regener- 
ation, 452 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



639 



Finney, C. G., disclaims expectation of 

attaining- sanctification unaided,... 489 
Fire, eternal, final state of wicked in... 587 
Fire from heaven, Elijah and Jesus in 

relation to,... - - 108 

Firmilianus mentions 2 Peter, 76 

First parents, God's treatment of, be- 
nevolent, -. 308 

First truths, in general, 30 

their nature, 30 

their criteria, 31 

universality of, 31 

necessity of, - 31 

logical independence of,... 31 

priority of, 31 

simple and irresolvable, 31 

denied, 31 

the existence of God a, 31 

Fish, his analogy of the church's life,.. 502 
on Stephen as both elder and deacon, 512 
Fisher, on the constitution of man's 
mind compelling him to believe in 

an absolute and infinite being, 32 

on self-determination, 259 

on Augustinian and Federal theories, 323 

on the Federal theory, 325 

onPlaceus' views,. 326 

Fishes, the first, ganoids of an advanced 

type, 236 

Fiske, John, views of sin, 290 

on the illegitimate hypotheses of both 

poet and materialist, 555 

Fitch on a divine purpose which is not 

an efficient purpose, 179 

Fleming quoted on k innate ideas,' 30 

on 'moral laws,' 277 

Flesh, its meaning, 290 

the, how a help in the conflict with 

sin, 305 

as applied to Christ, means 'human 

nature,' 364 

Flint, Austin, on spontaneous genera- 
tion, 191 

Flint, Robert, his inferential method of 

reaching idea of God, 36 

Foeticide, murder... 253 

'Fold,' none under new dispensation,.. 446 

Fons Trinitatis, the Father is, 165 

Force, if known, then God knowD, 5 

the possibility of a force distinguish- 
able from the divine, 55 

in modern philosophy, God minus 

moral attributes, 125 

its continuous existence dependent 

on sustaining agency of divine will, 203 
identification of with will, erroneous, 203 
identification with divine will, list of 

advocates of, 203 

super cuncta, suhtcr cuncta, 204 

Forces and laws in nature may be tran- 
scended by higher, 62 

Forces of universe, deism fails to ac- 
count for, 204 



Foreknowledge of God, as to free acts, 

mediate or immediate ? 1&5 

divine, of the future, implies its fixity 

by decree, 173 

includes all actions future, 174 

of free human actions, denied by 

some, 174 

divine, does it rest on motives or is it 

intuitive? 135, 175, 178 

of individual, Scripture statements of, 42.^ 
as distinguished from foreordination, 429 
Forgery, theory of, cannot account for 
internal characteristics of Christian 

documents, 81 

Forgetf ulness no excuse for disobedi- 
ence, 289 

Forgiveness, view of its impossibility 

disputed, 282 

cannot be granted unconditionally by 

public bodies, 418 

optional with God, since he himself 

makes satisfaction, 418 

human, accorded without atonement, 

may not divine? 463 

an element in justification, 474 

none in nature, 474 

not the ree'stablishment of health, 

but crisis of convalescence, 484 

Foreordination, its nature, 172 

the basis of foreknowledge 173 

distinguished from foreknowledge, . . 429 

Foresight , il lustrations of, 182 

Formal freedom, what? ..177,317 

Forms of thought, are facts of nature, 6 

external to the mind, 6 

Formula of Concord, Lutheran, on will 

in conversion, 436 

on God himself dwelling in believers, 442 
Forrest, Edwin, his repudiation of con- 
version, 298 

1 Forty and two months,' .._ 571 

Forster, "W. E., on annihilation, .557 

Foster, John, on gathering questions 

for eternity, 19 

on miracles the great bell of the uni- 
verse, 65 

Fourth Gospel, its genuineness, 75 

Francis, St., of Assisi, his preaching to 

birds, 555 

Free acts known to God, 134 

Free agency defined, 176 

can coexist with certainty,. 176 

Free creatures, their actions immedi- 
ately known to God, 134 

Freedom, four senses of the word, 177 

physical, what? 177 

formal, what? 177, 317 

moral, what ? 177 

real, what? 177, 317 

its most exaggerated view not incon- 
sistent with the doctrine of the 

decrees, 177 

of indifference, 178 



640 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Freedom, certain remnants left to 

man, 258, 342 

Miiller on formal, 317 

of choice within certain limits, not 
incompatible with complete bond- 
age of will, -.- - 344 

formal, distinguished from real, 345 

Freer on Christ's birth, 406 

French fleet dispersed by storm in an- 
swer to prayer, 213 

Frere, Sir Bartle, on the influence of a 

Gospel in a Deccan village, 468 

Freundlos war der grosse Weltenmeister, 190 
Friends, shall we know our, in heaven ? 585 

Froude, on history no science, 218 

his opinion of Carlyle, 291 

Fuller, Andrew, 25 

his definition of God,. 29 

his doubt as to value of arguments 

for God's existence, 39 

on union with Christ, 447 

Fursehung, an aspect of providence, ... 208 
Future action of a man may become 

certain, though not necessary, 258 

Future condition of men, stages in, 554 

Future life, Jewish belief in, 561 

knowledge of, possessed by Egyptians, 561 
proved by translation of Enoch and 

Elijah, 561 

by invocations of the dead, 561 

by allusions to, in Old Testament, 561 

Philo and Josephus declare Jewish 

faith in, 561 

New Testament declarations of Jew- 
ish faith in, 561 

why probably not made more promi- 
nent by Moses,. 561 

how taught by Christ, 562 

resurrection of Christ, chief proof of, 562 
Future prefigured in rites and ordi- 
nances, 68 

Future retribution, allusions to, in Old 

Testament, 561 

Futurist, interpretation of Revelation, 68 

interpreters of Revelation, 570 

Galton's view of piety, 46 

Ganoids, the first geologic fishes, 236 

Garden of Eden, banishment from, 308 

Gassendi, his view of ground of moral 

obligation, 141 

on God, as author of form, not sub- 
stance, 183 

Gear's analogy of Trinity, _ 167 

Geddie, Dr. John, his epitaph, 501 

Gehazi, his children visited for his 

sins, 338 

GemacMe, das, sin is, 292 

Genealogies, of Scripture, considered, . 106 

of evangelists, 108 

of Matthew and Luke, how perhaps 

differentiated, 364 

Generation, consistent with equality in 
Trinity 164 



Generation, as applied to the Son, but 

an approximate expression, 165 

Generation, spontaneous,... 191 

unverified, 191 

does not require denial of creation,.. 191 
Genesis, first chapter of, its power of 

adjusting itself to science, 106 

incorporates documents of earlier 

times, 112 

'Genius for religion,' useless without 

special divine aid, 60 

Genius, its inward impulse not inspira- 
tion, 98 

Gentiles, judged not by gospel but by 

law of nature, 590 

Genuineness, of the Christian docu- 
ments,. 72 

meaning of the term, 72 

of New Testament, 72 

of Second Peter, 73 

only allowed, in early church, after 

careful examination, 74 

of fourth Gospel, 75 

the only hypothesis which explains 
the early reception of New Testa- 
ment documents, 76 

Genus apotelesmaticum, 370 

idiomaticum, 370 

tapeinoticon, 370 

majestaticum, 370 

the last denied by the Reformed 

church, 370 

Geographical position of Lutheran and 

Reformed religion, 24 

Geologic history arranged to corre- 
spond with foreseen fact of human 

apostasy, 352 

Gerhard, John, his idea of faith, 3 

his position in theology, 24 

his view of the Lord's Supper, 545 

Gesetz, its derivation, 273 

Gess, inaccurate view of the humanity 

of Christ, 370 

1 Get religion, ' is the phrase correct ? . . . 12 
Gethsemane, scene of Satan's appeal to 

the fears of our Savior, 366 

its teaching, 399 

Gewordene, das, sin not, 292 

Gibbon, his enumeration of secondary 
causes favorable to spread of Chris- 
tianity, 93 

was his impulse inspiration ? 98 

on transubstantiation, 544 

Gifford, O. P., on the man who on 
proper occasion shows no knowl- 
edge of God, being not man but 

brute, 33 

on salvation from, not by, character,. 477 
on God's purpose to make the Chris- 
tian both safe and sound, 484 

Gift of individuals by Father to Son, 

proofs of, 429 

GiihJohn, 25 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



641 



Gillespie's statement of the ontological 

argument, 48 

Calderwood's criticism upon, 48 

Given, ' grace and truth ' are simply,. . . 50 
Glory, final state of righteous one of,.. 585 

God's, his end in creation, - 196 

God's, the only end actually attained 

in the universe, ._ 196 

the end most intrinsically valuable, . - 196 
the only end consistent with God's 

independence, . 197 

comprehends and secures every in- 
terest of the universe, 197 

the end proposed to the creature, 198 

' Glorify,' cannot always be understood 

subjectively, 477 

Gnostic Ebionism, its doctrines, 360 

Gnostics, alluded to, 12 

Alexandrian, their views of creation, 186 
their doctrine, according to Light- 
foot, 187 

Syrian, held to emanation, 189 I 

their view of man's trvev^a, 247 | 

God, t heology the science of, 1 

though apprehended by faith, a sub- 
ject for science, 2 

capacity of human mind for know- 
ing, 4 

though not phenomenal, known, 4 

not all predicates of him are negative, 6 
definable by certain positive predi- 
cates, 6 

in what sense 'absolute,' 6 

in what sense 'infinite,' 6 

in what sense limited, 6 ! 

limited by his unchangeableness and 

personal distinctions, 6 

his internal limitation is perfection,.. 6 
self-limited by his self-chosen rela- 
tions to universe, 

his power thus to limit self, essential 

to perf ection, 

his self -revelation renders theological 

science possible, 

has revealed himself in nature, 14 

' made me,' in what sense we say it, . . 15 

not the soul of the universe, 20 

•God, the existence of, 29-57 

origin of our idea of, 29 

definitions of, 29 

his existence a first truth, or rational 

intuition, 29 

it conditions all reasoning, and rises 
into consciousness on reflection 
upon phenomena of nature and 

mind, 29 

knowledge of his existence uni- 
versal, 31, 32 , 

knowledge of his existence neces- 
sary, 32,33 

knowledge of his existence logically 
independent and prior to all other 

knowledge, 33 

41 



. 



God, existence of, other supposed 

sources of our idea of, 34 

idea of, not from external revelation, 34 

not from tradition, 34 

idea of, not from experience, 34 

not from sense-perception and reflec- 
tion, ._ 34,35 

not a race-experience, 34, 35 

not a matter of mere f eeling, 35 

idea of, does not arise from reasoning, 35 
faith in his existence not propor- 
tioned to strength of reasoning fac- 
ulty, 35 

what we know of, not limited to the 

conclusions of reasoning, 36 

idea of, not derived from inference, . . 36 
unlike idea of existence of our fellow 

men, 36 

intuition of, its contents, 37 

what he is, men to some extent know, 37 

what is intuitively known of him, 37 

presentative intuition of, not impos- 
sible, 37 

only a rational intuition of, here 

claimed, 37 

intuition of him neither progressive 

nor complex, 37 

his existence not proved but assumed 

and declared in Scripture, 37 

existence of, evidence inlaid in very 

nature of man,. 37 

knowledge of him, though intuitive, 
capable of explication and corrobo- 
ration, 39 

conception of him most rational ex- 
planation of the fact of the uni- 
verse, 39 

Fuller's doubt whether arguments 
about his existence had not made 

more sceptics than believers, 39 

Cosmological argument for his exist- 
ence, .- 40 

its proper statement, 40 

its defects, 40,41 

its value, 41 

Teleological argument for his exist- 
ence, 43 

its nature, 42, 43 

its defects, - 44 

its value, 44, 45 

Anthropological argument for his 

existence, 45 

its nature stated in three parts, 45, 4t> 

its defects, 

its value, 

not the Brocken-shadow of man's 

self, 

Historical argument for his exist- 
ence, its value, 

Biblical argument for his existence, 

its value, 

Ontological argument for his exist- 
ence, 



642 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



God, ontological argument for his ex- 
istence, its three forms, 47, 48 

its defects, 48,49 

its value,.. — . 50 

Clarke's and Gillespie's arguments for 

his existence, 48 

a priori arguments for his existence, 

what? 48 

arguments a posteriori, what ? 48 

Descartes' argument for his existence, 48 

this an argument a posteriori, 48 

Anselm's argument for his existence, 

49, 50 

belief in him not the conclusion of a 
demonstration but the solution of a 

problem, 50 

his love and provision for the sinner 
not clearly made known in nature,. 59 
God, the nature, decrees, and works of, 

115-233 

the attributes of, 115 

his acts and words arise from settled 

dispositions, _ 115 

his dispositions inhere in a spiritual 

substance, 115 

his attributes, definition of, 115 

relation of his attributes to his es- 
sence, 116 

his attributes have an objective ex- 
istence, 116 

and are distinguishable from the di- 
vine essence and from each other,.. 116 
regarded falsely as a being of absolute 

simplicity, 116 

he is rather a being infinitely complex, 116 

nominalistic notion, its error, 116 

his attributes inhere in the divine es- 
sence, 116, 117 

he is not a compound of attributes,.. 117 

extreme realism, its danger, 117 

attributes of, belong to his essence as 

such, 117 

distinguished from personal distinc- 
tions in the Godhead, 117 

distinguished from his relations to 

the world, 117 

illustrated from intellect and will in 

man,... H7 

his attributes essential to his being, . . 117 
attributes of, manifest the divine es- 
sence, H7 

in knowing attributes of, we know 
the Being to whom attributes be- 
long, H7 

his attributes, methods of determin- 
ing, 118 

rational method of determining, 

three-fold, 118 

its ground and limitations, 118 

its history, 118 

Biblical method of determining, final 

and decisive,.. 118 

his attributes, how classified, 118 

absolute, or immanent, 118 



God, his attributes, relative, or transi- 
tive, 118 

his attributes, the absolute or imma- 
nent, a threefold division of, 119 

his attributes, the relative or transi- 
tive, a threefold division of, 119 

his attributes, schedule of, 119 

order in which they present them- 
selves to the mind,. 119 

his moral perfection involves relation 

of God to himself , 120 

his absolute or immanent attributes, 120 

his spirituality, 120 

meaning of the term, 120 

is not matter,.. 120 

is not dependent upon matter, 120 

the material universe not his senso- 

rium,... 12 

his spirituality not contradicted bv 

anthropomorphic Scriptures, 12 

pictures of him, degrading, 120 

imagination forms a picture of , 120 

desire for an incarnate, finds its sat- 
isfaction in Christ, 120 

his spirituality involves life aDd per- 
sonality, 121,122 

life, as an attribute of , 121 

has a subject,. 121 

is not correspondence with environ- 
ment, 121 

is the source within himself of move- 
ment and activity, 121 

personality, as an attribute of, 121 

meaning of pei'sonality, 121 

includes self-consciousness and self- 
determination, 121, 122 

his infinity, meaning of term, 122 

a positive idea, 122 

does not involve identity with 'the 

all,' 122 

intensive rather than extensive, 123 

his infinity enables him infinitely to 

love the single Christian, 123 

his infinity qualifies his other attri- 
butes, 123 

and constitutes the basis for the rep- 
resentations of his majesty and 

glory, 123 

his infinity involves self -existence, 

immutability, and unity, 123-12T) 

his self -existence, what ? 123 

he is causa sui, 123 

his aseity, what? 123 

exists by necessity of his own being,. 124 
his existence dependent, not on his 

volitions, but his nature, 124 

his immutability, what? 124 

his perfection inconsistent with 

change, 124 

ascription of change to, how ex- 
plained? 124 

• anthropomorphic representations of, 124 
change in his treatment often de- 
scribed as a change in himself, 124 



TNDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



643 



God, his immutability secures his adap- 
tation to the conditions of his chil- 
dren, 124 

his immutability consistent with ex- 
ecutions, in time, of his eternal pur- 
poses, 124 

his immutability is not immobility,.. 124 
but permits activity and freedom,. .. 125 

his unity, what?... - 125 

notion of more than one, self -contra- 
dictory and unphilosophical, 125 

his unity not inconsistent with the 

doctrine of the Trinity, . - 125 

his unity, its lessons, 125 

his perfection, explanation of the 

term, 125 

involves moral attributes, truth, love, 

and holiness,.. 125-130 

himself a sufficient object for his own 

activity,.. 126 

his truth, what?. 126 

his immanent truth to be distin- 
guished from veracity and faithful- 
ness, 126 

he is truth, as the truth that is known, 126 
his immanent truth foundation of all 

other truth,... 126 

his truth guarantee of revelation and 
ground of an eternal divine self- 
contemplation, 126 

his love, what? - 127 

his immanent love to be distinguished 

from mercy and goodness, - - 127 

his immanent love finds a personal 

object in his own perfection,. 127 

has infinite feeling, 127 

his immanent love a ground of the 

divine blessedness,.. - 127 

is he passible ? 127 

blessedness consistent with emotions 

of sorrow, 127, 128 

his holiness, what ? - 128 

holiness is self -affirming purity, 128 

his holiness is not justice, 128 

not the aggregate of divine perfec- 
tions, 128 

not self-love, 128 

not the manifestation of love, 129 

mercy optional with him, 129 

his holiness, its three elements, 129 

purity of substance, — 129 

energy of will,. 129 

self-affirmation, 130 

in his moral nature are both willing 

and being,. 129 

his holiness not simply a matter of 

will but also of being, 129 

in it being logically precedes willing, 129 
his unchangeableness and unchang- 

ingness, 129 

his will expresses his nature rather 

than causes it, 130 

his relative or transitive attributes,.. 130 



God, his attributes which have relation 

to time and space, 130 

his eternity, what?... 130 

not under law of time,.. 130 

not in time, but time in him,. 130 

his thoughts, no chronological succes- 
sion in, 130 

present time has an objective reality 

to, r .._. 131 

his immensity, what ? 131 

not under law of space, 131 

not in space, but space in him, 131 

yet space has an objective reality to, 131 
his attributes which have relation to 

creation, 132 

his omnipresence, what?.. 132 

not potential, but essential, 132 

dwelling in the heavens, in what sense 

ascribed to, 132 

his omnipresence, deistic and Socinian 

view of, 132 

the presence of the whole of God in 

everyplace, 132 

totus in omni parte, 133 

cannot be divided or sundered, 133 

his omnipresence not necessary but 

free, 133 

his omniscience, what ? 133 

his omniscience deducible from his 
omnipresence and self-knowledge,. 133 

his omniscience immediate, 134 

his omnipresence, Egyptian symbol 

of,. 134 

his scrutiny, its intensity, 134 

knows things as they are, 134 

foreknowledge of, covers not merely 
motives but the acts themselves of 

free creatures, '. 134 

his knowledge of contingent future 
events, Aristotle's teaching upon,.. 134 

Socinus' teachings upon, 134 

his knowledge of future acts of free 

agents, r 134 

method of his foreknowledge, 135 

his prescience not causative, 135 

his omniscience, does not embrace 
the self -contradictory and impossi- 
ble, 135 

his omniscience called in Scripture 

'wisdom,' 136 

his omnipotence, what? 136 

does not extend to that which is self- 
contradictory or contradictory to 

his own nature, 136 

has power over his power, 136 

can do all he will, not will do all he 

can, 136 

has a will-power over his nature- 
power, 136 

his omnipotence implies power of 

self -limitation,. 136 

permits human freedom, 137 

humbles itself in the incarnation, — 137 



644 



IOTEX OF SUBJECTS. 



God, his attributes which have relation 

to moral beings, 137 

his veracity and faithfulness, or 

transitive truth, 137 

they secure the consistency of his 
revelations with himself and with 

each other, 137 

the fulfillment of all promises ex- 
pressed or implied, 137 

they afford his people a sure ground 

of confidence, 137 

his mercy and goodness, or transitive 

love, 137 

his mercy, what?.. 138 

his goodness, what ? 138 

his love, its eternal and perfect ob- 
ject, his own nature, 138 

his love, how men become subordi- 
nate objects of, 138 

his justice and righteousness, or 

transitive holiness, 138 

his justice, what? 138 

his righteousness, what ? 138 

they are revelations of inmost nature 

of God, 139 

do not bestow reward, 139 

are devoid of passion and caprice, 139, 140 
their revulsion against impurity and 

selfishness, 140 

God, Trinity in, doctrine of, 144-170 

his name given to creatures in figura- 
tive and secondary sense, . _ 146 

as ' self -willing right,' . . . _> 163 

distinctions in Trinity based on this 

view, 163 

as source, origin, authority, is Father, 166 
as expression, medium, revelation, is 

Son, 166 

as apprehension, accomplishment, 

realization, is Holy Spirit, 166 

eternally lonely, a repugnant thought, 168 

decrees of, doctrine of, 171-182 

sin, how decreed by, 179 

preservation from sin afforded by, 
without violation of moral agency, 180 
God, works of, or execution of the de- 
crees, ...183-233 

not a demiurge ; he antedates matter, 192 

his plan cannot be frustrated,... 196 

his end in creation,. ..195-198 

'his own sake,' fundamental reason 

of activity in, 197 

his self-expression not selfishness, 197 

in expression of himself in universe 
communicates to his creatures ut- 
most possible good, 197 

the only being who can rightly live 

for himself, 198 

his end, certainty of its realization, 

our comfort in affliction, 198 

his rest, what? 202 

disjoins from himself certain portions 
of force, 204 



God, the perpetual observer, 205 

does not work all, but in all, 206 

represented by Hebrew writers as 

doing what he merely permits, 209 

his immutability a ground of his 

providence, 210 

his benevolence, aground of his prov- 
idence, 210 

his justice, a ground of his provi- 
dence, 211 

his agency, natural and moral distin- 
guished, 220 

knowledge of, conditioned by love,.. 264 
his nature, attributes of, other than 

holiness, set forth by gospel, 281 

dealings of the sinner are with him 

rather than with government, 404 

salvation of all, in what sense desired 

by, 435 

'God prays,'— this transcedental flight 

of Talmud fulfilled in Christ, 365 

Godet, on Logos as implying 'reason,'. 162 

on Trposin Johnl : 1, 163 

on the existence of angels antecedent- 
ly probable, 221 

on 'spirit' and 'soul,' 247 

his ' Chinese hermit,' 468 

on Christ's twofold work, 483 

Goethe, a believer in the five senses, ... 3 
on the connection between inclina- 
tion and opinion, 21 

on deception being always self-decep- 
tion, 289 

his character, 290 

on sin as a man's own shadow, 291 

on the possibility of a man's commit- 
ting any fault, 297 

on man's dependence on God, 450 

Gold-fish, as illustration of freedom,. . . 179 
Golden age, Luthardt's list of classic 

references to, 268 

Good deeds of the unregenerate man, 
their relation to the general course 

of his life illustrated, 449 

Good works, the gift of God, 430 

Goodness, definition of, 138 

Goodness involves causality and de- 
sign, 45 

Goodness of God, witness to among 

heathen, referred to in Scripture,.. 59 
Goodwin's experience of the evil dispo- 
sitions within him, 297 

Goodwin, D. R., on distinction between 

i/'uxt? and nvevfjia, 246 

on the spiritual body, 576 

Gordon, A. J., on holiness as something 
more than dead-white purity, as in- 
volving living activity, 130 

on Christ, creation's sceptre-bearer,.. 424 
on church's union with Christ on 

throne, 425 

on regeneration as a communication 
of the divine nature to man, 457 



IXDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



645 



Gordon, A. J., on the terminal lines of 

Christ's ministry, 576 

Goschel on 4/v\v, - 245 

on trichotomy as related to creatian- 
ism, - 250 

Gospel testimony conformable with ex- 
perience, 83 

its rapid progress at beginning a proof 
of its divine origin, 91 

makes men moral, 480 

Gospels run counter to Jewish ideas 
and expectations, - 77 

superior in literary character to the 
time of their origin,. 78 

their relations to a historical Christ, . . 78 

coincidence of their statements with 
collateral facts and circumstances, . 83 
Gottesbewnsstsein, not * consciousness of 

God,' but 'knowledge of God,' 35 

Gough on the change wrought on the 

drunkard in regeneration, 446 

Government, common, not necessary 

in church of Christ, . 509 

Government of the church, 503-517 

Governmental theory of atonement,. .. 403 
Grace, supplemental of law, as the ex- 
pression of the nature of the law- 
giver, 281, 282 

saves without merit on the sinner's 
part.and without necessity on God's, 282 

a revelation of the heart of God be- 
yond what could be expressed in 
law, and which is only expressed in 
Christ, - 282 

its relation to the law of God, 281, 410 

does not abrogate, but republishes 
and enforces the law, 282 

secures fulfillment of law, by remov- 
ing obstacles to pardon in the di- 
vine mind and by enabling man to 
obey 282 

has its law, which transcends, but does 
not suspend or annul, the ' law of 
sin and death,' 282 

its place midway between Pelagian- 
ism, which admits of no obstacle to 
forgiveness of sin, and rationalism, 
which admits of no break between 
transgression of law and its conse- 
quences, 282 

a revelation partly of law but chiefly 
of love, -- 282 

its plastic influence as compared with 
law, which is merely an external im- 
perative, 282 

a higher revelation of God, a prophe- 
cy of which is found in law, 282 

according to Pelagius, a grace of 
creation, an endowment of man 
with reason and will,.. 311 

universal, according to Wesley,... 31 4, 315 

Eaymond's inconsistency in use of 
the term, 315 



Grace, in Arminian usage the restora- 
tion of man's natural ability to act 
for himself which does not save him 
but enables him to save himself, ... 316 
may afford a larger chance for salva- 
tion than if we had been sinless 

Adams, 339 

unmerited favor to sinners, 427 

God can and does, in sovereignty and 
with justice, bestow more of it on 

one than on another,. 427, 428 

its distribution by God regulated by 
some other reason than the salva- 
tion of as many as possible, 428 

God's choice of sinners to salvation a 

matter of,. 429, 431 

as the only ground on which salvation 
is extended to any, affords no rea- 
son for complaint if others suffer 

the due reward of their deeds, 431 

'Gracious ability,' 315,316 

Greek church, the, its doctrine and 

practice as to baptism, 525 

infant baptism in the, led to infant 

communion, 536 

Greek Fathers, in their treatment of 
the ' image of God,' Gen. 1 : 26, em- 
phasize the element of personality, 261 
Greek language, afforded a literary 

medium for the gospel, 360 

Greeks, their trinity, 170 

recognized representative expia- 
tion, 394 

Green, J. R., on the Puritans, 287 

Green, Wm. H., on creation the result 

only of divine agency, 184 

on Sarah, Abraham's half-sister, 239 

on Abraham's being ' gathered to his 

fathers,'. 560 

Greg, on God as the only being who 

cannot forgive, 282 

on the punishment of the innocent 

and acquittal of the guilty, 413 

Gregory, D. S., his view of ground of 

moral obligation,... 143 

Gregory Nazianzen, called ' theologian,' 1 
on Christ's death as reconciling the 

divine attributes, 1 408 

on the indispensableness of a pastor's 

teaching by his fife, - 511 

Gregory of Nyssa, 23 

a traducian, 252 

on Christ as at once bait and hook for 

Satan 408 

Gregory the Great, his guarded refer- 
ence to the doctrine of purgatory,. 565 

Giimm-Wilke on panri^ta, 523 

Grotian theory of atonement, 403 

Grotius, Hugo, 25 

his views of atonement, 403 

a praeterist interpreter of Revelation, 570 
Ground of moral obligation, views re- 
garding, 141-143 



646 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Guericke, on independency of Mani- 

chaeanism, 188 

Guidance, the privilege of the Chris- 
tian, 219 

Guilt of man's first sin divided with 

Satan, 305 

Federal view of, 333 

doctrine of, 345-350 

its nature, 345 

only incurred through self-deter- 
mined transgression, 345 

not mere liability to punishment, 346 

constructive, has no place under di- 
vine government, 346 

an objective result of sin, — 346 

not to be confounded with depravity, 346 
obligation to satisfy the outraged 

holiness of God, 346 

of sin, how set forth in Scripture, 346 

explained in New Testament by terms 

'debtor' and 'debt,' 346 

how Christ may have, without de- 
pravity, 346 

and depravity, reatus and macula, 346 

not to be confounded with subjective 

consciousness of guilt, 347 

primarily a relation to God, and sec- 
ondarily to conscience, 347 

Scripture recognizes degrees of, 347 

degrees of, set forth by variety of 

sacrifices under Mosaic law, 347 

variety of awards in judgment ex- 
plained by degrees in, 347 

measured by men's opportunities and 

powers, -. 348 

measured by energy of evil will, 349 

measured by unreceptiveness for 

grace, 349 

Christ's, not merely an imputed but 

an imparted,. 414 

and depravity distinguishable, 416 

is endless, 595 

Guizot, on ancient vs. modern view of 
relation between individual and 

state, 94 

Guyon, Madame, 17 

her faith, 469 

Guyot's objection to the hyperliteral 
interpretation of Mosaic account of 

creation, 193 

Habit begets fixity of character, 596 

Hackett, Dr. H. B., on the altar 'to an 

unknown God,' 15 

on a clerical error in Acts 7 : 16, 107 

on 'It is his angel,' 226 

on the prominence given to the clos- • 

ing scenes of Christ's life, 400 

on departing and being with Christ, . 563 
Hadley on the light of nature in rela- 
tion to immortality, 558 

Hagenbach on the synthetic method of 

theology,. 27 

Hales's chronology, 106 



Hall, John, on the forbidden tree, 306 

Hall, Edwin, on mode of baptism,. 526 

Hall, Robert, his argument for exist- 
ence of God criticised, 41 

on John's baptism not Christian bap- 
tism, 521 

his statement as to terms of com- 
munion, 551 

maxim not accepted by the great 
evangelical denominations, 548 

would admit to church those who de- 
ny perpetuity of baptism in church, 552 

anecdote of , 562 

Hamilton, Sir William, on the ' unpic- 
turable notions of the intelligence,' 5 

on the absolute and infinite, 6 

confounds 'infinite' and 'indefinite,' 6 

on difficulties in theology, also diffi- 
culties in philosophy, 20 

on a competent divine necessarily a 
scholar, 21 

on demonstrating the absolute from 
the relative, 36 

his opinion of the anthropological 
argument, 47 

his refutation of idealism, 53 

on sensation proper, 53 

on non sentimus, nisi sentimus sentire, 283 

on its belonging to mental existence 

continuously to think, 566 

Hammond, Dr. Wm. A., on possibility 

of physical immortality, 307 

'Hands of the living God,' 277 

Hanna on 1 Cor. 15 : 28, 379 

on account of resurrection in 1 Corin- 
thians,. 577 

Hardening of sinner not due to any 

positive divine efficiency, 210, 220, 434 

Harnack, Prof., on the reading 'only 
begotten God,' in John 1 : 18, 146 

on baptizein meaning eintauchen and 
untertauchen, 524 

on the Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
tles, 525 

Harnoch on Manichasanism, 188 

Harold's death by a chance shot, 213 

Harris, Samuel, his classification of the 
intuitions, 29 

on the existence of God a datum of 
scientific knowledge, 33 

on science as that which gives occa- 
sion and content to idea of the ab- 
solute Being, 39 

on science observing the universe and 
missing God, 51 

compares man to a bottle of sea-water 
in the sea, 55 

his definition of person, 122, 377 

on the relation of the absolute to the 
finite, 123 

his definition of language, 235 

on man's distinctive characteristic of 
personality, 246 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



647 



Harris, Samuel, on motives and char- 
acter, 260 

on sin, 295 

on indifference, 313 

on spiritual body as evolved by will,. 580 
Harris, W. T., on Herbert Spencer's 

self-contradiction, 7 

on the impossibility of science, if 

Reason has not made the world, 34 

Hartmann, R., on the hypothetical com- 
mon ancestor of man and apes, 237 

Hartmann, Ed. von, on science petri- 
fied at question of origin, 184 

Harvest decreed as result of labor, 179 

Harvey, his clue to discovery, 43 

Hase, 26 

on the remains of divine likeness in 

fallen man, 263 

on sin, 289 

Hastings, Prof., on the natural being 

the ideal, 261 

Hatch's inconclusive method of prov- 
ing Episcopacy, 508 

Hatred, what? 293 

Haven's view of ground of moral obli- 
gation, 142 

Havilah, Gen. 10 : 16, perhaps stands for 

a tribe, 106 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, heredity in the 

case of,.. 253 

illustration of guilt, in his Scarlet 

Letter, 346 

Hazard, on Edwards's confusion of 

thought as to motive and will, 259 

on the simultaneity of cause and 

effect, 437 

his criticism of Mill's view of causa- 
tion, 450 

Headship, Adam's natural, theory 

of,.. 328-333 

considerations favoring it, 330 

it best explains Rom. 5 : 12-21. 330 

combines the truths of the mediate 

and Federal theories, 330 

postulates a real and fair probation 

of our common nature, 330 

rests on correct philosophical princi- 
ples, 3131 

accepts Scriptural representations, . . 331 

Heart, its meaning in Scripture, 3 

Heathen, vulgar, prejudiced against 

early Christianity, 90 

their virtues, what? 294 

who have not heard the gospel, their 
salvation as related to that of in- 
fants, 357 

their religious systems sources of 

deeper corruption, 358 

religions of, God had a part in all the 

good of them, 358 

in proportion to their cultivation, 

become despairing, 358 

they have an external revelation, 359 



Heathen, some among them may have 

found the way of life, 468 

apparently regenerated, instances 

of, 468 

Heathenism, despair is its character- 
istic, 358 

a negative preparation for Christian- 
ity, 358 

list of authors on, 359 

Heautontimoroumenoi, the lost are, 591 

Heavenly state, one of communion with 

other orders of intelligences, 586 

Heaven, reasons for believing that it is 

aplace, 231,585,586 

a place, since it contains Christ's hu- 
man body, 231, 585 

where it is, not revealed, 231 

why represented as a city, 585 

• of the saints, earth may be the, 586 

of the saints, wider than limits of 

earth, 586 

our ruling conception should be that 

of astate, 586 

final state of the righteous in, 585-587 

rewards in, how they are equal and 

how they vary, 585 

a rest from what? 585 

a rest consistent with service, 585 

we shall know our f i lends in, 585 

knowledge and love of friends in, not 
inconsistent with perfect love of 

Christ, 585 

Hebrews, 'genuine,' though not writ- 
ten by Paul, 72 

i ts genuineness, 75 

accepted during first century, 75 

its genuineness doubted during sec- 
ond and third century, 75 

again accepted by Jerome and Au- 
gustine, 75 

formally recognized at end of fourth 

century, 75 

its probable author, 75 

intended to counteract Ebionism, 361 

Hebrews, James and Jude, regarded by 

apostles as inspired, 97 

Hegel, his idea of religion, 12 

held that thought thinks, 53 

his analogy of the Trinity, 167 

on God as the absolute idea, 167 

on God as eternally begotten Son, 167 

on creation, 200 

his views of paradisaic condition, 269 

denies holiness even to Christ, 292 

on original sin, 301 

Heine on Napoleon,.. 292 

Heir of glory may not know his happy 

situation, : 482 

Hell, essentially a condition, 231 

reasons for believing that it is also a 

place, 231 

where it is, not revealed, 231 

preferred by its occupants to heaven, 591 



648 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Hell, its present usual connotation im- 
posed on it by the impression the 
Scriptures made on popular mind,. 594 
force of its Gothic etymon, ' a covered 
hole,' 598 

Help from above, need of, felt by great- 
est minds, -. 450 

Henderson on Messiah as 'the Lord,'... 154 
on the chief proof -text of the Federal 
theory, 324 

Hengstenberg, his method of interpret- 
ing- Revelation, 570 

on the millennium begun in the Mid- 
dle Ages, , 574 

Hen otheism, what? 125 

' Henry Esmond, ' referred to, 75 

Henry, Matthew, on woman's being 

taken out of man's side, 268 

on satisfying an offended conscience, 405 

Henry VIII, alluded to, 12 

Herbert, George, on adoring the broom 
while leaving the house foul, 18 

Herbert, Lord, of Cherbury, 204 

Herbert's inferential method of reach- 
ing idea of God, 36 

Herder, 24 

Heredity, facts which it cannot explain, 236 

modified by environment, 251 

illustrations of, 253 

does not excuse, 285 

principle of, works for theology, 329 

the law of, has given new confirma- 
tion to old doctrine of original sin,. 340 

Heresy, as selected truth, 442 

a ground of exclusion from the 
Lord's Supper, 549 

Herod Antipas, an instance of growing 
hardness, 349 

Heroes, none in Thackeray and George 
Eliot, 297 

Herschel on the atoms of the material- 
ist, 52 

Herzog on Manichaeanism , 188 

Hesiod places formless matter in the 
beginning, 192 

Hicks, his division of the teleological 

argument, 42 

on the badness of the world an argu- 
ment for God's goodness, 199 

Hierarchical spirit, antichrist, 570 

Hill, Pres. Thos., on the material world 
as the shadow of a real and imma- 
terial being, . 51 

Hill, Rowland, on the devil making lit- 
tle of sin,. 298 

on preaching to the non-elect, 434 

Hillel and Shammai, their diversity of 
opinion on proselyte-baptism, 521 

Hindustan, date of Sanskritic Indians' 
entrance into, 107 

Hingewandt zu, Dorner's translation of 
7rp6?,Johnl :1,. 163 

Hipparion, the two-toed horse,. 237 



Historical theology, what ? 21 

Historical types are prophecies, 68 

History, defying our moral sense, 556 

History, inspired, record in, does not 

imply divine approval, 108 

History, nature is linked to, 213 

History of doctrine, what? 21 

Hitchcock, Dr. R. D., on the silence of 
Scripture as to resurrection of flesh 

or body, 577 

Hobbes on the influence of the passions 

on the acceptance of truth, 21 

his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, i4i 

his definition of society, 232 

Hodge, A. A., __ 27 

his illustration of miracle, 62 

on concatenation of all events, 171 

on effectual calling, 437 

on the ordo salutis, 437 

on union with Christ, 437 

Hodge, Charles, 27 

on mind not the only force, 203 

on man's power to fall and to recover 

himself, 304 

on Wesley 's Arminianism, 314 

a creatianist, 325 

on man's inability, 345 

on governmental theory of atone- 
ment, 404 

on divine purpose,. 431 

on God's general call, 435 

on the proportion of the lost to the 

saved, 598 

Hofmann, his view of the 'image of 

God,'.... 264 

his view of humanity of Christ, 370 

his theory of atonement, 393 

Holbach, a materialist, 52 

Holiness of God, defined, 128 

is not justice, 128 

Quenstedt's definition of, 128 

is not the aggregate of divine perfec- 
tions, 128 

definitions of Dick, Wardlaw, and 

Beecher, 128 

is not God's self-love, 128 

definition of Buddeus, 128 

no utilitarian element in,... 128 

is not love or a manifestation of 

love, 129 

definitions of Hopkins and Bush- 

nell, 129 

doctrinal results of their error, 129 

Scriptural refutation of this error, . . 129 

what it is positively, 129 

it is purity of substance, 129 

being logically precedes willing, 129 

it is energy of will, 129 

the free moral movement of the God- 
head, 129 

not a still and moveless purity, 130 

it is self-affirmation, 130 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



649 



Holiness of God, not a mere negation of 
sin, but the affirmation of an inward 

principle of righteousness, 130 

a ' glassy sea mingled with fire,' 130 

works on, specified, 130 

transitive, what? 138 

distributive, what? 139 

legislative, what? 139 

the fundamental attribute in God,... 140 

shown from Scripture, 140 

presents itself most prominently to 

conscience of sinner, 140 

insistence upon, also in heaven,. 140 

shown from our moral constitution,. 140 
shown from the actual dealings of 

God, 141 

conditions and limits exercise of other 

attributes, 141 

shown from God's eternal purpose of 

salvation, 141 

and mercy, antagonism between them 

removed by atonement, 141 

of God, the ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 141 

attributed to Christ,.. 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit, 151 

in man, creatable, 264 

love for, is the essence of virtue, 292 

in Christ, what?. 294 

according to Pelagius, not concre- 

ated, 311 

immanent, denied by governmental 

theory of atonement, 404 

the gift of God, 430 

an indispensable condition of securing 

the favor of God, 449 

implies a change in that which consti- 
tutes character, 449 

not attainable by natural develop- 
ment, - 449 

is true freedom, 459 

a germ whose nature it is to grow,... 485 
final state of the righteous one of,... 585 

Hollaz, 24 

on truth in God, 126 

his definition of sin, 289 

his view of man's relation to Adam,.. 325 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, on man an 
omnibus in which his ancestors are 

seated, 253 

on the will a drop of water imprisoned 

in a solid crystal, 344 

Holy, God must be, merciful he may be, 140 
Holy Ghost, sin against, shows Holy 

Ghost to be a person, 156 

like blaspheming one's mother, 156 

how it is 'venial,' 348 

sin against, an external symptom, 349 

not an isolated act 349 

the culmination of a long and evil 

course, 349 

accompanied with profound indiffer- 
ence or active hostility against God, 349 



Holy Ghost, sin against, cannot be for- 
given because the soul which has 
been guilty of it has ceased to be 

receptive of divine influences, 349 

not limited to New Testament times, 350 
probably committed by Jews when 
after Pentecost they rejected Holy 

Spirit's witness, 350 

Holy Spirit, organ of internal revela- 
tion,. 8,163 

recognized as God, 150 

is a person, * 155 

his work distinguished from that of 

Christ, 164 

procession of the, , 155, 166 

relation to Christ during his state of 

humiliation, 377, 378, 382 

application of redemption through 

the work of,.. 426-493 

Homer, one, more probable than many 

Homers, 82 

on man's wretchedness, 200 

Homiletics, what? 22 

Honestum and utile, Cicero on, 142 

Honesty of gospel writers, evidences 

of, 82 

Honors, divine, ascribed to Holy Spirit, 151 

Hooker, Richard, 26 

his distinction between aptness and 

ableness, 263 

his famous description of law, 276 

on the law of grace, 282 

on Son of man 'ascending up where 

he was before,' 370 

his views of ecclesiastical polity, 500 

Hope, element of, essential to existence 

even of a heathen religion, 59 

Hopkins, Pres. Mark, on moral reason, 3 

on impersonal intelligence, 44 

on materialism, 53 

his illustration of tea-kettle, 121 

on nothing a priori against eternity 

of matter, 184 

on the unwisdom of those who de- 
prive themselves of 'the training 

which is under personality,' 216 

on effects produced by combina- 
tion of causes, 217 

on the incongruity of Tyndall's pray- 
er-test, 218 

on conscience, 256 

on man's original dominion, 268 

on man as including woman, 269 

on absence of cruel treatment of fe- 
males among animals, 271 

on distinction between moral and 

physical law, 275 

his definition of cause, 450 

on nature of virtue, 142 

on faith, 466 

Hopkins, Samuel, 26 

his definition of holiness, 129 

on continuous creation, 205 



650 



ItfDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Hopkins, Samuel, his views of our rela- 
tion to Adam's sin, 333 

on utter impossibility of sinners' 

obeying- the law of God, 345 

Horace, on the supremacy of nature, . . 301 
Host, its meaning- in Romish church, . . 545 

adoration of, idolatry, 545 

' Host of heaven,' phrase examined, 224 

House of Lords, action of, in relation 

to copies, 70 

Houses accessible to floods, figure from, 586 

Hovey, Pres. Alvah, on Quenstedt, 24 

his definition of soul, 246 

his objections to mediate imputa- 
tion, 327 

his objection to Augustinian view of 
race's connection with Adam as not 
supported by believer's connection 

with Christ, examined, 340 

his reply to Bushnell, 401 

on Mat. 8: 17, 402 

on election, 427 

on Rom. 9 : 20, 432 

on reasons for the divine election, 432 

on our having no reason to think that 

God treats all moral beings alike,.. 432 
his illustration of regeneration from 

photography, 456 

on John 1:12,13, 458 

on present sufferings of believers and 

unbelievers, 555 

illustrates soul's possible independ- 
ence of brain, 556 

on question whether few are saved,.. 599 

Howe, John, 26 

his definition of God, 29 

Hughes, Roman Catholic Archbishop, 

his assertion in relation to Baptists, 538 
Human element in Paul's writings and 

those of the evangelists, 101 

Human mind can know God, 4 

Human nature, essential elements,. .243-248 

Human soul of Christ, ubiquitous, 387 

Humanity, has a capacity for religion, 32 
its full concept, marred in the first 

Adam, realized in the second Adam, 366 
its exaltation in Christ, to be the ex- 
perience of his people, 385 

justified in Christ's justification, 479 

Humanity of Christ, 364 

its reality, 364 

its integrity, 365 

supernaturally conceived, 365 

free from hereditary taint and actual 

sin, 365 

ideal in its character, 366 

impersonal before union with the di- 
vine nature, 366 

was germinal and capable of self-com- 
munication,. 367 

how related to the Logos in his exal- 
tation, 386 

as to his soul, ubiquitous, 387 



Humanity of Christ, not pre-incarnate, 413 
Humbert, King of Italy, an illustra- 
tion from his conduct during the 

cholera scourge, 417 

Humboldt, Alexander von, does not 

mention God in his ' Cosmos, ' 1 

on Psalm 104, 203 

on mankind one single species, 241 

Hume, David, on a starry night, anec- 
dote of, 32 

his ' reasonable remark,' 40 

his idealism, 53 

on miracles as 'a violation of the 

laws of nature,'. 62 

his argument against miracles, 64 

his argument against miracles falla- 
cious, 64 

on prophecy, 67 

on the validity of the argument for 
honesty derived from the absence 

of motive, 84 

on prayer, 216 

anecdote of, 497 

on immortality proved only by the 

gospel, 562 

on purgatory as the fulcrum of a 
lever by which to move the world,. 565 

Humiliation, Christ's, 380-384 

nature of, 380 

what it is not, 380 

theory that it consisted in surrender 
of relative divine attributes, objec- 
tions to, 380 

consisted in giving up, not divine at- 
tributes or nature, but 'glory,' 381 

consisted in surrender of independ- 
ent exercise of divine attributes,. .. 382 

a continuous self-renunciation, 382 

true doctrine of, tabulated with erro- 
neous doctrines, 382 

Anselm's view, 382 

stages of, 382 

omnipresence furnishes a key to the 

mystery of, 383 

not the Logos per se, but the God-man, 

endured the, 383 

the latency of the divine during, va- 
rious illustrations of, 383 

during the, the Spirit only permitted 
at intervals the consciousness and 

exercise of divine fullness, 383 

human nature in, increasingly appro- 
priates to conscious use the latent 

fullness of the divine nature, 383 

true doctrine a middle ground be- 
tween extremes, 383 

must not be minimized, 383 

its only limit sinlessness, 383 

Evans on two stages in, 384 

Humility, its derivation, 462 

Humists, the principal modern, 54 

Hunt, Holman, his picture, 'The 
Shadow of the Cross,' alluded to,... 365 



IXDEX OP SUBJECTS. 



651 



Huther on the prominence to leader- 
ship in church given in Paul's later 

epistles, 503 

Hutter. Leonard 24 

Hutton on the haunting presence of a 

righteous Life and Will, 37 j 

on the Trinity in relation to the social 

nature. - - 169 

on Trinity as setting forth a perfect 

filial will, .. 170 

on the higher the mind, the more it 
glides into the region of Providence. 220 

on Goethe, 290 

on God's intercourse with men by 

faculty and by teaching, 426 

Huxley, Thomas, his criticism on posi- 
tivism, --- 46 

calls brutes ' conscious automata, ' 53 

on matter 53 

denies ' must,' in uniformity of na- 
ture, 63 

on development from Orohippus to 

modern horse, . . 192 

objection of, to creation of birds on 

fifth day, 195 

on the ' gulf ' between man and the 

highest brute, . 235 

on the absence of proof of origination 

of species from selection, 237 

his supposed discovery of proof of 
the development theory in the de- 
scent of the modern horse from 

Orohippus, 237 

on the needlessness of assuming more 

than one stock for mankind, 241 

Hydrogen, solidification of, 376 

Hylomorphism, 63 

Hymns, Christian, full of divinity of 

Christ, 150 

adduced in favor of Christ's propitia- 
tory work, 399 

Hyperphysical communication between 

minds, perhaps possible, 579 

* I am,' in Ex. 3 : 14, implies personal- 
ity, 122 

mistaken by Matthew Arnold, 122 

4 1 am that I am,' in Ex. 3 : 14, its signifi- 
cation, 123 

Idea of God, intuitive, though not de- 
veloped apart from observation and 

reflection, 30 

its universality, 31 

its necessity, 32 

its logical independence and priority, 33 

other supposed sources of, 34 

not from external revelation, 34 

not from experience, 34 

not from reasoninir, .35 

Idea of the infinite, not an infinite idea, 48 

Idealism, its view of revelation 7 

definition of, 53 

element of truth in, 53 

error in, 53 



Idealism, continuous creation involves 

difficulties of,.... 205, 206 

Idealistic pantheism makes God both 

subject and object of religion, 12 

Idealistic philosophy of thirty years 

ago, its influence as to body, 577 

Ideality of Christ's human nature 366 

Ideally possible, the, known to God,... 134 

Ideas have decided fate of world, 211 

Ideas of heathen, not measured by 

power of expressing them,.. 31 

Identity, man's. with Adam, Edwards' 

theory of, 318 

as applied to material things, 579 

bodily, in what it consists, 579 

according to Dorner, 580 

Idiomaticum, genus, 370 

'Idle word,' why condemned, 285 

Idolatry, makes God in image of man,. 5 

a grosser anthropomorphism, 121 

its connection with evil spirits 229 

distinguished from fetichism, 272 

transubstantiation is virtual 545 

Idol, worship of, contrasted in Talmud 

with that of Jehovah, 133 

Ignatius, first theological systematizer, 23 
quotes from New Testament writ- 
ings, 74 

Ignorance, of Christ, never error or 

false teaching,.. 150 

invincible, Pius IX on 545 

sacrifices for, 285 

sins of, 348 

Ignorantia legis neminem excusat, 289 

Image, its significance, 162 

in Gen. 1 : 26, 27, its meaning . . . 262 

as applied to Christ, its meaning, 262 

Image and likeness, of God, distin- 
guished by Piomish theologians, 265 

why used together, 265 

Image of God, in what it consisted 261 

its natural element, 261 

its moral element, 261 

views of the Greek Fathers, 361 

views of the Latin Fathers 262 

involves proper complement of fac- 
ulties, 262 

involves right moral tendencies, 262 

consists chiefly in original righteous- 
ness, 263 

theory that it includes only personal- 
ity, 264 

its advocates, 264 

objections to, 264 

in man, in it the ethical overshadows 

the natural, 264 

not mere ability to be like him, but 

actual likeness, 264 

theory that it consists in man's natu- 
ral capacity for religion, 265 

objections to this theory of 265 

difference between Romanist and 
Protestant doctrine of, 266 



652 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Image of God, results of man's posses- 
sion of, 267 

reflected in man's physical form, 267 

Dot bodily resemblance to Creator,.. 267 
according- to Scholastics, proprie and 

significative, - 267 

presented immediately by spirit, 267 

presented mediately by body, 267 

involved subjection of sensuous im- 
pulses to control of spirit,. 267 

exaggerated views of, in the Fathers, 268 
involved dominion over lower crea- 
tion, 268 

Socinian view of, 268 

Limborch's view of , 268 

denied to women by Encratites and 

Peter Martyr,. 268 

involved communion with God, 268 

concomitants of its possession, 268 

Immanent and unconscious finality, ex- 
amples of, 44 

teleological argument proves only, ... 44 
Immanent, explanation of term as ap- 
plied to attributes, 120 

Immensity, God's attribute of, 131 

infinity in relation to space, 131 

Immobility and Fate cannot be wor- 
shiped, 125 

Immoralities in Scripture, seeming, due 

to unwarranted interpretations,... 109 
Immorality, of doctrine of atonement, 

charge of, unfounded, 420 

of doctrine of election, 432 

of doctrine of j ustification, 479 

Immortality of the soul, 555-562 

maintained on rational grounds, 555 

metaphysical argument for, 555 

teleological argument for, 556 

only applicable to the righteous, 556 

of righteous, proved from God's love, 556 

ethical argument for, 556 

of wicked, proved from God's justice, 556 

historical argument for, 557 

widespread indications of a belief in, 557 

this argument for, of what value, 557 

a general appetency for, 557 

the idea congruous with our nature,. 557 

Dorner on its true pledge, 558 

authors on the question of , 558 

maintained upon Scriptural grounds, 558 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ the 

most impressive proof of, 562 

Immortality without holiness, unend- 
ing misery,. 269 

Immutability, God's attribute of, 124 

ascribed to Christ, 147 

Impassible* is God? 127,128 

was God, in sufferings of Christ ? 362 

Impersonal intelligence may account 

for the order of nature, 44 

Imprecatory Psalms, 109 

Illumination, revelation in widest sense 
includes, 8 



Illumination, Holy Spirit gives, to per- 
ceive truth already revealed, 15 

without inspiration, 95 

cannot account for revelation of new 

truth, 99 

not necessarily connected with proph- 
ecy, 100 

cannot account for prophecy, 100 

alone could not secure Scripture writ- 
ers from error, 100 

not always dependent on holiness, 100 

an inspiration dependent only upon, 

possesses no authority, 100 

Illumination-theory of inspiration, its 

doctrinal relations, 99 

it contains several distinctively Chris- 
tian elements, 99 

its advocates, 99 

its defects, 99 

makes reason ultimate authority in 

religious truth,.. 100 

Imperfection in order of universe, if 

granted, explicable, 43 

Imputatio metaphysica, 325 

Imputation of Adam's sin to his pos- 
terity, 308-340 

two questions demanding answer, 308 

proper meaning of the phrase, 309 

has always a realistic basis in Script- 
ure, 309 

two fundamental principles in, 309 

difference between Old School and 

New School views, 310 

no theory of, wholly satisfactory, 310 

theories of, 310-340 

Pelagian theory of, and objections,.. 310 
Arminian theory of, and objections,. 314 
New School theory of, and objections, 318 

Federal theory of, and objections, 322 

Mediate theory of, and objections,... 325 
August inian theory of, most satisfac- 
tory of theories, 310 

of Adam's sin to the race, grounded 
in the fact of a real union of the 

race with Adam, 328 

and in real historical connection of 
each member of the race with its 

first father and head, 329 

theories of, tabular view, 334 

objections to Augustinian doctrine 

of, 335 

Imputation, of sins of immediate ances- 
tors, Augustine on, 336 

of sin to Christ, grounded on a real 

union between Christ and humanity, 413 
of Christ's righteousness to us, 
grounded in a real union of the be- 
liever with Christ, 445, 479 

Inability ( see Sinner ), 258, 342-345 

Incarnation, Dorner on three ideas in- 
cluded in, 370 

'In Christ,' the phrase a key to Paul's 
epistles and to the whole N. T., 440 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



653 



Inconclusiveness, seeming-, of Scriptur- 
al arguments, due sometimes to ig- 
norance of divine logic, ___ 109 

Incorporation, guarantees truth 102 

* Indefinite ' not equivalent to ' infi- 
nite,' 6 

Independence Day, referred to, 77 

Indeterminateness, moral, man never in 

a state of, 176 

Indeterminism, when tenable, _ __ 260 

Indifference, liberty of, 178, 258, 317, 590 

Individuals, statements of God's pur- 
pose to save, 428 

foreknowledge and choice of, to sal- 
vation, statements of, -.. 428 

allotted as disciples to certain of God's 

servants, 429 

given by Father to Son, proof -pas- 
sages, 429 

are made recipients of special call of 

God, 429 

born into God's kingdom by God's 

will, 429 

Indolence leads to pantheism, 55 

Induction, its validity depends on exist- 
ence of God, 33 

Inductive inference, what ? 36 

Indwelling of God, its extent and 

modes, 376 

reaches its highest stages in Christ's 
union with believer and in God's 

union with Christ, 441 

Inertia, 52 

Inezistentia, 161 

Infant salvation, "Watson on, 315 

according to New School, 320 

doctrine of, 355-357 

considerations favoring, 355-357 

its earliest American advocates, 357 

some consequences of, 357 

little said of, in Scripture, 357 

yet conclude that no human soul is 
eternally condemned solely for sin 

of nature, 357 

Infants, die before personal and con- 
scious choice, 300 

their death proves sin of nature, 300 

are mere animals, theory that, 321 

unbaptized, regarded by French peas- 
ants as animals, 538 

are in a state of sin, 355 

are possessed of a relative innocence, 356 
are the object of special divine care,. 356 

have a right to salvation, 356 

are chosen to eternal life, 356 

through the grace of Christ are saved, 356 
are included in the provisions of a 
mercy which is coextensive with 

the ruin of the Fall, 356 

provision is made for their salvation 

otherwise than by personal faith,.. 357 
rule of final judgment cannot apply 
to infants, 357 



Infants, their regeneration wrought 
at first view of Christ in the other 

world, 357 

Infanticide might have been encour- 
aged by definite assurance of in- 
fants' salvation, 357 

Inference, deductive, what ? 36 

inductive, what ? 36 

immediate, not reasoning, 36 

mediate, what? 36 

j not a source of the idea of God, 36 

Infinite, the, expresses a positive idea,. 6 
the, is it a negation of the thinkable ? 6 

the ground of the finite, 6 

idea of, McCosh on, 49 

not the indefinite,. 6, 122 

Infinity, God's attribute of, what?.. 122, 123 
in one direction not infinity in all,.. 6, 597 

Infirmity, sins of , 348 

Influence, special divine, required by 

depravity of will, 431 

Innatce cogitationes, 30 

Innate or connate ideas, what ? 30 

Innocence suffering for guilt, not un- 
just, 419 

Innocency, negative, the creator of, the 

author of sin, 265 

Inorganic, the basis of the organic, 52 

Inquirers, Scriptural advice to, 482 

Insanity, sometimes dependent on sub- 
jugation of will to a foreign power, 229 

Insitce cogitationes, 30 

Inspiration of the Scriptures,... 95-114 

definition of, 95 

defined not by its method but by its 

result, 95 

may include revelation, 95 

without revelation, 95 

may include illumination, 95 

without illumination, 95 

list of works on, 95 

proof of, 96 

presumption in favor of, 96 

of the O. T. vouched for by Jesus, ... 96 

promised by Jesus,.. 96 

claimed by the apostles,. 96 

attested by miracles or prophecy, 96 

theories of, 97-102 

Intuition-theory of, 97 

permits the use of natural insight 

into truth, 98 

in matters religious and moral secures 
for man's vitiated insight help 

against error, 98 

not mere inward impulse of genius,. . 98 

logical results of this theory, 98 

Illumination-theory of , 99 

doctrinal connections of this theory, 99 

its principal advocates, 99 

iu some cases may have amounted to 

mere illumination, 99 

that this was constant method of, de- 
nied, 99 



654 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Inspiration of the Scriptures, illumin- 
ation-theory of, communication of 
new truth requires something- more, 99 

spiritual perception too imperfect to 
be trusted, . 100 

this theory of, leaves Scripture with- 
out authority, 100 

makes reason the ultimate standard,. 100 

Dictation-theory of , 100 

doctrinal connections of, 100 

principal advocates of, 100 

in some cases involved communica- 
tion of words, 101 

this theory of, rests on partial induc- 
tion of Scriptural facts, 101 

cannot account for manifestly human 
element, 101 

Dynamical theory of , 102 

distinguished from other theories 
of, 102 

union of divine and human elements 
in, 102 

analogies of regeneration and person 
of Christ, 102 

not external impartation and recep- 
tion, 102 

consisted with highest exercise of 
natural powers, 102 

illustrated from experience of the 
preacher,. 102 

peculiarities of thought and style 
pressed into service, 103 

only secured infallible transmission 
of truth,.... 103 

was not omniscience or complete 
sanctiflcation, 103 

secured a perfect teacher but not a 
perfect man, 103 

permitted progress in Christian doc- 
trine,.. 103 

did not generally involve a direct 
communication of words, 103 

new truths of, seemed to its sub- 
jects as discoveries of their own 
minds, 103 

verbal as to result, but not as to pro- 
cess, 103 

sometimes guided even in selection of 
words, 104 

constitutes Scriptures an organic 
whole, 104 

two cardinal principles of, 104 

two common questions regarding,... 104 

of Scriptures all-pervading, 104 

there are no degrees in, 104 

objections to doctrine of , 105-114 

principal objections to, drawn from 
secular teachings of Scripture, 105 

errors in secular matters, if proved, 
not necessarily fatal to it, 105 

alleged errors in matters of science, . . 105 

• germinal modes of expression ' used 
in, 106 



Inspiration of the Scriptures, its sub- 
jects may not have understood sci- 
entific interpretation of natural 

events they described, 106 

alleged errors in matters of history,. 107 

alleged errors in morality, 108 

of reasoning, 109 

in quoting or interpreting the O. T.,. 110 

in prophecy, 111 

books unworthy of a place, Ill 

books written by others, 112 

permits and regulates compilation, . . 112 

sceptical or fictitious narratives, 113 

said to acknowledge non-inspiration, 114 

Inspired record, an, probability of, 96 

writers, experiences of, illustrated by 

that of preacher, 102 

documents not exempt from mistakes 

in transcription, 107 

Institutio Religionis Christiance, Calvin's, 24 
Intellect and heart essential to knowl- 
edge of divine things, 3 

Intellectual element in faith, 465 

Intellectual views into which will has 

entered, man responsible for, 258 

Intention, deliberate, aggravates sin 

but is not of its essence, 288 

Intercession, Christ's work of, 422-424 

nature of his, 423 

his sacerdotal benediction based upon 

it, 423 

an activity of Christ upon ground of 

his sacrifice, 423 

objects of Christ's, 423 

general, for all men, 423 

special, for his saints, 423 

of Christ, its relation to that of Holy 

Spirit, 423 

of Christ, its relation to that of saints, 424 

Intercessors, saints are, 424 

Inter communicatio, 161 

Intercommunion between persons of 

Trinity, 160 

Intermediate state, 562-566 

of righteous, 563 

of wicked, 564 

not asleep, 564 

not purgatorial, 565 

incomplete, 566 

of conscious joy to the righteous, 566 

of conscious pain to the wicked, 566 

a state of thought, 566 

sin in, because more spiritual, demo- 
niacal, 566 

exchanged for perfect joy or utter 
misery only with the resurrection 

and judgment,. 566 

Intermittent spring, illustration of in- 
terrupted sanctiflcation, 486 

Internal characteristics of the Christian 
documents unaccountable on the- 
ory of forgery or gradual accretion, 81 
International law, how far it exists,... 274 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



655 



International law, a partial metaphor,. 274 
Interpretations, strained, to be avoided, 116 

illustrations of such, .. 116 

Intestinal canal and its appendages is 

result of the Fall, theory that, 268 

'Into the name,' in baptismal formula, 534 

Intuition, its meaning-, 29 

views of, 29 

of God, knowledge of what it is, pro- 
gressive, 37 

an obscure, may be explicated into 

distinct consciousness, 39 

of final cause, beneath expectation of 

uniformity, 63 

moral, what? 254 

Intuitions, classification of, 29 

presentative, as self-consciousness 

and sense-perception, 29 

rational, as space, time, substance, 
cause, final cause, right, absolute 

Being, 29 

rational, further subdivided, 29 

of relations, as space and time, 29 

of principles, as substance, cause, 

final cause, right, 29 

of absolute Being, as God, 29 

how related to experience, 30 

may be developed late, 30 

do they give us only abstract ideas ?. 36 
Intuitional theory of morals, truth in,. 256 

reconciled with empirical,... 256 

Intuition-theory of inspiration, 97 

its doctrinal connections, 97 

its representatives,. 97 

objections to, 97 

Intuitive ideas, evolved from soul itself 

on suitable occasions,.. 248 

Plato's view of , 248 

Invalidity, seeming, of Scriptural rea- 
soning, sometimes arises from its 

highly condensed form, 109 

Irenseus, refers to Gospels, 73 

his testimony investigated, 73 

'Irresistible,' a better word 'effica- 
cious,' 436 

Irving, representations of his views,... 406 

objections to his view, 406 

his views, Dorner on, 406 

his view of sacrifice, that of sin, 407 

his view of the identification of Christ 

with the race,.. 413 

I rvingian theory of atonement, 405 

'.Is,' its meaning in words of institu- 
tion of Lord's Supper, 543 

Isaiah, a later, 72 

prophecy of , its division, 113 

his style may have varied in forty 

years, 113 

Islam, 89 

its meaning, 212 

Isocrates, on Heraclitus, 105 

Israelites, postponement in their case 
of much teaching, 109 



Israelites, positive preparation in their 

history for Christ's redemption, 359 

Italy, its unification, 571 

'Jack and Jill,' philosophical interpre- 
tation of , 78 

Jacob, on/caT' olnov, 539 

onol/co?, 540 

on Lord's Supper implying not real 
presence but real absence of Christ's 

body, 544 

his concessions to Baptists, 553 

' Jacob,' the correct reading in Acts 7 : 16, 107 

Jacobi, F. H., his view of theology, 8 

his philosophy marks transition from 

rationalism, 24 

his saying, ' the beautiful can be shown 

but not proved,' 34 

his saying, 'nature conceals God, 

man reveals him,'. 45 

Jacobi, Prof. J., on 1 Cor. 7 : 14, 535 

Jael's patriotism, not her treachery, ap- 
proved, 108 

James, Luther's opinion of his epistle,. 112 

his position on justification, 472 

Janet, his view of finality, 42 

his method in his work on Final 

Causes, 42 

his objections to optimism, 199 

on effects produced by combination,. 217 

Jansenand Jansenism,. 25 

Janus, man the true, 243 

Jefferson on a Baptist church being the 
truest form of democracy in the 

world, 506 

' Jehovah,' what it implies, 123 

Adonai substituted for; 146 

Jewish reverence for the name, 147 

' Jeremiah,' a clerical error for ' Zech- 

ariah.'in Mat. 27:9,. 107 

Jerome, accepts Hebrews, 75 

on absurdity of God's knowing how 
many gnats there are in the world, 213 

a creatianist, 250 

on 'bishop' and 'presbyter,' 509 

on teaching power essential in a pas- 
tor, 510 

Jerrold, Douglas, on dogmatism, 22 

Jerusalem, its artificial water-supply 

abundant, 523 

' Jerusalem, the New,' a symbol, 447 

Jessica, on ' sweet music,' 269 

Jesus, Ebionitic view of, 361 

'master of those who know,' 389 

not inspired, but inspirer, 389 

bowing at name of, 546 

Jesus Christ, expressly called God, 145 

recognized as God, 145 

See Christ. 
Jew, trust of a pious, implicitly a faith 

in Christ, a59 

Jewish advantages dependent not on a 
'genius for religion,' but on divine 
revelation, 359 



656 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Jewish hopefulness derived from 
prophecy, - 359 

Jews, the only ancient forward-looking- 
people, 358 

the three great truths in their divine 

education, -. 359 

the three principal educational agen- 
cies in their history, 359,360 

rendered monotheists by the exile, ... 360 
converted by it from an agricultural 

to a trading people, 360 

imbued by it with spirit of Roman 

civilization, 360 

their dispersion a monotheistic start- 
ing pointfor gospel, 360 

Job, a historical personage, - 113 

book of, its speeches perhaps never 

delivered in their present form, 113 

John, his Gospel differs from synoptics, 70 
his second and third epistles, not re- 
ferred to by apostolic Fathers, 74 

his Gospel, g-enuineness of, 75 

his second and third epistles, evi- 
dences of their genuineness, - - - 76 

difference of his style in Revelation 

and in Gospel, - 113 

his Gospel, need we assign it a later 
origin on account of its doctrine of 

the Logos? 154 

his Gospel and his epistles, their re- 
spective objects, 369 

his first epistle, does it teach perfec- 
tionism? 489 

John of Damascus, 23 

a trichotomist, 247 

translated by Peter Lombard, 363 

influences western theology in Middle 

Ages, -- 363 

on double consciousness and will in 

Christ, 377 

John Scotus Erigena, 23 

Johnson, F. H., on 'natural selection 

the scavenger of creation,' 236 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted on sin,... 297 
on Christ's putting- some on his right, 

some on his left, 595 

Joseph and "Mary, variations in method 

of divine communication to, 102 

Josaphat, St., another name for Bud- 
dha, 468 

Josephus, mentions Jesus, 71 

on books of Old Testament, 80 

his numbers vary in some instances 

from present Hebrew Scriptures, . . 107 
on opinions of Pharisees and Saddu- 

cees concerning future life, 561 

Jouffroy, on ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 142 

on mental existence requiring con- 
tinuous thinking, . 566 

Jowett, on sacrifice, 397 

Judaism, classed with 'rudiments of 
the world,' 358 



Judaism, a positive preparation for 

Christianity, 359 

as a preparation for Christ, list of 

authors on,. 360 

modern, its tendency, 168 

Judas, a practical administrator, 292 

his experiences under influence of 

Christ,.. 492 

statements regarding him not true on 
hypothesis of a final restoration,... 592 
Jude, epistle of, not referred to by 

apostolic Fathers, 74 

evidences of its g-enuineness, 76 

American Revisers' translation of 

verse 4, ..434 

Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur, 139 
Judge, a, his indignation a type of 

God's anger, 139 

purity a sympathetic element in, 583 

Judge, Christ the final, because his hu- 
man nature makes intelligible the 

grounds of judgment, 583 

because his complex person secures 

mercy and justice, 583 

because this is the reward of his suf- 
ferings and the proof that humanity 

has been redeemed, 584 

Judge, English, who punished not for 
stealing- sheep but that sheep might 

not be stolen, 352 

'Judge the world,' how the saints will, 584 
Judging- the world, attributed to Christ, 147 
Judgment, perfection of, secured by 

Christ's promise to apostles, 100 

God's, against sin in Christ, faith rati- 
fies, 480 

of God as to moral action, connect- 
ed with g-eneral state of heart and 

life, 343 

Judgment, the last, 580-584 

a final and complete, to be expected,. 581 

passages describing, 581 

its nature, 581 

an outward, visible, definitely future 

event, 581 

evil reserved for, 581 

expected in future, 581 

after death, 581 

resurrection a preparation for,.. 581 

its accompaniments outward and visi- 
ble, 581 

required by God's justice, 581 

Egyptian process of, 582 

apart from, God's justice only ap- 
proximate, 582 

apart from, Christianity only a sort 

of dualism, 582 

various respects in which God's right- 
eousness will be vindicated by, 582 

object of, 582 

preparations for, in law of memory, 
law of conscience, and law of char- 
acter, 582 



IXDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



657 



Judgment, the last, a vision of, 583 

a manifestation of the heart, 5S3 

a scene of self-revelation and self- 
condemnation, 583 

culmination of a process of natural 

selection,. 583 

the Judge in, 583 

why its conduct committed to Christ, 5S3 

subjects of, 5&1 

among its subjects are all men, each 

possessed of body as well as soul,.-. 584 
among its subjects are all evil angels, 584 

grounds of, 584 

grounded upon the law of God, 584 

grounded upon the grace of Christ, .. 584 

list of authors on, 584 

Judgments, in history of individuals 
and nations, many partial and im- 
perfect, 580 

spiritual, passages describing, 581 

present, temporal, and spiritual, have 
inner connection with the judgment 

final, outward and complete, 583 

educational agencies among Jews, ... 360 
Judson, Adoniram, his self-denying 
labors an argument for Christian- 
ity, 93 

on wine essential to Lord's Supper,... 539 
4 Just,' may refer to moral character,.. 477 

may refer to relation to law, 477 

Justice of God, is transitive holiness, .. 138 

holiness in its punitive relations, 138 

not a manifestation of benevolence,. 138 

legislative, as imposing law, 139 

not a matter of arbitrary will, 139 

does not bestow rewards, 139 

devoid of all passion or caprice, 139 

both subjective and objective 418 

simply a manifestation of God's holi- 
ness, 594 

Justification, delivered from charge of 
being arbitrary and mechanical by 

doctrine of union with Christ 445 

doctrine of, 471-183 

definition of, 471 

a judicial and declarative act, 471 

regarded by Arminians as sovereign, 471 

Scriptural proof of, 471 

James and Paul on, 472 

elements of, 474 

includes remission of punishment, ... 474 

includes restoration to favor, 475 

special helps included in, 476 

its relation to God's law and holiness, 477 

a forensic term, 477 

its difficult feature, 477 

declaratory, its proclamation in the 

heart helps to make men just, 478 

its relation to union with Christ, 478 

its relation to the work of the Spirit, 478 

its true ground, 478 

its ground is not new righteousness 

and love infused into us, 478 

42 



Justification, its ground is not the essen- 
tial righteousness of Christ's divine 

nature become ours by faith. 478 

its ground is the satisfaction and obe- 
dience of Christ, 478 

not external and immoral, 479 

and sanctification, not different stages 

of the same process,.. 479 

gifts and graces its accompaniments, 

not its ground, 480 

its relation to faith, 480 

why it rests on faith, 480 

since its ground is only Christ, justi- 
fied person has peace, 481 

effect of Romanist making works with 

faith a joint ground of, 481 

has no degrees, 481 

according to Romanist view, a con- 
tinuous process, 4S1 

Dorner on Romanist view of, 481 

instantaneous, complete, and final,... 482 

not eternal in the past, 482 

all subsequent acts of pardon implied 

in the first act of , 482 

advice to inquirers demanded by 

Scriptural view of, 482 

general subject of, list of authors on, 483 

book of life is book of, 584 

'Justified,' may refer to character, 477 

may refer to law, 477 

' Justify, ' its derivation, . _ 477 

contrasted with 'condemn,' 474 

Justinian, his edict, 571 

Justin Martyr, refers to 'memoirs of 

Jesus Christ,' 73 

his inaccuracies of quotation, 73 

on the youthful Jesus a carpenter, ... 365 
propounds theory of ransom paid to 

Satan, 408 

his theory of annihilation 589 

Justitia civilis, 342 

Justus, its derivation, 477 

Justus et justificans, 411 

Kahilis, his definition of God, 29 

on the divine self -consciousness un- 
folding in the divine knowledge, ... 126 
on doctrine of preexistence of souls,. 249 

on creatianism, 251 

on the human nature in Christ, 377 

on doctrine of the Kenotics, 381 

Kaleidoscope, the mind not a, 6 

Kalpa, „ 170 

Kane, Dr., his lens of ice, 21 

Kant, his view of religion, 12 

on the sense of duty, 12 

on what law owes to gospel, 16 

his view of revelation, 24 

on nothing in vain, 43 

on the weakness of the teleological 

argument, 44 

on faith in duty requiring faith in 

God, 46 

on preexistence of human soul, 248 



658 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Kant, on the 4 categorical imperative ' 

of conscience, 256 

his mistake as to freedom, 260 

on the science of law, 275 

on the fundamental law of reason, ... 280 

on human nature, 301 

his ' I ought, therefore I can,' a relic 
of man's original hut now lost con- 
sciousness of freedom, 344 

his definition of an organism, 442 

on the need of a new creation, 449 

his argument for immortality, its 

nature and defects, 557 

on mental existence as involving con- 
tinuous mental activity, 566 

Karen tradition, 60 

Keble, quoted,. 69 

on entrance of sin, 303 

' Keep What Thou Hast,' duty both of 

pastor and of every believer,. 491 

Keil and Delitzsch on Cain's marriage,. 239 

Keil's theory of atonement, 393 

Kelly, William, a 'continuous' inter- 
preter of Revelation, 570 

Kempis, Thomas a, illustrates nature of 

worship, 13 

mystical tendency in, 17 

on self-depreciation, 287 

Kendall, Amos, anecdote of, 497 

Kendrick, Dr. A. C, on spiritual little 

children, 356 

on relation between baptism and the 

thing signified in it,... 532 

on local associations in heaven, 586 

Kenosis, theory of, 380 

Keri, 147 

Kestner's wife, Goethe's treatment of,. 290 

Kethib, 147 

King, Christ must be owned as,... 425 

King, Clarence, on sudden yet natural 

modifications of species, 192 

Kingdom, Christ's giving up the, illus- 
trated, 379 

and church, distinction between, 494 

Christ not divested of, till millen- 
nium,. 573 

Christ's, a necessary decline of, till 
his second coming, theory of, not 

scriptural nor wholesome, 573 

Kingly office of Christ, 424,425 

Kingship of Christ, what? 424 

with respect to the universe, 424 

with respect to his militant church,.. 424 
with respect to his church triumph- 
ant, - 425 

relation to his priesthood, 425 

of Christ, present, Luther on, 425 

of Christ, list of authors on, 425 

Kingsley, Charles, on the Lord harden- 
ing the heart, 220 

Knapp, Jacob, prayer of, — 214 

Knapp, the German theologian, 24 

* Know,' its meaning in Scripture, 428 



Knowing, its laws not merely arbitrary 

or regulative, 6 

Knowledge of God, possible to human 

mind, 4 

Knowledge, faith only a higher sort of, 2 

not confined to phenomena, 4 

of mind not merely negative, 4 

analogy to one's nature or experience 

not essential to, 4 

Spencer's definition of, 5 

forming an adequate mental image 

not essential to, 5 

knowing in whole not essential to it, . 5 
partial, distinguished from knowledge 

of apart, 5 

may be real and adequate though not 

exhaustive, 5 

involves limitation or definition, 6 

relative to knowing agent, 6 

is of a thing as itis, T 

though imperfect may be of value,.. 19 

none possessed at birth, 30 

requires presupposition of the Abso- 
lute Reason, 33 

God's, direct and without intermedia- 
ries, 134 

'takes them [future events], not 

makes them,' Whedon, 135 

divine, intuitive, 135 

divine, includes all actions possible, . . 174 
distinguished from foreknowledge,.. 174 

does not ensure right action, 231 

aggravates but is not essential to sin, 288 

sins of, 348 

of God, before and after regeneration, 453 

final state of righteous one of, 585 

Koran, 60,89 

Kreibig on Christ's work reaching even 

to nature, 199 

on essence of sin, 293 

on personal sin, if proceeding from 
original, leaving men guilty only of 

Adam's sin, 338 

on all suffering being punishment,... 354 
on solution of problem of atonement, 417 

Kronos, time, 130 

and Uranos, space, not before God,... 130 

Kung-fu-tse = Confucius, 86 

Kurtz on God's holiness maintaining 

and restoring order of world, 355 

on the Mosaic authorship of the Pen- 
tateuch, 81 

La Couperie, on derivation of the Chi- 
nese from Chaldaeo-Babylonia, 240 

Ladd, on Cogito, ergo Deus est, 34 

distinguishes between Bible and word 

of God, 99 

on entrance of Unitarianism into 

Congregational churches, 538 

Lamb of God, a sin-offering, _ . 392 

the lion of the tribe of Judah, 595 

Lamb's book of life, those written in, 
alone saved, 426, 584 



LNDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



659 



Lange, of Jena, on abolition of infant 
baptism, logically necessary to Prot- 
estantism, 538 

Lang-e, J. P., on derivation of religio,.. 11 

his theological position, 25 

on pagan conceptions which bike pal- 
impsests show through Christian- 
ity. _ 188 

on ancient rationalism and ritualism, 394 
Language, difficulty of putting spirit- 
ual truths into, 18 

resembles the walls which keep open 

a tunnel into a sand-bank, 18 

dead, only real living, 21 

how constructed, 44 

not necessary to thought, 103 

denned, 235 

the effect, not the cause, of mind 235 

Laodicea, Council of, admits 2 Peter 

into Canon, _ 76 

Lao-tse, his trinity, 1T0 

Lateinos, .. 570 

Lateran, St. John, Luther's experience 

at, true, 482 

Latin Fathers, their view of the l image 

of God,' 262 

Lava, illustration of directive provi- 
dence drawn from,.. 210 

stream, illustration of downward ten- 
dency of fallen nature, 336 

Law, cause, and force, are alike known, 4 

Law, is method, not cause, 43 

what it is, 139 

reveals God's love and mercy manda- 
torily, 252 

in general, true conception of, 273 

its essential idea, 273 

its seven characteristics, 273, 274 

primary use of the term, 273 

even in physical science, implies a su- 
preme will, 273 

includes idea of force and cause, 273 

in various languages, its derivation,.. 273 

its characteristic, generality, 274 

implies a power to enforce, 274 

without penalty, is mere wish or ad- 
vice, 271 

in case of free rational agents, implies 

duty and sanctions, 274 

an expression of the nature of the 

lawgiver, 274 

and of the condition in the subjects 

which corresponds thereto, 274 

of God, its nature, 275 

elemental, 275 

physical or natural, 275 

physical, not necessary, 275 

moral, what ? 276 

its seven characteristics, 276 

the expression of a personal will, 276 

sometimes used as agent for princi- 
pal, 276 

discovered, not made, 276 



Law, tested by utility, though not con- 
stituted byit, 276 

expression of nature of God, 276 

its perfect embodiment seen only in 

Christ, 276 

in natural and spiritual world the 

same, 277 

a revelation of constitutive principles 

of being, 277 

a revelation of eternal reality, 277 

list of references on, 277 

of God, a transcript of divine nature, 

certain implications arising thence, 277 

not arbitrary, 277 

not temporary, 277 

not merely negative, 277 

not partial in its requirements, 277 

not outwardly published, 277 

not inwardly conscious, 277 

not local, 277 

not changeable, 277 

not a sliding-scale of requirements, . . 277 
moral, God cannot change it without 

ceasing to be God, 278 

as ideal of human nature, its adapta- 
tion to man's nature, 278 

its characteristics, 278 

its all-comprehensiveness, 278 

its spirituality, 278 

demands right disposition and state, . . 278 

its solidarity, 279 

a method of salvation, only to first 

man, 279 

to sinners, a means of discovering and 

developing sin, 279 

awakes despair and drives to Christ, . . 279 
as a mirror, reveals derangement, but 

does not remove it, 279 

prepares for grace,.. 279 

as positive enactment, 279 

general moral precepts, 279 

special injunctions, 280 

written, imperfect, why and how?... 280 
written, in scope and design morally 

perfect, 280 

its relation to grace of God, 281 

not an exhaustive expression of will 

and nature of lawgiver, 281 

of God, its general expression does 

not exclude special injunctions and 

acts,... 281 

in itself only sets forth God's holiness, 281 
does not exclude grace, as creation 

does not exclude miracle, 281 

not abrogated by grace, as natural 

law is not suspended by miracle,... 282 
becomes ' perfect law of liberty ' only 

in connection with grace, 282 

on condemning one's self for being 

greatest sinner one knows, 287 

its supreme requirement, 294 

identical with constituent principles 

of being, 335 



660 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Law, the all-comprehending demand of 

harmony with God, 340 

the Mosaic, a factor cooperating- with 

other human factors, 358 

an educational influence to Jews, 359 

must precede gospel both in history 

of world and individual, 359 

according to Grotius,..- 403 

its basis in nature of God, 416 

freedom from, what ? 487 

as a moral rule, unchanging, 487 

believer not free from obligation to 

observe, 487 

as a system of curse and penalty, be- 
liever free from, 488 

as a method of salvation, believer free 

from, 488 

as an outward compulsion, believer 

free from, 488 

not a sliding scale graduated to man's 

moral condition, 488 

God's, as known in conscience and in 
Scripture, a ground of final judg- 
ment, 584 

Lawrence, Amos, as an illustration, 419 

Lawrence, on penalty paying no de"bts, 591 
Laws, of knowing, correspond to na- 
ture of things, 6 

of theological thought, laws of God's 

thought, 6 

of nature, not violated in miracle, 62 

of nature, not to be conceived of as 
only acting singly, but as capable 

of combination, 217 

Law's 'Serious Call to a Devout and 

Holy Life,' 287 

Laying-on of hands, its place in ordina- 
tion, 513 

Leben, Das, ist der Gilter Tidchstesnicht,. 345 

Legal analogies of atonement, 391 

Legge, his criticism on Matheson's 

view of Confucianism, 86 

on date of Cb inese history, . 107 

Leibnitz, on revelation,. 16 

his ' nisi intellectus ipse, ' 35 

on sin, 291 

Leibnitz- Wolffian doctrine, 24 

Leighton, Archbishop, on seeking God's 

glory a means of happiness, 198 

on none of God's children born dumb, 486 

Lenormant on Sanskritic Indians, 107 

Leo the Gi'eat, saying of, in regard to 

extent of atonement, 409 

Leo X and the Reformation, 179 

Lepsius, _ 25 

Lessing, on a 'revelation that reveals 

nothing,' 16 

his ' search for truth,' 98 

Letter-missive calling a council of ordi- 
nation, 514 

Levitical enactments, their design, 280 

Lewes, his definition of life and mind 
criticized, 121 



Lewes, on 'creation out of nothing,'... 187 
on phenomena as subject to supernat- 
ural volition, 217 

would substitute ' method ' for ' law,' 273 

Lea;, its derivation, 273 

Leydecker, 24,27 

Licensure, its nature, 512 

Liddell and Scott, on panrifa, 522 

Liebner, on Dorner's view of the union 

of the natures in Christ, 374 

Life, not produced from matter, 52 

as it ascends, marked by increasing 

differentiation, 116 

incapable of definition, 121 

not a mere process, 121 

not mere correspondence with en- 
vironment, 121 

according to Aristotle, 121 

ascribed to Christ, 147 

ascribed to Holy Spirit, 151 

principle of, apparently a new crea- 
tion of God, 193 

animal, though propagated, not ma- 
terial, 253 

its ' power to draw out from the pu- 
trescent clod materials for its own 

living,' 365 

its various relationships honored by 
being taken into union with divini- 
ty in Christ, 368 

an expression of independence and 

dependence, 441 

man's physical, conscious of a life 

within not subject to will, 441 

man's spiritual, conscious of life with- 

ina life, 441 

man's natural, preserved by God, 

much more spiritual, 491 

of sin, attains completeness in future, 554 
Christian, attains completeness in fu- 
ture,. 554 

book of, the book of justification,... 584 

eternal, final state of righteous, 585 

Lightf oot, as a commentator, 18 

on the Logos, 162 

on the Colossian heresy, 187 

on advance of bishop from primus in- 
ter pares, to vicegerent of Christ,.. 508 

on epistle of Clemens Romanus, 518 

his date for ' Teaching of the Twelve 

Apostles,' 536 

Lightwood, on law as custom, 274 

Lily, grows in stagnant pool, 251 

Limborch, 25,314 

his view of image of God,... 268 

a creatianist, 314 

his departures from tenets of Armin- 

ius, 315 

Lincoln, Dr. Heman, on the two great 
laws which confirm Scripture doc- 
trine of retribution, 596 

Lincoln, William, on heresy as selected 
truth, 442 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



661 



Lindsay, Dr. Philip, on a knowledge of 
Greek Testament a preparation for 

death, 21 

Lineamenta extrema, Augustine on, — 345 

List of theological text-books, 28 

Literature, of the second century, its 

character illustrated, 78 

modern, frequently ignores man's de- 

pendenceon God, 484 

Livingstone, on universal recognition 

of a God, 31 

'Living Temple,' of John Howe, 26 

Loci Communes, 24 

Locke, refutes doctrine of innate ideas, 30 

his idea of experience, 35 

on the impossibility of producing co- 
gitable existence out of ineogitable, 45 

on inspiration, 103 

on Baptists the first propounders of 

religious liberty, 501 

on the soul thinking not always, 566 

Locutiones varice, sed non contrarice; 

diversce, sed non adversce, 108 

Logos, the whole, how present in man 

Christ Jesus, 133 

John's doctrine of the, radically dif- 
ferent from Alexandrian Logos-idea 

ofPhilo, 531 

John's doctrine of the, its relation to 

Palestinian Memra, 154 

doctrine of the, list of the authorities 

on,. 154 

its significance, 162 

various views on the, 162 

the preincarnate, granted to men a 
natural light of reason and con- 
science, 315 

purged of its depravity that portion 
of human nature which he assumed, 
in and by the very act of taking it,. 365 
during earthly life of Jesus, existed 

outside his flesh, 383 

the whole, present in Christ and yet 

present everywhere else, 383 

can suffer on earth and reign in 

heaven at same time, 383 

his surrender of independent exercise 
of divine attributes, how best con- 
ceived, 383 

his preparatory work, 388 

Lombard, Peter, 23 

on original depravity, 323 

on possibility of God's knowing more 

than he is aware of, 383 

Long, on ' Salisbury use ' in baptism, ... 525 
'Lord of hosts,' meaning of the desig- 
nation, 224 

Lord's Day, 201 

Lord's Supper, 538-553 

Lord's Supper and Baptism, monuments 

of historical facts, 77 

Lost, their number small compared with 
that of the saved 598 



Lot of nations and of individuals, not 

wholly in their own hands, 211 

Louis XIV, saying of, 292 

XV and XVI, their fates contrasted,. 556 

XVI, a 'sacrificial lamb,' 419 

Love, necessary to right use of reason 

with regard to God, 3, 16 

its loss obscures rational intuition of 

God, 37 

of God, nature cannot prove it, 47 

of God, immanent, what ? 127 

not to be confounded with mercy and 

goodness, 127 

finds a personal object within the 

Trinity, 127 

constitutes a ground of divine bless- 
edness, 127 

of God, transitive, what ? 137 

denominated mercy and goodness,... 137 

distinct from holiness,.. 138 

attributed to Christ, 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit, 151 

to God, the prerequisite of knowledge 

of him, 264 

revealed in grace rather than in law,. 282 

defined, 292 

to God, all-embracing requirement 

of law, 294 

eternity of, its effectiveness as an ap- 
peal, 433 

fixed on sinners of whom he knows 

the worst, 433 

unchanging, 433 

has dignity, 597 

for holiness, involves hatred of un- 

holiness, 597 

brotherly, in heaven implies knowl- 
edge, 585 

Lovelace quoted, 293 

Lowndes' view of intuition, 29 

Lubbock, Sir John, on the anthropoid 

ape and the ant, 236 

takes every brutal custom as sample 

of man's first state, 270 

Lucretius, his materialism, 51 

on impossibility of creation out of 

nothing, 187 

Luke, gospel of, written before end of 

Paul's first imprisonment, 74 

declaredly a compilation, 112 

his relation to Paul, 97 

' Lunar politics,' 2 

Lust per se, not sin according to Roman- 
ist doctrine, 481 

Luthardt, his view of nature, 47 

on extreme realistic conceptions of 

God, 117 

on dualism as an alternative to crea- 
tion, 201 

on Melancthon's views of regenera- 
tion, 451 

on the foundation of the universal 
belief in immortality, 558 



662 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Luther, preacher rather than theologian, 24 
his comparison of Trinity to a flower, 167 

his prayer for Melancthon, 218 

his mediaeval opinions of Satan, 230 

a trichotomist, according- to Delitzsch, 247 
a dichotomist, according- to Thoma- 

sius, 247 

on reproduction of mankind, 252 

his experience of depravity of nature, 286 

on essence of sin, 293 

on God's 'two rods,' 351 

on the need of ' new tongues ' to set 

forth mystery of incarnation, 375 

on Christ as the ichneumon within 

the crocodile, Satan,... 408 

on Christ's care of his church, 425 

on Christ's present reign, 425 

on union with Christ, 447 

his comparison of preachers to 'liv- 
ing hooks,' 456 

what he means by being passive in 

conversion, 461 

on faith, 466 

on ' he who is a Christian is no Chris- 
tian,' 486 

on the validity of a company of pious 
laymen choosing one of their num- 
ber to administer sacraments, 503 

on what baptism means and the mys- 
tery signifies, 528 

his view of infants' being justified by 

personal faith, 536 

how he differed from Calvin on Lord's 

Supper, 546 

on the end of the world, 569 

Lutheran theology, 23, 24 

and Reformed theology, their geo- 
graphical positions, . 24 

is traducian, 252 

its doctrine of a communion of na- 
tures in Christ, 370 

its view of Christ's quickening and 

resurrection, 385 

its view of election, 430 

its view of relation of regeneration 

and baptism,.. 454 

its view of Lord's Supper, 545 

Lutherus redivivus, 24 

Lyall, on will's sovereign obedience to 

motive, 259 

Lyell, Sir Charles, on earth's autobiog- 
raphy not going back to beginning, 184 
Lynch, Archbp., of Toronto, on belong- 
ing to the body and not to the soul 

of the church, 545 

Maat, the Egyptian goddess, 582 

Macaulay, his jest, truth in, 485 

on the remedy for evils of liberty be- 
ing liberty, 500 

Maccabees, First, no direct designation 

of God in, 147 

Macintosh, C. H. ( C. H. M. ), on taber- 
nacle, 110 



Macintosh, C. H. ( C. H. M. ), on the 

Lord's Day,.. 201 

on God more than law, 282 

on Adam's knowledge of a good he 
could not do and of an evil he could 

not avoid, 302 

on Adam's temptation, ._ 303 

on Cain's and Abel's sacrifices, 396 

on God's putting himself between his 

people and the accuser, 475 

on God's testifying of Abel's gifts, ... . 479 

Magister sententiarum, 23 

Magnetism, personal, what? 454 

Maimonides, on the immersion of 

couches, 523 

Maine, on custom becoming law, 274 

Maistre, Count de, his experience, 298 

Maitland, a Futurist, 470 

Majestaticum, genus,. 370 

Malice, what? 293 

Mammals, eminent above other verte- 
brates, 195 

Mammoth Cave, its blind fish as an 

illustration, 349 

Man, in what sense supernatural, 14 

furnishes highest type of intelligence 

and will in nature, 44 

at least as to intellect and freedom, 

not eternal a parte ante, 45 

his intellectual and moral nature im- 
plies an intellectual and moral au- 
thor, 45 

his moral nature proves existence of 

a holy Lawgiver and Judge, 46 

recognizes in God not his like but his 

opposite, 46 

his emotional and voluntary nature 
proves existence of a Being who is 
a satisfying object of human affec- 
tion and end for human activity, ... 46 
mistakes as to his own nature lead to 

mistakes as to great first Cause, 47 

his consciousness, Royce's view, 55 

his will above nature, 62 

can objectify self, 121 

is self-determining, 122 

his nature a concave glass, 122 

inexplicable from nature, 202 

a spiritual, reproductive agent, yet 

God begets, 207 

a creation of God,. 234 

achildof God,.. 234 

his soul not a product of unreasoning 

forces, ----- 234 

and brute, distinctions between, 235 

in his personality, supernatural, 235 

and brute, differences between, list of 

authors on, 235 

his body not developed from 

brute, 236 

does not degenerate as we travel back 

in time, .- 236 

unity of the race, 238-243 






INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



663 



Man, according- to Agassiz, one species 
in various races, - 242 

objections to this view, - - 242 

essential elements of his nature,... 24-3-248 
dichotomous theory of,.. 243 

constituted of body and soul or spirit, 

passages in which,.. 244 

nature, trichotomous theory of, 244 

his immaterial part, in different as- 
pects, is ^vxv Or nveitna, 246 

not a three-storied but a two-storied 
house, 246 

different in kind from the brute 246 

origin of his soul,. 248-254 

theory of pree'xistence, 248 

creatian theory, 250 

traducian theory, 252 

his moral nature, - 254 

his conscience, 254 

his will, 257 

he and his motives, one,. 260 

his original state, 261-272 

his original state, described only in 

Scripture, 261 

his original state, general subject of, 

list of authors, 261 

his original state, essentials of, 261-267 

created not merely innocent but 

righteous, 262 

his original righteousness not the sub- 
stance of human nature, 263 

in no sense the author of his own 

holiness, 264 

his fallen state, Romanist view of, 265 

his loss by first sin not a forfeiture of 

special gift of grace, 265 

since Fall not able to obey God and 

cooperate with him in salvation,... 265 
his unfallen state, Augustine's teach- 
ing regarding, 266 

his original state, incidents of, 267-272 

his possession of the divine image, 

results of,.. 267 

his present state felt not to be his 

natural one, 269 

his original state, Scriptural account 
of, said to be contradicted by pre- 
historic facts, 269 

his primitive savagery, theory of, 

based on an insufficient induction,. 270 
his tendency to fall unless elevated 

and sustained from without, 270 

his original state, Scriptural account 
of, opposed by religious history of 

mankind ? 271 

a law unto himself, 277 

as a finite being, needs law, 278 

as a free being, needs moral law, 278 

as a progressive being, needs ideal and 

infinite law, 278 

according to Scripture, responsible 
for more than his merely personal 
acts, 338 



Man, not wholly a spontaneous devel- 
opment of inborn tendencies, 348 

the ideal, realized only in Christ, 366 

his reconciliation to God,.. 426-493 

his perfection reached only in the 

world to come, 554 

' Man of sin,' meaning of epithet,. 227 

his conduct, 295 

Manasseh, the impious son of pious 

Hezekiah, 537 

Manfred, Byron's, his words quoted, . . . 583 

Manhood, ideal, of Christ, 366 

list of authors on, 366 

Mani, 188 

Manichaeans, dualists, 188 

denied reality of Christ's human body, 361 

Maniehasanism, 188 

the culmination of Gnosticism, 188 

list of authorities on, 188 

Manifestations, divine, to our first pa- 
rents in visible form,.. 268 

not the perfect vision to be enjoyed 

by beings of confirmed holiness, 268 

Mankind, common origin of, not dis- 
proved by diversities in the species, 242 
diversities among, owing to environ- 
ment, 242 

Man's original righteousness, see Orig- 
inal righteousness, 263 

Mansel, his view of intuition,... 29 

on the idea of space, 30 

on the freedom of the will a postu- 
late of philosophy, 122 

on impossibility of demonstrating 
that the soul is compound and 

therefore destructible, 555 

Manuscripts of New Testament, in ex- 
istence in third centurj-, 72 

Maran atha, 568 

Marcion, 73 

Canon of, 73 

an emanationist, 189 

Marck, on our union with Adam, 324 

Marcus Antoninus, on the gods' govern- 
ing the world, 211 

Marcus Aurelius,. 88 

Marguerite, in Goethe's Faust, referred 

to,. 346 

Mariolatry, invocation of saints, and 
transubstantiation, Dorner on ori- 
gin of, 363 

arose from a neglect of the humanity 

of Christ, 368 

Mark, his Gospel, its character and date, 74 

his arrangement of material , 74 

1 the interpreter of Peter, ' 94, 97 

7 : 4, critical observation on, 523 

16 : 9-20, critical note on, 3 r >7, 520 

Marlowe, on hell a state, BOB 

Marriage, a type of the union of hu- 
manity and divinity in Christ, 376 

Marshall's Life of Washington, illustra- 
tion from, 112 



664 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Martensen, Bishop, on Romanism, 18 

on God as 'the simply One,' 116 

on divine passibleness, - 128 

on God as the perfect unity of the 
ethically necessary and the ethically 

free, - 130 

on contingent events being beyond 

divine foreknowledge, 134 

on love and grace, - 138 

on the 'nothing' out of which God 

creates, - 187 

his views on creation, 190 

his mistake as to Jewish representa- 
tions of the world, 192 

on thinking in the intermediate state, 

as a ' self -brooding,' 566 

Martineau, James, on divine agency, ... 5 

on non-progressive religion, 19 

on nature, worthy of trust in her pro- 
cesses, -. 35 

holds the eternity of matter, 40, 168 

on the inorganic part of the world,.. 51 
on personality essential to infinity, ... 57 

on merit and virtue,.. 139 

on subordinating pity to right, 141 

on the meaning of Pity, 199 

on second causes as automatic will,.. 203 
on duty relative to an objective right- 
eousness, 256 

on man's power to choose between 

motives, 260 

on Comte's law of progress, 272 

on law not fulfilling itself, 274 

on morals presupposing duty, 275 

on supposed death of God, 295 

on simultaneity not excluding dura- 
tion,. 437 

on cause, as determining the indeter- 
minate, 450 

on self-interest as a motive to disin- 
terestedness, 451 

on the highest lif e, found only in state 

and church, 497 

on sin without suffering, mon- 
strous, 596 

'Mary, mother of God,' disliked by 
Nestorius, ratified by Chalcedon 

statement, 362 

in what sense correct, 370 

Mason, S. R., on the greater probability 
of a Christian's falling away than 

Adam's, 492 

Maspero's answer to Pierret, 185 

Material, force, as little observable as 

divine agency, 5 

cause, one of Aristotle's four causes, 23 
organism, not necessarily a hindrance 

to free activity of spirit, 580 

Materialism, idealism, and pantheism, 
results of a desire for scientific 

unity, 51 

Materialism, what? .'. 51 

element of truth in, 51 



Materialism, old, in which force was a 

property of matter, 52 

objection to, from intuitions, 51 

objection to, from mind's attributes, 52 
cannot explain the psychical from the 

physical, - 52 

furnishes no sufficient cause for high- 
est phenomena of universe, 53 

furnishes no evidence of conscious- 
ness in others, 53 

Sadducean, denies resurrection of the 

body, .577 

recent, its service to proper views of 

body, 577 

Materialistic idealism, 52 

a new materialism in which matter is 

a manifestation of force, 52 

its elements of truth and error, 53 

its definition of matter objected to,.. 54 

its definition of mind objected to, 54 

involves the difficulties of material- 
ism, 54 

or the difficulties of pantheism, 54, 55 

Mathematics, a disclosure of the divine 

nature, 126 

Matheson, on Confucianism, 86 

Matter, not self-mo ving, 52 

materialistic definition of, unsatisfac- 
tory, 54 

cannot be mere centres of force, 55 

eternity of, Martineau on, .168, 184 

eternity of, not disproved by science, 184 
according to Schelling, is 'esprit 

gele,' 189 

has not cause of being in itself, 203 

not inherently evil, 290 

its powers and capacities, when in 
complete subjection to spirit, can- 
not be estimated, 580 

its character, according to Dorner, in 

new creation, 586 

Matthew, Gospel of, objection to its 

genuineness, 74 

its probable date, 74 

in Hebrew, among the Nazarenes, 361 

Maurice, on sacrifice, 397 

on atonement, 400 

McCabe, on divine nescience of future 

contingencies, 134, 174 

on godlike human will thwarting the 

great I AM, 175 

McCheyne, R. M., the character of his 

preaching, 600 

McCosh, on characteristics of sub- 
stance, 4 

on intuitions, 30, 36 

on source of the idea of God, 36 

on works of the Spirit, 164 

on faith, 466 

on the essential thing about the resur- 
rection, 580 

Mcllyaine, on the Edenic trees, 302 

on the symbol of spiritual shame, 345 



OTDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



665 



Meal, three measures of, were they 

symbolic? 110 

Mediate imputation, theory 01, 325 

its modern advocates, 328 

objections to, 327 

Mediator, the, unites in himself the hu- 
man and the divine, 360 

Meehan, denies sterility of hybrid vege- 
tables, - 241 

Melancthon, Philip, 23 

his analogue to Trinity, 167 

his illustration of deism by the ship- 
builder, 204 

his definition of sin, 289 

on imputation of the first sin,... 323 

onlCor. 15:28, 379 

on Christ as chargeable with guilt (et 

reatus), 415 

on 'old Adam,' 433 

his views on agencies in regeneration, 451 
on being drawn willingly in conver- 
sion, 461 

on fidesnon est sola, 480 

his apothegm on faith only, but not 

faith alone, 487 

on end of the world, 569 

Melito, Bishop of Sardis, his investiga- 
tions into Canon, 74 

excludes Apocrypha, 74 

'Memoirs of Jesus Christ,' 73 

in Justin Martyr, means ' gospels, ' 73 

Memory, its impeccability, secured by 

Christ's promise to apostles,. 100 

a preparation for the final judgment, 582 
of an evil deed, becomes keener with 

lapse of time, 596 

Memra, Palestinian use of, relation to 

John's Logos, 154 

Men, as well as animals, automata to 

materialist, 53 

their essential unity revealed by 

Christianity, 340 

'free among the dead,' 344 

as sinners, not irrespective of their 

sins, objects of saving grace, 426 

Mencius, a disciple of Confucius, 86 

Mens humana capax divines, the import- 
ance of the maxim, 102 

Mens rea, essential to crime, 285 

Mental and moral characteristics com- 
mon to men, best explained by sup- 
position of common origin, 240 

Mental phenomena, known, 4 

Mercy of God, indicated in his delay to 

punish transgressors, 59 

optional, 129, 140,141 

defined more at large, 138 

matter of revelation alone, 141 

election a matter of, 427 

'Mercy, the quality of, not strained,' 

the phrase annotated, 140 

Merits of Christ, apart from ours, se- 
cure us eternal life, 488 



Messiah, O. T., descriptions of, 154 

described as one with Jehovah, 154 

in some sense distinct from Jehovah, 154 
called 'the Lord' or 'the Sovereign,' 

a title peculiar to Jehovah, 154 

prophecy of, growing more clear 

throughout O. T. history, 359 

'Metaphysical generation,' of the soul, 251 

Method of theology,. 20 

Methodist doctrine and discipline, arti- 
cles of religion, 316 

Methodists, . . 314 

Meyer, onl Cor. 7 : 10, 114 

his supposition that doxologies are 

post-apostolic, _ 146 

on the Logos, 162 

on irpdsin John 1 : 1, 163 

on guardian angels, 226 

on heathenism, the reign of the devil, 229 

not a trichotomist, 247 

on crip!, 290 

his interpretation of Eph. 2:3,. 299 

on spiritual infants, 356 

on Eph. 5 :31, 384 

on 'enemies,' in Rom. 5 : 10, 392 

on avri,. 393 

on Bom. 5 : 25, 26 411 

on wiaris, 465 

on 'righteousness,' 473 

on a subjective dying and reviving 

with Christ, 474 

on Acts 13 : 2, 3, 505 

on Mark 7: 14, 523 

on iv, in Mat. 3 : 11, 524 

on cuuSvio? in Mat. 25 : 46, 594 

Michael Angelo's Last Judgment, al- 
luded to, 368 

Michael, the archangel, his function, . . . 223 
Miley, on suspending choice and fixing 
attention, as initial step in regen- 
eration, 452 

Military theory of atonement, 408 

Mill, J. S., on probability in favor of 

causation by intelligence, 45 

his Autobiography, a criticism, 46 

on sensation, matter, and mind, 53 

his denial of the all-comprehensive 

character of Christian morality, 86 

on life and sayings of Jesus, 90 

on man's supreme end, 142 

not a Manichsean, 187 

on law of nature, 273 

his idea of cause, 450 

on the absence of a feeling of interest 

in others, 450 

on sentimentality, 552 

his reply to teleological argument 

for man's immortality, 556 

Millennium, followed by a conflict be- 
tween righteousness and evil, ac- 
companied by political and natural 

troubles, 570 

relation of Christ's second coming to, 571 



666 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Millennium, prior to Christ's second 
coming 1 , 571 

and day of judgment, theory of their 

contemporaneousness, 572 

Miller, Edward, on the miraculous con- 
ception, -. 406 

Miller, John, his view of Christ's identi- 
fication with race, - 413 

Milton, John, his seeming denial of 
God's foreknowledge of free acts,.. 134 

on 'spiritual creatures,' 227 

on the folly of men's accusing their 
Maker, their making, or their fate, . 290 

on all mankind included in the first 
pair, 328 

on the growth of communicated 
good, 486 

on the mind making a hell of heaven, 
a heaven of hell, 586 

on 'myself am hell,' 587 

Mind, has no parts, yet is known, 6 

its organizing instinct, 9 

gives both final and efficient cause,. . . 42 

recognizes itself as different from and 
higher than the material organiza- 
tion which it uses, 51 

and matter, distinct substances, 52 

not transformed physical force, 52 

its highest activities independent of 
physical conditions, 52 

continues to grow after growth of 
body, 52 

has direct knowledge of a spiritual 
substance underlying mental phe- 
nomena, 54 

materialistic definition of, unsatis- 
factory, . 54 

the theory which regards it as obverse 
side of matter, as difficult as that of 
pure materialism, 54 

the absolute, not conditioned as the 
finite, 57 

of man, divine energy therein not in- 
compatible with its highest intelli- 
gence, 104 

has not cause of being in itself, 203 

* Mind of flesh,' its meaning, . . 290 

Minds, the finest, of the leaning type,.. 46 
Minister, Christian, his chief qualifica- 
tion rightly to conceive and express 
the truth, 10 

his relation to church work, 500 

forfeiture of standing as, 516 

who has power to discipline ? 516 

Ministry, Christian, temptations to am- 
bition obviated by absence of gra- 
dations in, 510 

not a close corporation, 511 

was it instituted in Acts 6 : 14 ? 512 

Ministry of Christ, the earthly, pro- 
phetic, 389 

the earthly, its likeness and unlikeness 
to that of O. T. prophets, 389 



Ministry of Christ, since ascension pro- 
phetic, 389 

in glory, prophetic, 389 

Minos, generally believed in, 557 

Miracle, definition of, 61 

erroneous conceptions of, 61 

not a suspension or violation of natu- 
ral law, 61 

not a sudden product of natural agen- 
cies, 61 

not an event without a cause, 61 

not irrational or capricious, 61 

not contrary to experience, 61 

palpable to the senses, 61 

does it belong to a higher order of 

nature? 61 

endless, not God's method, 253 

Miracles, as attesting a divine revela- 
tion, 61-67 

how designated in the N. T. , 61 

providential, what? 61, 215 

and special providences, compared,.. 61 

possibility of, 62 

rendered possible by existence of a 

divine will above nature, 63 

probability of miracles, 63 

presumption against, 63 

presumption against, turned by fact 
of moral disorder into presumption 

in favor of, 63 

do not require greater power than or- 
dinary processes of nature, 64 

imply self-restraint and self-limita- 
tion on part of him who works them, 64 
accompanied by sacrifice of feeling on 

part of Christ, 64 

amount of testimony necessary to 

prove, 64 

Hume's argument against, stated and 

refuted, 64 

evidential force of, 65 

accompany new communications 

from God, 65 

the epochs of, 65 

cessation of, 65 

and inspiration go together, 65 

certify to the commission and au- 
thority of a teacher, 65 

do not stand alone as evidences, 65 

do not lose their value, 66 

are correlates of the Incarnation, 66 

true starting-point in arguing about, 66 
resurrection of Christ the most cen- 
tral and decisive of , 66 

counterfeit, argue belief in true, 66 

counterfeit, marks of, 66 

do they still remain in the Church ?. . 66 
Missionaries, home and foreign, are the 

true N. T. evangelists, 515 

are not required to take letters of 

dismission, 515 

Mivart, on God's contemplation of the 

universe, 134 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



667 



Mivart, on idea of absolute creation, 

from our own free volitions, 187 

on 'natural selection' as a 'puerile 

hypothesis,' 237 

on development of body depending 

on informing soul, 237 

on the savage-theory, 270 

Modern idealism, traceable from Locke, 

through Berkeley and Hume,. 53 

Modern spiritualism, 131 

Moehler, his statement 'God cannot 
give a man actions,' commented on, 263 
his criticism on Luther's use of term 

'nature,'. 263 

on the ' image and ' likeness ' of God, 

and on the donum super natur ale,... 266 
on justification including infusion of 

Christ's spirit, 474 

on bad popes, 507 

Moffat's testimony, corrected by Liv- 
ingstone, 31 

Mohammed, founder of Islam , 89 

his belief as to origin of his bodily and 

mental states, . 91 

Mohammedanism, its nature, 89 

character of its later Arabic philoso- 
phy, 168 

is fatalism essential to ? 212 

and Christianity, 212 

Molecular movement and thought, not 
cause and effect but concomitants, 52 

Molecules, manufactured articles, 43 

Molina, the Jesuit, and scientia media,. 174 
Molluscs, their beauty inexplicable by 

'natural selection,' 236 

Monad, of Leibnitz, 52 

Monarchians, derivation of the name,. 158 

their views, 158 

»Monism, what? 5 

idealistic, 5 

materialistic, 5 

contradicts consciousness, 56 

Monod, Adolphe, on saving law first, 

then himself, 278 

Monongenism, modern science in favor 

of, 241 

Monophysites, another name for Euty- 

chians, 363 

Monotheism, an original, facts point to, 

31,272 

Hebrew, precedes polytheistic sys- 
tems of antiquity, 272 

Montanists, first formulated doctrine 

of Trinity, 144 

first defined personality of Spirit, 144 

Montanus, 389 

Montesquieu, on relations antecedent to 

positive law, 275 

Montholon, Count, Napoleon's remark 

to him concerning Christ, 368 

Moody, D. L., his conversion, 150 

is there a physical miracle wrought 
for the drunkard in regeneration ?. 446 



Moral argument for existence of God, 

the title criticised, 45 

faculty, its deliverances, though re- 
sults of race-experience, yet afford 

evidence of an intelligent cause, 45 

disorder, creates presumption in fa- 
vor of miracles, 63 

freedom, what? 177 

nature of man,. 254-260 

decisions, vary not through con- 
science but through moral reason,. 255 
likeness to himself, how God restores, 263 

law, what? 276 

law, man's relations to, extend beyond 

consciousness, 309 

government, God's, recognizes race- 
responsibilities, 309 

union, of human and divine in Christ, 362 

analogies of atonement, 391 

Moral evil, see Sin. 

Moral obligation, its ground, 141 

not grounded in power, 141 

not grounded in divine will, 141 

not grounded in utility, 142 

not grounded in nature of things, 142 

not grounded in abstract right, 142 

its ground, Scriptural view of, 143 

its ground in moral perfection of di- 
vine nature, 143 

'Moral reason,'... 3 

Moral things, judgment on, involves 

act of will, 467 

Morality, Christian, a fruit of doctrine, 10 
of New Testament, its characteristics, 86 
of New Testament, of divine origin, . 86 
Christian, its all-comprehensive char- 
acter denied by Mill, 86 

heathen systems of, 86 

heathen, does not recognize man's de- 
pravity and dependence on divine 

grace, 86 

of Bible, progressive, 108 

mere insistence on, cannot make men 

moral, 480 

Morals, intuitional and empirical theo- 
ries of, reconciled, 256 

More, Sir Thomas, his saying regarding 

end of punishment untrue, 351 

Morell, his definition of a revelation,.. 7 
on the practical conviction of the ex- 
istence of a God, 50 

on man a free agent, 260 

Morgan, L. H., his periods of human 

progress, 270 

Mormonism, its anthropomorphism,... 121 

' Morning stars, ' its meaning, 222 

' Mortal, ' all unpardoned sin, 347, 348 

Morton, on the number of human races, 241 
Mosaic account of creation, its two-fold 

nature, 191 

its proper interpretation, 193 

Mosaic sacrifices, their theocratical 
office, 394 



668 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Mosaic sacrifices, their spiritual office,. 394 

Moses, conscience an ideal, 46 

theory of one, more probable than 

theory of several, 82 

Moslem, its meaning, 212 

'Mother of God,' how applicable to 

Mary, 370 

Motion, an argument to prove its im- 
possibility, 20 

involving the idea of time, Hazard on 

the difficulty of, 437 

Motive, not a cause but an occasion,... 176 
man never acts without or contrary 

to, 176 

a ground of prediction, 176 

a source of influence without infring- 
ing on free agency, 177 

the previously dominant, not always 

the impulsive, 177 

Motives, man can choose between, 176 

persuade but never compel, 178 

character and dispositions constitute 

the strength of , 257 

not causes, but influences, 258 

do not determine but persuade the 

will, 348 

not wholly external to the mind in- 
fluenced by them, 452 

consist of external presentations and 

internal dispositions, 452 

lower as well as higher, appealed to 

by the Spirit, 458 

Movements at first sight seemingly in- 
consistent, may be parts of one 

whole, 179 

Moxom, P. S., on God the immediate 

author of each new individual, 253 

on preeminence of Christ, 424 

Mozley, on relation of supernatural 

fact and supernatural doctrine, 65 

his extension of the term ' miracle,'.. 215 
on Augustine's views of original sin, 329 

on Ezekiell8, 337 

on Scriptural passages which describe 
the phenomena rather than the re- 
ality of death, 560 

on possession of God evidence of im- 
mortality to Jews, 562 

Muir, on Lord's Supper, 77 

on Mohammedanism, 89 

Muller, Julius, 16 

on ' a cause which is not an effect, ' . . 41 
his idea of God as will, and of God's 

essence as God's act, criticized, 124 

on God the object of his own love, 127 

on 'all self -consciousness a victory 

over time,' 131 

on God's relation to time, 131 

on creation implying beginning, 191 

on preexistence of human soul, 248 

on the extra-temporal fall of nvevixa,. 249 
his view that only the 4/vxv fell in the 
sin of our first parents, 249 



Muller, Julius, on freedom and ac- 
countability, 259 

his view of the image of God, 264 

on aixapria, as implying delusion, 284 

on 'will' and 'ego' identical, 288 

on o-<ip|, 39i 

on Hegel's view of sin as denying 

holiness to Christ, 292 

on freedom, 317 

on depravity either as sin or an excuse 

for sin, 322 

on mediate imputation, 327 

on originalsin, 329 

on the dangers of the merely ' organic 

theory of sin,' 338 

on the reason why the sin against the 

Holy Ghost is unpardonable, 349, 350 

on Christ's birth a creative act of God 
breaking through the chain of hu- 
man generation, 365 

denies the regnum naturae of Christ,.. 424 

on spiritual and second death, 555 

Muller, Max, on invisible objects of 

worship, 31 

on the concept humanity, the gift of 

Christ,. 94 

on date of the Vedas, 107 

on the three stages of language, 240 

on Buddha as original of the St. Josa- 
phat of the Greek and Roman 

churches, 468 

Muratorian Canon, 73 

Murder, differs from homicide only in 

motive, 285 

Murderer, why worthy of death ? 262 

Murphy, J. J., on faith, 3 

on ' the different but converging lines 

of proof ' of a God, 39 

his view of mind, matter, force, and • 

will, 55 

on eternity as a circle, 131 

on God as contrasted with impersonal 

law, 281 

Murray, Andrew, on Christ's kingly, 

founded on his priestly, power, 425 

Music echoes longing for some posses- 

sionlost, 268 

Mystic, its derivation, 17 

every true believer a, 17 

Mysticism, true, 17 

false, 17 

its errors, IT 

Mystik and Mysticismus, 17 

Myth, its nature,... 76 

Myths, how they grow, 77 

Myth- theory of Strauss, 76 

its animating principle, denial of mir- 
acle, 77 

objections to, 77 

does not give time for growth of 

myths, 77 

such growth of myths impossible in 
first century, 77" 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



669 



Myth-theory of Strauss; Gospels no 

outgrowth of Jewish ideas, 77 

theory inconsistent with characters 

and lives of apostles, 77 

cannot account for acceptance of Gos- 
pels by Gentiles, . 77 

cannot explain Christianity, 77 

JS'achuirkung and Fortwirkung, . 424 

'Name, In my,' its meaning and cor- 
relates, 446 

Names given to Christians in New Tes- 
tament, progress in, 498 

Names of God, five, Ewald on, 152 

Napoleon, his dispatches omit mention 

of Trafalgar, 71 

his variety of plans before a battle,.. 175 

his Russian campaign, 213 

his character, 290 

on Jesus Christ more than man, 368 

his military genius grew with experi- 
ence, 589 

Narcissus, Goethe a, according to Hut- 
ton, 290 

National-church theory, or theory of 

provincial or national churches, 508 

National Council of Congregational 
churches, its decision as to discipline 

of a minister, 516 

Nations, each represents an idea, 60 

Natura humana in Christo capax divince, 376 

Natura naturans, of Spinoza, 136 

4 Natural '= psychical, 244 

Natural insight, as only source of relig- 
ious knowledge, renders religious 

truth merely subjective, 98 

leads to gross self-contradiction, 98 

involves denial of a truth-revealing 

God, 198 

Natural law not suspended or violated 

by miracle, 60 

its general uniformity, advantages 

of, 63 

effects aside from, to be expected 

when moral ends require, 63 

Natural life, God's impartation of, a 
foreshadowing of a desire to bestow 

higher blessings, 138 

Natural realism, and location of mind 

in body, 132 

Natural revelation, supplemented by 

Scripture, 15 

Natural selection, artificial after all, ... 52 
an important feature in God's method, 236 
not a sufficient explanation of the his- 
tory of life, 236 

gives no account of the origin of sub- 
stance or of variations, 236 

the mere scavenger of creation, 236 

fails to explain certain geological,ana- 

tomical, and entomological facts, ... 236 
fails to explain the beauty of lower 
forms which can be of no advantage 
to possessors, 236 



Natural selection, unproved by the in- 
stance of a single species having 
been produced either by artificial or 

natural selection, 237 

the worst doctrine of election, 431 

Natural theology, what?.. 14 

Nature, its usual sense, 14 

its strictsense, 14 

in its usual sense includes spiritual 

facts, 14 

in its proper sense does not include 

man as immaterial, 14 

its outward witness to God, 14 

its inward witness to God, 14 

God has revealed himself in, 14 

argument for God's existence from 

change in, 40 

argument for God's existence from 

order and useful collocation in, 42 

indictment of, by Mill, 43 

apart from man, cannot be inter- 
preted, 44 

does not assure us of God's love and 

provision for the sinner, 59 

its definition, 62 

by itself furnishes a presumption 

against miracles, 63 

as synonym of essence, substance, 

being, 115 

according to Schleiermacher the full 

expression of divine causality, 136 

its forces dependent and independent, 204 

the brute submerged in, 235 

human, why it should be reverenced, 262 

in what sense sin a, 263 

as something inborn, 299 

every member of race possesses a cor- 
rupted, 299 

a corrupt, sinful acts and dispositions 

referred to and explained by, 299 

a corrupt, belongs to man from first 

moment of his being, 299 

a corrupt, underlies man's conscious- 
ness, 299 

a corrupt, cannot be changed by man's 

own power, 299 

a corrupt, first constitutes man a sin- 
ner before God, 299 

a corrupt, is the common heritage of 

the race, 299 

designates, not substance, but cor- 
ruption of substance, 299 

a depraved, which one did not person- 
ally and consciously originate, how 

responsible for, 308 

human, Pelagian view, 311 

human, semi-Pelagian view, 311 

human, Augustinian view, 311 

human, organic view of, 313 

human, atomistic view of, 313 

the whole human, once existed as a 

personality in Adam, 335 

human, can apostatize but once, 336 



670 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Nature, human, totally depraved, 341 

man may to a limited extent act down 

upon and modify his, 344 

sin of, and personal transgression, ... 348 

impersonal human, 376 

Dr. E. G. Robinson's definition of, ... 377 
human, its development into new 

forms, theory considered, 556 

'Nature of things, in the,' phrase ex- 
amined, 174 

Naville, Ernest, on liberty, 259 

on seminal existence in Adam, 330 

Nazarenes (Ebionites), their view re- 
specting Christ, 361 

Neander, motto of, 21 

on Logos, 162 

not a trichotomist, 247 

on sin,... 304 

on Pelagianism, 312 

on James's position as to faith and 

works, 473 

on John's seizing on radical points of 

difference, omitting gradations, 489 

his view of church development, . 499 

on personal independence in church, 500 

on the form of baptism, 525 

his view of baptism, 535 

on Acts 16: 15, 33,. 535 

Nebular hypothesis, substantially true, 194 
Necessitarian philosophy, suitable for 

the brute, 235 

Necessity of theology, 9 

Negatio n, involves affirmation, 6 

Nero, an illustration of power of con- 
science, 46 

his persecutions, 91 

shows that sin is not mere weakness,. 292 

'JVeron Kaisar,' 570 

Nescience, divine, opposed to our fun- 
damental convictions and to repre- 
sentations of Scripture, 135 

Nestorians, their views on person of 

Christ, 362 

were philosophical nominalists, 362 

Nestorius,. 362 

his dislike to phrase 'Mary, mother 

of God,' 362 

regarded Christ as a peculiar temple 
of divinity, as God and man, not 

God-man, 361 

a philosophical nominalist, 362 

Neutrality, between good and evil, 

never created by God,. 264 

between good and evil, a sin, 265 

New England, its settlement by Puri- 
tans, 213 

New England theology, 26 

New Englander, on use of second causes 
leading to higher conceptions of di- 
vine action, 203 

New Haven school on regeneration, 457 

New Haven theology, 26 

substantially Arminian, 430 



Newman, Prof. A. H., on Ignatius the 

first systematizer, 23 

on the connection between infant 
baptism and an ecclesiastical estab- 
lishment, 536 

Newman, E. W., on revelation, 7 

his Phases of Faith = phases of un- 
belief, 98 

Newman, J. H., on Eve's conduct, 303 

New School theology, 26 

theologians, their definitions of holi- 
ness, 129 

its definition of sin, references upon, 285 

its watchword as to sin, 310 

theory of imputation, 318-322 

history of its development, 318, 319 

modifications of views within, 319 

objections to, 319 

contradicts Scripture, 319 

rests on false philosophical principles, 320 

impugns justice of God,... 320 

inconsistent with facts, 321 

an alternative presented, 322 

New Testament, earliest manuscripts,. 70 

genuineness of books of, 72-80 

moral system of, 86 

Newton, John, his experience, 298 

Newton, Sir Isaac, on prophecy not in- 
tended to gratify curiosity, 69 

a continuous, or continuist, interpret- 
er of Revelation, 570 

Nice, council of, 159,361 

Nicene Fathers, their error as to Son- 
ship, 165 

Nicoll, on the invincible last enemy,... 354 

on Christ's perfect holiness, 407 

on the resurrection,. 576 

Nihil est in intellectu nisi quod ante 

fuerit in sensu, 35 

Nineveh, winged creatures of , 224 

Nirvana, doctrine of, what ? 87 

perversion of an earlier and purer 

idea, 87 

Nitzsch, on mysticism, 17 

his system a sort of Biblical theology, 21 

his theological position, 24, 25 

his view of the image of God, 264 

Noblesse oblige, its highest form in God, 143 
Noel, Baptist W., one of his reasons for 

being baptized, ' 548 

Noetus of Smyrna, his view of Trinity, 158 
Nominalism, incompatible with revela- 
tion, 116 

true only of proper names, 329 

in Nestorian view of Christ's person,. 362 
Nominalistic notion of God's absolute 

simplicity, its error, 116 

Non-apostolic writings recommended 

to church by apostolic sanction, 97 

Non-conformity in disposition or state 

to God's law is sin, 283 

Non-inspiration, supposed, of certain 
portions of Scripture, 114 






INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



671 



Nonpleni nascimur, 311 

Nordell, on holiness and love, 138 

Northrup, G. W., on order of Federal 

theory, 324 

'Nothing,' in the phrase 'creation out 

of nothing-,' criticised,. 183 

Notitia, an element in faith, 465 

Noumenon, in external and internal phe- 
nomena, 4 

Novels, some, contain more truth than 

some histories, 113 

Nullus in microcosmo spirits, nullus in 

macrocosmo Deus,. . 44 

Number cannot be infinite, - 41 

Nurture as well as nature, a factor in 

formation of character, 351 

Obduracy, sins of incomplete, 349 

sins of final, 349 

Obedience, Christ's active and passive, 

both needed in salvation,.. 409 

Christ's active and passive insepara- 
ble, 420 

Christ's active and passive, secure 

more than pardon,.. 420 

' Obey,' not the imperative of religion, 12 

Object of saving faith, 467 

Object of worship common to all men, 31 
Objective, the perfect, to a perfect in- 
telligence, 168 

Obligation to obey law, based on man's 

original ability,.. 278 

Occam, on divine nature and attributes, 116 
his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 142 

CEdipus, his view of his sins, 292 

Offences, among men, cannot always 

be passed over, 418 

private, in church discipline, how to 

be dealt with, 516 

public, in church discipline, how to 

be dealt with, 516 

Offer of salvation, no insincerity in, 435 

Offering of great day of atonement, 396 

Officers of the church, 509-516 

Offices of Christ, 387-425 

Old School, meaning of the phrase, 26 

its characteristic tenet, 27 

its adherents, 27 

three theories, 310 

Old Testament, its genuineness, 80 

Jesus vouches for its inspiration, 96 

intimations of the Trinity in, 152 

Olshausen, on John 1 : 1, 116 

his analogue to Trinity, 167 

his view of baptism, 530 

his view of immortality as inseparable 

from body, 578 

Omission, sins of, trespass-offering 

for, 285 

sin of, an act of commission, 348 

Omne vivum e vivo, or ex ovo, 191 

Omniamea mecumporto, 586 

Omnipotence of God defined, 136 



Omnipotence of God, not power to do 

what is not an object of power, 136 

does not imply exercise of all God's 

power, 136 

not instinctive or necessary force, .. . 136 

implies power of self -limitation, 136 

attributed to Christ, _. 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit, 151 

Omnipresence of God defined, 132 

not potential but essential, 132 

illustrated by presence of soul every- 
where in body or brain, . . 132 

not presence of a part but of whole of 

God in every place, 132 

t otus in omni parte, 133, 419 

not necessary but free, 133 

attributed to Christ,.. 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit, 151 

a key to understanding of Christ's hu- 
miliation, 383 

Omnipresent, how God might cease to 

be, 133 

Omniscience of God, defined, 133 

argued from his omnipresence and 

self-knowledge, 133 

its technical sense, 133 

its characteristics, 134 

implies that God knows things as they 

are, 134 

implies foreknowledge, not only me- 
diate but immediate, 134, 135 

attributed to Christ, 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit, 151 

becomes foreknowledge, through de- 
crees, 174 

independent exercise of, how surren- 
dered by Christ,.. 383 

'One eternal now,' how to be under- 
stood, 131 

Ontological argument, three forms of, 

...47-50 

that of Clarke and Gillespie, 47, 48 

thatof Descartes, 48 

that of Anselm, 48,49 

compared to an algebraical formula, 49 

Dorner's statement of, 49 

conclusion from, 49 

Oosterzee, Van, on human nature, 301 

on impossibility of hardened lava re- 
turning to crater, 349 

on universal atonement, 422 

Ophir, Gen. 10 : 16, perhaps stands for a 

tribe, 106 

Optimism, the true form of , 199 

a false, considered, 199 

a false, list of authors on, 199 

in any form, denied by some, 200 

Oracles, ancient, 67 

Ordain, has a technical sense not found 

in New Testament, 513 

Ordain, who are to? 513 

Order, and useful collocation, imply a 

42 



672 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Order, unpurposed, illustrations of, 43 

without inequality, illustrated by re- 
lation between man and woman, _ . . 166 
moral, of the world, an argument for 

divine providence, 211 

physical, has only a relative con- 
stancy, 275 

of regeneration, conversion, and jus- 
tification, 446 

Orders, sacred, indelibility of, errone- 
ous, .- 516 

Ordinances of the church, 520-553 

their nature, 520 

Protestant view of, 520 

Romanist view of, 520 

of Papal church, 520 

Ordination, of church officers, its na- 
ture, .-.- 512 

a recognition and authorization, 512 

should be accompanied by a special 
service of admonition, prayer, and 

laying on of hands, 512 

of a pastor, three stages in, 513 

of deacons, requires no consultation 

with other churches, 513 

certain accompaniments of, which 

are appropriate and obligatory, 513 

laying on of hands, its place in, 513 

an act of the church, 513 

candidate for, should be member of 

the ordaining church, 513 

power of, rests with the church, 514 

council of churches, its place in, 514 

council of, its constituents, 514 

letter-missive calling a council of ,.. . 514 
order of procedure in a council of,. . . 515 

programme of public services, 515 

who, besides pastors, should receive ? 515 
of ministers, referred to as ' imposi- 
tion of hands,'... . 532 

Ordo salutis, according to A. A. Hodge, 437 

Organic, and organized, substances, 52 

Organic view of human nature, 313 

Organism, defined by Kant, 442 

Origen of Alexandria, on systematizing, 9 
conceived plan of expounding doc- 
trines in order, 23 

on innate notions of moi'ality, 30 

on genuineness of 2 Peter, 76 

his views on creation, 190 

on preexistence of the soul, 248 

his interpretation of Mat. 20 : 3, 248 

his idea of the atonement, 400 

on the doctrine of a literal resurrec- 
tion, 578 

the ground on which he denied future 

punishment, . 591 

Origin of the gospels, rationalistic the- 
ories of,. 76 

Origin, unity of, proved by unity of 

species, - 241 

Original ' image of God, ' in man, what 
it implied, 262,263 



Original 'image of God,' in man, 
theory that it consisted simply in 

personality, 264 

theory that it was simply man's natu- 
ral capacity for religion, 265 

Original knowledge of God, man's, im- 
plies a direction of affections and 

will toward God, 264 

Original moral likeness to God, man's 

or holiness, 262 

Original natural likeness to God, man's 

or personality, .' 262 

Original righteousness, what ? 263 

not the substance of human nature,. 263 
not a gift added after man's creation, 263 
a tendency of affections and will, 

with power of evil choice, 263 

how it differed from perfected holi- 
ness of saints, 263 

a propagable moral disposition, 263 

though lost, left man possessed of 

natural likeness to God, 263 

Original sin, realistic conception of, 27 

what is meant by the phrase? 309 

its problem, 309 

actual sin more guilty than, 310 

no one condemned merely on account 

of, 310 

substance of Scripture doctrine con- 
cerning, . 331 

a misnomer on any other theory than 

that of its coiner,. 340 

no soul finally condemned simply on 

account of, 357 

Original state of man, essentials of, 261 

difficulties in understanding it,.. 261 

Romanist and Protestant views of, 
lead to divergencies as to sin and 

regeneration, 266 

incidents of , 267 

Originality, R. K. Eccles on, 19 

Orohippus, the four-toed horse, 237 

Osiris, identification of dead with, by 

Egyptians, 441 

the heart weighed in presence of, 582 

Os sublime, manifestation of internal 

endowments, 267 

Overbeck's picture of the child Jesus, 

its fantastic character, ..- 365 

Ovid, on ' man looking aloft, ' 267 

on sinful tendency,. 297 

on representative expiation, 394 

Owen, John, 25 

on offices of Persons in Trinity, 166 

an Augustinian as well as a Federal- 
ist,... 323 

on limited atonement, 422 

Owen, Richard, on matter and mind, ... 54 

held to spontaneous generation, 191 

on man from the beginning ideally 

present on the earth, 195 

on a primitive pair in human race, ... 241 
Page-Roberts, on heredity, 253 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



673 



Pain, and imperfection, before the Fall, 198 
in brutes, the purpose it subserves, . . 199 

Taine, Thomas, on natural religion, 58 

eulogized by R. W. Emerson,... 291 

Pajon, Claude, his views of baptism,... 533 
Palastiological sciences, point to, but do 

not lead to, a first Cause, 41 

Palestine, like Wales, bilingual, 74 

'a fifth gospel,' 83 

prepared in God's providence, 208 

Paley, on ' the original propagators of 

the gospel,' .:... 83, 84 

his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 142 

his definition of virtue, 142 

on law presupposing an agent, 274 

Pananglican Councils, contain world- 
church idea, 509 

Panpresbyterian Council, contains 

world-church idea, 509 

its action in relation to observance of 

Lord's Supper, 549 

its action in relation to Cumberland 

Presbyterians, 550 

Pantheism, defined, 55 

elements of truth in, 55 

itserrors, 55 

confounds harmony with absorption, 56 
in it the worshiper is the worshiped,. 55 
the fruit of Hindu want of energy 

and longing for rest, 55 

its idea of God self -contradictory, 56 

its unity of substance without proof, 56 

opposed by our intuition of God, 56 

and mysticism, Scripture recognizes 

elements of truth in them, 56 

gives no explanation of personality,. 56 
its effects on public morals disastrous, 56 

fatalistic, 56 

refuted by fact of sin, Bushnell on, . . 56 
places the supreme cause below our- 
selves, 57 

answer to its chief objection to per- 

sonalityin God, 57 

assumes that law is an exhaustive 

expression of God, 281 

should worship Satan, 292 

requires denial of miracle, 63 

requires denial of inspiration, 98 

anti-trinitarianism leads to, 168 

involved in doctrine of emanation,... 189 

continuous creation tends to, 206 

at the basis of some Docetism, 361 

not involved in doctrine of union with 

Christ, 442 

Papal church, its ordinances, 520 

Papias refers to Matthew and Mark, ... 74 

his testimony defended, 74 

Parables, not necessarily historical, 113 

in Luke 15, relation of, 431 

Paradise, when world will become, 199 

the abode of God and the blessed, 563 

Paradoxon summum evangelicum, the,.. 411 
43 



Pardon limited by atonement, incon- 
sistent with divine omnipotence, 

answered, 418 

limited by atonement, inconsistent 

with divine love, answered, 418 

justice to Christ, mercy to recipient,. 419 
its conditions can be rightly assigned . 

by God, 419 

what it is, 474 

through Christ, honors God's justice 

as well as his mercy, 478 

Parisian sculptor, and his several 

photographs, 78 

Park, E. A., his definition of inspiration, 95 

on God's love to Satan, 138 

on doctrine of Trinity, 144 

on decrees, 172 

his view that evil is a part of the best 

moral system, 180 

on God as above subordination, 198 

on Arminianism, 317 

his views of sin, 319 

on governmental theory of atone- 
ment, 403 

on instantaneous regeneration, 459 

on evils of Presby terianism, 509 

on Congregationalism and Indepen- 
dency, 519 

Parker, Theodore, on verbal revelation, 7 

on forging a Jesus, 89 

Parseeism, 88, 89 

Parsimony, law of, 41 

its application to the various argu- 
ments for existence of God, 49 

Pascal, on pure intellect leading to 

scepticism, 20 

on knowing truth not by reason but 

by the heart, 21 

his theological position, 25 

on miracles, 65 

on virtue bought cheaply by pain, ... 199 

on birth in sin, 301 

on original sin, 339 

reason f or his perplexity, 339 

Passion, the, necessitated by Christ's 

incarnation, 414 

Passover, the, 396 

referred to, 77 

festal in its nature, 540 

Pastor, his duty to develop independent 

Christian activity,... 506 

his ruling to be done through others, 506 

an officer of the church, 509 

identical with bishop or presbyter, ... 509 

his duties, 510 

a spiritual teacher, 510 

his private intercourse as important 

as his public work, 511 

administi-ator of ordinances, 511 

not a priest exclusively to administer 

ordinances, 511 

a superintendent of discipline, 511 

a presiding officer, 511 



674 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Pastor, his extreme authority in old 
Congregationalism in New England, 511 

his functions, executive, 511 

ordination of, three stages in, 513 

' Pastors and teachers,' in Eph. 4 : 11, 

refer to one office, 510 

Pastors should cultivate friendly rela- 
tions with other pastors and other 

churches, 519 

Path blazed, an illustration, 16 

Patriarchs, age of, in Old Testament, .. 108 
Patripassians, derivation of the name,. 158 

their views, 158 

Patristic theory of atonement, 408 

Pattison, S. R., on age of world, 107 

Patton, F. L., on the varying hypothe- 
ses of unbelievers, 44 

on 'metaphysics of oughthess,' re- 
ferred to, 142 

on the idea of penalty, 352 

on John 7: 17,.. 467 

on eternal punishment consistent 

with justice, 595 

Paul, the human element in his writ- 
ings, 101 

his hope of Christ's speedy coming, .. Ill 

and James, on justification, 472 

on consciousness in the intermediate 

state, 563 

Peabody, on Christianity, 13 

on conscience, 257 

on will, 258 

Peace, unattainable on Romish view of 

justification, 481 

a fruit of justification, 481 

Pearson, John, 26 

on Christ's preaching to the dead, 386 

Peccatum alienum, imputed according 

to Federal theory,.. 325 

Pedobaptists, as holding and propagat- 
ing false doctrine, not admissible to 

Lord's Supper, 550 

their errors, Arnold on, 550 

guilty of schism, 550 

think themselves baptized, statement 

replied to, 553 

Pelagianism denies doctrines of grace 
as rationalism refuses to accept 

primitive truths, 50 

accepts nothing as * given,' but must 

work out a salvation for itself, 50 

its theory of imputation, 310-313 

its view of Rom. 5 : 12, 311 

on human nature, 311 

Dorner's view of, 311 

unformulated and sporadic, 311, 312 

contradicts Scripture, 312 

what it denies,.. 312 

Schaff on, 312 

involves an Ebionitic view of Christ,. 312 

tends to rationalism, 312 

rests on false philosophical principles, 312 
Neanderon, 312 



Pelagianism ignores law by which acts 

produce states, 312 

denies existence of character, 312 

Thornwellon, 313 

Pelagius, a creatianist, 250 

his view of sin, 310 

onRom.5:12, 311 

on grace, simply grace of creation, . . . 311 
Penalties, divine, not vindictive but 

vindicative, 139 

Penalty, what? 139 

a consequence of sin, 350-355 

the idea of, 350 

not essentially reformatory, 351 

not essentially deterrent and prevent- 
ive, 351 

the actual, of sin, 352 

immanent demand for, in God's holi- 
ness, 390 

a substitute for, distinguished from a 

substituted penalty,.. 403 

cannot be inflicted for security of 

government, 403 

its object the vindication of justice,. . 416 
Penitence, recognizes need of repara- 
tion and expiation, 418 

Penitent, Christ the great, 400 

Penruddock, Nigel, in 'Endymion,' on 

Satan's personality, 223 

Pentateu ch, authorship of, 81 

"Wellhausen on, 81 

Kuenen on, 81 

W.Robertson Smith on, 81 

its Mosaic authorship defended, 81, 82 

if Moses is chief author, its inspiration 

not invalidated, 113 

Pepper, Pres.,on contingent knowledge, 135 

on a divine plan, 171 

on divine volition, 174 

on the union of God's will and man's 

will, 210 

on moral law, 275 

Percept, what? 5 

'Perfect,' as applied to godly men, 296 

Perfection, in God, power of self -limi- 
tation essential to it, 6 

and attributes therein involved, 125 

involves truth, love, and holiness, 126 

of individual and church, reached in 

world to come, 554 

Perfectionism, 488 

list of writers on, 488 

objections to, 488 

rests on wrong views of law, 488 

rests on wrong views of sin, 489 

rests on wrong views of will, 489 

contradicted by Scripture, 489 

confounds imputed, with inherent, 

sanctification, 490 

how best met, 490 

some of its greatest advocates have 
not claimed perfection for them- 
selves, - 490- 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



675 



Permanent states, each faculty has, 257 

our comparative unconsciousness of, 283 
Permissive providence, its character,.. 209 

Perowne, on Psalm 96 : 10, 199 

onPsalmlW, 203 

Persecutions, set on foot by govern- 
ment against early Christians, 90 

Perseverance, human side of sanctifi- 

cation, - 483 

definition of , - 491 

doctrine of, proved from Scripture,.. 491 

doctrine of, proved from reason, 491 

a necessary inference from other doc- 
trines,. 491 

accords with analogy, 491 

implied in assurance of salvation, 491 

rests on divine determination to keep 

saints, 491 

Christian trusts God's purpose for, . . . 492 

objections to doctrine of, 492 

not inconsistent with human freedom, 492 

does not tend to immorality, 492 

is in holiness, 492 

does not lead to indolence, 492 

doctrine of, a strong incentive to be- 
liever, .. 492 

doctrine of, not opposed by Scripture 

commands and warnings, 492 

of righteous, secured by Scripture 

commands and warnings, 493 

general doctrine of, list of authors 

on, 493 

Persevere, belie vers freely,.. 492 

Persians, ancient, repudiated images, . . 120 
Persius, on impossibility of creation 

out of nothing, 187 

Person, what? 45, 122, 376, 377 

'Person,' in doctrine of Trinity, only 

approximately accurate, 159 

Person, how he can be given in differ- 
ent measures, 156 

Person and character of Christ, as proof 

of revelation, 89-91 

Person of Christ, the natures in, illus- 
trative of inspiration, 102 

the doctrine of, 360-380 

historical survey of views respecting, 360 
the two natures in, their reality and 

integrity, 364 

the union of two natures in the one, 368 
Personal, identity, dependent on mem- 



ory. 



intelligences, their existence cannot 

be explained by pantheism, 56 

identity, inexplicable on theory of 

continuous creation,.. 206 

wrongs, rule as to their forgiveness 

among men does not apply to God,. 418 
influence, often distinct from word 

spoken, 454 

Personality, defined, 45, 122, 37(5, 377 

of God, not proved by teleological 

argument, 44 



Personality of God, the conclusion of 

the anthropological argument, 45-47 

of God, denied by pantheism, 55 

the highest, dependent on infinite- 

ness, 57 

its nature, 121 

various definitions of, 122 

self-conscious and self -determining, . 122 
in Godhead, consistent with essential 

unity, 160 

what is meant by, 262 

various definitions of , 262 

inalienable, 262 

only obscured by insanity, 262 

involves boundless possibilities,. 262 

the foundation for love between men, 262 
constitutes a capacity for redemp- 
tion,. 262 

Satan possesses, 264 

definitions of, 377 

in Christ, illustrations of, 377 

' Personifying,' substituted by Mill for 

Comte's term 'theological,' 272 

Persons of Godhead, have a numerical 

unity of nature or essence, 160 

Peshito Version, 73 

Pessimism, 200 

remedy for, 200 

Petavius, 25 

Peter, how he differed from Paul, 103 

Romanist claims with respect to, 507 

Christ gave no supreme authority to, 507 
if he had supreme power, could not 

transmit it, 507 

his being at Rome not conclusively 

proved, 507 . 

no evidence that he appointed bishops 

as his successors, 507 

was he founder of Roman church ? .. 507 

Peter, First, 3 : 18-20, discussion of, 386 

Peter, Second, genuineness of, 73 

not referred to by Apostolic Fathers, 74 

probable history of, 76 

evidences of its genuineness, 76 

Peter Lombard, first great systematizer 

of Western Church, 23 

on the Cross as a mouse-trap for Satan, 408 

Peter Martyr, 24 

denied image of God to women, 268 

Peter the Hermit, 213 

Peyrerius, on Adam as descended from 

a black race, 239 

Pharaoh, his heart, how hardened, 210 

judicially forsaken by God, 210 

he hardened his own heart, 210 

God could only harden, 220 

Phenomena, definition of, 4 

can we know only?. 4 

Philemon and Onesimus, as an illustra- 
tion of pardon, 419, 420 

Philippi, his idea of faith, 3 

his illustrations of God's providential 
dealings with evil, 220 



676 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Philippi, on the relations of the doctrine 

of Satan to sin, 333 

on man's original state, 261 

on Adam's moral state at creation,... 364 
on Dorner's view of the union of the 

natures in Christ, 374 

on the Fall, 303 

on human nature in Christ, 377 

on objections to a religious doctrine,. 418 
Philippians 3 : 6-8, a detailed examina- 
tion of, 384 

Philo, and the Apocrypha, 80 

his Logos-idea not foundation of 

John's doctrine of the Logos, 153 

on preexistence of soul,. 348 

declares faith in immortality, 561 

Philosophy, defined, 33 

Phinehas, how he 'made propitia- 
tion,' 403 

Phrases indicating common authorship 
of Revelation and Gospel of John,... 75 

Physical, science, rests on faith, 3 

freedom, what ? 177 

death, 306, 307, 353-354, 554-563 

Physician's prescription, an illustration 

from, 10 

Physico-theological argument,... 43 

Physiological change due to new con- 
ditions, instances of, 343, 343 

Physiology, comparative, does not show 
man's body to be developed from 

lower animals, 335 

argument from, in favor of unity of 

human race, 341 

Pickering, on eleven human species or 

one, 341 

Pictet,....: 34 

Pictures of Christ, Luther on, 131 

objections to, 131 

Pilgrims, landing of, referred to, 107 

'Pillours of eternity,' Spenser, 134 

Placeus of Saumur, 34 

his theory of mediate imputation, 335 

objections to his theory, 327 

Plasticity of species, originally greater, 343 

Plato, his cave, an illustration, 15 

on man's duty to be good or to kill 

himself, 58 

his reference to a 'divine communi- 
cation,' 59 

and Xenophon, their accounts of 

Socrates, 70 

his view of morality, 88 

on truth in God,.. 136 

on fountain of efficiency, law, and 

virtue, 143 

his view of intuitive ideas, 348 

his argument for the immortality of 

the soul from its preexistence, 348 

on the preexistence of soul, 348 

on the body the 'tomb of the soul,'.. 390 

on sin, 301 

on derivation of sin, 301 



Plato, his argument for immortality, 

Cicero on, 557 

Pliny, his letter to Trajan, 91 

on the Christian religion, 92 

on Christian hymns chanted to Christ 

as God, 150 

Plumptre, on €7repwTi7/xa, 455 

on titles of bishop and presbyter in- 
terchangeable, 509 

Plural form, common with Hebrews,.. 152 
Plural number, never used by Christ in 

referring to himself, 369 

Pluralis majestatictis, 152 

Plurality in Godhead, passages in Old 

Testament which teach, 152 

Plurality of elders, in certain New Tes- 
tament churches, 510 

Plutarch, his personification of law,... 276 

on heathen worshipers, 297 

on God, the brave man's hope, 433 

Pocket baptismal and communion ser- 
vices, without warrant, 505 

Poesy and poem, contrasted, 473 

Poetry, a forward or backward-looking 

prophecy, 269 

echoes longing for some possession 

lost, 269 

Polanus, on God's method of creating 

souls, 350 

Polity, church, 494-519 

Baptist, ' best for good people,' 504 

Poly carp, his evidence, 73, 74 

Polytheism, what? 135 

held to one supreme Fate, 135 

the element of truth in, 168 

Pomeroy, onlaw, 375 

Pompadour, Madame, and Marie An- 
toinette, their fates contrasted, 556 

Pools of modern Jerusalem, their di- 
mensions, 523 

Pope, Alexander, his ridicule of the 
doctrine that all things were made 

forman'suse, 43 

on the hidden perfection of nature,.. 314 

Pope, W. B., on <ra P £, 390 

on universal depravity, 399 

Porter, his view of intuition, 39 

on existence of God the basis of in- 
duction, 33 

on original perception, 53 

his definition of personality, 123 

calls space and time correlates to be- 
ings and events, 130 

on Maine de Biran's theory of causa- 
tion,.. 203 

on the possibility of the spirit of man 

possessing lower powers, 246 

on volition, 259 

his definition of personality, 377 

Positive, philosophy, what implied 

in? 4 

. predicates of God, possible, 6 

testimony, outweighs negative, 71 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



677 



Positive, proofs, that the Scriptures are 

a divine revelation, 73-94 

law, just and lasting- when a republi- 
cation of law of nature, 274 

enactment, in form of general moral 

precepts, - - 279 

enactment, as ceremonial or special 

injunctions, - - --- 280 

enactment, to be supplemented by- 
law of being, - 280 

Positivism, its errors regarding theo- 
logical, metaphysical, and positive 

phases of thought, 272 

Possession, by demons,. 228 

not bodily or mental disease, 228 

may be physical, 228 

may be spiritual, 228 

Possibility of miracles, rests on the 
existence and personality of God,.. 68 

of theology, _ 2-9 

Postulates required by a correct ex- 
planation of universe, 51 

Pott, opposes Miiller's theory of lan- 
guage, 240 

Potwin, on atonement, 401 

on governmental theory of atone- 
ment, 404 

Power, God's, its impress on the uni- 
verse, Dante on, 123 

'Power to the contrary,' what it was in 

Edwards's view, 317 

Pragterist interpretation of revelation,. 

....68,570 

Praxeas of Rome, his view of Trinity,. 158 
Prayer, relation of providence to,... 215-219 
can God answer, consistently with 

fixity of natural law? 215 

Tyndall's assertion about, 215 

its effect, more than reflex influence 

on petitioner, 215 

not a mere spiritual gymnastics, 216 

answers to, not confined to spiritual 

region, 216 

not answered by the suspension or 

violation of order of nature, 216 

not linked by physical relation to its 

answer, 216 

may be answered by to us unknown 

combinations of natural forces, 216 

moves God, 217 

answers to, may be the result of pre- 

arrangement, '. 217 

answers to, list of authors on, 217 

is its relation to its answer capable 

of scientific test? 218 

may be tested as a father's love may 

be tested, 218 

answers to, attested by history and 

experience, 218 

connected with its answer by God's 
will, which can have no physical test, 218 

a reflection of Christ's words, 218 

the work of God's Spirit, 218 



Prayer, impulse to, evidence of Christ's 

intercession for us in heaven, 424 

Prayer-book, English, Arminian, 24 

on infant baptism, 538 

Prayer-book of Edward VI, immersion 

in, 525 

' Prayer-gauge, ' Tyndall' s 218 

Prayers, Christian, full of divinity of 

Christ, 150 

Preaching, doctrinal sermons, 11 

may, with Scripture, assume exist- 
ence of God, ... 37 

doctrine of decrees, proper method of, 181 
of organic unity of race, does not 

neutralize appeals to conscience,... 338 
should first treat individual trans- 
gressions, 348 

regards elect and non-elect, 434 

must press duty of immediate sub- 
mission to Christ, 461 

of everlasting punishment, not a hin- 
drance to success of gospel, 599 

Precedent, New Testament, the 'com- 
mon law' of the church,.. 546 

Preconf ormity to future event, 42 

Precursors of Christ's second coming,.. 

569-571 

Predestinated, not pre-necessitated, 176 

Predestination, its nature, 172, 428, 429 

Prcdicata, distinguished from attri- 
butes, 117 

Predicate, when without and when with 

the article in Greek, 145 

Predicates of God, certain are positive, 6 
Prediction, only a part of prophecy, 67, 388 

not essential to science, 218 

Preestablished harmony, of Leibnitz, . . 52 
Preexistence of Christ, remembered by 

him, 249 

Preexistence of human soul, theory of, 248 

ancient and modern advocates of, 248 

Talmudist view of, 248 

idea of, in modern poetry,. 248 

element of truth at basis of theory, . . 248 

objections to the theory, 248 

contradicts Mosaic account of crea- 
tion, 249 

no memory of act done in, 249 

sheds no light on origin of sin, but 

increases difficulties, 249 

sinful act done in, does not explain 

inherited sensual sin, 249 

Miiller's view of the extra-temporal 
act committed by individual there- 
in, 249 

Kahnis on, 250 

Preference, immanent, what? 257 

'elective,' of New School, 288 

Premises, finite, cannot yield an infinite 

conclusion, 36 

Preparation, historical, for redemp- 
tion, 358-360 

negative, in history of heathen world, 358 



678 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Preparation, positive, in the history of 
Israel, 359 

Preparatives to the completeness of 

the kingdom of God, 554 

Prerequisites to participation in Lord's 

Supper, 546-553 

Presbyter, one deposed for publishing- a 

pretended work of Paul, 74 

identical with pastor or bishop, 509 

Presbyterianism, its practical evils, 509 

Prescience, divine, not pre-determina- 

tion, 133 

not causative, 133 

Presence, of Christ with his people, 

what? 387 

of God, a he to the sinner, . . 452 

Presentative intuition, what ? 27 

of God, not impossible, 37 

the normal possession of humanity,. . 37 
enjoyed by unfallen man, occasion- 
ally by the saints, and to be the 

blessing of heaven, 37 

Preservation, definition of, 202 

distinguished from creation, 202 

a positive agency, 202 

upholds properties and powers of 

matter and mind in actual exercise, 202 
doctrine of, its proof from Script- 
ure, 202 

doctrine of, its proof from reason,... 203 

required by God's sovereignty, 204 

a mean bet ween two extiemes, 204 

theories which virtually deny, 204 

midway between deism and continu- 
ous creation or pantheism, 206 

Pretermission of sin, limited in dura- 
tion, 422 

justified by the Cross, 422 

Preventive providence, 209 

Pride, what? 293 

essence of sin, according to Augus- 
tine and Aquinas, 293 

'Priest,' and 'minister,' how distin- 
guished, 544 

Priest, High, breast-plate of , 424 

Priest, pastor is, only as every Christian 

is, 510 

' Priesthood, the, a chronic disorder of 

the human race,' 499 

Priestley, his idea of inspiration, 95 

on nature of virtue, 142 

Priestly office of Christ, 390-424 

continues forever, 422 

Primitive rules not applicable now, 

this statement replied to, 552 

Principles, intuitions of , 29 

Principles of evidence applicable to 

proof of divine revelation, 69-71 

Priority, logical, of the idea of God, ... 33 

not necessarily superiority, 166 

Prison at Philippi, probably provided 

with a tank, 523 

Probability, a guide of life, 39 



| Probability of miracles rests upon the 
belief in God as a moral and benevo- 
lent being, 64 

Probation after death, should apply to 

infants, 357 

Dorner on, 385, 566 

theory of, refuted, 590-592 

theory of, a result of denying proba- 
tion of race in Adam, 592 

Probation in Adam, 335 

Procession of the Holy Spirit, views of 

Greek and Latin churches on, 155 

consistent with equality in Trinity,.. 164 
as applied to Spirit, an approximate 

term, 165 

Prodigal, an illustration of essential 

principle of sin, 295 

'Produces,' more than 'precedes,' 450 

Progress, in theology, of what sort, 19 

of early Christianity, effected by hu- 
manly insufficient means, 90 

supposed, from stone to bronze and 
iron implements, not supported by 

later investigations, 271 

Prolegomena, 1-28 

idea of theology, 1-13 

material of theology, 14-19 

method of theology, 20-28 

Prometheus, legend of, a prediction of 

the true Redeemer, 394 

Promise of tempter, its nature, 295 

Promises, faithfulness and goodness in 

relation to, 138 

Proof of divine revelation, principles 

of evidence applicable to, 69-71 

Prophecies useful in time of persecu- 
tion, 112 

Prophecies uttered by Christ, 68 

Prophecy, as attesting a divine revela- 
tion, 67 

definition of, 67 

relation of, to miracles, 67 

requirements in, 67 

general features of , 67 

different kinds of, 68 

its double sense, 68 

like Japanese pictures, 68 

u nf ulfilled, its purpose, 69 

fulfilled, its evidential force, 69 

supposed errors in, as an objection to 

inspiration, Ill 

errors in interpreting, arise from con- 
founding drapery with substance, 

or from misapplication, Ill 

modern, in what sense true, 389 

new, self -condemned, 389 

Prophet, not always aware of meaning 

of his own prophecies,. 68 

his later utterances, may elucidate 

earlier, 111 

is his soul rapt into God's timeless ex- 
istence?.. 131 

meaning of the word, 388 



IKDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



679 



Prophet, any organ of divine revela- 
tion, or medium of divine commu- 
nication, --. 388 

Prophetce primes, why so called, 388 

Prophetic office of Christ, 388 

its nature, 388 

its stages, -■ 388 

three methods of fulfilling, 388 

work of Christ, four stages of, 388 

his preparatory work as Logos, 388 

his earthly ministry, as incarnate, 389 

his guidance and teaching of the 

church since his ascension, 389 

his final revelation to his saints in 
glory, 389 

Prophets, personal surmises of, not 

necessarily correct, — Ill 

in what sense Christians are, 389 

Proprietates, distinguished from attri- 
butes, 117 

Proselyte-baptism, its existence among 

the Jews, 521 

silence of some ancient authors re- 
garding, - - - 521 

Protevangelium, contained germinally 
the whole truth of Scripture, 84 

Providence, doctrine of, 207-220 

definition of, 207 

is a f or-seeing as well as a f ore-seeinf, 207 

distinguished from preservation, 207 

all-comprehending, 207 

embraces all natural influences which 
prepare for operation of word and 

Spirit, 207 

its character in respect to evil acts,.- 208 

list of authors on, 208 

Scriptural proof of,.. 208 

involves control over universe, 208 

over physical world,. 208 

over brutes, 208 

over nations, 208 

over man's birth and life, 208 

over seeming accidents, 208 

over seeming trifles, 208 

protects the righteous, 208 

answers pra yer, 208 

exposes and punishes wicked, 208 

involves a government of free actions, 209 

preventive, 209 

permissive, 209 

directive, . 210 

determinative, 210 

rational proof of, 210 

proof a priori of, 210 

from immutability of God, 210 

from benevolence of God,. 210 

from justice of God, 211 

heathen ideas of, 211 

heathen behoved in a general rather 

than in a particular, 211 

proof a posteriori of, 211 

from outward lot of individuals, 211 

from moral order of world, 211 



Providence, theories which oppose the 

doctrine of,. 211 

fatalism substitutes fate for, 211 

casualism substitutes chance for, 212 

its existence proved as that of a God 

is proved, 213 

merely general, theory of a . 213 

particular, denial of, is a form of de- 
ism, 213 

Cicero and Jerome on, 213 

merely general, arguments against 

the theory of, 213 

general, involves particular, 213 

particular, historical instances of, 213 

prepares way for conversion, 214 

particular, prompted by love, 214 

pai'ticular, essential to religion, 214 

particular, believed in on emergen- 
cies, 214 

particular, belief in, grounded on in- 
tuition, 214 

particular, confirmed by Christian 

experience, 214 

particular, confirmed by answers to 

prayer, 214 

in life of Luther,. 214 

in life of Judson 214 

prepares way for conversion, 214 

doctrine of, its relation to miracles 

and works of grace, 215 

particular, God makes use of natural 

laws in,. 215 

special, what ? 215 

special, and miracles, not to be con- 
founded, 215 

special, naturalistic view of,. 215 

doctrine of, opposed to naturalism,.. 219 

made personal by Holj^ Spirit, 219 

doctrine of, its relation to prayer and 

its answer, see Prayer, 215-219 

doctrine of, its relation to Christian 

activity, 219 

doctrine of , is not quietism, 219 

doctrine of, is not naturalism, 219 

doctrine of, its relation to evil acts of 

free agents, 220 

permissive, distinguished from acts 

of efficient causation, 220 

regulates evil decision which man has 

himself made, 220 

compels persistent iniquity to glorify 

God, 220 

Providential government, a general, 

Scriptural proof of, 208 

Providential interferences, divine, mat- 
ters of fact, 205 

'Providential miracles,' 61, 215 

Prudential committee, its function, 517 

Psalm 8, its fulfillment, 385 

Psychical change, accompanied by phy- 
sical change, 52 

Psychology, determines the creation of 
the soul to be immediate, 234 



680 



IKDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Punishment, conscience predicts, 46 

does not proceed from love, 129 

proceeds from justice, 139 

idea of it, 350 

a vindication of justice, 350 

not essentially reformatory, 351 

not essentially deterrent and pre- 
ventive, 351 

does not remain for the Christian, 354 

its nature, 410 

an ethical need of the divine nature,. 410 

an ethical need of human nature, 410 

of guilty, Christ's penal sufferings 

substituted for, 410 

Christ can justly bear, because he in- 
herited guilt, 412 

omission of, by God, would be virtual 

approval of sin, 418 

justification is remission of, 474 

upon the ground that Christ bore our, 476 

future, doctrine of, 588-600 

future, is not annihilation,.. 588 

future, excludes new probation and 

ultimate restoration of the wicked, 590 
future, declared by Scripture ever- 
lasting-, 592 

everlasting, not inconsistent with 

God's justice, 594 

reaction of divine holiness against its 

moral opposite, 594 

just and right in itself , 594 

f uture never spoken of in Scripture 

as chastisement, 595 

future, has its reason not in divine 
benevolence but in divine holiness, 595 

endless, since its reason is endless, 595 

endless, since ill-desert is endless, 595 

inflicted by men, not endless, because 

they do not take account of God,.. 595 
capital, the human penalty which ap- 
proaches nearest the divine, 595 

eternal, founded on eternal sin, 595 

endless, since sin is endless, 595 

of sin, if just at all, may continue as 

long as sin exists, 595 

final, not for acts but for character,.. 596 
future, even apart from outward tor- 
ment, has its source in conscience,. 596 
future, of wicked, approved by their 

consciences,.. 596 

increasing and unending in a future 
state, explicable on principles ob- 
servable even now, 596 

future, infinite in duration yet admits 

of degrees, 596 

future, not at each instant infinite 

pain, 597 

and sin, idea of disproportion between, 

grows out of belittling of sin, 597 

everlasting, not inconsistent with di- 
vine benevolence,.. 597 

not necessarily a means of attaining 
some higher good, 597 



Punishment, vindication of holiness its 

primary and sufficient object, 597" 

in this life, not always remedial, 597 

of one incorrigibly impenitent person, 
wrong, if punishment of a number 

is wrong,... 598 

inflicted by law, its execution required 

by general good of universe, 598 

everlasting, an everlasting proof of 

sin as moral suicide, 598 

and sin, if their temporary existence 
not inconsistent with God's benevo- 
lence, their eternal not, 598 

eternal, its infliction causes God sor- 
row, 598 

eternal, preaching of, not a hin- 
drance to success of gospel, 599 

eternal, if true, should be preached,. 599 
eternal, evil results of ignoring it in 

pi-eaching, 599 

eternal, fear of, though not the high- 
est, yet a proper, motive, 600 

eternal, not less but greater than the 
physical pains used to symbolize it, 600 
Punitive purposes of God, men made 

their foretellers and executioners,. 109 
'Purchase,' its Scriptural meaning as 

applied to Christ's work, 429 

Purgatory, doctrine of, connected with 
idea that punishment yet remains 

for the Christian, 354 

arises from Romish view of justifica- 
tion, 481 

growth of the doctrine of, 565 

Hume's simile regarding, 565 

the true, only in this world,... 565 

Purification, ritual, of Christ, fcl5, 529 

Puritans, their mistake in reenacting 

Mosaic code, 280 

their sense of the divine purity,. 287 

Purpose of God, includes many decrees, 171 

in election, what? 172 

in reprobation, what? 172 

to save individuals, passages which 

prove, 428 

to do what he does, eternal, 430 

to save, not conditioned upon merit or 

faith, 430 

Pythagoras, on the importance of a di- 
vine authority in teaching duties, . . 58 

his conception of morality, 88 

believed himself charged with a divine 

mission, 91 

Qualifications, for baptism, 530 

for church membership, 500 

for communion, 546 

of a presbyter or pastor, 509 

of a deacon, 509 

Qualities, necessarily imply substance,. 4 
only in substance have a ground of 

unity, 4 

Quantitative plural, a Hebrew usage 
signifying unlimited greatness, 152 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



681 



Quasi carcere, Christ not thus in heaven, 386 
Quatrefages, on the monogenistie doe- 
trine, 341 

Quenstedt, his theological position, 24 

Hover's estimate of him, 24 

his definition of holiness,- . 128 

criticism thereupon, 128 

his classification of the works of God. 183 
held the antecedent probability of the 

existence of angels, 221 

on the ground that nature never pro- 
ceeds per saltum, 221 

his interpretation of Christ's giving 
up the kingdom to the Father as 
merely an exchange of outward ad- 
ministration for inward, 379 

on union with Christ, 438 

on justification producing no intrin- 
sic change in its object, since it is 

outside of mauin God, 480 

Questioning of God's word, followed by 

contradiction of it, 100 

Quia voluit, of Calvin, not the final 

answer as to God's operations, 199 

Quickening, Christ's, 385 

distinguished from his resurrection,. 385 

Quietism, defined, 219 

the errors into which its advocates 

have often run,.. 219 

its misunderstanding of 2 Chron. 16 : 

12, 219 

Quintus Curtius, 419 

Quirinius and his enrollment, 108 

Quit-rent, illustration from, 306 

Quo non ascendam? not the motto of 

Christ, 417 

Quoting the O. T., supposed errors in, 

an objection to inspiration,.. 110 

Race, Scriptures trace its descent from 

a single pair, 238 

its descent from a single pair, at the 

foundation of Pauline doctrine, 238 

its descent from a single pair, the 

ground of natural brotherhood, 238 

its descent from a single pair, corrob- 
orated by history, 239 

human, descended from a source in 

Central Asia, list of authorities on, 239 
its common origin supported by phi- 
lology, 240 

its unity proved from psychology, . . . 240 
its unity proved from physiology, . - . 241 
Race-experience, of Spencer, not a 

source of the idea of God, 34, 35 

Race-responsibility, recognized in God's 

moral go vernment, 309 

based upon an original and conscious 

act of free-will, 310 

in which the race as an organic whole 

revolted from God, 310 

Race-sin, what? 310 

Rahab's faith, not her duplicity, ap- 
proved, 108 



Railway rules, illustrate law of God,... 278 
Raising the dead, attributed to Christ,. 147 

Ramus, Petrus, 24 

Ransom, its meaning as applied to 

Christ's work, 420 

Rational intuition, what?. 29 

of God, possessed by men, 37 

of God, obscured by loss of love, 37 

Rational intuitions, enumeration of , _ . . 29 

Rationalism, and Scripture, 16 

its teachings,.. 16 

its errors, 16 

is it an ' over-use of reason ' ? 16 

refuses to accept primitive truths, 
just as Pelagianism refuses to ac- 
cept doctrines of grace, 50 

the form in which Pelagianism be- 
comes complete, 312 

Rationalistic, theologies, 24 

theory of the origin of the Gospels, 

unscientific, 76 

Rationalists, accept nothing as 'given,' 
but seek to work out all knowledge 

by reasoning, 50 

Rationality , acting for a reason, 176 

Rawlinson, on the Catacombs, 90 

on absence of negroes in Egyptian 

monuments before 1500 B. C, 243 

on failure to find traces of savage fife 

in cradle of the race, 271 

Raymond, his objection to government 

by plan, 175 

on the image of God as consisting in 

mere personality, 264 

his views on justice and grace, 315 

inconsistent in his application of the 

term 'grace,' 315 

on possibility of a child growing up 

into regeneration, 318 

Readings, various, their number, value, 

and origin, considered, 107 

Real freedom, what? 177 

Realism, its extreme teachings in rela- 
tion to God to be avoided, 117 

extreme, tends to idealism, 117 

moderate, true of organic things, 329 

Realist, in what sense the author is 

one, 329 

Realistic conception of original sin, 27 

Reality of Christ's humanity, 364, 365 

Reason, definition of, 3 

is not reasoning, 16 

in its large sense, its office towards 

religion, 16 

moral, depraved by sin, 256 

says scio, judgment says conscio, 256 

knows, never con-knows, 256 

Reasoning, distinguished from reason,. 16 

not a source of the idea of God, 35 

supposed errors in, an objection to 

inspiration, 109, 110 

Jewish methods of, sometimes sanc- 
tioned in Scripture, 110 



-682 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Rebellion, feeling in the country at 

breaking out of the, 214 

Reception of Christ, involved in faith,. 465 
Recollection, apparent, of things not 

before seen, explained, 348 

memory greater than, 383 

Reconciliation, the removal of God's 

wrath towards man, . 392 

of man to God, through the work of 

the Holy Spirit, 426-493 

objective, secured by Christ's union 

with race, 444 

subjective, secured by Christ's union 

with believer, . 444 

as restoration to favor, 475 

Redemption, 'settled in heaven,' 141 

and resurrection, what is secured by 

them, 269 

wrought by Christ, 358-425 

its meaning, 391 

legal, of Christ, its import, 415 

its application, 426-493 

application of, its three stages, 426 

application of, in its preparation, 426 

application of, in its actual beginning, 436 

application of, in its continuation, 483 

fromSheol, 560 

Redi's maxim, 101 

Reformed theology, 23, 24 

Reformers, Augustinians, 329 

Refutation of idealism, by Sir William 

Hamilton,.. 53 

Regenerate, some who are apparently, 

will fall away, 492 

and those seemingly so, not certainly 

distinguishable in this life, 492 

their fate, if they should not perse- 
vere, set forth in Scripture, 493 

their perseverance may be secured by 

these very warnings, 493 

Regeneration, illustrative of inspira- 
tion, 102 

ascribed to Holy Spirit, 151 

its nature according to the Romanist, 267 
possibility of education into, accord- 
ing to Raymond, 318 

conversion, and justification, their 

order, 436 

and conversion, their relations,... 437-447 
coming through participation in 

Christ, Calvin on, 438 

doctrine of, 447-460 

its nature, 447 

Scripture representations of, 448 

indispensable to salvation, 448 

a change in inmost principle of life,.. 448 
a change in heart or governing dis- 
position, 448 

a change in moral relations of soul,.. 448 
a change connected with truth as a 

means, 448 

an instantaneous change, 448 

secret, and known only by results, ... 448 



Regeneration, a change wrought by 
God, 449 

a change accomplished through union 

of the soul with Christ, 449 

necessity of, shown from rational 

considerations, 449 

necessity of, implies its possibility,... 449 

Cicero's use of term, 449 

its em cient cause, 450 

three views of its effi cient cause, 450 

human will as efficient cause of, 450 

is solely the act of man, objection to 

the viewthat, 450 

is the act of man cooperating with 
divine influence applied through 

truth, objections to view that, 451 

truth is its efficient cause, objections 

to view that, 452 

immediate agency of Holy Spirit its 

efficient cause, 453 

Spirit's agency in, accompanied by 

instrumentality, 453 

any change wrought in, must be on 

soul, not on truth, 453 

Spirit comes in contact with soul, 453 

inward unsusceptibility must be re- 
moved, 453 

God's power in, acts not upon the 

truth but upon the sinner, 453 

no change in intensity of the truth 
will secure a recognition of its 
beauty, apart from a change in the 

moral disposition, 453 

influence of the Spirit in, operates di- 
rectly on heart, in conjunction with 
presentation of truth to intellect,.. 453 
differs from ' moral suasion,' in being 

an immediate act of God, 453 

its primary and secondary features, . . 454 
the initial exercise of the new dis- 
position in, secured by truth as 

means, 454 

truth in, ' brings forth,' rather than 

'begets,' 454 

a result of truth ' energized ' or 'in- 
tensified,' view that, list of authori- 
ties on, 454 

view that Spirit operates directly on 

soul in, list of authorities on, 454 

instrumentality in, 454 

instrumentality in, not baptism, 454 

baptism a sign of , 454 

and baptism, different aspects of same 

fact, 454 

the spiritual change in, incongruous- 
ly connected with physical means,. 454 
according to Scripture, and accord- 
ing to Disciples,.. 455 

as an activity accomplished through 

truth, 455 

Holy Spirit illuminates mind in, 455 

man passive in, only as to change of 
his ruling disposition, 455 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



683 



Regeneration, man active in, as to ex- 
ercise of new disposition, 455 

man not a machine in, 455 

man's activity in, an activity in view 

of truth, 455 

change of disposition and its initial 

exercise, strictly synchronous, 455 

Cunningham on man's activity and 

passivity in, 456 

illustrated from photography, 456 

instrumentality of truth in, denied by 

some, 456 

of infants, probably somehow con- 
nected with truth, 456 

nature of change wrought in, 456 

not a change in substance of body or 

soul, 456 

a change in the governing disposition 

or in the direction of the affections, 457 
not impartation or infusion of a new 

substance, 457 

the enlightenment of the understand- 
ing and rectification of the volitions 

not primary facts in, 457 

a restoration of tendencies lost in the 

Fall, 458 

an instantaneous change, 458 

not a gradual work, 458 

its preparation may be gradual, 458 

its recognition may be gradual,. 458 

its ordinary antecedent, conviction of 

sin, 458 

must not be confounded with sancti- 

fication, 459 

immediate, its enjoyment progressive, 459 
its immediateness, illustrations of,.-. 459 

not a matter of training, 459 

takes place in a region of soul below 

consciousness, 459 

work of God in, never directly per- 
ceived, 459 

contravenes no law of man's being,.. 459 
spiritual existence communicated in, 

known only by phenomena, 459 

conversion and sanctification its evi- 
dences, 459 

recognized indirectly in its results, . . . 459 
at the moment of, soul only conscious 
of its exercises with regard to truth, 459 

its human side, conversion, 459 

sanctification the development of 

principle received in, 459 

an efficient act of God, 479 

relation to sanctification, 484 

baptismal, rule of interpretation to 
be applied to passages which seem 

to teach, 531 

credible evidence of, its nature, 533 

Regent's Park Church, London, some 
of its deacons unbaptized in any 

form, 548 

Regnum, glories, 424 

gratice, 424 



Regnum naturae, of Christ, denied by 

Julius Muller, 424 

Regularity, the general order of inor- 
ganic nature, 43 

Reid, Thomas, on duration, 131 

on space, 132 

Reid, William, on Plymouth Brethren- 
ism, 499 

'Reign,' of sin, its import, 284 

Reinhard, his theological position, 24 

Rejection of Christ, by those who have 
enjoyed special divine influences, 

fearful consequences of, 493 

Relations, of God to universe, subjects 

for science, 2 

of natural and Scriptural theology, . . 15 

intuitions of, 29 

Relative, explanation of term as applied 

to attributes, 120 

Relative justice of certain acts and 

deeds, 108 

Relative or transitive attributes, 

....118-120,130-140 

Relativity, doctrine of, originates with 

Kant, 6 

Religion, its relation to theology, 11 

its definition, 11 

its derivation, 11 

false conceptions of,. 11 

views of Hegel, Schleiermacher, and 

Kant, 12 

its essential idea, 12 

there is but one, 13 

its content greater than that of the- 
ology, 13 

inferences from definition of, 13 

distinguished from formal worship, . . 13 
capacity for, possessed by man, by 

virtue of his humanity, 32 

in China, a survival of the worship of 

the patriarchal family, 86 

Indian systems of, 87 

Greek systems of, 87 

systems of Western Asia, — 88 

beginning of, an acceptance of God's 

end as ours, 198 

the theory of its progress from fetich- 
ism to polytheism and monothe- 
ism, 271 

true, what it is, 445 

true, fills heart and life with God, 448 

human systems of, make salvation 

effect of human work, 481 

Religions of the world, book-religions, 60 
heathen, purer from polytheism, as 

we go back, 272 

Religious books, of Hindus, Persians, 

and Chinese, inconsistent, 84 

Religious feeling, in contact with super- 
sensible reality, not the original 

source of idea of God, 34 

Religious truths, are too emotional for 
science, statement that, 8 



684 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Religious truths, are incomprehensible, 
and therefore incapable of scientific 

arrangement, statement that, 8 

are unsystematic, and therefore in- 
capable of scientific arrangement, 

statement that, 8 

Remission of punishment, an element 

of justification, 474 

comes after repentance, 482 

Remorse, perhaps an element in Christ's 

suffering-s, 420 

Renan, his faith,.. 32 

his theory of the Gospels, 79 

animus of his theory, disbelief in the 

supernatural, 79 

his theory examined,.. 79 

Renouf, on pantheism, 56 

on a papyrus relating to creation, 185 

on the Egyptian approaching the 

European type, 243 

on resurrection and judgment in the 
Egyptian Book of the Dead,.... .580, 582 
Reparative goodness of God in nature, 

a hint of his mercifulness, 49 

Repentance, more for sin than for sins, 286 

the gift of God, 430 

its three constituents, 462 

an intellectual element in, 462 

includes a recognition of sin, 462 

a recognition of facts, 462 

an emotional element in, 462 

includes sorrow for sin, 462 

a voluntary element in, 462 

includes an inward turning from sin 

and disposition to seek pardon, 462 

Romanist view of, 463 

Romanist view of, remits culpa, but 

retains to an extent poena, 463 

wholly an inward act, 463 

manifested by confession of sin, 463 

manifested by reparation for injury, 463 
to be distinguished from its fruits,... 463 

a negative condition of salvation, 463 

furnishes no offset to claims of law,.. 463 

felt by penitent to have no merit, 463 

the gift of God, 463 

only exists in conjunction with faith, 464 

learned at the Cross, 464 

preaching of, a preaching of faith,... 464 

true, involves faith, 464 

and faith, connected in conversion as 
sensation and perception in con- 
sciousness, 464 

the general subject of, list of authors 

on, 464 

Reprobation, its relation to decrees in 

general, 172 

decree of , its nature, 434 

Reproduction, its cessation in future,. 554 

Requirements in prophecy, 67 

Requisites to the study of theol ogy, 20 

Respice, aspice, prospice, of Bernard, 
applied to prophet's work, 388 



Responsibility, for inherited evil affec- 
tions and state of will, its ground,.. 258 

for whatever springs from will, 288 

for a depraved nature which one did 
not personally or consciously origi- 
nate, 308 

is special gift of Spirit essential to ?.. 315 
what essential to, according to Ray- 
mond, 317 

for a sinful nature which one did not 

personally originate, a fact, 335 

none, for tendencies from immediate 

ancestors, 336 

for beliefs, authors on, 467 

Restoration to favor, an element in 

justification,. 475 

Restoration, ultimate, of all human 

beings, theory of , 590 

Restorationist, Church of Rome practi- 
cally, 565 

Results, historical, of propagation of 

Scripture doctrine, 91-94 

Resurrection, not an event within the 

realm of nature, 62 

of Christ, the central and sufficient 

evidence of Christianity, 66 

of Christ, dilemma for those who deny, 66 
of Christ, Strauss cannot explain be- 
lief in, 77 

of Christ, attested by Epistles which 

Baur regards as genuine, 79 

of Christ, Renan counts it a pious 

fraud, 79 

Christ's argument for, in Mat. 22 : 32, 

109, 561, 562, 577 

a divine work attributed to Christ,... 147 

attributed to Holy Spirit,.... 150, 151 

of Christ, angels present at, 227 

of Christ, gave proof that the penalty 

of sin was exhausted, &53 

a stage in Christ's exaltation, 385 

proclaimed Christ as perfected and 

glorified man, 386 

of Christ, the time of his justifica- 
tion, 416 

secured to the believer by union with 

Christ,. 445,446,482 

its relation to regeneration, 457 

of Christ, prepared by his holiness,. .. 487 

sanctification completed at the, 489 

of Christ and of the believer, baptism 

a symbol of, ....527-530 

implied in the symbolism of the 

Lord's Supper, 542 

Christ's body an object of worship 

after the,. 545 

an event preparing for the kingdom 

of God,. 554 

allusions in the O. T. to, 561 

of Christ, the best and only certain 

proof of immortality, 562 

carries with it the resurrection of his 
people, 562 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



685 



Resurrection, perfect joy or misery 

come only with the, 566 

doctrine of the, - ....575-580 

of the just, and of the unjust, 575 

passages describing a spiritual, 575 

passages describing a literal and phys- 
ical, - 575 

its relations to sanctification, 576 

the exegetical objection to, 576 

is a physical, not a spiritual, change,. 576 
of body, included in Christ's redemp- 
tion, 576 

of body, determined by nature of 

Christ's resurrection, 577 

of body, shown by accompanying 

events, 577 

the scientific objection to, 578 

not a resurrection of all particles of 

the old body,. 578 

does not require a single particle of 

the old to be in the new, 578 

Paul's illustration of , 578 

other illustrations of, 579 

what constitutes identity in, 579 

same formative principle in, 579 

same physical connection in, 579 

recognition of the body in, 579 

Porter and Dorner on identity in, 579 

powers and capacities of matter in, . . 580 
development of an organ for the 

spiritual life, McCosh on, 580 

spirit master of matter in the, Ebrard 

on,. 580 

influence of, upon joy or suffering, .. 588 

Retaliation, permitted by Moses, 108 

Return of Jews, predicted, 68 

Reuben, his sin visited on his chil- 
dren, 338 

Revealed truths, because unsystematic, 
not incapable of scientific arrange- 
ment, 8 

Revelation, idealistic notion of, 7 

Morell's definition of, 7 

induces a new mode of intelligence, . . 7 

an external, possible, 7 

furnishes objective facts for science,. 7 

illustrated from Egyptology, 8 

in nature, not enough for sinner, 15 

in Scripture, supplemental to that in 

nature, 15 

the objective truth made known in 

Scripture, 15 

God submits to its conditions, 18 

Kant's view of, 24 

from God, reasons a priori for ex- 
pecting, 58 

man needs it, 58 

needed, psychological proof, 58 

needed, to throw light on certain 
truths which are not given in reason 

orintuition, 58 

gives confirmation and authority to 
natural truths, 58 



Revelation presents the merciful and 
helpful aspects of the divine nature, 58 

needed, historical proof, 58 

needed on account of increasingly 
imperfect knowledge of religious 
truths, 58 

need of, proved by man's condition, . 58 

need of, proved by condition of help- 
lessness in some nobler natures, 58 

presumption that it will be sup- 
plied, 59 

God's wisdom affords a presumption 
that it will be given, 59 

a fuller, expectation of, justified by 
imperfect revelation in nature, 59 

a presumption in favor of its provis- 
ion from the general connection of 
want and supply, 59 

hope of, justified by analogies of na- 
ture and history, 59 

a priori reasons for expecting, induce 
a hope rather than an assurance, ... 59 

man may expect, marks of, 60 

the later will confirm and enlarge the 
knowledge of God derived from 
nature, 60 

will follow divine procedure in other 
communications, 60 

in nature, analogous to revelation in 
grace, 60 

likely to follow method of continu- 
ous historical development, 60 

likely to be delivered in first place to 
one nation and to individuals there- 
in, 60 

likely to be preserved in written and 
accessible documents, 60 

likely to present evidence that its 
author is the God of nature, 60 

requires divine attestation to assure 
original recipient, and to give it au- 
thority in eyes of others, 60 

a divine, miracles as attesting, 61 

in Scripture, consistent but progress- 
ive, 84 

distinguished from inspiration and 
illumination, 95 

sometimes excluded illumination, 100 

Revenge, what? 293 

■ Reversion to type,' man never experi- 
ences, 236 

Review, Catholic, on infant baptism,... 538 
Review, Mercersburg, on infant bap- 
tism, 538 

Reville, on the best book for a lifelong 

imprisonment, 85 

Revilleut, his explanation of differing 

numbers, 107 

Revulsion, the, of the divine nature 

against sin, its intensity, 140 

Rewards, earthly, appeal to in Old Tes- 
tament, 108 

proceed from goodness of God, 138 



686 



index of subjects. 



Rewards, not "bestowed by justice or 

righteousness, 139 

goodness to creature, righteousness 

to Christ, 139 

are motives, not sanctions, 274 

Bhadamanthus, generally believed in,.. 557 

Rhys Davids, on Nirvana, 87 

Richards, on Calvin as a teacher of uni- 
versal atonement, 436 

Richter, Jean Paul, his 'Dream' of a 

fatherless world, 57 

on beam of light entering dark and 

dusty chamber, 384 

Ridgeley, Thomas,. 36 

Right, abstract, not the ground of 

moral obligation, 143 

self-willing, God is, 163 

based on arbitrary will, is not right,. 163 
based on passive nature, is not right,. 163 

as being, is Father, 163 

as willing, is Son, 163 

Righteous, final state of the, 585-587 

Righteousness of God, what ? 138 

holiness in its mandatory aspect, 138 

its meaning in 3 Cor. 5 : 31, 415 

an attribute which demands that sin 

should be punished, 416 

Rig Veda, on creation, 185 

Rites and ordinances, prefigure the fu- 
ture, 68 

Ritschl, on atonement, 400 

Robertson, F. W., alluded to, 18 

his methods of study, 30 

his definition of personality, 133, 377 

his analogy of Trinity, 167 

on Trinity under figure of personal- 
ized intellect, affection, and will,... 168 

on chaos before creation, 187 

on irrevocableness of deeds, 383 

on atonement, 400 

on truth of fact, and ideal truth, 478 

on faith alone justifying, but not 

faith that is alone, 487 

his view of baptismal regeneration,.. 533 

Robinson, Dr. E. G., on sin, 395 

his definition of nature, 377 

Robinson, John, his saying, 18 

his farewell address to Pilgrim Fa- 
thers, 105 

Romaine, on ' a year famous for believ- 
ing,' 318 

Romance-theory, of Renan, 79 

objections to, 79 

Romanism, and Scripture, 17 

a mystical element in, 17 

Romanist, view of the image of God in 

man, i 365 

definition of sin, 389 

view of mortal and venial sins, 347, 348 

view of Christ's quickening and res- 
urrection, 385 

view of faith,.... 466 

view of Lord's Supper, 543 



Romans, first chapter, Brahmin's view 

of, 85 

3 : 35, 36, exposition of , 411 

5 : 13, Pelagian view of , 311 

5 : 13, Arminian interpretation of, 314 

5 : 13, Whedon'sviewof, controverted, 316 
5 : 13, New School interpretation of,.. 318 

5 : 13, Federal interpretation of, 333 

5 : 13, interpretation of, according to 

Mediate theory,. 336 

5 : 13, its interpretation according to 

theory of Natural Headship, 338 

5 : 13-19, detailed exposition of, 331 

8 : 38-30, exegesis of, 438 

9 : 5, a description, not a doxology,... 145 
its subject, righteousness by faith, or 

salvation by faith, 460 

treats of both justification by faith 

and sanctification by faith, 460 

Roscelin, his theological position, 33 

Rothe, on the divine attributes, 116 

on God's knowledge increasing,... 134, 135 

on God'spower, 136 

his view of creatianism, 351 

his view of sin, 389 

his view of the union of the divine 

and human in Christ, 373 

Rousseau, on his sins, 398 

Rowland Hill, anecdote of, 434 

Royce, and Hegel, difference of their 

views, 55 

Rxickert, quoted, 39 

Ruskin, John, on condemnation for 

the 'undones,' 348 

on a nation's life like a lava-stream,. 343 

Sabbath, its importance, 301 

of perpetual obligation, 301 

in Assyrian accounts of creation, 301 

antedates Decalogue,.. 301 

indications of, long before Mosaic 

legislation, 301 

rule, applies to man as man, 301 

what abrogated in relation to, 201 

its change from seventh day to first,. 201 

Jewish and Christian, contrasted, 201 

list of authors on, 201 

seventh-day view, authors on, 202 

Sabellian doctrine of Trinity, 158 

Bushnell's view resembles, 158 

unscriptural, 158 

Sabellianism, list of authors on, 159 

Sabellius, 158 

Sacrifice, its institution, 308, 393 

not the presentation of a gift, 393 

not a symbol of renewed fellowship,. 394 
not offering of life and being of wor- 
shiper, 394 

its true import is satisfaction by sub- 
stitution, 394 

theocratical and spiritual offices of,.. 394 
though without formal inculcation, 

may possess divine sanction, 396 

how it may have originated, 396 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



687 



Sacrifice, doctrine of, assumed in N. T., 397 
James's silence on, argument from,.. 397 

Maurice's view of,... 397 

Jowett's opinion on, - 397 

Sacrifices, Jewish, a tentative scheme 

of, 395,396 

for the individual,... 396 

for the family, 396 

for the people,. - 396 

Sacrifices of Old Testament, what in- 
volved in, 395 

patriarchal, were sin-offerings,. 395 

Sacrificial, work of Christ, 390-422 

analogies of atonement, 392 

language of N. T., not an accommoda- 
tion to Jewish methods of thought,. 397 

Sadduceeism, of first century, 77 

Sadducees believed that souls die, 562 

Saints, prayer to, a misconception and 

blasphemy, 424 

how intercessors ? 424 

as applied to believers, its meaning,.. 490 

new bodies of, confined to place, 586 

Saisset, on the pantheist's God, 56 

Sakya Muni, = Buddha,.. 87 

Sales, Francis de, 17 

Salisbury use, as to baptism, 525 

Salvation, decreed to faith, 179 

not through violation of law, 278 

by grace, without merit on our part, 

without necessity on God's, 282 

Arminian order of,.. 316 

possible, apart from visible church 

and means of grace, 357 

how a matter of debt to believer, 405 

no impropriety in offering it to all 

who are willing to receive it, 435 

dependent not on quantity but on 

quality of faith, 482 

not bought, but taken, 482 

is the health of the soul, 484 

Samaritan Pentateuch, its testimony to 

Old Testament, 80 

Samaritans, received Pentateuch only, 

why? 80 

Sameness, of a river, in what it consists, 579 

of the living body, in what it consists, 579 

Sanctification, an efficient act of God,.. 479 

doctrine of, 483-490 

divine side of perseverance, 483 

definition of, 483 

a work of God,.. 484 

a continuous process, 485 

distinguished from regeneration as 

growth from birth, 485 

accompanied by mortification of sin 

and increasing obedience to Christ,. 485 
effected by indwelling Spirit of Christ, 485 

not by believer's efforts, 486 

its instrumental cause, faith, 486 

the object of this faith is Christ, 486 

depends on strength and persistence 
of faith, 486 



Sanctification, progress of, irregular,.. 486 

never completed in this fife, 486 

of soul, completed at death, 486 

of body, completed at resurrection,.. 486 
complete, never asserted of saint, in 

Scripture,.. 489 

complete, apostolic admonitions in- 
consistent with, 489 

complete, doctrine of, not warranted 

by USe Of Te'Aeios, 489 

complete, is denied of any man by 

Scripture, 489 

complete, disproved by Christian ex- 
perience, 490 

complete, doctrine of, list of authors 

on, 490 

'Sanctified,' as applied to believers, its 

meaning, 490 

'Sanctified intellect,' what? 16 

' Sanctify, ' its twofold meaning, 490 

' Sanctify,' sometimes cannot be under- 
stood subjectively,.. 477 

Sanctifying faith, its object, Christ, 486 

the reception of Christ himself, 486 

Sartorius, his illustration of the one 

personality in Christ, 377 

his illustration of unchanged divinity 

in God-man, 383 

Satan, his personality, 223 

not a collective term for all evil be- 
ings, 223 

various literary conceptions of, 223 

his place in Biblical and in Oriental 

systems, 224 

meaning of term, 227 

opposed by Holy Spirit, the advocate, 228 

his temptations, negative, 228 

his temptations, positive, 228 

his access to human mind, its mode 

not known, 228 

perhaps influences mind through the 

physical organism, 228 

delivering to, what involved in, 229 

a special period of activity allowed 
him during the Savior's personal 

ministry,.. 230 

his power, limitations of, 230 

could he change his nature by a single 

act? 231 

would his wisdom have prevented his 

entering on a hopeless rebellion ?. . . 231 
his sin essentially sin against the Holy 

Ghost, 232 

doctrine of, its relations to the doc- 
trine of sin, 233 

his fall, 304 

his fall, its nature, 305 

must God bestow on him a ' gracious 
ability,' before he can be responsi- 
ble? 315 

would escape punishment, on reform- 
theory of penalty, 315 

grows in cunning and daring, 589 



688 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Satisfaction, required by God's holiness 

in atonement, 390 

by substitution, import of sacrifice,-. 394 
and forgiveness, that they are mutu- 
ally exclusive, answered, 418 

penal and pecuniary, how distin- 
guished, 418 

Romanist doctrine of,.. 463 

Saturninus, of Antioch, 189 

Savagery, was this man's original con- 
dition? 369-271 

Saving grace, regards men as sinners, 

not irrespective of their sins, 426 

Sayce, A. H., on a district in neighbor- 
hood of Baltic, as cradle of Aryan 

race, 240 

finds belief in absolute creation 

among the Babylonians, 185 

Scarlet thread of Rahab, was it sym- 
bolic?.... 110 

Scarlet thread through every rope and 
cord of British navy, illustration 

from, 400, 530 

Sceptical or fictitious narratives in 
Scripture, a supposed objection to 

inspiration, 113, 114 

Schaff, on Apostles' Creed, 23 

on the Pelagian controversy, 312 

Schiller, on * the very curse of evil deed,' 336 

on 'guilt the greatest of ills,' 345 

on the 'seeming' being fulfilled in 

heaven, 554 

Schism a ground of exclusion from 

Lord's Supper, 550 

Schleiermacher, his view of theology,.. 8 

his view of religion, 12 

his position in German theology, 12, 24 

on the divine attributes, 116 

on nature as the full expression of 

the divine causality, 136 

on Sabellianism, 158 

his view of the image of God, 264 

his view of sin, 289 

on eschatology as unfulfilled proph- 
ecy, 554 

Scholasticism, period of , 23 

Scholastics, their questions about an- 
gels, 221 

their opinion that the ' image of God ' 
in man consists simply in his natural 

capacity for religion, 265 

their views of man's original state, . . 268 

*School, New,' what?. 26 

its theory of imputation, 318-322 

'School, Old,' what? 26 

its tenet, the guilt of inborn deprav- 
ity, - 310 

what theories are, 310 

Schools, Old and New, their views of 

'choice,' and 'state,' 283 

their views of sin, 283 

Schopenhauer, his views, 43 

his pessimism, 200 



Science, definition of, 1 

its aim, 1 

when possible, 2 

requires a knowledge of more than 

phenomena, 4 

of God, our knowledge of, never ex- 
haustive, 19 

none complete, 19 

its necessary datum, the existence of 

a personal God, 33 

supposed errors in matters of, an ob- 
jection to inspiration,. 105-107 

physical, knows nothing of origins,.. 184 

Scientia media, 174,225 

does not belong to God, 174 

Scientia simplicis intelligentice, 174 

Scientia visionis, 174 

Scientific unity, desire for, has led to 
erroneous explanations of facts of 

universe,. 51 

Scio, and conscio, 256 

Scott, Sir Walter, anecdote of, 85 

Scott, Thomas, 18 

Scotus Erigena, 23 

on the divine nature, 116 

on asexuality of the first pair, 268 

Scribner, on life on earth originating at 

North Pole, 240 

Scripture, and nature, 14 

and rationalism, 16 

appeals to reason, in its large sense, . . 16 
contains nothing repugnant to a prop- 
erly conditioned and enlightened 

reason, 16 

and mysticism, 17 

and Romanism, 17 

knowledge of, incomplete, 18 

topics on which silent, 19 

teaching, supernatural character of, . 84 
unity of subjects, spirit, and aim in,. 84 
its moral and religious utterances un- 
contradicted and unsuperseded, — 84 
its moral and religious ideas, ever in 

advance of age in which proclaimed, 85 
its unity accounted for only by sup- 
position of supernatural suggestion 

and control,. 85 

teaching of, its supernatural char- 
acter proved by the testimony of 

Christ to himself, 91 

doctrine of, historical results of its 

propagation, 91 

doctrine of, its beneficent influence a 

proof of divine origin, 93 

each part must be interpreted in con- 
nection with the whole, 104 

its authors differ, the divine mind is 

one, 104 

in connection with the person and 
words of Christ, an infallible and 
perfect rule of faith and practice,.. 104 
no fairly interpreted passage of, 
Shown to be scientifically untrue,.. 106 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



689 



Scripture, sets before us the original or 

resurrection body, 269 

not a complete code of practical ac- 
tion, 280 

an enunciation of principles, 280 

much of it written not merely about 

but for, Christ, 365 

Scriptures, the, a revelation from God, 

58-114 

the work of one God, and so organic- 
ally articulated, 104 

why so many interpretations of, 106 

obscure and figurative to be inter- 
preted by plainer, 571 

Se moquer de la philosopMe, 9 

•' Sealing,' a view of, 462 

Sealing of the document affords an 
evidence plainer than the writing,.. 486 

Seal of the Spirit, what ? 469 

Seals, in book of Revelation, Alford's 

view of, 571 

Elliott's view of, 571 

' Season,' in Luke 4 : 13, the interval 
between the wilderness and Geth- 

semane, 366 

-Second causes, denial of, is idealism 

andleadsto pantheism, 55 

Second coming of Christ, see Coming, 

second, 566-574 

Secretan, on collective life in Adam,... 330 

Seed, natural and spiritual, 207 

Seelye, J. H., on civilization as depend- 
ent on Christian influence, 270 

Selection, implies intelligence and will, 

and cannot be merely ' natural,' 237 

natural, theory of, 236 

the final judgment, the culmination 

of a process of,. 583 

Selenology, an illustration, 2 

Sel f , abandoned in the Christian, 294 

Self-consciousness, in man, argues self- 
consciousness in man's maker, 45 

pantheism cannot explain, 56 

does God need a non-ego to call forth 

his? 57 

distinguished from consciousness, 

121,262 

the brute has it not, 235 

Self-contradictory things, not objects 

of knowledge, 135 

not objects of power, 136 

Self-determination, an element in per- 
sonality, 54 

a God without, pantheistic idea of, 

self-contradictory, 56 

distinguished from determination, 

121,262 

the brute hasitnot, 235 

Self -exaltation, a character of sin, 290 

Self -existence, of God, implies that God 

is causa sui, 123 

implies that God exists by necessity 

of his own being, 124 

4A 



Self -existence, attributed to Christ, 147 

Self-existent person, a less mystery 

than a self -existent thing, 123 

Self-limitation, all external limitation 

upon God is, 6 

perfection implies the power of, 6 

divine, involved in miracles, 64 

the perfection and glory of God, 64 

power of, involved in God's infinity,. 123 
not excluded, but implied, in omnip- 
otence, 136 

its culmination^ in the humiliation of 

Christ,. 382, 383 

Self-love, holiness is not God's, 128 

is primary cause of all moral action, 

according to N. W. Taylor, 293 

rather is sin, and the essence of sin,.. 293 

can never cast out self-love, 451 

Self-sacrifice, possible to God,.. 6 

Self -substitution, divine, as in prayer, 

so in atonement, 411 

Selfishness, the essence of sin, 293 

cannot be resolved into simpler ele- 
ments, 293 

forms in which it manifests itself, 293 

of unregenerate, the substitution of a 

lower for a higher end, 293 

Semi-parasitism, of Romanism, 18 

Semi-pelagian, view of nvev/xa as free 

from original sin,.. 247 

viewof human nature, 311 

Semitic race, uninspired productions 

of, contrasted with inspired, 60 

Seneca, 88 

praises death, 200 

on depravity, 297 

on man's dependence on God, 449 

his time most immoral, 4£0 

Sensation, materialistic idealism defines 

matter and mind in terms of, 53, 54 

Sensation and perception, relation of, 
illustrates relation of repentance 

and faith, 464 

Sense and reason, not concreatedly op- 
posed, _ 265 

Sense-perception and reflection, will 

not furnish us idea of God, 34, 35 

Sensibilities, not states of will. 288 

how may be regarded as voluntary,.. 288 

Sensibility, included in reason, 3 

and will, distinct, 178 

'Sensitizing' the photographic plate, 
analogous to Spirit's influence in 

regeneration, 456 

' Sensual,' = psychical, 244 

Sensuousness, theory of sin as, 289-291 

'Sentences, The,' of Peter Lombard,.. 23 

Sentimentality, its nature, 552 

Separation, of the soul from the body, 

= physical death, 306 

of the soul from God, = spiritual 

death, 307 

Septuagint, and the Apocrypha, 80 



690 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Septuagint, apparently false transla- 
tions from, explained, 110 

Seraphim, their signification, 324 

Serapion, on the care given to the for- 
mation of the Canon,.. 75 

Sermon on the Mount, do Matthew and 

Luke differ as to its scene ? 107 

Serpent, the, in Asiatic myths, 302 

Servant of righteousness, what? 258 

Service, final state of righteous, one 

of, - 585 

Session, at right hand of God, Christ's,. 386 
Seventh-day theory, its geographical 

difficulties,. 201 

Sexuality, the first sin, according to 

some Scholastics, 268 

Shakespeare, on the 'divinity that 

shapes our ends,' 211 

on ' this muddy vesture of decay ' con- 
cealing our higher nature, 382 

on the wish father to the thought, . . . 467 

Shasters, Hindu, unscientific, 105 

Shedd, William G. T., on God's two 

revelations, 14 

his theological position, 26 

on the brute not discerning God, 38 

on divine attributes, 117 

on God's compassion to the non- 
elect, .- 138 

his analogue to the Trinity, 167 

on sin costing God more than it has 

man, 181 

on difference between emanation and 

generation, 189 

on the Tridentine account of man's 

creation, 266 

on man evolving downward into the 

ape, 270 

on David's confession in Ps. 51, 299 

on 'nature,' 299 

on man's responsibility for his in- 
ability, 307 

on imputation of sins of immediate 

ancestors, 336,337 

on Pascal's view of original sin, 339 

on losing the talents, no release from 
obligation to return them with in- 
terest, 345 

on the Logos omnipresent even while 

incarnate, 383 

on substitution made entirely by the 

offended party, 417 

on 'foreknew,' in Rom. 8 : 28, 428 

on holiness expelling sin, 451 

on distinction between sorrow and 

shame, 462 

on the ' righteousness of God, ' 473 

on the error of the Perfectionist, 490 

on 'brimstone and fire,'.. 596 

Shelley, on an ' intellectual spirit per- 
vading the universe,' 32 

his drowning, 214 

Shintos, Japanese, repudiate images, . . 120 



Ship, God's purpose its anchor, repent- 
ance and faith its engines, 433 

Sick, the, who desire to commune, or- 
derly action in relation to, 551 

Sidgwick, cannot believe the conscious- 
ness of freedom illusory, 260 

' Signality,' an important element in the 

miracle, 62 

Silence of Scripture, disciplinary and 

probationary, 19 

Simeon, a type, 569 

Simon, D.W., on God's self-substitution 

in atonement, 411 

Sin, its permission, a difficulty of all 

theistic systems, 180 

its permission, how not to be ex- 
plained, 180 

deliverance from, possible without 

violation of moral agency, 180 

permitted, because an incident in a 
system adapted to the divine self- 
revelation, 180 

not preventable, doctrine that, list 

of authors who advocate, 180 

permitted at a great cost to God, 187 

its permission, list of authors on, 181 

man's, that it was suggested from 
without, its mitigating circum- 
stance, 232 

a nature, in what sense? 263 

effect of first, not a weakening but a 

perversion of human nature, 265 

the first, did not merely despoil man 

of a special gift of grace, 265 

doctrine of,. 273-357 

its nature, 283-295 

definition of, 283-289 

Old and New School views of, main 

difference between, 283 

Old and New School views of, not far 

apart, 283 

brings body into non-conformity to 

God's law, 283 

non-conformity to God's law in dis- 
position or state, 283 

words for, do not limit it to act, 284 

New Testament descriptions of, refer 
principally to states or dispositions, 284 

of 'not doing,' sin of state, 284 

ascribed to heart, 284 

applied to state of soul which gives 

rise to wrong desires, 284 

represented as existing in soul prior 

to consciousness, 284 

alluded to as a reigning principle, 284 

proved by Mosaic sacrifices to be more 

than act, 285 

a state, according to common judg- 
ment of mankind, 285 

a state, according to the experience of 

the Christian, 286 

voluntary, as proceeding directly or 
indirectly from will, -- 288 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



691 



Sin, the definition of it as 'a voluntary 
transgression of known law,' dis- 
cussed, 288 

not all, a distinct and conscious voli- 
tion, - 288 

the first, did not spring- from a de- 
praved state of the will, 288 

intention aggravates, but is not es- 
sential to,. 288 

knowledge aggravates, hut is not es- 
sential to, 288 

ability to fulfill law not essential to,.. 288 

various definitions of, 289 

its essential principle, 289 

as sensuousness, the theory refuted,.. 289 

Schleiermacher on, 289 

is self-exaltation, 290 

sense-theory explains, by denying its 

existence, 291 

as finiteness, the theory refuted, 291 

Leibnitz on, 291 

as good in the making, 291 

rests upon a pantheistic basis, 291 

confounds sin with consciousness of 

sin, 291 

if in origin necessary, is no longer sin, 291 

positive as well as negative, 292 

not always weakness, 292 

not das Gewordene but das Gemachte, 292 
referred, in Scripture, not to man's 

limitations but to his free-will, 292 

Hegel's view of, denies holiness to 

Christ, 292 

as selfishness, theory of, accords with 

Scripture, 294 

a principle in course of development, 295 

not yet 'full grown,' 295 

universality of, 295 

committed by every human being 
who has arrived at moral conscious- 
ness, 296 

universality of, passages which seem 
to ascribe goodness to men, not in- 
consistent with, 296 

its universality demonstrated by cer- 
tain common maxims, 297 

absence of consciousness of, a proof 

of blindness, 298 

unconsciousness of, accounted for, .. 298 
all men have a corrupted nature 

which is, 299 

its universality proved from reason,. 300 
testimony of great thinkers regard- 
ing, 301 

its origin in the personal act of Adam, 302 
as to its origin reason affords no light, 302 

Scriptural account of its origin, 303 

Adam's, its essential nature, 304 

originated in an act of man's free will, 304 

inexplicable, because unreason, 304 

occasioned, however, by temptation 

from Avithout, 305 

self -originated, Satanic, 305 



Sin, consequences of, as respects Adam, 306 
Adam's, its imputation to his poster- 
ity, 308 

imputation of, see Imputation, 308-340 

consists in sinning, this view exam- 
ined, 310 

personal, consists in sinning, 310 

there is a race-sin as well as a person- 
al, 310 

evasive theories,. 310 

no theory wholly satisfactory, 310 

theories of imputation, 310-334 

Pelagian theory of, and objections, 310-313 
Arminian theory of, and objections, . . 

314-518 

New School theory of, and objections, 

318-323 

not all sin is personal,. 322 

there is also a sin of nature, of race,.. 322 
Federal theory of, and objections, 322-325 
Placean theory of, and objections, 325-328 
Augustinian theory of, and consider- 
ations favoring, ... 328-333 

tabular view of theories of imputa- 
tion, .... 334 

objections to Augustinian theory of, 

considered,... ..335-340 

may exist apart from and prior to 

consciousness, 335 

can we repent of Adam's ?. 335 

how it can properly be the punish- 
ment of sin, 337 

is reproductive, each reproduction 
increasing guilt and punishment, .. 337 

self -perpetuating, 338 

self -isolating, 338 

Adam's, ruins, as Christ's obedience 

saves, 339 

consequences of, to Adam's poster- 
ity, 340-355 s 

depravity, a consequence of, 340 

guilt, a consequence of, 345 

penalty, a consequence of, 350 

the unpardonable, 349,350 

against Holy Ghost, .349, 350 

Christ free, both from hereditary de- 
pravity and from actual, 365 

Christ ' made to be, on our behalf,' its 

meaning, 415 

its pretermission justified in the cross, 422 
its pretermission limited in duration, 422 
does not condemn, but failure to ask 

pardon for sin, 475 

judged and condemned on Calvary, .. 475 

future, the virtual pardon of, 482 

future, Edwards on justification from, 482 

'dwelling,' and 'reigning,' 484 

expelled, by bringing Christ in, 486 

cannot most sympathize with sin, 583 

shuts us out from communion/ with 

other intelligences and other V >rlds, 587 
eternal, final state of wicked a xmdi- 
tion of, ( 587 



692 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Sin, compelled in a future world to dis- 
play God's glory, 589 

chosen in spite of infinite motives to 

contrary,. 590 

'Sinful, yet not sin,' 318 

Sinful acts of men, attributed in Script- 
ure to a corrupt nature, 299 

Sinfulness, does not depend on distinct 

and conscious volition, 288 

nor on deliberate intention to sin, 288 

does not depend on knowledge of 

sinful act or feeling-, 288 

nor on ability to obey, 289 

Sinfulness, general, burnt-offering for, 285 

Sinless men, according to Pelagius, 311 

Sinner, the incorrigible, glorifies God 

in his destruction, 220 

not destitute of conscience, 341 

not devoid of qualities pleasing and 

useful to men, 341 

each, not prone to every form of sin, 341 
not as selfish and opposed to God as 

he can be, . 341 

totally destitute of love to God, 341 

chargeable with elevating some lower 

affection above God and his law, ... 341 
supremely determined by a prefer- 
ence of self to God, 341 

possessed of an aversion to God, both 

latent and active, 341 

disordered in every faculty, 342 

possessed of nothing which divine 

holiness can fully appro ve, 342 

subject to a law of constant progress 

in depravity, 342 

seeks to secure his own interests, 

rather than God's, 342 

disobeys fundamental law of love, 342 

his religious acts performed with no 

reference to God's glory, 342 

his inability total, 342 

unable of himself to turn to God, 342 

unable to do that which is truly good, 342 
cannot, by a single volition, secure 

complete conformity to God's law,. 342 
cannot change his fundamental pref- 
erence, 342 

cannot do anything which will meet 

God's approval, .. 342 

his inability ' natural,' as being con- 
genital, 343 

his inability, in what sense not 'na- 
tural,' 343 

his inability results from sin, and is 

sin, 343 

his inability is both natural and moral, 343 

is responsible for his inability, 343 

his inability shuts him up to sole de- 
pendence on God, 344 

under conviction, more of a sinner 

than before, 458 

has no right to do anything before 
accepting Christ, 483 



Sin-offering, its character, 395, 396 

Sins and sinfulness, Mosaic sacrifices 

for, list of authors on, 285 

of ignorance, omission, and general 

sinfulness, Mosaic sacrifices for, 285 

Sins, repented of, which were commit- 
ted without a thotight of their sin- 
fulness, 286 

sense of their evil increased, when 

recognized as rooted in sin, 339 

their awfulness perceived when re- 
garded as but symptoms of a deep- 
seated apostasy, 339 

venial and mortal, a classification 

unrecognized in Scripture, 347 

all are ' venial,' since Christ died for 

all, 347 

all unpardoned, are 'mortal,' 347 

Scriptural distinctions among, 348 

of omission and commission, an in- 
valid distinction, 348 

of believers, judged and condemned 

on Calvary, 478 

of believers, buried in grave with 

Christ, 482 

' Six hundred and sixty-six,' the mystic 
number in Revelation, its various 

interpretations, 570 

Skulls, of man and gorilla, the immense 
and absolutely vacant space which 

divides them, 236 

Slaveholders, inexcusable, even if negro 

was cursed in Canaan, 179 

Sleep, body rests in, rather than mind,. 283 

' Sleep,' how applied to death, 564 

'Slope, The,' Aristotle's doctrine of,... 301 

Smalley, his views on sin, 319 

Smith, Adam, his view of ground o 

moral obligation,. 142 

Smith, Goldwin, on prediction the 

crown of science, 218 

his denial of scientific method in his- 
tory, 218 

Smith, H. B., on Sir William Hamilton, 6 

on speculative theology, 22 

on the Cartesian formula, 31 

his criticism on Brougham's state- 
ment of Clarke's argument, 48 

on conscience, 257 

onEph.2:3, 300 

on the essential nature of Adam's sin, 304 

his view of the Fall, criticised, 305 

on race-responsibility, 309 

his review of Whedon, 316 

on originalsin, 326 

was he aPlacean? 326 

onEzekiell8, 337 

on the large part played by 'an or- 
ganic relation of men,' in the his- 
tory of the race, 339 

on ' total depravity,' 342 

on union with Christ, as preceding re- 
generation and j ustification, 437 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



693 



Smith, H. B., on regeneration, as in- 
volving-union with Christ, 449 

on regeneration of infants, - 456 

bases hope for heathen on sacrifice, . . 468 
on justification, as more than pardon, 476 
on union, the ground of imputation,. 479 
on an internal change, the sine qua 

non of justification, 481 

Smith, John, of Amsterdam, saying of, 105 

Smith, Joseph,. 17 

Smyth, Egbert C, on doctrine of Trin- 
ity, 144 

on thinkableness of ontological rela- 
tions of Trinity,.... 162 

Smyth, Newman, on idea of God as 

presupposed in revelation, 34 

on intuitive ideas, 35 

on natural selection, an election with- 
out pity, 431 

on matter belonging in succession to 

several bodies, . 578 

Society, according to Hobbes, helium 

omnium contra omnes,.. 233 

Society, final state of righteous one of, 585 
Socinian, view of the image of God,... 268 

view of sin, 289 

theory of atonement, 397 

theory of atonement, objections to,. 398 

Socinianism, 310 

Socinus, Faustus, 25,397 

Laelius, 25,397 

their views, 159 

Socrates, on men's doing right when 

they know what is right, 58 

on the desire to know with certainty 
how we ought to behave toward 

God and man,. 59 

accounts of, by Plato and Xenophon, 70 

not mentioned by Thucydides, 71 

his conception of virtue and morality, 88 

what he claimed, 91 

on thought, as the soul's conversation 

with itself, _. 168 

the doubting character of his final 
words in relation to immortality,.. 557 
Sola fides justificat, seel fides iwn est sola, 487 

Solly, on God and time, 131 

on positive precepts, only applica- 
tions of law of nature, 279 

Solomon, temple of, illustration from,. 2 

Song of, its interpretation, 109 

Song of, esteemed by many distin- 
guished Christians, 112 

4 Son,' its import in Trinity, 161 

Son, the, to God, a perfect object of will, 

knowledge, and love, 130 

his eternal generation, its nature, 165 

uncreated, 165 

his essence, not derived from essence 

of Father, 165 

his existence eternal, 165 

exists by an internal necessity of di- 
vine nature, 165 



Son, eternal generation of, not anal- 
ogous to physical derivation, but 
a life-movement of the divine 

nature, 166 

in person, subordinate to person of 

Father, 166 

yet in essence equal with Father, 166 

an object of love to Father superior 

to any possible creation, 190 

' Son of man,' connotes among other 

things a veritable humanity, 364 

Song of Solomon, its interpretation,... 109 

attestations to its religious value, 112 

' Sons of God,' Gen. 6 : 2, its meaning,.. 222 

Sonship of Christ, eternal, 164 

metaphysical, 165 

list of authorities on doctrine of, 166 

Sophocles, earliest manuscript of, 70 

Sophocles, E. A., On /3a7TTi'£a>, 522 

Sorrow for sin, an element in repent- 
ance, 462 

implies some confidence in God's 

mercy, 464 

Soteriology, or the doctrine of salva- 
tion, 358-492 

Soul, the unorganized, immutable part 

of brain? 52 

dichotomous view of, 243 

trichotomous view of , 244 

distinguished from spirit, 246 

Hovey's definition of, 246 

origin of the, 248 

theory of its pree'xistence, 248 

ancient and modern advocates of its 

pree'xistence, 248 

pree'xistence of, element of truth in, 248 

ideally existent before birth,. 248 

idea of its pree'xistence pervades 

modern poetry, 248 

objections to pree'xistence of, 248 

creatian theory of its origin, 250 

ancient and modern advocates of, 250 

objections to creatian theory of, 250 

according to new physiology, not 

something added from without, 250 

introduced into body, sicut vinum in 

vase acetoso, 251 

' metaphysical generation ' of, 251 

traducian theory of its origin, 252 

ancient and modern advocates of, 252 

considerations favoring traducian 

theory of, 252 

by Scholastics, called image of God 

proprie, 267 

always active though not always con- 
scious, 283 

may reach soul apart from use of 

physical intermediaries, 454, 579 

not inaccessible to God's direct ope- 
ration, 454 

as uncompounded, cannot die, 555 

is it essential to, that it should con- 
tinuously think? 566 



694 



IKDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Soul, immortal by virtue of its original 

creation, - 588 

'Soul' and 'spirit' used interchange- 
ably, passages in which, 344 

Souls, human, organically connected 

with each other, 313 

sinful, grow in their powers, 589 

Sources, of theology, 14 

supposed, of the idea of God, 34 

South, on Aristotle being but the rub- 
bish of an Adam, 268 

his illustration of Christ's humilia- 
tion, by a full fountain and little 

pipe, 383 

'Sovereign, the,' a title given to Mes- 
siah, 154 

Sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of 
one infinitely wise, loving and holy, 432 

Space, a creation of God, 131 

an objective reality to God, 131 

a relation, 132 

Space and time, their nature, 48 

relations of finite existence, 130 

'Space, in God,' the phrase explained,.. 132 
exists, whether mind perceives it or 

not, 132 

an a priori cognition of the reason,.. 132 

not a divine attribute, 132 

Spear, on atonement as a mere appeal, . 401 

Special legislation, baneful, 274 

Species, modification of, 192 

Huxley on modification of, 192 

majority of, probably the result of 

modification, 192 

man constitutes but a single, 241 

Wagner's definition of, 241 

human, if not one, how many? 241 

unity of human, presumptive evi- 
dence of unity of origin, 241 

law of originally greater plasticity 

of, 243 

human, propagated through second- 
ary agencies, 252 

created in Adam, 252 

Spectator, London, on the divine man- 
ifestation as intended for the sake 

of the creature, 197 

on Goethe's Mephistopheles as a con- 
ception philosophically false, 291 

Spencer, Herbert, his definition of 

knowledge, 5 

on underlying reality inconceivable,. 5 
on infinite and absolute Force and 

Cause, 5 

on absolute Being, 32 

how he differs from Comte, 32 

on inscrutable relation between mind 

and nervous action, 52 

on relation of mind and matter, 54 

his idea of God, 116 

his definition of life criticised, 121 

on retrogression being as frequent as 
progression, 270 



Spencer, Herbert, on a perfect man 

impossible in an imperfect race, 292 

Spencer, John, his theory of atone- 
ment, 393 

Spenser, his Canto of Immutability 

quoted, 124 

on angelic ministry, 233 

Spider, hatred of, not removed by mag- 
nifying it in a powerful light, 452 

Spider's web, saves Mohammed, 213 

Spi noza, on determinatio est negatio, 6 

his view of God, 48 

not 'the God-intoxicated man,' 55 

translated God into the universe, 55 

his doctrine of natura naturans and 

natura naturata, 136 

onsin, 291 

on Christ's intimate communion with 

God, 368 

Spirit, the Holy, his teaching needed to 

understand truths of Scripture, 15 

his teaching, what it is, 15 

works through the word, 17 

he hides himself , 103 

recognized as God, 150 

spoken of as God, 151 

attributes of God ascribed to, 151 

works of God ascribed to, 151 

honor due to God ascribed to, 151 

associated with God, 151 

of God, must be God, 151 

his divinity supported by Christian 

experience, 151 

deity of, doctrine of church, . 151 

deity of, not disproved by limitations 
under the Old Testament dispensa- 
tion, 151 

deity of, list of authors on, 151 

is a person, 155 

designations of personality given to 

him, 155 

'the mother-principle' in the God- 
head, 155 

so mentioned in connection with other 
persons as to imply his own person- 
ality, 156 

performs acts proper to personality,. 156 

affected by acts of others, 156 

possesses an emotional nature, 156 

manifests himself in visible form as 
distinct from, yet connected with, 

Father and Son, 157 

ascription to him of personal subsist- 
ence cannot be explained as person- 
ification, 157 

its import in Trinity, 161 

the centripetal action of Deity, 163 

and Christ, characteristic differences 

of their work, 164 

his nature and work, list of authori- 
ties on, 164 

Scriptures intimate an eternal proces- 
sion of, 165 



IKDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



695 



Spirit, the Holy, procession of, list of 

authorities on doctrine of, 155, 166 

if not God, God cannot be appropri- 
ated, 169 

work of completing- belongs to, 183 

a large part of his work an applica- 
tion of Scriptural truth to present 

circumstances, 219 

directs God-man in his humiliation,.. 377 

his intercession, 423 

his intercession illustrated, 424 

Dorner on its intermediacy, 437 

witness of, what? 468 

seal of, its nature, 469 

doctrine of, distinguished from mys- 
ticism, 469 

in believer, takes place of old sources 

of excitement, 485 

'Spirit,' and 'soul,' often used as con- 
trasted terms, ... 244 

distinguished from body, passages in 

which, 244 

passages in which distinguished from 

each other, 244 

'Spirit,' how applied to Christ, 161 

Spirit, human, distinguished from 

God's, passages in which, 244 

Spirits, evil, tempt, 228 

control natural phenomena, 228 

yet execute God's plans, 229 

their power not independent of the 

human will, 230 

their power limited by permissive will 

of God,.. 230 

now exist and act on sufferance, 230 

their existence said to be inconsistent 

with benevolence of God, 231 

organization among them said to be 

impossible, 232 

doctrine of, said to be immoral, 232 

doctrine of, said to be degrading, 232 

'Spirits in prison,' who? 385 

Lutheran view, 385 

Romanist view, 385 

sinners to whom the preincarnate 
Logos preached before the flood, . . 

385,386 

Bartlett's exposition, 386 

Spirits, pure, their modes of existence 

unknown to us,... 230 

Spiritual being or beings, existence of, 

generally recognized, 31 

'Spiritual body,' its meaning, 576 

Spiritual powers, belief in their exist- 
ence indirectly manifested, 32 

Spiritualism, 17, 66 

connection of demons with, 229 

Spiritualization of Scripture, undue,.. 110 
Spontaneity, an absurdity to Huxley,. 53 

Spontaneous generation, 191 

Spurgeon, on preachers, 10 

the position of his church with refer- 
ence to baptism and communion, . . 550 



Squier, his view of regeneration, 454 

on the deadening influence on the 
pulpit of an Antinomian depend- 
ence on the Spirit, 456 

Stael, Madame de, her idea of conversa- 
tion, 13 

Stahl, on Adam as the original matter 

of humanity, 340 

on Christ as God's idea of humanity,. 340 

on atonement, 394 

Stanley, A. P., as a commentator, 18 

on the spirit of human society over- 
riding the most sacred ordinances,. 526 

on baptism, 531 

Stapfer, alluded to, 12 

State, what, according to Old School, . . 283 

aright, required by law, 335 

State, of humiliation, Christ's, .380-384 

of exaltation, Christ's, 384-387 

final, of righteous, eternal life,.. 585 

of righteous, degrees of blessedness 

and honor in, 585 

of wicked, 587 

controlling element in, not the out- 
ward, but the inward, 587 

State, future, even saved souls suffer 

loss in, through sin,. 589 

future, probation and restoration in, 
passages on which theory founded, 590 

intermediate, 554, 562 

ultimate, of men,. 554 

States, permanent, of depravity, Script- 
ure references to,.. 286 

the two, of Christ,. 380-387 

Stearns, on the precise connection be- 
tween the first sin and after sins, . . 339 
on our ignorance of the method of 

atonement, 421 

Steffens, on thought in intermediate 

state an 'involution,' 566 

Stephens, on law providing legitimate 
satisfaction of the passions of re- 
venge, 352 

Sterility, of hybrid vegetables, denied 

by Meehan, 241 

Stevens, Prof. W. A., on 'holily and 

righteously,' in 1 Thess. 2 : 10, 140 

on rnxaprov, in Rom. 5 : 12, 331 

on 'iEnon near to Salim,' 524 

on 'destruction from' not = separa- 
tion, in 2 Thess. 1 : 9, ..559, 587 

Stevens, Thaddeus, alluded to, 269 

Stewart, Dugald, on a train of contin- 
gent events beyond divine fore- 
knowledge, 134 

Stewart, J. W. A., on God as scientific,. 126 

on union with Christ, its nature, 438 

illustrates the relation of regenera- 
tion to sanctification, 485 

Sting, insects who die when they plant, 

illustration from, 488 

Stoicism, 88 

Stokes, the trial of, 107 



696 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Stone, G. M., on Baptists pledged to 
prosecute work of Reformation,... 527 

Storr, 24 

Stourdza, De, on j8a7rri£u>, 525 

Strato of Lampsacus, his notion of the 

world, 44 

Strauss, 25 

his view of prophecy, 67 

his theory of origin of Gospels, 76 

a change in his views, 76 

his theory examined, 77 

on creation, 201 

on the ' image of God,' 267 

on nature as self-realization of divine 

essence, 281 

on Christianity as not universal, 385 

Streams, necessary to an Oriental gar- 
den, . 268 

'Street Arabs,' Tylor on, 271 

Stroud, on the physical cause of Christ's 

death, __ 399 

Stuart, Moses, on an immanent Trinity, 159 

on Arminius not an Arminian, . . 314 

a prasterist interpreter of Revela- 
tion,. 570 

Study of truth, urged by Scripture, 11 

Style, Herbert Spencer's principle of,.. 106 
of New Testament, proves it to be- 
long to Apostolic age, 74 

of Apocalypse, differs from that of 

Gospel of John, why ? 75 

Suasion, moral, view that Spirit exer- 
cises that alone in regeneration, 452 

Sublapsarianism, what? 426 

adopted by synod of Dort, 426 

Subordinationism, a true and a false, ... 166 

Substance, known, 4 

its characteristics, 4 

a direct knowledge possessed of it as 

underlying phenomena, 54 

with which God works, is evil and 

intractable, theory that, 188 

an intractable, in hands of God, ex- 
planation according to Mill of im- 
perfections of universe, 188 

Substances, theory of two eternal, 186 

maxim on whichit rests, 187 

unphilosophical, 187 

contradicts our fundamental notion 

of God's sovereignty, 187 

does not account for moral evil, 188 

' Substantia una et uniea,' 48 

Substitution, unknown to mere law,... 410 
satisfaction by, the requisite in atone- 
ment, 390 

satisfaction by, the meaning of sacri- 
fice, 394 

Suffering, in itself no reforming power, 591 
Sufferings of believers, fatherly chas- 
tisements, 555 

Sufferings of Christ, their intensity not. 

to be explained as merely histrionic, 404 
Sumter, Fort, shot fired at, 213 



Sun and sunlight, illustrative of rela- 
tion between Father and Son,. . .165, 166 
'Sunday,' used by Justin Martyr for 

'Sabbath,'. 73 

Sun-dial, illustration from, 34 

Supererogation, works of, 267 

Superior power, universal recognition 

of, 32 

Supernatural Religion, 65, 78 

Supper, Lord's, a historical monu- 
ment,... 77 

an adaptation of certain portions of 

Passover, 521 

symbolizes sanctifying power of 

Jesus' death, 529 

referred to as 'breaking of bread,'... 532 

doctrine of the, 538-553 

an ordinance instituted by Christ, ... 539 
could completely fulfil its purpose 

only after Christ's death, 539 

to be celebrated until Christ's second 

coming, 539 

uniform practice of N. T. churches,. 539 

mode of administering, 539 

its elements are bread and wine, 539 

Romanist wafer, unnecessary in, 539 

unfermented juice of grape may be 

employed in, 539 

communion to be in both kinds, 540 

wine withheld from laity in Roman 

Catholic Church,. 540 

Calvin, on ' all drink,' 540 

Bengel, on withholding wine from 

laity in, 540 

of a festal nature, 540 

a festival of commemoration, 540 

celebrated by assembled church, 540 

not observed in each family by itself, 540 
infant communion, forbidden in 

Western church, 540 

evening communion, forbidden by 

Roman church, 540 

solitary communion, forbidden by 

English church, 540 

death-bed communion, forbidden by 

Scottish church, 540 

responsibility of its proper adminis- 
tration, rests with church, 541 

may, in certain circumstances, be ad- 
ministered by one who is not the 

pastor, 541 

varieties in frequency of its adminis- 
tration, permitted by N. T., 541 

Carlstadt, his opinion as to its admin- 
istration, 541 

symbolism of, 541-543 

symbolizes Christ's death, 541 

symbolizes our personal appropria- 
tion of benefits of Christ's death,... 541 

symbolizes union with Christ, 541 

symbolizes believer's continuous de- 
pendence on Savior for spiritual 
life, 541 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



697 



Supper, Lord's, symbolizes reproduc- 
tion in believer of death and resur- 
rection of Christ, 542 

symbolizes union of Christians in 

Christ, - 543 

symbolizes coming joy of the king- 
dom of God, 542 

both retrospective and anticipatory,. 542 
and baptism, connected, as symbols 

of Christ's death,... 542 

to be often repeated, 542 

symbol of a previous state of grace, . . 542 
in what its special helpfulness con- 
sists, 543 

blessing in, dependent on faith of 

communicant, 543 

expresses primarily fellowship of be- 
liever with Christ, 543 

offences of brethren should not pre- 
vent observance of, 543 

erroneous views of, — 543-546 

Romanist view of, and objections 

thereto, 543 

terms which are unscriptural in con- 
nection with, 544 

not a sacrifice, 544 

Lutheran and High Church view of, 

and objections thereto, 545 

Christ's body not ubiquitous in, 545 

prerequisites to participation in,.. 546-553 

there are prerequisites to, 546 

enjoined only upon Christ's disciples, 546 
limited to a narrower body than pro- 
fessed believers, 546 

analogy of baptism, implies its limita- 
tion, 546 

prerequisites to, are laid down by 

Christ and his apostles, 546 

regeneration a prerequisite to, 546 

an old method of its administration 

in Greek church, 547 

baptism a prerequisite to, 547 

baptism instituted long before it, 547 

apostles who first celebrated it were 

probably baptized, 547 

Christ's command fixes baptism be- 
fore it, 547 

in all New Testament cases, baptism 

precedes, 547 

symbolism of the ordinances requires 

that baptism should precede, 547 

baptism placed before, in the stand- 
ards of almost all evangelical de- 
nominations, 548 

Presbyterians deny it to Friends, 548 

Wesley excluded dissenters from, be- 
cause unbaptized, 548 

that baptism should precede it, proved 
by practical results of opposite 

view, 548 

preceded by church-membership, 548 

a church ordinance, 548 

a symbol of church fellowship, 548 



Supper, Lord's, only believers organ- 
ized into a body were present at its 

first celebration, _'_.__ 549 

action of Panpresbyterian Council in 

regard to its observance, 549 

action of Old School General Assem- 
bly in relation to observance of, 549 

an orderly walk precedes, 549 

grounds of exclusion from, 549,550 

local church is to judge whether pre- 
requisites are fulfilled, 550 

command to observe it given to a 

company, 551 

observance of, the joint act of many, 551 
its regular observance requires action 

of some distinct organized body, . . . 551 
the local church the only N. T. body 

competent to care for, 551 

only observed at regular appointed 

meetings of local churches, 551 

analogy of the ordinances teaches 
that scrutiny of qualifications for, 

rests with local church, 551 

how administered in an orderly man- 
ner to the sick, 551 

Supralapsarianism , what ? 426 

is hyper-Calvinistic,... 426 

Surrender of the soul, involved in faith, 465 

S wedenb org, Emmanuel, 17, 389 

his treatment of Scripture, 100 

his anthropomorphism, 121 

held to emanation,. 189 

on the brutish man enjoying the hell 
to which he has confined himself, . . 591 

1 Symbol, ' derivation and meaning, 21 

Sj'mbol is less, not greater, than thing 

symbolized, 588 

Symbolism of Baptism, 527-530 

of Lord's Supper, 541-543 

Symbolism, period of, 23 

Symbolum Quicumque, 159 

excellence of its definition of Trinity, 160 

Synagogue, its relation to church, 503 

Synoptic Gospels, written before de- 
struction of Jerusalem, 74 

'Synthetic idealization of our exist- 
ence,' Comte's definition of religion, 293 

Synthetic method of theology, 27 

Syracuse, N. Y., conduct of a murderer 

during trial at, 347 

System of theology, a dissected map, 
some pieces of which are already 

puttogether, 9 

Systematic theologian, first, John of 

Damascus, 23 

Systematic truth, influences character, 9 

Tabernacle, a type of Christ, 110 

with its three divisions, according to 
Luther, a symbol of tripartite 

man, 247 

Table of topics, in our treatment of 

theology, 28 

Tabula rasa, theory of Locke, 35 



698 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Tabular view of theories of imputation 

of Adam's sin, 334 

Tacitus, his reference to the Christians, 91 

on the Christian religion, - 92 

on hating those whom we have in- 
jured, 293 

his uncertainty as to the future state, 557 
Talbot, on metaphysics dealing with 

realities, 20 

on the nature of will, . 259 

Talmud, shows what unaided Hebrew 
genius for religion could produce,. 60 
boldest transcendental flight in the,.. 365 
on appointment of a ruler in syna- 
gogue, 503 

Tapeinoticon, genus, 370 

Tatian, of Assyria, 189 

his evidence on genuineness of John's 

Gospel, 75 

Taylor, Sir Henry, his words replied to, 199 
Taylor, Isaac, on not quiescence, but 

acquiescence, 219 

on the Creator of the carni vora, 188 

Taylor, Jeremy, on the way of 'best 
understanding the doctrine of the 

Trinity,' 170 

Taylor, John, his views of continuous 

creation, 205 

Pelagian, rather than Arminian, 314 

Taylor, N. W., on value of metaphysics, 20 

his theological position, 26 

on man's supreme end, 142 

on existence of moral evil, 180 

on self -love, 293 

on infants as related to moral gov- 
ernment of God,. 300 

on Ephesians 2 : 3, 300 

his views on imputation of Adam's 

sin, 319 

his views examined, 319 

his \iews on regeneration, 451 

Taylor, Wm. M., his illustration of the 
attitudes of Paul and James in their 

writings, 472,473 

Teaching and ruling, gifts of, belonged 

to same individual, 510 

* Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' 79 

on the church electing its own officers, 505 

on mode of baptism, 525 

its date, 536 

contains no reference to infant bap- 
tism, _ 536 

Tea-kettle, according to Spencer's defi- 
nition, might be called alive, 121 

Teleological argument, what ? 42 

limited to nature, 42 

called by Kant, physico-theological,. 42 
its major premise a primitive convic- 
tion, 42 

its minor premise a working princi- 
ple of all science, 43 

its defects, . 44 

cannot prove a personal God, 44 



Teleological argument, cannot prove 

righteousness in God, 44 

requires anthropological argument 

as supplement, 44 

cannot prove unity, eternity, or in- 
finity of God, 44 

its value 44 

proves intelligence, 44 

a step in advance of the cosmological 

argument, 45 

Teleology, its etymology, 42 

Telephone, illustrates Christ's second 

coming, 568 

Temporal judgments, passages describ- 
ing, 581 

Temporal power of Pope, its abolition 

an alleged sign of Christ's coming,. 571 
Temptation, providential deliverance 

from, 209 

may only confirm in virtue, 305 

has in itself no tendency to pervert, . 306 

Adam's, its course and result, 302 

Adam's, Scriptural account of, 302 

Adam's, contrasted with that of 

Christ, 306 

in wilderness and Gethsemane, their 

specific difference, 366 

Temptation of Christ, 365, 366 

as possible as that of Adam, 365 

aided by the human limitations of his 

knowledge, 365 

Christ recognizes Satan only at its 

close, 365 

aided by his susceptibility to all forms 

of innocent desire, 365 

' Ueberglaube, Aberglaube, Unglaube,' 

appealed to, 365 

in wilderness, addressed to desire, 366 

in garden, addressed to fear, 366 

aided by his capacity of feeling fear,. 366 

always 'without sin,' 366 

in or after the severest temptation, 

never prays for forgiveness, 366 

Temptations of Satan, 228 

Tempter's promise, its nature? 295 

Tendencies, from immediate ancestors, 

no responsibility for, 336 

Tendency-theory, of Baur, 77 

its presupposition, 78 

objections to, 78 

Tendency, undeveloped, illustrated, ... 470 

Teneo, Teneor, 491 

Tennyson, on the divine complexity, . . 116 
on the babe unconscious of personal- 
ity, 234 

on the first Paradise, 268 

on 'baseness in the blood,' 301 

on 'a crime of sense, avenged by 

sense,' 337 

on human systems of thought, 389 

on love never losing its own, 562 

Terminology, invention of, a condition 
of scientific progress, 18 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



699 



Terms of Old Testament, to be inter- 
preted in New Testament meaning-, 559 
Terrien de Lacouperie, finds the key to 

the Th-King of China, 340 

Tertullian, his credo quia impossibile 

est,.. 18 

references of, to New Testament 

books, 73 

his boast of progress of Christianity,. 91 

a traducian, 252 

on a delay of resurrection in faulty 

Christians, - 565 

Testament , Old, genuineness of, 80 

its value in relation to New, 104 

alleged errors, in quotation or inter- 
pretation, 110 

sources of such allegations, 110 

its intimations of Trinity, 152 

its teachings as to immortality, 561 

Testament, New, genuineness of, 72-80 

its moral system, 86 

its morality of divine origin, 86 

its writers claim and show inspira- 
tion, 96,97 

an unerring and sufficient rule of 

faith and practice, 502 

Testimony, science presupposes faith 

in, 2 

amount of, necessary to prove mir- 
acle, 64 

principles of, 70 

positive, outweighs negative, 71 

of witnesses, credit due to, 71 

of New Testament to Old, 80 

of Jews, to Old Testament, ._ 80 

Testimonies, of Fathers, not to be re- 
garded merely as single testimonies, 74 

conflicting, not necessarily false, 107 

Tests, God sometimes submits to, 218 

imposed by curiosity or scepticism, 

God may not accept, 218 

there can be moral, ._ 218 

Text-books in theology, 28 

Thackeray, his anachronisms, 75 

has no heroes, 297 

Th eologia Ch ristiana, of Abelard, 1 

Theologia irregenitorum, is there? 3 

* Theologian,' as applied to John the 

Evangelist, 1 

as applied to Gregory Nazianzen, 1 

Theologian, an intuitional habit of 

mind requisite to the, 20 

needs an acquaintance with mental, 

moral and physical science, 20 

requires knowledge of the original 

languages of Scripture, 20 

a holy affection towards God, indis- 
pensable to the, 21 

requires influence of Holy Spirit, 21 

Theological, Encyclopaedia, what ? 22 

thought, not a transient stage of men- 
tal evolution, 272 

Theology, definition of, 1 



Theology, the larger and the more re- 
stricted sense of,. 1 

its aim as a science,... 1, 2 

why not the science of religion ? 2 

possibility of, 2 

the three conditions which render it 

possible,. 2 

possible because God exists, 2 

possible, because human mind has ca- 
pacity to know God, 4 

possible, because God has revealed 

himself, 7 

is not a mere account of devout feel- 
ings, 9 

parts of a system of, wrought out in 

N. T.,.._. 9 

necessity of, its grounds, 9 

necessitated by organizing instinct of 

human mind, 9 

whence hostility to it proceeds, 9 

necessary to development of charac- 
ter, 9 

some, necessary to conversion, 10 

necessary, in order to definite and just 

views of doctrine, 10 

necessary to safety and aggressive 

power of church, 10 

required by injunctions of Scripture, 11 

how related to religion, 11 

sources of, 14 

rests on God's self -revelation, 14 

natural, what? 14 

natural, supplemented, 15 

of Scriptural, not unnatural, 15 

natural and Scriptural, how related? 15 

its limitations, 18 

not exhaustive, — 18 

limited by finiteness of human 

mind, 18 

limited by imperfect state of science, 18 
limited by inadequacy of language, . . 18 
limited by progress of hermeneutics, 18 
limited by silence of written revela- 
tion, 19 

limited by lack of discernment caused 

by sin, 19 

most progress made in, during times 

of spiritual life, 19 

a perfect system of , not to be expected, 19 

in what sense progressive, 19 

in what sense non-progressive, 19 

conditions of success in constructing, 19 

method of, 20 

requisites for its study, 20 

its divisions, 21 

Biblical, 21 

Biblical, a questionable use of the 

term, 21 

historical, 21 

systematic, 22 

systematic, distinguished from dog- 
matic, 22 

practical, 22 



700 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Theology, pastoral, 22 

moral,.. 22 

speculative, _•_ 22 

history of systematic, 23-27 

Lutheran, _ 23,24 

Reformed, 23,24 

Federal, 23,24 

Analytic, 23,24 

Rationalistic, 24 

Transitional, 24 

Evangelical, 24 

Roman Catholic, 25 

Arminian, 25 

Socinian, 25 

British, 25 

Baptist, . 25 

Puritan, 25 

Scotch Presbyterian, 26 

Methodist, 26 

English Church, 26 

American, 26 

Old School, 26 

New School, 26 

New England, 26 

New Haven,. 26 

two divisions of Old School, 27 

order of treatment in, 27 

Analytic method of, 27 

Trinitarian method of, 27 

Federal method of, 27 

Anthropological method of, 27 

Christological method of,. 27 

Historical method of , 27 

Allegorical method of, 27 

Synthetic method of , 27 

text-books in,. 28 

Theophany, Christ not a mere, 370 

Thessalonians, relation of the two 
epistles, HI 

Thibetan language, midway between 
Indo-European and monosyllabic 
languages, 240 

Thieving, permitted by Vedas, 98 

Tholuck, his theological position, 24, 25 

on God's holiness, 130 

on recognizing inspiration in every 

daily circumstance, 220 

grateful to God for the conviction of 
sin, 298 

Thomas, his doubting,... 77 

his confession, 148 

Thomas, J. B., on kingdom of heaven 
not a can of nitro-glycerine, 573 

Thomasius, his theological position, ... 25 

on the divine love,. 127 

on the divine holiness, 130 

on God not all, 137 

not a trichotomist, 247 

on Dorner's view of the union of na- 
tures in Christ, 274 

on the depth of sin, felt chiefly by 

regenerate, 287 

his view of Christ's humiliation, 380 



Thomasius, on imputation of sin to 

Christ, implying real relationship,. 415 
Thompson, Chief Justice, on depravity 

of human heart,. 301 

Thompson, Dr. P. J., on the unpardon- 
able sin, 350 

Thompson, Sir Wm., denies man's evo- 
lution from inferior animals, 237 

Thorn well, on Pelagianism, 313 

on mediate imputation, 327 

on sinning in Adam, 330 

on the Augustinian theory of the 

race's connection with Adam, 337 

Thought, does not go on in brain, 52 

possible without language, 103 

perpetual, 566 

1 Thousand years,' of Revelation 20, 571 

Three, recognized in Scripture as God,. 145 
Three thousand baptized on one day in 

time of Chrysostom, 523 

Throne, Christ on the, an important 

subject of meditation, 425 

Thucydides never mentions Socrates, . 71 

' Time, and times, and half a time,' 571 

Time, its definition, 131 

in God, not God in time, 131 

present, has an objective reality to 

God, 131 

presents distinctions to God, 131 

is its conception purely physical? 131 

Time, space, and cause, known, 4 

Timeless existence, is the human spirit 

capable of? 131 

Titles, in Trinity, respectively designate 
personal distinctions which are 
the eternal basis of particular self- 
revelations, 161 

Todd, a futurist, 570 

Tollner, his experience, 298 

Toplady, his hymn on the substitution- 
ary death of Christ, 482 

Torment, final state of wicked, one of, 587 
Torments, outward, of wicked, subor- 
dinate accompaniments of inward 

state of soul, 587 

Touareg language, Semitic in vocabu- 
lary and Aryan in grammar, 240 

Tower, on sin displaying God's holiness, 589 
Toy, on John's baptism as borrowed 

from Jewish, 521 

Tradition, cannot originate idea of God, 34 
only perpetuates what has already 

been originated, 34 

speedily becomes corrupt, 70 

concerning a ' golden age,' supports 
Scriptural view of creation of man, 271 

Traditions, widely prevalent, 241 

some, perhaps handed down from a 
time when families of the race had 

not separated, 241 

of 'gardens,' and a 'golden age,' the 
world's recollections of a historical 
fact, 269 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



701 



Traditi ve theory of religion, 34 

Traducian theory of origin of soul, 252 

its advocates, 252 

best accords with Script ure, 252 

Traducianism, favored by analogy of 

vegetable and animal life, 252 

not necessarily materialistic, 253 

does not imply material separation of 

soul,.. , 253 

favored by transmission of mental 
and spiritual peculiarities in fami- 
lies and races,.. --- 253 

allows of divine concurrence and 

special improvements in type, 253 

Traducians, Fathers who were, 329 

Trafalgar, omitted in Napoleon's dis- 
patches,. 71 

Transcendence, divine, denied by pan- 
theism, 55 

taught in Scripture, 36 

deism, an exaggeration of, 204 

Transcription of words, imperfections 

in, 101 

Transfer, of punishment and merit, not 

impossible, 419 

'Transfusion of blood,' union with 

Christ the true, 445 

Transgression, its universality set forth 

in Scripture, 296 

of law, a stab at heart of God,.. 278 

not proper translation of 1 John 3 : 4, 284 
its universality consistent with pas- 
sages which ascribe goodness to cer- 
tain men, 296 

its universality proved from history 

and observation, 297 

its universality, proof from Christian 

experience, 297 

uniformity of, a demonstration of 

practical i mpotence of will, 322 

all moral consequences flowing from, 
to be regarded as sanctions of law, . 340 
* Transitive,' explanation of term as ap- 
plied to divine attributes, 137 

Transitive, truth of God, what? 137 

love of God, what? 137,138 

holiness of God, what? 138 

Translation of Enoch, of Elijah, and of 
saints who are alive at second com- 
ing, its purpose, 354 

of Enoch and Elijah, a proof of Jew- 
ish belief in immortality, 561 

Transmigration of souls, not recognized 

by Egyptians, 561 

Transubstantiation, the doctrine of,... 543 
rests on a false interpretation of 

Scripture, 543 

contradicts evidence of senses and 

leads to scepticism, 544 

involves denial of completeness of 

Christ's past sacrifice, 544 

destroys Christianity by externalizing 
it, 544 



Treasures, of two kinds, laid up, 554 

Treatment, method of, adopted in this 

work, 308 

' Tree of knowledge of good and evil,' 

probationary, 269 

'Tree of life,' probably a means of 

maintaining bodily youth, 269 

symbolic of divine communion, 269 

Trees of life and of knowledge, sym- 
bolical, ... 302 

Trench, on 'providential miracles,' 215 

on Satanic possession, 229 

on \ovui, 524 

on second death, 555 

Trent, Council of, on man's original 

state, 266 

on impossibility of knowing forgive- 
ness of sins,.. 481 

on sacraments in general, 545 

on sacraments necessary to salvation, 545 
on baptism administered by heretics, 545 

Trespass-offering, its character, 396 

Tribunals, earthly, no acquittal of the 

proved guilty allowed there,.. 474 

Trichotomous theory of man's nature, 

stated, 244 

list of advocates of , 245 

reasons for regarding it untenable, ... 245 

Trichotomy, its derivation, 245 

element of truth in, 245 

endangers unity and immateriality of 

our higher nature, 245 

passages which apparently favor, 

capable of a better explanation, 245 

errors based upon it, 247 

held by Eastern Church, 247 

often allied to materialism, 247 

often allied to pantheism, 247 

Trimurti, or Brahman trinity, 170 

Trinitarian method of theology, 27 

Trinitarians, accused by Jews and Mo- 
hammedans of polytheism, 154 

Trinitas dualitatem ad unitatem reducit, 163 
Trinitatem, I ad Jordanem et videbis, ... 157 

Trinities, heathen, 170 

what they suggest, 170 

Trinity, God's truth to be understood 

only in the light of, 126 

God's love to be understood only in 

the light of, 127 

God's holiness to be understood only 

in the light of, 130 

in relation to the immanent attri- 
butes, 130,163 

doctrine of the, 144-170 

exclusively a truth of revelation, 144 

intimated in O. T., made known in 

N. T., 144 

six main statements concerning, 144 

the term invented by Tertullian, 144 

not a metaphysical term, 144 

Park on doctrine of, 144 

Smyth on doctrine of , 144 



702 



IKDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Trinity, doctrine of, list of authors 
on, 144 

in Scripture there are three who are 

recognized as God, 145 

order of office and operation in, con- 
sistent with essential oneness, 150 

doctrine of, how its construction 

started, 150 

intimations of, in Old Testament, 152 

doctrine of, had no foreign sources, . . 154 
no doctrine of, set forth before 

Christ's coming-, 154 

yet O. T. intimations contain germ of 

doctrine of, 154 

why a clear revelation of, was de- 
layed, 155 

the three who are recognized as God 

are described as distinct persons, . . . 155 
the distinctions of personality in, are 

eternal, .. -. 157 

Sabellian doctrine of, 158 

Bushnell's views on, 158 

'modal,' 158 

'instrumental,' 158 

Arian doctrine of, 159 

tripersonality in, is not tritheism, 159 

but one essence in, . 159 

the term 'person' in, only approxi- 
mately represents the truth, 159 

plurality in, not one of essence but of 
hypostatical or personal distinc- 
tions, 160 

not simply a partnership, 160 

the organism of the Deity, 160 

work of any person of, can with a 
single limitation be ascribed to 

either of the others, 160 

intercommunion between persons of, 

involves no separation, 161 

three persons in, are equal, 161 

the titles in, belong to the persons, . . . 161 

qualified sense of the titles in, 162 

relation of, to immanent attributes,.. 163 
the life-movement of the Godhead, . . 163 
internal relations between first and 
second persons in, set forth by prep- 
ositions of direction and movement, 163 
internal relations of, according to 

Dorner, 163 

its physical internal relationship, 163 

its logical internal relationship, 163 

its ethical internal relationship, 163 

Son therein, exhibits the principle of 

freedom, 163 

second person in, organ of external 

revelation, 163 

third person in, organ of internal 

revelation, 163 

generation consistent with equality 

in, 164 

procession consistent with equality 

in, 166 

doctrine of, inscrutable, 166 



Trinity, analogies of inanimate things, 

inadequate to represent it, 1QT 

no adequate analogy to, in constitu- 
tion or processes of human mind,.. 167 

illustrations of, their only use, 167 

doctrine of, not self -contradictory,.. 167 
faculty and function at highest differ- 
entiation in, 168 

its relations to other doctrines, 168 

essential to any proper theism, 168 

denial of, logically leads to pantheism, 168 
essential to any proper revelation,... 169 

evidence of, in prayer, 169 

essential to any proper redemption,.. 169 
effects of its denial on the religious 

life, 169 

essential to any proper model for hu- 
man life, 169 

sets law of love before us as eternal,. 169 
shows divine pattern of receptive life, 170 
on the doctrine in general, list of au- 
thors, 170 

doctrine of, how best understood, ac- 
cording to Jeremy Taylor, •. 170 

Tripersonality of divine nature, imma- 
nent and eternal, 157 

Trisagion, the, 152 

Tritheism, inconsistent with the idea of 

God, 160 

Trivialities, seeming, in Scripture, their 

use, 104 

Trumpets of Revelation, Elliott's view 

of, 571 

Hengstenberg's and Alf ord's view of, 571 
Truth, comprehension of, a defence 

against heresy and immorality, 10 

is nourishment, — 10 

not written on soul prior to conscious- 
ness, --- 30 

immanent, distinguished from truth 

transitive, . 126 

a substantial thing, a matter of being, 126 

defined by Kahnis, 126 

foundation of all truth among men, . . 126 
the principle and guarantee of all 

revelation, 126 

not of God's will, but of his being,... 127 
transitive, of God, see Veracity and 

Faithfulness, 137 

attributed to Christ, 147 

ascribed to the Holy Spirit, 151 

hated by the sinner, 452 

neither known nor obeyed without a 

change of the affections, 452 

even God cannot make it more true,. 453 
without God, an abstraction, not a 

power, 453 

sanctification through appropriation 

of and conformity to, 485, 486 

its utterance in organizations, 495 

Christian, an organism, 530 

Tunneling into a sandbank, illustration 
from, 1& 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



703 



Turkish Empire, decay of, a sign of 

Christ's coming, 571 

Turner, on essence of soul being poten- 
tiality for activity, 566 

Turretin, his theological position, 24 

his views on Adam's relation to race,. 333 
on the possible vicariousness of pun- 
ishment, 350 

his statement remarked upon, 350 

'Twelve hundred and sixty days,' 571 

Twesten, on Trinity in revelation of 

God to himself, 159 

on Pelagianism leading to Unitarian- 
ism, 169 

Two thousand, two hundred and twen- 
ty-two Telugus, baptized on one oc- 
casion, 523 

'Two witnesses,' of Revelation, 571 

Tyler, on denial of decrees, what in- 
volved in, 176 

on the possible propriety of permit- 
ting a forbidden treason, 180 

on permission of sin not submission 

to sin, 180 

on death of infants, 300 

his controversy with Dr. N. W. Tay- 
lor, 451 

on the light of the last day inopera- 
tive to change the sinner's heart,. .. 452 
Tylor, on connection of the peoples of 

Java and Sumatra with Hindus, 239 

his view of the development of so- 
ciety, 270 

Tyndall, on relation between physics of 

brain and facts of consciousness, ... 52 
Type, parable a, not every detail of 

which is significant, 110 

Types of Christ, 68 

are intended resemblances, designed 

prefigurations, 68 

Types disappear when Christ comes, as 

blossoms when fruit, 359 

Tyrolese, though rude, moral ; though 

simple, intelligent, 271 

Vbicaritas, ibiclaritas, 264 

Vbi Spiritus, ibi Christus, 161 

Ubi tres medici, ibi duo athei, 20 

Ubiquity of Christ's human body, 

maintained by Lutherans, 386 

Dorner's view, 386 

relation to Lord's Supper, 545 

relation to views of heaven, 585, 586 

Ueberglaube, Aberglaube, Unglaube, the 
three chief avenues of temptation, 

according to Kurtz, 365 

Uhlhorn, on the 'ifs' of Tacitus, 557 

Ullmann, on derivation of sapientia,... 3 

Una navis est jam bonorum omnium, 494 

Unbelief, in its relation to sin, 293 

Uncaused cause, idea of, not from log- 
ical inference, but intuitive belief,. 41 
Unconditioned being, the presupposi- 
tion of our knowing, 32 



Unconscious mental action, list of au- 
thorities on, ... 283 

Unconscious substance producing self- 
conscious and free beings, an im- 
possibility, 56 

Unconsciousness of sin, accounted for, 298 
Understanding, the servant of the will, 231 
'Undones, the,' according to Ruskin, 

expose to condemnation, 348 

Unicus, as applied to the divine nature, 125 
Unification of the work of the denom- 
ination, not inconsistent with 

Scriptural independence, 519 

Uniformity of nature, a presumption 

against miracles, 63 

not absolute and universal, 63 

not a truth of reason without excep- 
tions, 63 

could only be asserted on the ground 
of absolute and universal knowl- 
edge, 63 

disproved by geology, 63 

breaks in, illustrated, 63 

final cause is beneath, 63 

moral disorder leads us to expect 

breaksin, 63 

Uniformity, of volitional action, rests 

on character, 260 

of evil choice, implies tendency or 

determination, 321 

of transgression, a demonstration of 

impotence of will,. 322 

'Unto personalis,' ..373, 374 

Union of natures, in the one person of 

Christ, 368 

proof of this union, 368 

Union, moral, between different souls,. 441 
Union with God, brute life incapable of, 376 
Union with Christ, believer's, and 

man's union with Adam, compared, 333 
Union with Christ, believer's, wholly 

due to God, proof that, 429 

its relation to regeneration and con- 
version, 436 

doctrine of, 438-447 

reasons for neglect of the doctrine, . . 438 

Scripture representations of, 438-441 

represented by union of building and 

its foundation, 438 

represented by union of husband and 

wife, 439 

represented by union of vine and 

branches, 439 

consistent with individuality, 439 

represented by union between head 

and members, 439 

represented by union of race with 

Adam, 439 

believer is in Christ, 440 

Christ is in believer, 440 

Father and Son dwell in believer, 440 

believer has life by Christ, as Christ 
has life by union with Father, 440 



704 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Union with Christ, believers are one 

through, 440 

believer made partaker of divine na- 
ture through, 441 

by it believer made one spirit with 

the Lord, .. 441 

nature of, 441-444 

not a merely natural union, 441 

not a merely moral union, 441 

not a union of essence, as held by 

mystics, 442 

in it believer most conscious of his 

own personality and power, 442 

not conditioned by sacraments, 442 

organic, 442 

vital, 442 

spiritual,. 443 

originated and sustained by the Holy 

Spirit, 443 

indissoluble, 443 

by virtue of omnipresence, the whole 
Christ with each beUever,....133, 383, 443 

inscrutable,. 443 

in what sense mystical,. 443 

list of authors on, 443 

consequences of, to believer, 444-447 

not ground of Christ's bearing hu- 
man sin, 444 

with race, secures objective recon- 
ciliation, 444 

with believer, secures subjective re- 
conciliation, 444 

involves the believer's regeneration,. 444 

the true transfusion of blood, 445 

involves the believer's conversion,... 445 
involves the believer's justification,.. 445 
delivers justification from being me- 
chanical and arbitrary, 445 

involves the believer's sanctification, 445 
involves the believer's perseverance,. 445 
the source of fellowship among be- 
lievers on earth, ecclesiology, 446 

the basis of eternal communion in 

heaven, eschatology, 446 

justifies believer in applying to him- 
self prophecies and promises pri- 
marily referring to Christ, 446 

ground of promises to prayer, 446 

consciousness of, gives assurance of 

salvation, 447 

statements regarding,.. 447 

authorities on, 447 

its legal fruit, justification, 480 

its moral fruit, sanctification,... 480 

Unique, the, cannot be known,... 116 

no science of the, 116 

Unitarianism, its modern leaders, 25 

Arians, its ancient representatives, .. 159 

tends to pantheism, 168 

holds to Pelagian views of sin, 310 

holds to Socinian views of atonement, 397 

Unitarians, later, their views, 159 

best method of arguing with, 169 



Unity of the Bible, in its diversity, 84 

wonder of, increases with variety of 

authorship and date, 84 

Unity, God's attribute of , 125 

taught by reason, 125,144 

consistent with doctrine of Trinity, 

125, 159, 160, 167, 168 

Unity of human race, taught in Script- 
ure, 238 

lies at foundation of Pauline doc- 
trines of sin and salvation, 238 

ground of man's obligation of natural 

brotherhood, 239 

argument from history for, 239 

argument from language for, 240 

argument from psychology for, 240 

argument from physiology for, 241 

a common judgment of comparative 

physiologists,. 241 

presumptive evidence of unity of 

origin, 241 

opposed on ground of different cen- 
tres of creation, 242 

opposed on ground of diversities of 

size, color, etc., 242 

Mtiller's view of the nvevna, inconsist- 
ent with, 249 

Universalism, its fundamental error, . . 594 
Universality, among men, of a corrupt 

nature, 299 

Universality of sin, proved from 

Scripture, 296 

proved from history and observa- 
tion, 297 

proved from prevalence of priesthood 

and sacrifice, 297 

expressed in common maxims, 297 

proof from Christian experience, 297 

shown from the existence, in all men, 

of a corrupted nature, 299 

thinkers of the world certify to it, ... 301 
Universals, in what sense they have ex- 
istence, 329 

Universe, regarded as a thought, re- 
quires postulate of an absolute 

thinker, 33 

its substance cannot be shown to 

have had a beginning, 40 

its present form not eternal, 40 

is its cause within itself? 40 

if eternal, yet, as contingent and rela- 
tive, requires an eternal creator? .. 41 

its infinity cannot be proved, 41 

mind in it leads us to infer mind in 

maker, 41 

its order and useful collocations may 
be phenomena of an impersonal in- 
telligence, 44 

its present harmony proves a will and 
intelligence adequate to its contri- 
vance, 45 

facts of, erroneous explanations of, . . 51 
not necessary to divine blessedness,.. 127 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



705 



Universe, exists for moral ends, 217 

serves spiritual ends, 217 

a harp in which one string", our world, 

is out of tune, 225,587 

so far as we know,finite, 231 

yet in its infancy, 599 

1 Unpicturable notions,' 5 

Unus, as applied to divine nature, 125 

Uphara, Thomas, his tendency to mys- 
ticism, 17 

his definition of quietism, 219 

Upholding-, attributed to Christ, 147 

'Upright,' transferred from physical 

to moral condition, 267 

as applied to godly men, 296 

Uranos, space, not earlier than God, . . . 230 

Usher, Archbishop, his chronology, 106 

Utilitarian theory of virtue, criticised, 142 
Utility, not the ground of moral obli- 
gation, 142 

Utopia, Sir Thomas More's, an adum- 
bration of St. John's City of God, .. 585 
Valentinus, quotes from John's Gos- 
pel, 75 

an Alexandrian Gnostic and dualist, . 187 
on the seeming birth of Christ, the 

.^Eon, 361 

Valley of dry bones, Ezekiel's vision of, 

its import, 574 

Vanity, what? 293 

Variation, law of, impressed on species 

at beginning, 251 

Variations are in the divine operation, 

not in the divine plan, 125 

Variations of the Gospels, find explana- 
tion in a historical Christ, 78 

Vauvenargues, on great thoughts com- 
ing- from the heart, 21 

Vedas, on one Being, 31 

permit thieving, 98 

their scientific and religious credibili- 
ty connected, 105 

earliest date of, 107 

Vedder, on the decline of infant bap- 
tism, 537 

on John Bunyan's church never 

strictly Baptist, 548 

Vegetation of earliest ages, such as 

algce, easily disappears, 194 

'Venial,' all sins so, since Christ has 

died for all, 347,348 

Veracity of God, his transitive truth, 
secures the consistency of his reve- 
lations, 137 

what it guarantees, 137 

Verbal inspiration, nowhere declared 

to be universal in Scripture, 101 

is to be maintained, as to result, not 

as to method, 103,104 

Via causalitatis, in determining the di- 
vine attributes, 118 

Via eminentice, in determining the di- 
vine attributes, 118 

45 



Via negationis, in determining the di- 
vine attributes,. 118 

Vials, in Revelation, Elliott's view of,.. 571 
Hengstenberg's and Alford's view of, 571 
'Vicarious,' Bushnell's unfair use of 

the word, 401 

Vice, can it be created? 265 

Vinet, on feeling- good to be good, its 

best evidence, 20 

Virchow, Professor, on Darwinism, 236 

Virgil, his reference to representative 

expiation...... 394 

Virgin, immaculate conception of, ab- 
surd, 365 

Virtue, views of its nature, 141, 142 

not obedience to civil law or divine 

will,. 141,142 

utilitarian theory of, criticised, 142 

theories of Paley and Edwards,. 142 

utility often its test, never its founda- 
tion, 142 

not grounded in nature of things, 142 

its essence, conformity to holiness of 

God, 143 

its nature, list of authors on, 143 

can it be created?.. 265 

requires love to God, in his holiness,. 292 

Vishnu, incarnations of, 170 

' Vision, prophetic,' theory of, authors 

on, 193 

Vitiosity, uncondemnable, theory of,.. 318 
Vitring-a, a 'continuous' interpreter 

of Revelation, 570 

Volition, ordinarily the shadow of the 

affections, 450 

executive, what? 257 

Volitions, subordinate, not always de- 
termined by fundamental choice,.. 

- - 258,484 

Voltaire, on noses made for spectacles, 43 
saw devil everywhere, even where he 

was not, 232 

'Voluntary,' and 'volitional,' contrast- 
ed, 288 

Voluntary element, in faith, 465 

Voluntas, as distinguished from arbitri- 

um, 288 

Von Baader, on the impossibility of 

knowing- God, without God, 14 

Von Hartmann, his views, 44 

Vorsehung, an aspect of providence,... 208 
Vulgate, its variations from present 

Hebrew text, 107 

its reading of 1 Samuel 18 : 1, 441 

Walk, disorderly, what included under, 549 
Wallace, A. R., on the cranial capacity 

of man and of apes, 237 

on a superior intelligence guiding the 

development of man, 237 

opposed to ' natural selection,' as ap- 
plied to man, 237 

Wallace, Henry, on sacrifice, 395 

Wardlaw, his definition of holiness, 128 



706 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Wardlaw, on creation out of nothing, 

an idea foreign to human mind, 184 

on election on ground of works fore- 
seen, | 431 

Warren, J. P., on ' coming ' being l man- 
ifestation,' 568 

a praeterist interpreter of Revela- 
tion, 570 

Washington, George, his picture in a 
manuscript of U. S. Constitution, . . 277 

Water at Jerusalem, abundant, 523 

' Waters,' best term in Hebrew to ex- 
press a fluid mass, 194 

Watson, his theological position, 26 

on original sin, 314 

his Wesleyanism, 315 

Watts, Isaac, his theory of a preexist- 

ent humanity, 372 

his view of Christ's identification with 

humanity, 413 

Wayland, his view of ground of moral 

obligation, 142 

his definition of law, defective, 273 

on the universal church before par- 
ticular churches, 496 

on the complete independence of each 

member of a Christian church, 504 

his question, as student, to Prof. 

Moses Stuart, 537 

Wealth, decreed to him who works and 

saves, 179 

Weber, on wrath the jealousy of love,. 140 

Wegscheider, the rationalist, 24 

Weiss, on the apocryphal gospels, 83 

on human greatness consisting in per- 
fect receptivity for God's greatest 

gift, 441 

Wellhausen, on structure of the Penta- 
teuch, 81 

Welsh minister, illustration from, 484 

Weltgeschichte, die, isb das Weltgericht,. 582 
Wer Gott nicht filhlt, Ruckert's verse,. 39 
Werther, Sorrows of, Goethe's, referred 

to,... 290 

Wesley, John, his theological position, 26 
his modifications of Arminian doc- 
trine, 314 

his perfectionism, 488 

on involuntary transgression not be- 
ing sin, 489 

practised immersion, 548 

excluded dissenters from Holy Com- 
munion because unbaptized, 548 

believed in immortality of brutes,... 555 
Wesleyanism, inclined to make faith a 

work, 481 

Westcott, on Memra, 154 

on the Paschal and the Pentecostal 

gift, 387 

on the necessity of the passion, 414 

on relation to one Lord, bond of fel- 
lowship, 446 

on Christ's second coming, 573 



Westminster, Catechism, definition of 
God in it, 29 

Confession, statement of doctrine of 
decrees, 176 

Confession, Augustinian, as well as 

Federal, in doctrine, 323 

Whately, Archbishop, on the impossi- 
bility of apostolic succession, 508 

on the tree of life as symbol of Chris- 
tian unity, 509 

on changing an atom of lead to silver 
as difficult as changing a mountain, 598 

Whedon, his theological position, 26 

on source of wisdom and holiness,... 126 
on God's wisdom and holiness, criti- 
cised, 129 

on God's knowledge of future events, 135 

on the divine plan, 172 

his denial of created moral desert, 265 

represents original Arminianism, 315 

on New School view of sin, 289 

on ' passive, prevolitional ' conditions, 317 

on TeT<zY/u.ei/ot, in Acts 13 : 48, 428 

Wheel, does its bottom move ? 20 

Whewell, his inaccurate definition of 

conscience, 255 

Whitby, a Pelagian rather than an Ar- 
minian, 314 

his interpretation of first resurrec- 
tion, 574 

White, Blanco, an illustration of a re- 
fined selfishness, 294 

not made a believer by a life of pain, 589 
White, Edward, his theory of annihila- 
tion, 589 

Whitefield, a Cal vinist, 181 

on the imperfection of human repent- 
ance, 464 

Whitman, Walt, his egoism, 293 

Whitney, on language as a proof of 

unity of race, 240 

Whiton, on the punishment of sin in its 

wider spread and stronger hold, 337 

Whittier, on God's voice respecting the 

sanctity of will,. 591 

Wicked, intermediate state of, 564 

their souls, after death, in prison, 564 

their souls, after death, in conscious 

suffering, 564 

their souls, after death, under pun- 
ishment, 564 

their final state, 587-600 

their consciences justify their doom, 596 
Wickedness, spontaneous and uncon- 
trollable, the worst...... 286 

Wieland, his patriotism, 290 

Wiggers, his statement of the seven 

points of Pelagian doctrine, 311 

Wilderness, temptation of Christ in the, 366 
the scene of Satan's appeal to the in- 
nocent desires of our Savior, 366 

Wilhelm Meister, Goethe's, referred to, 290 
Wilkinson, W. C, on head and heart,.. 21 



INDEX OP SUBJECTS. 



707 



Wilkinson, W. C, his definition of in- 
spiration, 95 

Will, not under physical causation, 14 

the human, acts on nature without 

suspending its laws, . 62 

human, acts initially without means, 62 

its power over body, 66 

approximation of Calvinistic and Ar- 

minian views of, 17T 

views of Whedon, Tappan, Hazard, 

and Calderwood, 178 

Christianity gives us more, than ever, 219 

definition of the, 257 

and the other faculties, .- 257 

and permanent states, 257 

and motives, 257 

influenced by permanent states, 257 

chooses between motives, 258 

and contrary choice, 258 

and responsibility, 258 

man responsible for effects of, 258 

inferences from view of , . 258 

relation to doctrine of original sin,.. . 258 
relation to doctrine of regeneration,. 258 
its power to put forth transient voli- 
tions externally conformed to di- 
vine law, 258 

a single act of, cannot reverse moral 

state, 258 

its inability to control sinful bent of 

the affections, 258 

obeying sovereignly, its possibility an 

ultimate phenomenon, 259 

list of authorities on, 260 

evil, however originated, is man him- 
self, and is condemned, 285 

not simply faculty of volitions, 312 

such decision of, as will justify God 

in condemning men, where found ? 322 
its impotence proved by uniformity 

of transgression, 322 

determination of the, prior to indi- 
vidual consciousness, its character 

as an hypothesis, 331 

'the cause of sin in holy beings,' 335 

man's, not absolutely as his character, 338 
not bound by motives or character, . 338 
character its surest but not its infalli- 
ble index, 338 

man's personal, does more than ex- 
press, it may curb, his nature, 338 

has permanent states as well as tran- 
sient acts, 416 

God'sact on, in conversion, 436 

the depraved, has inconceivable 

power to resist God, 595 

God's, not sole force in universe, 202 

God's 'revealed,' among old theolo- 
gians, . 435 

God's ' secret,' among old theologians, 435 
'Will,' and 'shall,' as to men's actions, 

distinguished, 172 

Wille and Willkiir, 288 



William of Occam, 23 

Wilson, his view of 1 Tim. 5 : 17, 510 

Winchell, on Adam a descendant of an 

older human stock, 239 

his theory a plausible explanation of 

certain Biblical facts, 239 

objections to his theory, 239 

Winer, on avri,.. 391 

Wines of Bible, fermented or unfer- 

mented? 539 

Wisdom, its nature, 136 

Olmstead's definition of, • 136 

divine, in O. T., distinct from, and 

eternally existing with, God, 153 

Apocryphal description of, .-. 153 

Witchcraft, connection of demons with, 229 

Witness of the Spirit, what ? 468 

Witnesses, presumed credible till con- 
trary shown, 70 

Witsius, his theological position, 24 

Wollaston, his view of ground of moral 

obligation, 142 

Woman, C. H. M. on her creation, 440 

'Woman in the wilderness,' 571 

'Woman taken in adultery,' opinions 

regarding its authenticity, 113 

Women, image of God denied to them 

by Encratites, 268 

their hair, dress, and speech, N. T. on, 280 
in 1 Tim. 3 : 11, deaconesses, or dea- 
cons' wives?. 512 

Woods, Leonard, his theological posi- 
tion, 26 

his views of sin, 319 

Woolman, John, quotation from his 
Journal, illustrative of sufferings 

due to kinship, 414 

Woolsey, President, on Christ's suffer- 
ings, 403 

his views of nature of baptism, 529 

on aiwvtos as not denoting a world- 
period, 593 

Word, divine, the medium and test of 

spiritual communications, 17 

divine, in O. T., distinct from and 

eternally existing with God, 153 

in what sense was Christ the, 162 

a, its meaning determined by prevail- 
ing usage, 525 

Wordsworth, Bishop, on God's forsee- 

ing but not forcing evil deeds, 220 

Wordsworth, William, his poetry recog- 
nizes divine personality in nature, . 33 
Works of God, Quenstedt's classifica- 
tion of,. 183 

World-church theory, or Romanist view 

of the church, 507,508 

World, typified...... 68 

age of, according to Bawlinson, 107 

end of, Luther on, 569 

its rehabilitation after final conflagra- 
tion, 575 

Worship, denned, 13 



708 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Worship, its relation to religion, 13 

depends on God's glory, 123 

final state of righteous, one of, 585 

Wotton, Sir Henry, on man lord of him- 
self, 267 

Wrath of God, the final state of wicked 

under the, . 587 

Wright, G. F., on knowledge and fore- 
knowledge, -. 174 

on Christ's preaching to the dead, 386 

on divine limitation in the method of 

human salvation, 592 

on eternity expressed by reduplica- 
tion of the longest time-words avail- 
able, 593 

Writers, of Gospels, were competent 

witnesses, 82 

were honest witnesses, 82 

of Scripture, their credibility, 82 

Wrong, must be punished whether good 

comes of it or not, . 352 

Wuttke, on an echo from within, kin- 
dred to outer revelation, 34 

on Epicureanism and Stoicism, 88 

his view of ground of moral obliga- 
tion, 143 

on God's law, 277 

on Aristotle's view of sin, 301 

Wycliffe's ashes, treatment of, 578 

Xenophon, his account of Socrates dif- 
fers from that given by Plato, 70 

his use of the term 'Memoirs,' in re- 
lation to Socrates, followed by Jus- 
tin Martyr in relation to Christ, 73 

his use of the word o-v/u.$vto?, in de- 
scribing the centaur, throws light 

on Pauline use of the word, 439 

'Yea, the,' (2 Cor. 1:20,) = objective 

certainty, 8 

Yearning, after a tangible, incarnate 
God, meets its satisfaction in Christ, 120 
after justice, man's, George Eliot on, 536 
Th-King, oldest monumental language 

in China, 240 

' Your goodness must have edge, else it 

is none,' 140, 293 

Youth of Jesus, 365 



'Zechariah,' proper reading for ' Jere- 
miah,' in Mat. 27 : 9, 107 

probable explanation of variations 

in style of book of, 113 

Zeno, founder of Stoic philosophy, 88 

his idea of virtue, 88 

Zockler, on oldest languages being the 
most inflected, 240 

on the law of plasticity as affecting 

species,. 243 

Zoroaster, founder of the Parsees, 88 

hisprobable date,... 88 

his dualistic theology, 88, 188 

his system a better basis for morality 
than the Indian systems, 89 

the defects and errors of his system,. 89 

believed himself charged with a di- 
vine mission, 91 

did not make claims such as Jesus 
made, 91 

regarded matter as pure and the cre- 
ation of the good Being, 188 

Ahura Mazda according to him the 
Creator,.. 188 

his idea of twins in the divine nature, 188 

Manichaeus adopted some of his views 
with modifications, 188 

a reformer raised up in God's provi- 
dence, 358 

Zoroastrianism, a reformation, 185 

did it teach absolute creation ? 185 

Zwingle, the reformer,.. 24 

his differences with Luther, 24 

a systematic theologian and founder 
of the Reformed theology, 24 

poured forth the flood that flowed in 
channels dug by Calvin, 24 

alone among the Reformers did not 
hold the Augustinian theorj' of 
Adam's Natural Headship, 328 

held that native vitiosity though a 
uniform occasion of sin was not 
itself sin, 329 

regarded the words in the institution 
of the Lord's Supper, not as a man- 
datory 'become,' but as an expla- 
nation of the sign, 543 






INDEX OF ATTTHOBS. 



Abbot, Ezra, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 146 

Genuineness of Fourth Gospel, 75, 79 

Introd. to Schodde, Book of Enoch,.. 80 
Abbott, F. E., 

Scientific Theism, s 54,329 

Abelard, Peter, 23,400 

Theologia Christiana, 1 

Ackermann, C, 

Christian Element in Plato, 359 

Adams, Nehemiah, 

Evenings with the Doctrines, 182 

JEschylus, 557 

Prometheus Vinctus, 394 

Agassiz, Louis, .195, 241, 555 

Essay on Classification, 43, 555 

Provinces of Animal "World, 242 

Ahrens, Henri, 

Cours de Droit Naturel, 275 

Aids to Faith, 68 

Aids to the Study of German Theology, 41, 
578. 

Alcuin, Flaccus,. 405 

Alden, Joseph, 

Intellectual Philosophy, 4, 7, 28, 55 

Alexander, Archibald, 143 

Evidences of Christianity, .32, 91 

Moral Science, 28, 45, 288, 345 

Alexander, James W., 438 

Discourses on Faith, 468,469 

Alexander, Joseph A., 

Commentary on Acts, 506 

Alexander, W. L., 

Christ and Christianity, 61, 66, 67, 

75, 76, 77, 90. 

Connection and Harmony of Old and 

New Testaments, 86 

Alford, Henry, 570 

Commentary,.. 38, 148, 161, 224, 226, 415, 568 

Hulsean Lectures, 224 

Prolegomena to New Test., 74 

Alger, William R., 

Critical History of Doctrine of a Fu- 
ture Life, 868,668 

Poetry of the Orient, 133 

Ambrose, 14,328 

Ammon, Christoph F., 24 

709 



Amos, Sheldon, 

Science of Law, 274 

Amyraldus, Moses, 24 

Anderson, Pres. M. B., 

Johnson's Cyclopaedia, 7 

Anderson, William, 

Regeneration, 450, 454, 456, 458, 460, 464 

Andrewes, Bishop Lancelot, 

Works, 164 

Andrews, E. A., 

Latin Lexicon, 1] 

Andrews, E. Benjamin, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 496 

Andrews, J. N., 

History of the Sabbath, 202 

Andrews, S. J., 

Life of Christ, 108 

Angus, Joseph, 

Expositor, 593 

Future Punishment, 600 

Annotated Paragraph Bible,.... 69, 109, 146, 
209, 229, 296, 296, 299, 349, 379, 415, 489, 
523, 582. 
Anselm, 23, 48, 223, 247, 323, 382, 407, 409 

Cur Deus Homo, 365, 408, 498 

De Concep. Virg. et Origin. Peccato,.336, 
337. 

Opera, 471 

Proslogion, 49,132 

Ante-Nicene Library, 74 

Appleton, Jesse, 

Works, 52,211 

Aquinas, Thomas,... 23, 293, 336, 386, 407, 409 

Summa, 221 

Argyll, Duke of, 

Primeval Man, 107, 238, 243, 271 

Reign of Law, 52, 55, 191, 203, 217, 275 

Unity of Nature, 235,270 

Aristotle, 21, 23, 116, 121, 125, 442, 449, 593 

De Anima, _ 250 

Metaphysics, 1 

Nicomachean Ethics, ..88, 301,557 

Arminius, J., 25 

Works, 314 

Armitage, Thomas, 

North American Review, 506 

History of the Baptists, 548 



710 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Arnold, Albert N., 

Baptist Quarterly, 536 

Madison Avenue Lectures, 538 

Prerequisites to Communion, .547, 548, 549, 
550, 552, 553. 

Arnold, Edwin, 
Light of Asia, 87 

Arnold, Matthew, 13,61 

Literature and Dogma, 100, 132 

Arnold, Thomas, .68, 79, 112, 287, 490 

History of Rome, 467 

Right Interpretation of Scripture, . . . 109 
Sermons, 100 

Arnot, William, 354 

Arthur, William, 
The Divinity of Our Lord in Relation 

to His Work of Atonement, 169 

Difference between Physical and 
Moral Law, 276 

Ashmore, William, 413 

Asmus, P., 
Indogermanische Religion, 32 

Athanasius, 167, 408 

At water, Lyman H., 
Calvinism in Doctrine and Life,... 181, 340 
Princeton Review, 54 

Auberlen, C. A., 
Divine Revelation, 8, 66, 79,330 

Auerbach, Berthold, 

On the Heights, 484 

The Villa on the Rhine, 484 

Augustine, Aurelius, .23, 108, 167, 

265, 266, 268, 275, 279, 288, 293, 294, 311, 
329, 337, 338, 386, 499, 565. 

Confessions, 46,194,287,588 

De Civitate Dei, 23, 252, 263, 328 

De Genes, ad Lit., 194 

DePec. Mer. et Rem., 252,328 

DePredest. Sanct., 431 

Encheiridion, 23, 336 

Austin, John, 274 

Province of Jurisprudence, 139, 273 

Baader, Franz von, 14 

Bacon, Francis, Lord, 39, 68, 126, 261, 275, 278 

Confession of Faith, 281 

Works, 302,352 

Bacon, L. W. and G. B., 
Sabbath Observance,. 202 

Baer, K. E. von, 243 

BShr, K. C. W. F., 
Symbolik des mosaischen Cultus, 394 

Bain, Alexander, 

Cerebral Psychology, 54 

Mind and Body, 52 

Baird, Samuel J., 26, 27, 319, 321 

Elohim Revealed, 28, 200, 206, 252, 279, 

286, 294, 297, 303, 306, 318, 330, 322, 325, 
326, 328, 330, 336, 340, 342, 345, 347, 355, 
367, 368, 383, 412, 421, 444, 447, 449. 

Balfour, A. J., 
Defence of Philosophic Doubt, 3 

Balfour, R. G., 
Brit, and For. Evang.Rev., 403 



Bancroft, Bishop, 500 

Bancroft, George, 501 

Baring-Gould, S.,__ 393 

Origin and Development of Religious 
Belief, 394 

Barlow, J. L., 
Endless Being, 589 

Barlow, J. W., 
Ultimatum of Pessimism, 200 

Barnes, Albert, 

Apostolic Church,.. 509 

Atonement, 403 

Commentary, 506 

Barrow, Isaac, 
Purgatory, 565 

Barrows, E. P., 
Bibliotheca Sacra, 380 

Barry, Alfred, 
Manifold Witness for Christ, 89 

Bartlett, S. C, 

Life and Death Eternal, 557, 561 

New Englander, 355 

Princeton Review, 97, 108, 386 

Sources of History in the Pentateuch, 
82,272 

Bascom, John, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 30 

Science of Mind, 30,235 

Bastian, H. C, 

Beginnings of Life, 191 

Heterogeneous Evolution of Living 

Things, in 'Nature,' 191 

Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms, 191 

Baudissin, W. W., Count, 
Begriff der Heiligkeit im A. T., 130 

Baumgarten, M., 
Apostolic History,. 506 

Baur, Ferdinand Christian, 77, 79 

Das manichaische Religionssystem,.. 188 

Die kanonischen E vangelien, 78 

Dogmengeschichte, 409 

Lehre von der Dreieinigkeit, 159 

Baxter, Richard. 25,485 

Methodus Theologiee, 26 

Saints' Rest, 99 

Bayne, Peter, 
Christian Life, Social and Individual, 55 
Review of Strauss's New Life, 77 

Beal, Samuel, 
Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, 87 

Beale, Dr. Lionel, 
Protoplasm, 191 

Beecher, Edward, 
Conflict of Ages,. 248 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 594 

Life of Jesus, the Christ, 371 

Bellamy, Joseph,.... 26. 318, 511 

Bellarmine, R. P., 25,266 

Benedict, Wayland R., 
Theism and Evolution, in Andover 
Review, 45 

Bengel, J. A., 105,540,570 

Commentary, 356,368,416 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



711 



Berkeley, Bishop George, 55, 217 

Principles of Human Knowledge, 53 

Bernard, St., - 262 

Bernard, Thomas D., 
Progress of Doctrine in the New Tes- 
tament, 86,104,111 

Bersier, Eugene, 
The Oneness of the Race in its Fall and 

in its Future, 330 

Bertrand, Henri Gratien, Count de, 

Memoirs, 368 

Beza, Theodore, 24,426 

Bible Commentary, 112, 123, 184, 185, 

193, 238, 396, 414. 

Bible Dictionary (Smith's), 62, 68, 73, 

75, 75, 77, 78, 80, 108. 223, 224, 224, 229, 
240, 240, 397. 
Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, 25, 25, 398 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 10, 

12, 12, 16, 22, 30, 32, 34, 34, 38, 40, 42, 43,- 
45, 49, 51, 56, 77, 77, 80, 80, 82, 87, 87, 97, 
104, 106, 108, 109, 113, 122, 125, 127, 144, 
146, 153, 165, 166, 170, 174, 175, 181, 185, 
195, 204, 205, 208, 211, 221, 224, 226, 235, 
240, 241, 242, 248, 249, 253, 264, 270, 289, 
295, 312, 315, 316, 318, 319, 319, 322, 324, 
330, 330, 340, 352, 368, 371, 372, 373, 378, 
378, 380, 380, 384, 386, 386, 396, 408, 412, 
451, 468, 488, 508, 551, 553, 566, 574, 591, 
594, 594. 
Bickersteth, Edward, 

Prayer, 218 

Biedermann, A. Em., 25 

Christliche Dogmatik, 274, 372 

Birks, T. R., 
Difficulties of Belief, .180, 190, 221, 232, 248, 
252, 305, 325, 330, 340, 348. 

Strivings for the Faith, 83 

Victory of Divine Goodness, 590 

Bissell, Edwin C, 

Apocrypha (Lange's Com.), 80, 147 

Historic Origin of Bible, 81, 82 

The Pentateuch, its Authorship and 

Structure, 82 

Bittinger, J. B., 

Princeton Review, 349 

Black, Prof., 508 

Blackie, John Stuart, 

Four Phases of Morals, 86 

Theological Eclectic, 193 

Blackstone, Sir Wm., 

Commentaries, 352 

Bledsoe, Albert T., 265 

Theodicy, 180 

Bleek, Frederick, *• 

Introduction to New Testament, 74, 75 

Bliss, George R., 

Commentary on Luke, 108 

Blunt, John H., 

Ann. Book of Common Prayer, 525 

Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical 

Theology, 1, 48, 48, 72, 75, 76, 159, 189, 

213, 375. 



Boardman, George D., 

Creative Week, 195 

Madison Avenue Lectures, 528 

Boardman, H. A., 167 

The ' Higher Life ' Doctrine of Sanc- 

tiflcation, 490 

Boardman, W. E., 

Higher Christian Life, 167 

Bodemeyer, J., 

Lehrevonder Kenosis, 384 

Boehme, Jacob, 123, 268 

Boe'thius, A. M. S., .122,377 

Bohl, Edward, 

Incarnation des gottlichen Wortes, . . 416 
Bossuet, J. B., 292 

Exposition of Doctrine, 25 

History of Variations of Protestant 

Churches, 25 

Boston, Thomas, 26,27 

A Complete Body of Divinity, 27 

Covenant of Grace, 444 

Human Nature in its Fourfold State, 27, 
577. 

Questions in Divinity, 27 

Bowen, Prof. Francis, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 37 

Metaphysics and Ethics,. ..16, 34, 55, 59, 62, 
203, 558. 

Modern Philosophy, 200 

Princeton Review, 7, 54 

Bowne, Borden P., .:... 55 

Metaphysics, 34, 40, 54, 132, 133, 251, 

259, 437. 

Review of Spencer, . .4, 5, 6, 7, 35, 41, 43, 44 

Theism, 37 

Boyce, James P., 

Baptist Quarterly,... 380 

Boys, Thomas, 

Christian Dispensation, Miraculous, . . 66 
Brace, C. L., 

Gesta Christi, 93 

Breckenridge, R. J., 26,27 

Bretschneider, K. G., 

Dogmatik, 24,267 

Briggs, Charles A., 

Messianic Prophecy, 69 

Broadus, John A., 

Com. on Matthew, 435,594 

Ho vey's Com. on John, 367, 378 

Immersion, 522, 525 

Brooke, Stopford A., 

Justice, 557 

Brooks, Thomas, 

Satan and his Devices, 233 

Brooks, W. K., 

Heredity, 254 

Brougham, Henry, Lord, 48 

Brown, David, 

Memoir of John Duncan, 57 

Expositor, 406 

Second Advent, 574 

Brown, J. Baldwin, 

The Risen Christ, 66 



712 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Brown, Dr. John, 
Spare Hours, 181 

Brown, T. B., 
The Sabbath, 203 

Brown, W. R., 

Inspiration of New Testament, 104 

Strivings for the Faith, 46 

Browning, Mrs. E. B., 
Aurora Leigh, 279 

Browning, Robert, 197 

Apparent Failure, 590 

A Soul's Tragedy, 127,129 

Death in the Desert, 247, 375 

Halbertand Hob,. 450 

Paracelsus, 294 

Rabbi Ben Ezra, 182 

Saul, 282 

The Ring and the Book, 280, 354, 382 

Bruce, A. B., 
Miraculous Element in Gospels, .61, 67, 90 

Humiliation of Christ, 372, 377, 384, 

390, 406. 
Present Day Tracts, 79 

Bruch, J. F M 

Eigenschaf tslehre, 120, 139 

Lehre von der Praexistenz, 248, 249 

Bryennios, Philotheos, 536 

Buchanan, James, 

Modern Atheism, 53 

Justification, ....474,483 

Biichner, Louis, 
Force and Matter, 51 

Buckle, H. T„ 218 

Buckley, J. M., 
Century Magazine, 67 

Biickmann, R., 
Zeitschr. f. luth. Theol. u. Kirche,.... 65 

Buddeus, J. F., 24 

Theologia Dogmatica, 128, 129 

Bulwer, Edward, Lord Lytton, 346 

Bunsen, C. C. J., 

Egypt's Place, 240,561 

Hippolytus and his Times, 537 

Philosophy of Universal History, 239 

Bunyan, John, 25, 160, 459, 548 

Pilgrim's Progress, 405 

Burgess, Ebenezer, 
Antiquity and Unity of the Race, . .77, 239 
241, 241, 243. 

Burgesse, Anthony, 
Original Sin, 336,337 

Burke, Edmund, 275 

Burnet, Gilbert, 
Exposition of the xxxix Articles, 26 

Burnet, Thomas, 
State of the Departed, 580 

Burrage, Henry S., 
Act of Baptism, 526 

Burton, Prof. E. D., 185 

Burton, N. S., 
Baptist Review, 282, 528 

Bushnell, Horace, 14, 116, 129, 158, 162, 

397, 536. 



Bushnell, Horace ( continued ), 

Christian Nurture, __ 573 

Sermons for the New Life, 182 

Forgiveness and Law, 164, 223, 400, 

402,589. 

Nature and the Supernatural, 56, 62, 

66, 90, 199, 271, 355, 368, 450. 

Sermons on Living Subjects, 591 

Vicarious Sacrifice, 360,400 

Butler, Bishop Joseph, 16, 18, 421, 555 

Analogy, 28, 39, 60, 63, 109, 181, 206, 211, 

360,555. 

Sermons on Human Nature, 46 

Works, Bonn's ed., 142 

Butler, William Archer, 

Sermons, 387 

Butterworth, H., 

Story of Notable Prayers, 217 

Buttmann, Philip, 

New Testament Grammar, 391 

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 200, 587 

Manfred, 583 

Caird, John, 

Faiths of the World, 87 

Philosophy of Religion, 12 

Sermons, 298 

Scotch Sermons, 447 

Cairns, Rev. Principal, 

Present State of Christian Argument 

from Prophecy, 69 

Calderwood, Henry, 255 

Moral Philosophy, ...6, 28, 32, 36, 37, 41, 44, 
48, 50, 52, 56, 143, 178, 377, 555. 

Philosophy of the Infinite,... 4, 6, 6, 16, 18, 
32, 36, 38, 48, 50, 132. 

Relation of Mind and Brain, 53 

Science and Religion, 217 

Calixtus, Georgius, 23, 24 

Epitome Theologiae, 27 

Calovius, Abraham, 24, 29 

Calvin, John,.. 20, 23, 24, 261, 293, 323, 438, 509, 
540, 569, 587. 

Commentaries, 346, 528, 596 

Institutes,. . . .15, 28, 29, 30, 207, 208, 329, 345, 
357, 447, 490, 546. 
Campbell, Alexander, 454, 532 

Christianity Restored, 455 

Campbell, Dr. George, 

Miracles, 65 

Campbell, J. McLeod, 400, 402, 414 

Atonement, 275,282,420 

Candlish, James S., 

Work of Holy Spirit, 164 

Candlish, Robert S., 

Atonement, 357, 396, 422 

Fatherhood of God, 238 

Canus, Melchoir, 25 

Capes, J. M., 

Stoicism, 88 

Carey, H. C, 

Unity of Law, 275 

•Carlyle,- Thomas, 204, 291, 297 

Life of John Sterling, 486 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



713 



Carpenter, W. B., 

Mental Philosophy, 7, 77, 238 

Carman, A. S., 174,205 

Carson, Dr. Alexander, 

Baptism,. 526 

Carson, Dr. J. C. L., 

The Heresies of the Plymouth Breth- 
ren, 499 

Carson, R. H., 

The Brethren, 499 

Catechism, Westminster Larger, 357 

Cave, A., 

Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice, 397 

Century Magazine, The, 67 

Chadbourne, P. A., 

Instinct,. 335 

Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, 26, 27, 586 

Astronomical Discourses, 205 

Christian Revelation, 63, 65, 69 

Institutes of Theology, 27, 325 

Lectures on the Romans, 454 

Moral Philosophy, 143 

Natural Theology, 193 

Sermons, ' Expulsive Power of a New- 
Affection,' 486 

Works, 199,217 

Chamier, Daniel, 24 

Channing, William E., 368 

Evidences of Revealed Religion, 63 

Charles, Mrs. E., 

Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan, 583 

Charnock, Stephen,. 116 

Divine Attributes,.... 120, 125, 134, 137, 178 

Regeneration, 458 

Charteris, Prof. A. H., 

New Testament Scriptures, 97 

Chase, D. P., 

Introduction to Aristotle's Ethics,. .. 301 

Chemnitz, Martin,.. 24,377 

Chillingworth, W., 12 

Chitty, Joseph, 20 

Blackstone's Commentaries, 352 

C. H. M., see Macintosh, C. H. 
Christlieb, Prof. Theodor, 

Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, . . 4, 
30, 53, 57, 61, 66, 77, 79, 80, 170, 204. 

Chrysostom, John, 587 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, xxv, 132, 

297, 306, 449, 494, 557. 

De Natura Deorum, 21, 30, 211, 213 

Clarke, Adam, 534 

Clarke, Dorus, 

Saying the Catechism, 10 

Clarke, J. Freeman, 

Ten Great Religions, 32, 86, 89, 185, 193 

Orthodoxy, its Truths and Errors, 159, 

357, 398. 
Clarke, Samuel, 47, 132, 142 

Works, 48 

Clement of Rome, 74,518,591 

Cobbe, Frances Power, 43 

Peak of Darien, 200,512,554,557 

Cocceius, Joannes, 24,322 



Cocceius, Joannes (continued), 

Summa Doctrinse de Fcedere et Tes- 
tamentoDei, 27,323 

Summa Theologise, 27 

Cocker, B. F., 

Christianity and Greek Philosophy, 34, &59 

Theistic Conception of the World,... 48, 
132, 204. 

Colby, H. F., 552 

Coleman, Lyman, 

Christian Antiquities, .525, 536 

Manual on Prelacy and Ritualism, 506, 

508, 509. 
Coleridge, Samuel T., 3, 30, 63, 301, 321 

Aids to Reflection,.... 13,526 

Commentary, Popular,.. 386 

Comte, Auguste, 46, 292, 293 

Positive Philosophy,. 4, 271 

Conant, T. J., 

Genesis, 97,102,106,185 

Proverbs, 154 

Matthew, , 522,525,534 

Condillac, E. B. de, 52 

Confession, Westminster, 344, 345 

Conybeare and Howson, 509 

Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 360, 524, 

528. 

Cook, Joseph, 144, 243, 275, 288 

Cooke, Prof. J. P., 

Credentials of Science, .. 43 

New Chemistry, 43 

Religion and Chemistry,.. 43, 47 

Cotterill, Henry, 

Does Science aid Faith in Regard to 

Creation? 195 

Cousin, Victor, 

History of Philosophy, . _ 30, 54 

True, Beautiful, and Good, 30, 35 

Cowles, Henry, 

Commentary, 107,109,386,574 

Cowper, B. H., 

Apocryphal Gospels, 78 

Cox, Samuel, 

Miracles, an Argument and a Chal- 
lenge, 63,77,195,218 

The Resurrection, 580 

Craig, Oscar, 

Presbyterian Review, 5 

Cramer, H., 

Wurzeln des Anselm'schen Satisfac- 

tionsbegriffes, 409 

Crawford, Thomas J., 

Atonement, 238, 393, 394, 396, 400, 

401, 405, 421, 464. 
Cremer, H., 245 

Beyond the Grave, 580,592 

New Testament Lexicon, 138, 391, 

393, 473, 494, 496, 523. 
Crippen, T. G., 

History of Christian Doctrine, 408, 408, 409 
Crooks and Hurst, 

Theological Encyclopaedia and Meth- 
odology, 22 



714 



INDEX OF AUTHOKS. 



Crosby, Alpheus, 

Second Advent, 574,580 

Crosby, Howard, 

The True Humanity of Christ, 380 

Crowell, William, 

Church Member's Manual, 519 

Cudworth, Ralph, 

Intellectual System of the Universe, 154, 
185, 187, 580. 

Cumming, John, 570 

Cunning-ham, William, 

Historical Theology, .21, 181, 267, 324, 

328, 342, 345, 405, 422, 427, 456, 508. 

Theological Lectures, 101 

Cunningham, John, 553 

The Growth of the Church, Croall 

Lectures, 524, 535 

Current Discussions in Theology, 332, 

377, 419. 

Curry, Daniel, : 406 

Curtis, T. P., 

Communion, 501, 553 

Human Element in Inspiration, 50, 58, 

77,86. 

Progress of Baptist Principles, 496, 

505, 527, 535, 537, 538, 548, 548, 551. 
Curtius, Dr. Georg, 

Griechische Etymologie, 11 

Cuvier, Baron Georges, 43 

Cyclopaedia, Biblical, Kitto's, 535, 536 

Cyclopaedia, Johnson's, 7, 595 

Cyclopaedia, McClintock and Strong, ... 28, 
74, 315, 345. 

Cyprian, ....508,565 

Cyril, 165 

Dabney, R. L., 27 

Theology, 206, 254, 313, 315, 325, 325, 481 

Dagg, J. L., 

Manual of Theology, 28 

Church Order, 496, 499, 510, 517, 

522, 534, 538, 539 
Dale, James W., 

Classic, Judaic, Christie, and Patristic 

Baptism, 522 

Dale, R. W., 413 

Atonement, 393,401,409,444 

Manual of Congregational Principles, 519 

Dalgairns, Father J. B., 5 

Damascus, John of, 167, 169, 362, 363, 377 

Dana, James D., 241 

Amer. Journ. Science and Arts, 237 

Manual of Geology, 106, 193, 195, 237 

Dannhauer, John Conrad, 24 

Hodosophia Christiana, 27 

Dante Alighieri, 221,223,294 

Hell, 570, 591, 598 

Purgatory, 251, 566 

Paradise, 123 

Darwin, Charles, 18, 237 

Descent of Man, 236 

Origin of Species, 236 

Davids, Rhys, 

Hibbert Lectures, 87 



Davidson, Samuel, 

Ecclesiastical Polity, 500, 519 

Davis, J. W., 

Baptist Review, 350 

Dawkins, W. Boyd,... 272 

Dawson, Sir J. W., 

Expositor, 195 

Fossil Men, 107 

Story of Earth and Man,.. 106, 238, 243, 272 
Day,H. N., 103 

New Englander, 13 

Princeton Review, 167 

Science of Ethics, 256 

Defence and Confirmation of the Faith, 

( Elliott Lectures, 1885), 66 

Defoe, Daniel, 214 

Delitzsch, Franz, 245 

Biblische Psychologic 247, 265, 345, 

347, 380, 562, 566, 580, 590. 

Isaiah, 472 

De Marchi, see Marchi, Joseph de, 92 

De Quincey, Thomas, 

Theological Essays, 65, 594 

Denovan, Joshua, 

Toronto Baptist, 164, 281, 387, 388, 453, 

476, 478. 
Descartes, Rene, 30, 126, 142, 566 

Meditations, 48 

Deutsch, Emanuel, 

Remains, 365 

De Wette, W. M. L., 24,76 

Biblische Theologie, 21 

Commentary, 9, 263,324,356 

Dexter, Henry M., 

Congregationalism, 496, 506, 506, 

507, 509, 510, 511, 516. 

The Story of John Smyth and Se-bap- 
tism, 525 

Verdict of Reason, 600 

Dick, John, 26 

Lectures on Theology, 128, 146, 151, 

157, 171, 208. 

Dickens, Charles, 251 

Dickson, W. P., 

St. Paul's use of the Terms Flesh and 

Spirit, 291 

Diestel, Prof. Ludwig, 

Jahrbuch fur deutsche Theologie, ..31, 272 
Dillmann, August, 

Genesis, 184 

Diman, Prof. J. L., 218 

Theistic Argument, 4, 32, 36, 39, 40, 

42, 43, 44, 44, 45, 46, 47, 53, 53, 57, 59, 65, 
204, 217, 272, 274, 443. 

Dippel, J. K., 405 

Dix, Morgan, 

Pantheism, 56, 98 

Dobney, H. H., 

Future Punishment, 562, 588 

Dodge, Ebenezer, 

Christian Theology, 306, 318 

Evidences of Christianity, 72 

Doderlein, L., 24 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



715 



Dollinger, John J. I., 

Gentile and Jew, 359 

Kirche und Kirchen, 523 

Dorner, A., 

Augustinus, 267 

Dorner, LA., 6, 156, 191, 219, 251, 

274, 312, 376, 379, 380, 381, 406, 442, 461, 
467, 497, 542, 554, 566, 574, 582. 

Eschatology, 577, 579, 589, 590, 597 

Gesammelte Schriften, 125 

Geschichte prot. Theologie,...4, 16, 17, 18, 
167, 267, 481, 507, 532. 

Glaubenslehre, 34, 49, 57, 122, 131, 

154, 161, 203, 267, 286, 310, 311, 313, 316, 
327, 337, 350, 351, 352, 361, 362, 362, 363, 
363, 365, 365, 365, 367, 368, 373, 377, 385, 
386, 393, 402, 404, 412, 415, 419, 424, 437, 
451, 481, 544. 
System of Doctrine (translation of 

the preceding), .28, 130, 160, 163, 189, 

201, 202, 310, 311, 316, 325, 329, 337, 351, 
361, 362, 365, 366, 367, 368, 370, 373, 377, 
385, 386, 393, 402, 404, 412, 415, 419, 424, 
437, 481, 544. 
History of the Doctrine of the Per- 
son of Christ, ....28, 81, 154, 159, 282, 292, 
329, 361, 362, 373, 
UnverSnderlichkeit Gottes, in Jahr- 

buch f. deutsche Theologie, 372 

Dove, Patrick E., 
Logic of Christian Faith, 2, 3, 16, 16, 20, 36, 
39, 47, 48, 49, 56. 
Drummond, Henry, 
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 14, 
14, 18, 18, 184, 277, 350, 445, 446, 450, 459, 
485, 486, 596. 

Dwight, Timothy, ....26, 319 

Theology, 142, 295, 308, 454, 458, 596 

Eaches, O. P., 

Baptist Review, 105 

Ebers, George, 

Uarda, 561 

Ebrard, J. H.A...... 25,29,370,415 

Baptist Quarterly, 530 

Dogmatik, ...12, 34, 40, 83, 104, 163, 224, 232, 
239, 246, 251, 261, 366, 371, 580. 
Eclectic, Theological, 52, 77, 80, 81, 86, 91, 193 
Edersheim, Dr. Alfred, 

Life and Times of Jesus, 108, 503, 521 

Warburton Lectures on Prophecy and 

History, ..69,82 

Edwards, Jonathan,.. 26, 28, 205, 206, 285, 287, 
288, 309, 318, 323, 327, 328, 445, 447, 452, 
469, 479, 480. 

Freedom of the Will, 178, 180, 259, 322 

History of Redemption, 27,360 

Life of Brainard, 468 

Observations on Trinity, 161, 166, 379 

Original Sin, 301,304,330,340 

Qualifications for Full Communion,. . 547 

Religious Affections, 458 

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 
God, 588 



Edwards, Jonathan (continued), 

Works,... 142, 198, 220, 252, 263, 286, 294, 298, 
308, 345, 410, 411, 454, 466, 482, 483, 493, 
584,600. 
Edwards, the younger, 

Works, 131, 175, 178, 563, 596 

Eichhorn, Carl, 

Die Personlichkeit Gottes, 57, 122 

Eliot, George, 251, 297, 417, 485 

AdamBede,.-- 290 

Ellicott, C. J., 18,245 

Commentaries, 165,263,550 

Elliott Lectures, 66 

Elliott, E. B., 

Horas Apocalypticae,...68, 75, 224, 507, 565, 
570, 571, 573, 575. 
Ellis, George E., 169 

Half Century of the Unitarian Con- 
troversy, 311 

Unitarianism and Orthodoxy, 398 

Emerson, G. H., 

Doctrine of Probation Examined,. 590, 591 
Emerson, R. W., 69, 140, 220, 253, 291, 293, 399 

Essays, 3,58 

Poems, 344 

Emmons, Nathanael, 26, 205, 320, 323 

Works, 176,319,456 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 38, 90, 240 

Endless Future, The, 599 

Episcopius, Simon, 25, 314 

Ernesti, H. F. T. L., 

Ursprung der Siinde, 249, 291 

Essays, Princeton,.. 144, 159, 166, 176, 198, 286, 
311, 313, 313, 321. 322, 328, 345, 385, 400, 
405, 490. 
Estes, H. C, 

Christian Doctrine of the Soul,.. 562 

Evans, Christmas, 

Sermons, 117 

Evans, L. J., 

Presbyterian Review, 384, 564 

Evans, Marian (George Eliot), 

Translation of Feuerbach, 9 

Everett, C. C, 

Science of Thought, 2 

Examination of Lyddon's Bampton 

Lectures, 150 

Examiner, The New York, 596 

Expositor, The, 195,218 

Faber, G. S., 574 

Fabri, Friedrich, 

Materialismus, 51 

Fairbairn, Dr. A. M., 

Contemporary Review, 89 

Studies in Philosophy of Religion and 

History, 33,34,558 

Fairbairn, Patrick, 

Commentary on Pastoral Epistles,.. 9, 435 

Prophecy, 67, 574 

Revelation of Law in Scripture, 279 

Typology, 224,360, 396 

Fairchild, James H., 

Moral Philosophy, 142, 257,289 



716 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Faith and Free Thought, (Lect. Christ. 
Ev. Soc), - - -- 109 

Faiths of the World, 
St. Giles' Lectures, 86, 87, 89, 89, 189 

Farrar, A. S. f 
Critical History of Free Thought, .... 78 
Science in Theology,.... 30, 66, 67, 199, 211, 
215, 282. 

Farrar, F. W., 

Eternal Hope, ..590,594 

Fall of Man, - 304 

Life of Christ, 65, 213, 229, 366 

Origin of Language, 240 

Seekers after God, 59, 86, 359 

Witness of History to Christ, 63,66, 77, 78, 
86, 89, 93, 93, 359. 

Felix of Urgella, - 405 

Ferrier, J. F., 
Remains, 235 

Feuerbach, L.,- 46, 51 

Essence of Christianity, 8 

Fick, August, 
Vergl. WSrterb. d. indoger. Sprachen, 11 

Finney, Charles G., 26, 131, 430, 452 

Autobiography, 112 

Gospel Themes, 383 

Systematic Theology, 127, 142, 281, 

488,488. 

Fish, E. J., 
Ecclesiology, 499, 502, 510, 512, 516 

Fisher, G. P., 
Beginnings of Christianity, 86, 100, 108, 109, 
360. 

Christian Evidences, 66 

Discussions, 318, 319, 3:23, 325, 326, 327 

Essays on the Supernatural Origin of 

Christianity, 12, 30, 33, 40, 44, 49, 56, 

62, 75, 91. 
Grounds of Theistic and Christian 

Belief, 28,259 

Independent, 546 

Journal of Christian Philosophy,... 32, 38, 
49, 66. 

New Englander, 357,594 

Princeton Review,.. 61 

Fiske, D. T., 
Bibliotheca Sacra, 175 

Fiske, John, 

Cosmic Philosophy, 54, 54 

The Destiny of Man, 52, 235, 290, 555 

Fitch, E. T., 

Christian Spectator, 179 

Nature of Sin, 285 

Predestination and Election, 430 

Fitzgerald, Bishop William, 
Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. : Mira- 
cles, 62 

Fleming, William, 
Vocabulary of Philosophy,... 4, 17, 30, 277 

Flint, Austin, 
Physiology of Man, 191 

Flint, Robert, 
Anti-Theistic Theories, 32 



Flint, Robert ( continued ), 

Christ's Kingdom Upon Earth, 180 

Theism,... 34, 36, 40, 41, 44, 45, 45, 47, 58. 200 
Fock, Otto, 

Socinianismus, 400 

Forbes, John, 

Predestination and Free Will, 176 

Ford, David B., 

Studies on Baptism, 523 

Foster, John,. 19,65 

Foundations of our Faith, 4, 44, 481, 482 

Fox, L. A., 

Lutheran Review, 584 

Fox, Norman, 

Baptist Review, 103 

Frank, F. H. R., 

System of Christian Certainty, 3 

Frazer, A. C, 

Berkeley ..:. 206 

Freer, G., 

Miller's History and Doctrine of Irv- 

ingism, 406 

Frohschammer, J., 249, 252, 252 

Froude, James A., 218,291 

Essay on Calvinism, in Short Studies 

on Great Subjects, vol. 3 : 1-53, 181 

Fuller, Andrew, 25,29 

Calvinism and Socinianism Com- 
pared, 181 

Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation, 27 

Letters on Systematic Divinity, 27 

Part of a System of Divinity, 39 

Works, 28, 422, 436, 447, 458, 460, 577 

Furst, Julius, 

Hebrew Lexicon, 361 

Galton, Francis, 46 

Inquiries into Human Faculty, 219, 253 

Hereditary Genius, 253 

Ganse, Hervey G., 

Use of the Doctrine of the Trinity, 

( in South Church Lectures), 170 

Garbett, Edward, 

Dogmatic Faith, 59,86,93 

God's Word Written, 85 

Garbett, James, 

Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King,. 425 
Gardiner, F., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 108 

O. T. and N. T. in Mutual Relations,.. 68, 
68, 155. 
Gardiner, H. N., 

Presbyterian Review, 51, 57 

Gassendi, Pierre, ( Petrus Gassendus ), 141, 
183. 

Opera, 142 

Gaussen, L., 

Theopneusty, 101 

Gear, H. L., 

Baptist Review, 132 

George, N. D., 

Universalism not in the Bible, 600 

Gerhard, John, 3, 24 

Loci Communes, 126,545 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



17 



Gesenius, William, 

Lexicon, Heb. and Chald., 560 

Gess, W. F.,_... 370 

Foundations of our Faith, 56 

Scripture Doctrine of the Person of 

Christ, 371 

Gibbon, Edward, ...98,544 

History of the Decline and Fall of the 

Roman Empire, 93 

Gieseler, John C. L., 

Church History, 509 

Gilfillan, George, 

The Sabbath, 202 

GUI, John, 

Body of Divinity, 436 

Gillespie, William, 

Necessary Existence of God, 34, 40, 48 

Gillett, E. H., 

God in Human Thought, 272 

Girdlestone, R. B., 

Synonyms of Old Testament, 472, 480, 

496,500. 
Gladstone, William E., 

Juventus Mundi, 241 

Nineteenth Century,. 195 

Studies of Homer, 170 

Gloatz, Paul, 

Studienund Rritiken, 63 

Godet, F., 

Biblical Studies in Old Testament,... 221, 
223,247. 

Commentary on Gospel of John,.. 75, 126, 
1.54, 162, 163, 468. 

Lectures in Defence of the Christian 
Faith, 89, 130, 215 

Present Day Tracts, 75 

Princeton Review, 12, 196, 447 

Goethe, J. W. von, 3, 21, 289, 290, 291, 297, 450 

Faust, 230, 291, 346 

Goodwin, D. R., 

Journ. Soc. Bib. Exegesis, 244, 246, 576 

Goodwin, H. M., 

Christ and Humanity, 372 

Gordon, A. J., 130,424,425,576 

Baptist Review, 532 

In Christ, 447 

Independent, 573 

Ministry of Healing,. 66 

Twofold Life, 457,487 

Goschel, C. F., 

Herzog's Ency clopSdie, 245, 250 

Goulburn, E. M., 

Bampton Lectures, 580 

Everlasting Punishment, 599 

Gould, Ezra P., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 594 

Grau, R. F., 

Ueber den Glauben als hochste Ver- 

nunf t, in Be weis des Glaubens, 4 

Gray, Asa, 

Natural Science and Religion, 238 

Green, Wm. H., 239 

Hebrew Chrestomathy, 184 



Green, Wm. H. (continued), 

Moses and the Prophets, 82 

Presbyterian Quarterly, 109 

Sunday School Times, 560 

The Hebrew Feasts, 82 

Green, J. R., 

Short History of the English People,. 287 
Greenleaf, Simon, 

Testimonies of the Evangelists, 83 

Greg, Wm. R., 

Creed of Christendom, 67, 282, 413 

Gregory, D. S-., 

Christian Ethics, 143, 223, 252, 257 

Gregory of Nyssa, .23, 252, 408 

Griffin, E. D., 

Divine Efficiency, 449,451,454 

Review of Taylor and Fitch, 452 

Griffin, E. P., 

Extent of Atonement, 422 

Grimm- Wilke, 

Lexicon Gragco-Lat., 391, 523 

Grobler, Paul, 

Studien und Kritiken, 580 

Grote, George, 

Plato, 77 

Grotius, Hugo,. 25,570 

Defensio Fidei Catholicae de Satisfac- 

tione,... 403 

Guericke, H. E. F., 

Church History, ..159, 187, 188, 189, 363, 506 

Studien und Kritiken, 405 

Guizot, F., 

History of Civilization, 94 

Gunsaulus, F. W., 

Transfiguration of Christ, 63, 169 

Guyon, Madame J. M. B. de la Motte, 

17,469 

Guyot, Arnold, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 106 

Creation, 184, 193 

Earth and Man, 239 

Gwatkin, Henry, 

Studies of Arianism, 159 

Hackett, Dr. H. B., 400 

Christian Review, 77 

Commentary on Acts,. 15, 107, 226, 506, 510, 
510, 567. 

Commentary on Philippians, 563 

Plutarch's l De Sera Numinis Vin- 

dicta,' 59 

Hadley, James, 

Essays, Philological and Critical,.. 202, 558 
Hagenbach, K. P., 28 

Encyclop&die, 22 

History of Doctrine,.. 9, 19, 21, 27, 154, 155, 
160, 188, 267, 313, 315, 318, 329, 406, 456, 
503. 
Hahn, Aaron, 

History of Arguments for Existence 

of aGod, 50 

Hahn, G. L, 

Biblical Theology of N. T., 244 

Hales, William, 106 



718 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Haley, John W., 

Examination of Alleged Discrepan- 
cies, 83, 108, 599 

Hall, Edwin, 

Law of Baptism, 536 

Hall, John, 

Lectures on the Religious Use of 

Property, 306 

Hall, Robert, 25,41,548,562 

Sermon on Atheism, - 38 

Sermon on Cause, Agent, and Purpose 
of Regeneration, 454 

Works, 233, 436, 521, 552 

Hallam, Arthur H., 

Theodicaea No vissima, 181 

Hamerton, P. G., 

Intellectual Life, 12 

Hamilton, D. H., 

Autology, - 62,217 

Hamilton, Sir William, 20, 21, 283, 566 

Discussions, 3, 18, 36, 41, 47 

Metaphysics, 2, 5, 6, 43, 47, 53, 212 

Theories of Sense Perception, 53 

Hammond, Dr. Wm. A., 307 

Hanna, William, 

The Resurrection,.... 379, 577 

Hanne, J. W., 

Idee der absoluten Personlichkeit,.57, 205 
Hardwick, Charles, 

Christ and Other Masters, 170 

Hare, Julius Charles, 

Mission of the Comforter, 151 

Harless, G. C. A., 

Christian Ethics, 256 

Commentar y on Ephesians, 300 

Harnack, Prof. A., of Giessen, 

Independent,.... 523,524,525 

Westcott's Com. on John (Bible 

Com.), 146 

Harnoch, G. A., 

Wegweiser, 188 

Harris, Samuel, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, - 295 

New Englander, 35 

Philosophical Basis of Theism, ...7, 28, 29, 
33, 37, 39, 51, 55, 67, 87, 98, 122, 123, 235, 
246, 260, 313, 377, 574, 580. 
Harris, W. T., 34 

Journal of Speculative Philosophy,. .7, 49 
Hartmann, Ed. von, 44 

Philosophic des Unbewussten, 200 

Hartmann, Robert, 

Anthropoid Apes, 237 

Harvey, A., Lord, see Hervey, A., Lord. 
Harvey, H., 

Baptist Review, 522 

The Church, 500,519 

The Pastor, 511 

Hase, Karl, 

Evangelische Dogmatik,. 27 

Hutterus Redivivus, ..28, 289, 302, 329, 370, 
381, 558, 580. 

Life of Jesus, .. 78 



Hatch, Edwin, 

Organization of Early Christian 

Churches, 500,508 

Haug, Martin, 

Essays on the Parsees, 188 

Haven, Joseph, 

Moral Philosophy, 143, 218, 257 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 330 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 253 

Scarlet Letter, 346 

Hazard, R. G., 

Freedom of Mind in Willing, 259 

Letters on Causation in Willing, ..132, 437 

Man a Creative First Cause, 20, 178, 259, 450 
Hebert, C, 

The Lord's Supper : History of Unin- 
spired Teaching, 545 

Hedge, F. H., 

Ways of the Spirit, 41, 42, 186, 199 

Hegel, G. W. F., 12, 167, 200, 269, 301 

Encyclopaedia, 22,292 

Henderson, E., 

Commentary on the Minor Prophets, 
154,324 

Inspiration, ...65, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 104 

Hengstenberg, E. W., 570, 574 

Christology of Old Testament, ....153, 369 

Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 354 

Henry, Matthew, 268,405 

Henslow, George, 

Evolution, . 235,450 

Herbert, George,.. 18 

Herbert, Lord Edward, of Cherbury, 

De Veritate, 204 

Herbert, Thomas M., 

British Quarterly, 52 

Modern Realism Examined, 6, 36, 53 

Herder, Johann Gottfried, 24 

Herodotus, 

History,. 120 

Herschel, J. F. W., 52 

Lectures, : 55,203 

Hervey, A., Lord, 

Genealogies of our Lord, 108 

Herzog, J. J., 

Encyclopadie, 17, 28, 51, 78, 89, 181, 188, 

193, 199, 221, 326, 362, 371, 380, 411, 483, 
562, 566, 580. 
Hessey, J. A., 

Bampton Lectures on the Sunday, ... 202 

Moral Difficulties of the Bible,.... 109, 203 
Hibbert Lectures, see Renan, and 

Renouf. 
Hickok, Laurens P., 

Moral Science, 143 

Rational Cosmology, 6, 30, 52 

Hicks, L. E., 

Baptist Review, 107 

Critique of Design Arguments, 42, 199 

Hilary (Hilarius Arelatensis), 328 

Hill, David J., 

Elements of Psychology, 28, 200 

Social Influence of Christianity, 94 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



719 



Hill, George, 

System of Divinity, 175,181 

Hill, Pres. Thomas, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 51 

Hirtton, James, 

Art of Thinking-, 4,143 

Hiscox, Edward T., 

Baptist Church Directory, 519 

Hitchcock, Edward, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, . 63 

Presbyterian Review, 500 

Hitchcock, Dr. R. D., 

South Church Lectures, 577 

Hobbes, Thomas, 21,141,233 

Leviathan, 142 

Hodge, A. A., 26, 27, 62 

McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, 

article: 'Will,' 177 

Outlines of Theology, ....171, 288, 345, 437, 

438, 464, 479, 574, 584, 600. 
Popular Lectures on Theological 

Themes, 437 

Preface to Cremer's 'Beyond the 

Grave,' 592 

Princeton Review, 437 

Hodge, Charles, 26,27,598 

Commentary on Romans, 14. 325 

Essays and Reviews, 159, 304, 322, 

324, 458, 519. 
Systematic Theology ,1, 15, 16, 17, 17, 28, 29, 
30, 55, 66, 178, 196, 200, 203, 206, 208, 227, 
241, 250, 260, 289, 301, 314, 322, 324, 325, 
328, 330, 345, 357, 370, 372, 374, 377, 384, 
386, 404, 421, 431, 435, 454, 483, 490, 554, 
565. 
Hodgson, S. H., 
Introduction to Hinton's 'Art of 

Thinking,' 4 

Time and Space, ..55,136 

Hofmann, J. C. K. von, 370, 393 

Schriftbeweis, ..21, 38, 153, 256, 264, 371, 394 

Holbach, Baron Paul H. d', 51 

Hollaz, David, .24, 126, 289, 325 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 253, 344 

Hooker, Richard, 26, 370, 500 

Ecclesiastical Polity, 101, 263, 276, 

282, 380, 429, 447, 519. 

Hopkins, Mark, 121,450 

Andover Review, 199 

Law of Love, 1....142, 143, 256 

Miscellanies, 44 

Moral Science, 256,294 

Outline Study of Man, .3, 4, 32, 52, 62, 

235,256. 

Prayer and the Prayer Gauge, 62, 216, 

217, 218. 

Princeton Review, 14, 43, 53, 200, 271, 

275, 466. 

Scriptural Idea of Man, 184, 224, 268, 

268, 269, 366. 

Hopkins, Samuel, 26,323 

Works, 129, 205, 252, 263, 293, 308, 345, 

411, 421, 454. 



Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), 
Epistles, 301 

Hovey, Alvah, 
Baptist Review,.. .386, 526, 536, 539, 569, 580 

Biblical Eschatology, 356, 386, 554, 556, 

573, 590, 599. 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 553 

Commentary on John, 367, 378, 458 

Doctrine of Higher Christian Life, 

compared with Scripture, 490 

God with Us, 129, 200, 279, 293, 327, 

372, 377, 380, 381, 401, 402. 

Manual of Theology and Ethics, 24, 28, 

246, 340, 427, 430, 432, 456, 458, 555, 561, 
589. 

Outlines of Theology, 335, 445, 456 

State of Man after Death, 566, 566 

State of the Impenitent Dead, 235, 559, 

561, 563. 

Howe, John, 26,29 

Calm Discourse of the Trinity, 161 

Howell, R. B. C, 

Terms of Communion, 553 

The Deaconship, 512 

Howson, John S., 
Present Day Tracts, 79 

Hudson, C. F., 

Christ Our Life, 562,588 

Debt and Grace, 562,588 

Hughes, Thomas, 
Manliness of Christ, 294, 366 

Humboldt, Alexander von, 
Cosmos, 1,203 

Hume, David, 32, 53, 67, 84, 216, 497, 565 

Philosophical Works, 40, 62, 64 

Hunt, John, 

Essay on Pantheism, 55 

Religious Thought in England, 500 

Hurter, H., 
Theologian Dogmaticas Compendium, 25 

Huther, J. E., 
Meyer's Commentary on 1 Timothy,. 503 

Hutter, Leonard, 24 

Hutton, Richard H., 290 

Essays, 37, 38, 46, 55, 66, 79, 80, 98, 

169, 170, 220, 291, 426. 
Nineteenth Century, 64 

Huxley, Thomas, 53,235,237 

Address before British Association, 

46,191 

Critiques and Addresses, 43, 236, 241 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 191, 236 

Lay Sermons, 63, 191, 236, 237 

Man's Place in Nature, 236,237 

Nature, ....191,192 

Nineteenth Century, 195 

Origin of Species, 241 

Iamblicus, - - 58 

Ignatius, 74 

Ad Trallianos, 23 

Immer, A., 
Hermeneutics, 86 

Independent, New York, 523, 525, 573 



720 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Ingham, R., 

Handbook of Baptism, 533 

Subjects of Baptism,. 534 

Inverach, James, 
Philosophy of Spencer, Examined,... 54 
Present Day Tracts, 7 

Irenaeus, 73 

Irving-, Edward, 405, 406, 407, 408, 413 

British Weekly,.... 406 

Collected Works,. 406,407 

Isocrates, - --- 105 

Jackson, William, 
Bampton Lectures, 600 

Jacob, G. A., 
Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Tes- 
tament, 494, 500, 508, 509, 510, 511, 

532, 535, 539, 540, 543, 544, 553. 

Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich, 8, 34, 45 

Werke, 16 

Jacobi, Prof. J., 
Kitto's Cyclopaedia, 535 

Jahrbuch fur deutsche Theologie, 71, 

341, 343, 373, 378, 381, 381, 386, 411, 470, 
578, 580. 

Janet, Paul, 

Final Causes, 43, 44, 137, 198, 199, 317 

Materialism, 51 

Theory of Morals, 356 

Jansen, Cornelius, 35 

Jellett, John H., 

Moral Difficulties of O. T., 109 

Donnellan Lectures, 317 

Jenkyn, Thomas W., 
Extent of the Atonement, 433 

Jerome, St., 75,313,350,510 

Works, 311,509 

Jevons, W. Stanley, 

Lessons in Logic, 36 

Principles of Science, 36,63 

John of Damascus, 33, 347, 363. 377 

John Scotus Erigena, 33, 116, 368 

Johnson, Alvin J., 
Cyclopaedia, 275 

Johnson, Francis H., 
Andover Review, 336 

Johnson, Franklin, 
Baptist Review, 199 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 397, 595 

Johnstone, Robert, 
Commentary on 1 Peter, 386 

Jouffroy, Theodore Simon, 143, 566 

Josephus, Flavius, .- 107 

Against Apion, 80 

Antiquities, 71,533,563 

Wars of the Jews, 563 

Journal of Christian Philosophy, 33, 38, 

49, 53, 66, 243, 272, 524. 

Journal of Speculative Philosophy, ...7, 49, 
52, 306. 

Jowett, Benjamin, 
Epistles of St. Paul,... 397 

Judson, Adoniram, 93 

Baptism, 536 



Judson, Adoniram ( continued ), 

Letter, in Life, by his Son, 539 

Jukes, Andrew, 

Old Testament Sacrifices, 396 

Restitution of All Things, 590 

KShler, Martin, 

Das Gewissen, 356 

Kahnis, K. F. A., 35 

Dogmatik, 8, 11, 39, 97, 115, 118, 

120, 136, 349, 351, 350, 377, 377, 381, 438 

Kant, Immanuel, 34, 43, 360, 301, 344, 443, 

449, 557, 566. 

Critique of Pure Reason, 6, 30, 40, 43, 

44, 46, 48, 49, 348. 
Kritik der practischen Vernunf t, Be- 

schluss, 13 

Letter, in Jacobi's Werke, 16 

Metaphysic of Ethics, ....313, 356, 357, 375, 

380. 
Religion in. d. Grenzen d. bl. Ver- 

nunft, 348 

Keble, John, 69,303 

Groans of Nature, 369 

Keil, C. F., 

Biblische Archaologie, 393, 394 

Keil and Delitzsch, 

Commentary on Pentateuch, 339 

Kellogg, Samuel H., 

Presbyterian Review, 593 

The Light of Asia and the Light of 

the World, 87,170 

Kelly, William, 570 

Advent of Christ Premillennial, 575 

Kempis, Thomas a, 17 

Imitation of Christ, 287 

Kendall, Henry, 
Natural Heirship, in Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, 330 

Kendrick, A. C, 532 

Baptist Quarterly,. 522 

Baptist Review, 12, 333, 386, 574, 586 

Christian Review, 535 

Lange's Com. on Hebrews, 75 

Sunday School Times, 356 

Kennedy, John, 

Resurrection of Jesus Christ, 66 

King, Clarence, 

Address at Yale College, 1877, 192 

King, H. M., 

Baptist Review, 211,499 

Kingsley, Charles, 

Two Years Ago, 230 

Kitto, John, 

Biblical Cyclopaedia, 531 

Kloppenburg, John, 334 

Knapp, Georg Christian,. 34 

Knight, William, 

Colloquia Peripatetica, 158, 411 

Lectures on Metaphysics, 40 

Studies in Philosophy and Literature, 

30,33,57,190,216 

Knobel, August, 
Exeg. Handb. d. Alt. Test., 396 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



721 



Knox, Alexander, ■ 
Remains, 474 

Kohler, H. O., 
Realismus und Nominalismus, 329 

Krabbe, Otto, 
Lehre von der Siinde und vom Tode,. 355 

Krauth, C. P., 
Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic 
System, 357 

Kreibig, G., 

Versohnungslehre, 141, 199, 293, 338, 

354, 409, 412, 417. 

Kuenen, A., 
Pentateuch, 81 

Kurtz, J. H., , 81 

Bible and Astronomy, 205 

Christliehe Religionslehre, 355, 360, 366 

History of Old Covenant, 82, 153, 193 

Religionslehre, .28, 355 

Sacrificial Worship of Old Testament, 396 

Lacouperie, Terrien de, 
Languages of China before the Chi- 
nese, 240 

The Oldest Book of the Chinese,. 240 

Lactantius, 
De Ira Dei, 1 

Ladd, George T., 

Andover Review, 99 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 34, 38 

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, 99, 100 

Journ. Christ. Philosophy, ...95, 95 

Principles of Church Polity,.. 510, 538, 580 

Lang, A., 
The Iliad of Homer, 141 

Lange, F. A., 
History of Materialism, 51 

Lange, J. P., 25,188 

Positive Dogmatik, 11, 129 

Commentary, ...28, 75, 75, 113, 147, 161, 165, 
356, 394, 474, 534. 

Commentary on Apocrypha, 86 

Life of Christ, 415 

Lardner, Dr. Nathaniel, 
Works, 75 

Lasaulx, Ernest von, 
Die SUhnopfer der Griechen und 
Romer, 397 

Law, William, 
Serious Call to a Devout and Holy 
Life, 287 

Lawrence, Edward A., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 209, 378, 412 

Does Everlasting Punishment Last 
Forever? 591 

Laycock, Thomas, 
Mind and Brain, 53 

Leathes, Stanley, 

Old Testament Prophecy, 69 

Structure of Old Testament,.... 82, 86, 101 

LeConte, Joseph, 

Elements of Geology, 194 

Princeton Review, 235, 238 

Religion and Science, 43,193 

46 



Lectures, 

Bampton, 43, 62, 86, 574, 580, 600 

Boston, 66,302 

Croall, 535 

Donnellan, 217 

Elliott, 66 

Hibbert, 78, 359,561,580,582 

Hulsean, 367 

Madison Avenue, 18, 511, 522, 528, 531, 

538, 539, 542. 
South Church, 170,577 

Legge, James, 107 

Present Day Tracts, 86 

Religions of China, 32, 87, 272 

Leibnitz, G. W., 16,24,35 

Opera Philosophica, 199 

Theodicee, 291 

Leighton, Archbishop Robert, 486 

Works, 198 

Leitch, William, 
G od's Glory in the Heavens, 225, 587 

Lemme, Ludwig, 
Die Siinde wider den Heiligen Geist, . . 350 

Lenormant, Francois, 107 

Lepsius, see Lipsius. 

Leo the Great, 409 

Lessing, G otth old Ephriam, 16 

Letters on New England Theology, see 
Tyler, Bennet. 

Lewes, George H., 
Problems of Life and Mind,... 121, 187, 273 

Leydecker, Melchior, 24 

De Economia Trium Personarum in 
Negotio Salutis Humanse, 27 

Lias, J. J., 
Atonement, 413, 414 

Lichtenberger, F., 
Encyclopaedic des Sciences Religi- 
euses, 408 

Liddell and Scott, 
Greek Lexicon, 522 

Liddon, Henry P., 
Elements of Religion,... 12, 12, 32, 217, 250 
Our Lord's Divinity,... 28, 91, 146, 147, 148, 
150, 154, 368. 

Liebner, Th. A., 

Christliehe Dogmatik, 371 

JahrbuchfUr deutsche Theologie, 374, 

381. 

Light foot, Bishop J. B., 18,536 

Commentaries,.. 13, 75, 89, 109, 162, 165, 187, 
384, 508, 519, 530. 

Contemporary Review, 79 

Edition of Clemens Romanus, 518 

Lightwood, John M., 
Nature of Positive Law, 274 

Lillie, Arthur, 
Popular Life of Buddha, 87 

Lillie, John, 

Commentary on Thessalonians, 140, 

559, 598. 

Limborch, Philip van, 25, 315 

Theologia Christiana, 268,314 



722 



INDEX OF AUTHOKS. 



Lincoln, Dr. Heman, 

Examiner, New York, 596 

Lincoln, William, 443 

Lindsay, W. L., 

Mind in Lower Animals, 235 

Lipsius, Richard A., 25 

Dogmatik, 200 

Litch, Josiah, 

Christ Yet to Come, 575 

Litton, E. A., 

Introduction to Dogmatic Theology, 26 
Locke, John,.. 30,35,103,501 

Essay on the Human Understanding, . .34, 
45, 566. 
Lombard, Peter, 323, 383 

Libri Sententiarum Quatuor, 23 

Lord's Supper, The, A Clerical Sympo- 
sium, 542 

Long, J. C, 

Baptist Review, 525 

Lorimer, James, 

Institutes of Law, 275 

Lorimer, Peter, 

Strivings for the Faith, 79 

Lotz, Gulielmus, 

Quaestiones de Historia Sabbati, 202 

Lotze, Hermann, 

Microcosmos, --- 57 

Outlines of Metaphysics, .« 132 

Outlines of Psychology, 454 

Philosophy of Religion,.. 4, 50, 57, 129, 191, 
205, 260. 

Practical Philosophy, 260 

Love, William DeLoss, 

Christ's Preaching to the Spirits in 

Prison, 386 

Lovelace, Richard, 293 

Lowndes, R., 

Philosophy of Primary Beliefs, 29, 37, 

132. 
Lubbock, Sir John, 236 

Origin of Civilization, 270 

Prehistoric Times, 270 

Lucian, 

Dialogues of the Dead, 528 

Lucretius, 51, 187 

Lunemann, G., 

Meyer's Commentary, 246 

Luthardt, C. E., 25 

Compendium der Dogmatik, 1, 22, 28, 

117, 120, 165, 201, 271, 289, 360, 394, 460, 
464, 558, 561. 

Fundamental Truths,.. .8, 12, 16, 28, 37, 47, 
59, 297, 554. 

Lehre des f reien Willens, 199, 451 

Lehre von den letzten Dingen, 554 

Saving Truths of Christianity, 28, 105, 

412,554. 

Luther, Martin, 24, 167, 218, 230, 247, 247, 

286, 293, 375, 408, 425, 447, 456, 461, 486, 
503, 528, 536, 546, 569. 

Commentary on the Galatians, 466 

Table Talk, .252,351 



Lyall, William, 

Intellect, Emotions and Moral Na- 
ture, 259 

Lyell, SirCharles, 184 

Antiquity of Man, 272 

Lynch, Archbishop, of Toronto, 545 

Macaulay, T. B., 485,500 

Review of Gladstone on Church and 

State, 509 

Macan, R. W., 

Resurrection of Christ, 580 

Macdonnell, J. C, 

Atonement, 411 

Macduff, J. R., 

In Christ, 447 

Macintosh, C. H., (C. H. M.), 228, 422, 475, 481, 
484. 

Notes on Genesis, .100, 201, 302, 303, 396, 479 

Notes on Exodus, 110 

Maclaren, Alexander, 582 

Maclear, G. F., 

Strivings for the Faith, 77 

Macpherson, John, 

Presbyterianism, 508 

MacWhorter, Alexander, 

Jahveh Christ, 360 

Magazine, Baptist, 195 

Magee, William, 

Atonement and Sacrifice, 411 

Mahan, Asa, 

Christian Perfection, 488 

Maimonides, Moses, 523 

Maine, Sir Henry, 

Ancient Law, 274 

Maistre, Count Joseph de, 298 

Maitland, S. R., 570 

Manly, Basil, 

Bible Doctrine of Inspiration,. .96, 100, 101 
Manning, Cardinal H. E., 

Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost, 157 
Manning, J. M., 

Half -Truths and the Truth, 55 

Mansel, Henry L., 

Aids to Faith, 62 

Lectures, Essays and Reviews, 131 

Limits of Religious Thought,.. ....6, 6, 32 

Metaphysics, 29, 30, 38, 235, 256, 281, 555 

Prolegomena Logica, 5, 122 

Marchi, Joseph de, 92 

Marck,John, 324 

Marcion, 73,189 

Marlowe, Christopher, 

Faustus, 592 

Marshall, John, 

Life of Washington, 112 

Martensen, Bishop H. L., 

Christian Dogmatics,... 18, 27, 116, 128, 130, 
134, 138, 169, 187, 190, 192, 193, 231, 238, 
250, 286, 298, 308, 313, 330, 347, 360,376, 
389, 449, 566, 584. 
Martin, Hugh, 

Atonement, 403 

Martineau, James, 19, 51, 168, 295 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



723 



Martineau, James ( continued ), 
Essays Philosophical and Theological, 4, 

6, 8, 9, 36, 40, 43, 44, 54, 55, 56, 203, 272, 

552. 

Nineteenth Century, 58 

Religion and Materialism, 5, 33, 53, 

54,256. 

Studies of Christianity, 398 

Study of Religion,.. 5, 6, 7, 12, 28, 30, 32, 44, 

45, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 63, 98, 109, 135, 141, 
143, 168, 176, 178, 179, 190, 203, 235, 276, 
437, 442, 451, 497, 556, 556, 557, 589, 591, 
596. 

Types of Ethical Theory,... 4, 5, 30, 35, 46, 

46, 47, 52, 53, 55, 58, 139, 143, 197, 199, 
235, 256, 272, 274, 275, 276, 278, 279, 293, 
352, 368, 450, 595. 

Martyr, Justin, 

Apologia, 73 

Trypho, .„. 589 

Mason, J. M., 

Messiah's Throne, 425 

Mason, S. R., 

Truth Unfolded, 351, 355, 433, 452, 492 

Maspero, G., 185 

Masson, David, 

Three Devils, 223 

Matheson, George, 

Christianity and Evolution, 62 

Faiths of the World (St. Giles Lec- 
tures), 86 

Maurice, F. D., 

On Sacrifice, 397,400 

Sermons on the Sabbath, 202 

Theological Essays, 400,594 

What is Revelation? 7 

Maxwell, James Clerk, 

Nature, 43 

McCabe, L. D., 

Divine Nescience of Future Contin- 
gencies a Necessity, 134. 174 

Foreknowledge of God, 134, 174, 175 

McClintock and Strong, 

Encyclopaedia, 28, 177 

McCosh, Pres. James, 164 

Christianity and Positivism,. 7, 38, 44, 

52,56. 

Divine Government, 49, 52, 199, 

217, 259, 466. 

International Review, 5, 53 

Intuitions,.. 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 30, 36, 40, 52, 52, 56, 
212, 580. 

Typical Forms, 43 

M., C. H. (Macintosh, C. H.),....100, 228, 422, 

481,484. 
Mcllvaine, J. H., 

Evidences of Christianity, 72, 75, 92 

Wisdom of Holy Scripture,.... 93, 109, 193, 
238, 302, 345, 405, 409. 
McLennan, J. F M 

Studies in Ancient History, 271 

McLeod, Norman, 

Temptation of Our Lord, 230 



McPherson, John, see Macpherson, 
John. 
Presbyterianism, 508 

Melancthon, Philip, .23, 167, 204, 323, 379, 415, 
433, 451, 461, 480, 487, 569. 
Loci Communes, 24, 289 

Menken, Gottfried, 405 

Schriften,..-. 405 

Meyer, H. A. W., 114, 146,162 

Commentary, 9, 28, 37, 68, 101, 163, 226, 229, 
238, 246, 247, 290, 299, 353, 353, 356, 384, 
385, 391, 392, 393, 411, 465, 473, 474, 503, 
505, 507, 510, 523, 524, 524, 534, 540, 548, 
560, 571, 590, 594 

Miley, J., 
Methodist Quarterly, 452 

Mill, John Stuart, 142,552 

Autobiography, 46,66,212,450 

Essays on Religion, 43, 90, 91, 187, 556 

Examination of Hamilton, 7, 47, 53 

Liberty, 86 

System of Logic, _ ..273,450 

Three Essays on Theism, 45, 64, 66 

Miller, John, 

Fetich in Theology, 16,30,196 

Problems Suggested by the Bible, 386, 413 

Miller, Edward, 
History and Doctrine of Irvingism, . . 406 

Miller, Hugh, 
Testimony of theRocks,.. 193 

Milligan, William, 

Resurrection of our Lord, 66 

Revelation of St. John,. 75 

Milton, John, 
Paradise Lost, . . . .134, 227, 290, 328, 409, 486, 
586,587. 

Mind, 260,329 

Mitchell, Arthur, 
Past in the Present, 271 

Mitchell, E. C, 
Critical Handbook, 73 

Mitchell, J. Murray, 
Present Day Tracts, 87, 89 

Mivart, St. George, 

British Quarterly, 235 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 288 

Genesis of Species, 238 

Lessons from Nature, 6, 44, 57, 134, 187, 237, 
238,270. 

Man and Apes, ....237,238 

The Cat, 238 

Moffat, Robert, 31 

Molina, Luis, 174 

Moehler, J. A., 507 

Symbolism, 25, 100, 263, 263, 474, 4S1 

Monod, Adolphe, 278 

Sermons on Christ's Temptation, 21 

Monrad, Bishop D. G., 218 

World of Prayer, 218 

Montesquieu, S., 
Spirit of Laws, 275 

Moorhouse, James, 
Nature and Revelation, 366,580 



724 



INDEX OF AUTHOKS. 



More, Sir Thomas, 
Utopia, 351,585 

Morel 1, J. D., 

History of Philosophy, 13, 17, 52 

Mental Philosophy, 260 

Philosophical Fragments, 50 

Philosophy of Religion, 3, 7 

Morgan, L. H., 
Ancient Society, 270 

Morris, E. D., 
Is There Salvation After Death?.. 386, 592 

Morris, George S., 
Philosophy and Christianity, 122, 167 

Morris, H. W., 
Conflict of Science and Religion, 243 

Morrison, C. R., 
Proofs of Christ's Resurrection, 66 

Morton,. 241 

Mosheim, J. L., 185 

Moxom, Philip S., 
Baptist Review, 253, 340, 424 

Mozley, J. B., 

Essays, ...41, 42, 467, 560, 502, 591 

Lectures, 562 

Miracles, 3, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 66, 215 

Original Sin, 330 

Predestination, 329, 337, 418 

Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, 109, 281 

Muir, William, 
Present Day Tracts, 77, 89 

Muller, G. C, 
Literature of Greece, 185 

Muller, Julius, 24,25 

Doctrine of Sin, 12, 12, 28, 30, 41, 45, 57, 116, 
124, 127, 131, 191, 206, 248, 249, 253, 259, 
264, 279, 284, 288, 289, 291, 292, 292, 293, 
294, 298, 300, 301, 304, 313, 317, 318, 321, 
322, 325, 327, 329, 338, 345, 347, 349, 350, 
351, 353, 355, 356, 470, 555, 566. 

Dogmatische Abhandlungen, 384 

Proof-texts, ...16, 165, 291, 365, 365, 424, 426 

Muller, Max, .94,107 

Chips from a German Workshop, . .31, 147, 
272, 468. 

Origin and Growth of Religion, 31 

Philosophy of Language, 235 

Science of Language, 240, 241, 360 

Science of Religion, 125 

Murphy, J. G., 
Commentary on Genesis, 222 

Murphy, Joseph John, 

Habit and Intelligence, 40, 44, 62 

Scientific Bases of Faith, 3, 5, 6, 7, 39, 

40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 46, 55, 56, 58, 65, 131, 
198, 203, 276, 279, 281, 330, 600. 

Murray, Andrew, 
With Christ in the School of Prayer,. 425 

Murray, J. C, 
Handbook of Psychology, 54 

Murray, Thomas C, 
Origin and Growth of Psalms, 82, 240 

Nagelsbach, C. F„ 
Nachhomerische Theologie, 394 



NSgelsbach, K. W. E., 

Lange's Isaiah, 113 

Nation, New York, 43 

Nature, London, 43 

Naville, Ernest, 

La Vie Eternelle, 580 

Problem of Evil, 330 

Revue Chretienne, 259 

Neander, Dr. Augustus, 21, 247, 499, 535 

Church History, 21, 189, 312, 329, 361, 

361, 500, 506, 525, 536. 

Commentary on James, 473, 484, 500 

Commentary on 1 John, 489 

History of the Planting and Training 
of the Christian Church by the 

Apostles, 162, 291, 304, 356, 503, 566, 

574, 580, 584. 

Kitto, Biblical Cyclopasdia (1st ed.),. 535 
Nelson, John, 

Autobiography, 583 

Nevin, J. W., 

Mystical Presence, 546 

New Englander,...4, 4, 5, 20, 34, 41. 52, 54, 54, 
57, 87, 88, 100, 108, 131, 150, 272, 325, 336, 
340, 340, 355, 357, 359, 386, 386, 516, 574, 
589, 594. 

Newman, Prof. Albert H.,._ 23, 536 

Newman, Cardinal John Henry, 303 

Lectures on Justification, 474, 482 

Nineteenth Century, 105 

University Sermons, 4 

Newman, Francis W., 600 

Phases of Faith, 7,98 

Newton, Sir Isaac,.. 69, 570 

Newton, John, 298 

Newton, Thomas, 

Prophecy, 67 

Nicoll, W. R., 

The Incarnate Savior, a Life of Jesus 

Christ, 66, 149, 354, 386, 407, 576 

Nineteenth Century, ....58, 63, 105, 330, 525, 

526. 
Nitzsch, Carl I., 

System of Christian Doctrine, 8, 11, 12, 

17, 21, 29, 33, 40, 128, 246, 264, 289, 302, 
350, 470. 
NoehBaptist W., 548 

Essay on Baptism, 526 

Nordell, Philip A., 

Old Testament Student, 130 

The Examiner, 138 

Norton, Andrews, 

Genuineness of the Gospels, 74 

Nott and Gliddon, 

Types of Mankind, 242 

Noyes, George R., 

Theological Essays, 282 

Occam, William of , ..23,116 

Lib. 2, Quagst. 19, 142 

Oehler, G. F., 

Old Testament Theology, 184.304,395 

Oldenburg, Hermann, 

Buddha, 87 



INDEX OF AUTHOES. 



725 



Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret O. W., 

Life of Edward Irving, 405 

Olshausen, Hermann, 577 

Commentary,. 116, 167, 246, 300, 340, 510, 530 
Oosterzee, J. J. Van, 

Christian Dogmatics, 11, 13, 13, 28, 36, 

40, 231, 233, 261, 267, 286, 301, 308, 319, 
349, 360, 377, 380, 384, 387, 387, 422, 425, 
487, 493. 

Origen of Alexandria, 9, 23, 76, 190, 248, 

400, 578, 591. 

Adversus Celsum, 30 

Osgood, Dr. Howard, - 107 

Bibliotheca Sacra, - 82 

Essays on Pentateuchal Criticism, 82 

Resurrection among the Egyptians, 

in Hebrew Student, .561, 580 

Osiander, Andreas, 478 

Ossory, Bishop of, 

Nature and Effects of Faith, 464, 470, 

474, 483. 
Ovid ( P. O vidius Naso ), 

Fasti, .. 394 

Metamorphoses, 267, 297 

Owen, John, 25,323,422 

Dissertation on Divine Justice, 140, 141, 411 

On the Holy Spirit, 458 

On Justification, ... 444,483 

Works, 157, 164, 166, 378, 454, 488, 493 

Owen, Richard, 241 

Comparative Anatomy of the Verte- 
brates, 43,54,191,195 

Page-Roberts, W., 

Oxford University Sermons, 253 

Paine, Thomas, 58,291 

Pajon, Claude, 532 

Paley, William, 

Evidences, 83, 84 

Moral and Political Philosophy, 142 

Natural Theology, 274 

Papias, 74 

Park, Edwards A., ...95, 138, 172, 180, 

317, 319, 459, 509, 519. 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 109, 144, 396, 508 

Discourses,.. ..129, 131, 198, 340, 365, 403, 404 

Parker, Theodore, 7, 89, 600 

Discourses of Religion, 98 

Ex periences as a Minister, 21, 98 

Parker, Joel, 

Lectures on Universalism, 598 

Parker, Joseph, 

The Paraclete, 151 

Parkhurst, Charles H., 

The Pattern on the Mount, 246 

Pascal, Blaise, 20, 21, 25, 65, 199, 301 

Thoughts, 339,447 

Pattison, S. Rowles, 

Present Day Tracts, 107 

Patton, F. L., 467 

Journ. Christian Philosophy. 38, 44 

Princeton Review, 141, 181 

British and Foreign Evangelical Re- 
view, £52,595 



Patton, F. L. ( continued ), 
Presbyterian Review, 142 

Patton, W. W., 

New Englander, 386 

Prayer and its Answers,.. 218 

Payne-Smith, R. (see Smith, R. Payne), 

Present Day Tracts, _ 82 

Prophecy a Preparation for Christ,.. .67, 
113. 

Payne, George, 

Divine Sovereignty, 454 

Original Sin, 326 

Peabody, Andrew P., 

Andover Review, 50 

Christianity the Religion of Nature, ...13, 
15, 33, 59, 72, 101. 

Evidences of Christianity, 28 

Moral Philosophy, 257,258 

Smith's" Dictionary of the Bible, 77 

Pearson, Bishop John, 26, 386 

Pearson, Thomas, 
Infidelity, 205 

Peck, George, 
Christian Perfection, 488 

Peirce, Benjamin, 
Ideality in the Physical Sciences, 195 

Pelagius 250,310,311 

Pendleton, J. M M 
Christian Doctrine, 28 

Pengilly, R., 
Baptism, 526 

Pepper, Pres. G. D. B., 

Baptist Quarterly, 537,553 

Baptist Review, 574 

Madison Avenue Lectures, 522 

Outlines of Systematic Theology, 135, 

171, 174, 210, 275, 335. 

Perowne, J. J. S„ 

Contemporary Review, 82 

Psalms, 109,199,203 

Perrone, J., 
Praelectiones Theologicae, 25, 91, 93, 267 

Persius, 187 

Peschel, M 
Races of Men, 32 

Petavius, 25 

Peter Lombard, 23, 323, 383, 408 

Peter Martyr, 24,268 

Peyrerius, 239 

Pezzi, D., 
Aryan Philology, 240 

Pfleiderer, Otto, 

Die Religion, 6, 12, 41, 49, 57 

Hibbert Lectures, 78 

Religionsphilosophie, 34 

Phelps, Austin, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 253 

English Style, 587 

The New Birth, 454 

The Still Hour, 218 

Philippi, F. A., 3 

Active Obedience of Christ, 477 

Commentary on Romans, 28, 279, 331 



726 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Philippi, F. A. ( continued ), 
Glaubenslehre,_._3, 11, 28, 105, 124, 129, 136, 
186, 206, 208, 220, 221, 232, 233, 249, 261, 
262, 264, 265, 267, 274, 282, 291, 292, 294, 
300, 303, 307, 318, 322, 330, 362, 363, 372, 
377, 377, 378, 384, 386, 387, 390, 393, 400, 
409, 411, 418, 421, 425, 464, 487. 

Philo, .80,153,561 

De Gigantibus, 248 

Pickering, Charles, 

Races of Men, 239,241 

Pictet, Benedict, 24 

Pierce, Nehemiah, 

Baptist Quarterly, 456 

Pier ret, Paul, 

My thologie Egyptienne, 185 

Placeus, Joshua, .24, 325 

De Imputatione Primi Peccati 

Adami, 326 

Plato, 15, 59, 70, 88, 126, 143, 290, 557 

Meno, 248,301 

Phasdo, 58, 248 

Phaedrus, 248 

Republic, 248,585 

Second Alcibiades, 58 

Pliny, 91, 92, 150 

Plumptre, E. H., 

Christ and Christendom, 380 

Commentary on the Epistles of Peter, 76, 
78, 455, 507, 560. 

Commentary on Jude, 86 

Popular Commentary on N. T., 509 

The Spirits in Prison, 386 

Plutarch, 276,297,433 

De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 59 

Polanus, A., 250 

Pollok, Robert, 

Course of Time, - 574 

Polycarp, of Smyrna, 73, 78 

Pomeroy, J. N., 

Johnson's Cyclopaedia, 275 

Pond, Enoch, 

Swedenborgianism, . 100 

Pope, Alexander, 43 

Essay on Man, 199,214 

Pope, W. B., 
Theology,.. 26, 38, 107, 193, 290, 299, 302, 315, 
384, 416. 
Porter, Noah, 
Human Intellect,. __4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 12, 28, 29, 
30, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 
52, 53. 56, 86, 122, 122, 123, 130, 131, 132, 
132, 203, 235, 246, 262, 268, 377, 450, 578, 
579. 

Elements of Moral Science, 28, 259 

Pott, 
Die Verschiedenheiten der mensch- 

lichen Rassen, 240 

Potwin, Lemuel S., 

New Englander, 401 

Powell, Baden, 

Essays and Reviews, 216 

Law and Gospel, 282 



Powell, Baden ( continued ), 
Order of Nature, 213 

Prentiss, George L., 
Presbyterian Review, 357 

Pressense, E. de, 
Jesus Christ: Life, Times and Work,. 89, 
154. 

Religions before Christ, 359 

Theological Eclectic, 80 

Prichard, J. C, 

Natural History of Man, 241 

Researches, ... 243 

Priestley, Joseph, 95,142 

Prime, Samuel Irenaeus, 
Power of Prayer, 218 

Pusey, E. B., 
Tract ' Number Ninety,' 546 

Pythagoras, 58,88,91 

Quarterly, Baptist, ..20, 36. 52, 52, 54, 54, 353, 
376, 380, 380, 386, 456, 512, 521, 522, 526, 
530, 530, 532, 532, 532, 534, 536, 536, 537, 
537, 546, 553, 569, 574, 580, 586. 

Quarterly, British,... 51, 52, 57, 60, 75, 82, 142, 
235,499. 

Quarterly, Lutheran, 142 

Quarterly, Methodist, 452 

Quarterly, Presbyterian, .4, 109 

Quatrefages, A. de, 

Natural History of Man, ..238, 239 

Revue des deux Mondes, 241 

Unite de l'Espece Humaine, 239 

Quenstedt, J. A., 24, 183, 379, 480 

Theologia Didactica, 100, 128, 221, 438, 

477. 

Racovian Catechism, .25, 268 

Rainy, Robert, 
Delivery and Development of Doc- 
trine, ...86,104 

Ramus, Petrus, 24 

Rauschenbusch, Prof. Augustus, 
Saturday, or Sunday? 202 

Rawlinson, George, 271 

Historical Evidences, 90, 92, 108 

Journal of Christian Philosophy, 106, 

243, 272. 

Modern Scepticism, 108 

Present Day Tracts, 31 

Religions of Ancient "World, 170 

Raymond, Miner, 
McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, 177 

Systematic Theology, 30, 175, 264, 315, 

318, 329, 345. 

Records of the Past, 
Hymn to Amen Rha, 185 

Redford, R. A., 
Prophecy, 69 

Reid, Dr. Thomas, 
Intellectual Powers, 131, 132 

Reid, Dr. William, 
Plymouth Brethrenism Unveiled, 499 

Renan, Ernest, ... 32 

Hibbert Lectures, 359 

Life of Jesus, - 79 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



727 



Renouf , P. Le Page, 
Hibbert Lectures,. .33, 56, 170, 185, 240, 243, 
441, 561, 580, 582. 
Repository, Biblical,. .. .158, 170, 314, 359, 488, 

490, 522, 525. 
Reubelt, John A., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 371 

Reusch, Fr. H., 

Biblische Schopf ungsgeschichte, 195 

Reuss, Edouard, 

History of Canon, 73 

History of Christian Theology in 

Apostolic Age, 21,300,361 

Review, American Theological, 2, 9 

Review, Andover, 50, 63, 67, 199, 236, 345 

Review, Baptist Quarterly, ..61, 65, 100, 105, 
132, 167, 178, 199, 201, 211, 253, 258, 259, 
282, 297, 298, 340, £50, 412, 424, 499, 522, 
525, 534, 536, 537, 548, 562, 574, 580. 
Review, British and Foreign Evan- 
gelical, 109, 168, 403, 463, 469, 487, 595 

Review, British Quarterly, 444, 548 

Review, Catholic, 538 

Review, Christian, 77, 407, 535, 536, 566 

Review, Contemporary, 53, 54, 79, 79, 89, 

143,580. 

Review, International, 53 

Review, Methodist Quarterly,.... 32, 42, 239, 
272, 566, 591. 

Review, North British, 535 

Review, Presbyterian, ....5, 49, 53, 61, 66, 82, 
87, 142, 239, 324, 357, 380, 384, 500, 509, 
510, 516, 539, 562, 564, 568, 573, 574, 592 
Review, Princeton,.. 4, 7, 38, 43, 44, 54, 54, 61, 
62, 66, 97, 104, 108, 141, 181, 196, 200, 235, 
238, 253, 275, 319, 330, 340, 342, 349, 386, 
407, 437, 447, 499, 508, 551, 574, 589, 594 

Reville, Jean, 85 

Doctrine of the Logos in John and 

Philo, 154 

Revilleut, Eugene, 107 

Revision, American, _ 297 

Revue Chretienne, 259 

Revue des deux Mondes, 241 

Revue Theologique, 580 

Reynolds, Bishop Edward, 

Sinfulness of Sin, 330 

Ribot, Th., 

Heredity, 254 

Richards, James, 
Lectures on Theology, ....286, 345, 422, 426 

Richter, Jean Paul, 57,284 

Ridgeley, Thomas, 26 

Body of Divinity, 357, 377, 493 

Riddle, Matthew B., 

Popular Commentary, 75 

Riggenbach, C. J., 

Lange's Commentary, 246 

Ripley, Henry J., 

Church Polity, 519 

Ritschl, Albrecht, 400 

Christian Doctrine of Justification, 482, 488 
Rechtfertigung und Versohnung, 401 



Ritter, Heinrich, 

History of Ancient Philosophy, 44 

Robbins, R. D. C, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 591 

Roberts, W. Page (see Page-Roberts, W.) 

Oxford University Sermons, 253 

Robertson, F. W.,....20, 167, 352, 387, 532, 596 

Lectures and Addresses, 478 

Lectures on Genesis, . .122, 187, 235, 282, 294, 
377. 

Sermons, - .168, 293, 351, 366, 400, 583 

Robie, Edward, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 170 

Robins, Dr. Henry E., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 378,384 

Madison Avenue Lectures, 531 

Robinson, C. S., 

Short Studies for S. S. Teachers, 469 

Robinson, Pres. E.G.,... 2,345 

Baptist Quarterly, 546 

Principles and Practice of Morality, .. .28, 
143, 257, 259, 277. 
Robinson, Edward, 

Biblical Researches, 523 i 

Harmony of Gospels, 108,505 

Lexicon of the New Testament, . . .496, 512 
Robinson, Willard H., 

Report of Baptist Congress for 1886... 589 
Rogers, J. G., 

Priests and Sacraments, 546 

Rogers, Henry, 

Eclipse of Faith, ...8,60,98,109 

Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 60, 77, 86, 
91, 133, 136. 
Romaine, W., 

Faith, 470 

Romanes, G. J., 

Mental Evolution in Animals, 235 

Scientific Evidence of Organic Evolu- 
tion, 236 

Roscelin, 23 

Ross, A. H., 

The Church Kingdom, Lectures on 

Congregationalism, 519 

Rossetti, Maria F., 

Shadow of Dante, 221 

Rothe, Richard, U6, 136 

Dojrmatik, 27, 120, 205, 251, 289, 373 

Theologische Ethik, 27, 134, 135, 205 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 

Confessions, 298 

Row, C. A., 

Bampton Lectures, ....28, 62, 66, 75, 79, 89, 
98, 215. 

Lectures on Modern Scepticism, 77 

Revelation and Modern Theories, 110 

Strivings for the Faith, 86 

Royce, Josiah, 

The Religious Aspect of Philosophy,. 55 

Riickert, Friedrich, 39 

Ruckcrt, L. J., 

Commentary, 263 

Ruskin,John, 348 



728 



INDEX OF AUTHOES. 



Ruskin, John (continued), 
Seven Lamps of Architecture, 243 

Sadler, M. P., 
Church Doctrine, .532,546 

Saisset, Emil, 
Modern Pantheism, Essay on Relig- 
ious Philosophy, 48, 56 

Sales, St. Francis de, 17 

Salmon, George, 

Introduction to New Testament, 79 

Reign of Law, 282 

Salmond, S. D. F„ 
Popular Commentary, 386 

Samson, G. W., 

Bible Wines, 539 

Madison Avenue Lectures, - 511 

Water-supply of Jerusalem, 523 

Sanday, William, 

Authorship of Fourth Gospel, 75 

Gospels in Second Century, - 75 

Sartorius, Ernst, 
Person and Work of Christ,... 375, 377, 383 

Savage, Eleazer, 
Church Discipline, 517 

Sayce, A. H., 

Hibbert Lectures, .32,185 

Principles of Comparative Philol- 
ogy, 240 

Schaff, Philip, 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 159, 312, 340 

Creeds of Christendom, 23, 28 

Germany, its Universities, Theology 

and Religion, 24 

History of the Christian Church, .311, 360, 
361, 377, 546. 

Person of Christ, 90, 366, 368 

Princeton Review, 66,330 

Sin against the Holy Ghost, 350 

Teaching of Twelve Apostles, 503, 525 

Schiller, Friedrich, 

Die Braut von Messina, 337, 345 

Thekla, 554 

Schleiermacher, Friedrich E. D.,._ 8, 12, 116, 
136, 291, 554. 

Biblical Repository, 158 

Christliche Glaube, 264, 289 

Glaubenslehre, 18 

Schliemann, H., 
Troy and her Remains, 271 

Schmid, C. F., 
Bib. Theol. des N. T., 21, 38 

Schmid, H., 
Dogmatik, 397 

Schmid, Rudolph, 
Theories of Darwin, 195, 238, 243 

Schneckenburger, M., 
Ueber das Alter der jiidischen Prose- 
lytentaufe, 521 

Schoberlein, D. L., 

Jahrbuch fur deutsche Theologie, 378 

Studien und Kritiken, 411, 447 

Schodde, George H., 
Book of Enoch, 80 



Scholz, Paul, 

G otzendienst und Zauberwesen, 31 

Schopenhauer, A., 43 

Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung,.. 200 
Schrader, Eberhard, 

Keilinschriften, 201 

Schwegler, Albert, 

History of Philosophy, 167, 257 

Schweizer, A., 

Glaubenslehre, 116 

Popular Science Monthly, 221 

Scott, Pres. Walter, 

Existence of Evil Spirits, 221 

Scott, Sir Walter, 85 

Scotus Erigena, John, 23, 116, 268 

Scribner, G. Hilton, 

Where did Life Begin? 240 

Sears, E. H., 

Fourth Gospel, 108 

Secretan, Charles, 

Liberty, 41,330 

Seelye, Pres. J. H., 

A Century of Dishonor, 270 

Christian Missions, 573 

Seneca, M. Annaeus, 88, 200, 449, 480 

Delra, 297 

Epistles, 297 

Seth, Andrew, 

Hegelianism and Personality, 57 

Shairp, J. C, 

Princeton Review, 38 

Shakespeare, William, 82, 211, 467 

King Lear, 450 

Merchant of Venice, 382 

Shaw, Benjamin, 

Positivism, 44 

Shedd, William G. T......26, 27, 117, 138, 161, 

162, 163, 165, 166, 169, 266, 299, 336, 417, 
428. 

Commentary on Romans, 28, 331, 428 

Discourses and Essays,. .9, 28, 128, 140, 141, 

141, 252, 287, 301, 330, 342, 411, 419, 420 

Doctrine of Endless Punishment,. 594, 595, 

596, 597, 598, 600. 
Dogmatic Theology,.. ..6, 28, 31, 32, 32, 38, 
49, 53, 57, 62, 63, 122, 123, 126, 130, 131, 
131, 140, 141, 144, 180, 181, 185, 189, 193, 
197, 201, 238, 242, 252, 259, 270, 275, 291, 
299, 304, 305, 329, 330, 337, 339, 344, 345, 
346, 366, 367, 377, 383, 387, 390, 392, 411, 
416, 419, 422, 451, 453, 456, 462, 470, 473, 
490, 600. 

Homiletics, 14 

History of Doctrine,. 4, 21, 49, 56, 115, 150, 
159, 165, 166, 167, 183, 189, 252, 263, 267, 
286, 313, 314, 318, 328, 362, 368, 380, 400, 
405, 409. 

Philosophy of History, 21, 411 

Sermons to the Natural Man,.. 12, 141, 263^ 
297, 307, 340. 

South Church Sermons, 345 

Sheldon, D. N., 
Sin and Redemption, 311, 398 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



729 



Shipley, Orby, 

Theory about Sin, 294 

Short, Augustus, 

Bampton Lectures,.. 469 

Sidgwick, Henry, 

Methods of Ethics, 260 

Simon, D. TV., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 168 

Christian Doctrine and Life,.. 10 

Expositor,.. 411 

Smalley, John, 26,319 

Smeaton, George, 
Our Lord's and his Apostles' Doctrine 

of tbe Atonement, 396 

Smith, Adam, 142 

Smith, Charles E., 

Baptism of Eire, 164, 485, 524, 534 

Smith, Goldwin, 218 

Contemporary Review, 143 

Smith, Henry B., 26,27,28 

Faith and Philosophy,.... 2, 3, 6, 22, 34, 56, 

77, 80, 129, 259, 301, 316, 319. 
Introduction to Christian Theology,. 1, 36, 
49, 66. 

Lectures on Apologetics, 61 

New Englander, 35 

Presbyterian Review, 479 

System of Christian Theology, .28, 121, 143, 
257, 281, 294, 299, 300, 304, 305, 309, 320, 
326, 337, 339, 342, 352, 365, 436, 437, 449, 
456, 468, 475, 476, 479, 481. 
Smith, H. P., 

Presbyterian Review, 82 

Smith, J. Denham, 

Life-truths, 447 

Smith, J. Pye, 

Mosaic Account of Creation, 193 

Scripture and Geology, 193 

Scripture Testimony to the Messiah,. 153 
Smith, Lucius E., 
Bibliotheca Sacra, article: Is Salva- 
tion Possible without a Knowledge 

of the Gospel? 468 

Smith, Philip, 

Ancient H istory of the East, 272 

Smith, R. Payne (see Payne-Smith, R.) 

Present Day Tracts, 82 

Prophecy a Preparation for Christ, 67, 113 
Smith, T. T., 

Hulsean Lectures, 467 

Smith, Thomas, 

Unity of Races, 239, 240, 240, 241, 243 

Smith, W. Robertson, 

Old Testament in Jewish Church, 104 

Pentateuch, 81 

Prophets of Israel, 130 

Smyth, Egbert C, 
Edwards' Observations on Trinity, 

Introduction, 144, 162 

Smyth, Newman, 

Dorner's Eschatology, 590 

New Englander, 34 

Old Faiths in a New Light, 63, 578 



Smyth, Newman ( continued ), 

Orthodox Theology, 431, 594 

The Religious Feeling, 35 

Smyth, ( see Smith, R. Payne ), 
Prophecy a Preparation for Christ, . . 67, 
113. 

Snodgrass, W. D., 
Scriptural Doctrine of Sanctineation, 490 

Socinus, Faustus, 25, 159, 397 

Socinus, Laslius, 25,159,397 

Society of Biblical Archaeology, Trans- 
actions,. 201 

Solly, Thomas, 
The Will, Divine and Human, 131, 279 

Sophocles, 70 

Sophocles, E. A., 
Lexicon of Greek Usage in Roman 
and Byzantine Periods, 522 

South, Robert, 
Sermons, 268,383 

Southall, James C, 
Recent Origin of Man, ._ 271 

Spear, Samuel T„ 401 

Spectator, Christian, 430, 451 

Spectator, London, 55, 197, 291 

Spencer, Herbert, .5, 32, 116, 270, 292 

Biology, 121 

Essays, 106 

First Principles, 5,6,40,41 

Psychology, 52, 54 

Spencer, John, 
De Legibus Hebraeorum, 394 

Spencer, O., 
Catechism of the Church of Latter 
Day Saints, 121 

Spenser, Edmund, 
Faerie Queen, ....124,233 

Spinoza, Benedict de, 6, 48, 136 

Ethics, 56,291 

Tract. Theol.-Pol., 368 

Splittgerber, F., 

Schlaf und Tod, 562 

Tod, Fortleben, und Auferstehung, .. 580 

Spurgeon, Charles H., 10,550 

Sermons, 182 

Squier, Miles P., 
Autobiography, 454, 456 

Stahl, F. J., 

Christliche Philosophic, 394 

Philosophie des Rechts, 340 

Stallo, J. B., 
Modern Physics, 51, 195 

Stanley, Arthur P., 18 

Baptism, 526,531 

Christian Institutions, 544 

Com. on Corinthians, 114 

Historical Aspects of American 

Churches, 525 

Jewish Church, 113 

Nineteenth Century, 525 

Sinai and Palestine 107 

Stapfcr, J. F., 12 

Quotations by Jonathan Edwards, ... 328 



730 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Starkie, Thomas, 

On Evidence, 65,69, 71, 79,83 

Stearns, Prof. L. F., 

New Englander, 65,339,421 

Steffens, H., 566 

Stephen, James Fitzjames, 

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, ... 352 
Steudel, J. C. F., 

Biblical Theology of Old Testament, . 21 
Stevens, Prof. G. B., 

New Englander, 141,549 

Stevens, Prof. W. A., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 77 

Commentary on Thessalonians,...140, 246, 
559, 567. 

Journal of the Society of Biblical 
Literature and Exegesis, 524 

Notes on Epistle to Romans, - 331 

Stevenson, R. L., 

Dr.JekyllandMr.Hyde,..-- 345 

Stewart, Dugald, 134 

Active and Moral Powers of Man,. 212, 294 
Stirling, J. H., 

Half Hours with Modern Scientists,.. 191 

Storr, G. C, - 24 

Stourdza, Alexander de, 525 

Strauss, D. F., 25, 67, 76, 201, 385 

Glaubenslehre, 169, 191, 231, 267, 281 

Life of Jesus,. 77 

Strivings for the Faith,. 77, 79, 83, 86, 86 

Strong, Dr. A. H., 444 

Baptist Quarterly, 20 

Baptist Review, 61, 178, 258, 345, 592 

Philosophy and Religion,.. 3, 18, 20, 23, 30, 
53, 54, 61, 94, 104, 121, 130, 164, 175, 178, 
191, 220, 224, 258, 294, 338, 345, 368, 375, 
416, 447, 512, 516, 517, 529, 551, 553, 566, 
570, 592. 
Stroud, William, 

Physical Cause of Our Lord's Death,. 364, 
399. 
Stuart, Moses, 570 

Biblical Repository, 158, 159, 314, 521, 522, 525 

Essays on Future Punishment, 566 

Student, Hebrew, 561, 580 

Studien und Kritiken,....41, 63, 355, 405, 407, 
409, 411, 435, 447, 580. 

Supernatural Religion, 65, 78 

Swedenborg, Emmanuel, 17, 100, 121, 591 

Divine Love and Wisdom, 189 

Symington, William, 

Atonement and Intercession,.. 415, 422, 425 

Tacitus, C. Cornelius, 91, 92, 293, 557 

Talbot, Pres. Samson, 20 

Baptist Quarterly, 52, 54, 143, 375 

Baptist Review, 259 

Talmud, 133 

Berachob, 503 

Tatian, 75 

Diatessaron, 189 

Taylor, D. T., 

Voice of the Church on the Coming 
and Kingdom of the Redeemer, 575 



Taylor, Sir Henry, 199 

Taylor, Isaac, 

Natural History of Enthusiasm, 219 

Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry, 269 

Taylor, Jeremy, 170 

Taylor, John, 205,314 

Taylor, Nathaniel W., 20, 26, 142 

ConcioadClerum,... 300 

Moral Government, ...64, 140, 180, 208, 274, 

293, 319. 
Revealed Theology,... 293, 319, 430, 451, 474 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, ..505, 525 

Temple, Bishop Frederick, 62 

Bampton Lectures, ...6, 43,238 

Education of the World, in Essays 

and Reviews, 60 

Tennyson, Lord Alfred, 268, 301 

In Memoriam, 234, 366, 389, 562, 590 

Palace of Art, 116 

Two Voices, 248,558 

Vision of Sin, 337 

Tertullian, 18, 73, 91, 328, 329, 565 

De Anima, 252 

De Baptismo, 74,525 

DePcenit., 525 

Teulon, J. S., 
History and Teachings of Plymouth 

Brethren, 499 

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 297 

Henry Esmond, 75 

Thayer, Prof . J. H., 74 

New Testament Lexicon, 146 

Theodosia Ernest, 553 

Theological Eclectic, 79, 403 

Tholuck, F. Augustus G., 24, 25, 220, 298 

Biblical Repository, 31, 125, 359 

. Bliithensammlung aus der morgen- 

landischen Mystik, 17 

Commentaries, ' 38,130,246 

Vermischte Schrif ten, 66 

Thomasius, G., 25,137,287 

Christi Person und Werk,....25, 27, 28, 116, 
120, 126, 127, 129, 129, 130, 141, 150, 159, 
164, 166, 169, 169, 247, 261, 274, 300, 330, 
347, 360, 366, 368, 370, 380, 409, 415, 421, 
447, 483. 

Holiness of Christ, 130 

Thompson, Archbishop William, 
Essay on Atonement, in Aids to Faith, 405 

Outline of Laws of Thought, 36 

Thompson, Robert A., 

Christian Theism, 45,49 

Thompson, J. Radford, 

Modern Pessimism, 200 

Thompson, Joseph P., 350 

The Holy Comforter, 164 

Thompson, Sir William, 237 

Thornton, William S., 

Old Fashioned Ethics, 65, 219, 351 

Thornwell, James H., 27 

Collected Writings, 2, 143, 313, 325, 327, 330, 
337, 345, 347, 348, 463. 
Thucydides, 71 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



731 



Tillotson, John, 
Sermons,... 447 

Titcomb, J. H., 

Strivings for the Faith, 86 

Todd, J. H., 570 

Toplady, Aug. M., 582 

Tower, F.E., 589 

Townsend, W. J., 
The Great Schoolmen of the Middle 
Ages, '.. 23 

Toy, C. H., 

Baptist Quarterly, 521 

Private Letter to Author, 521 

Quotations in the New Testament, . - . 110 

Tracts, Present Day, 7, 53, 79, 79, 80, 86, 

86, 87, 89, 89, 89, 107, 169, 200, 272. 

Tract Number Ninety, 546 

Treffrey, R., 
Eternal Sonship of Our Lord, 166 

Tregelles, Samuel P., 
Muratorian Canon, 73 

Trench, Archbp. R. C„ 

Epistles to the Seven Churches, 555 

Hulsean Lectures, 366, 447 

Miracles, 215,229 

Studies in the Gospels, .. -223, 232, 305, 447 

Synonyms of New Testament, 13, 140, 

149. 496, 524. 

Trent, Council of , 266 

Tulloch, John, 

Doctrine of Sin, 281,291 

Modern Theories, 4,53,200 

Theism, 30,43 

Turnbull, Robert, 
Baptist Quarterly, 36 

Turner, G. L., 
Wish and Will, 64,566 

Turretin, F., 24 

Institutes, 250, 322, 323, 345, 350, 370, 

422,427. 

Twesten, A. D. Ch., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 168, 169, 221 

Dogmatik, 12, 15, 16, 159, 164 

Tyerman, L., 
Oxford Methodists, 548 

Tyler, Bennet, 
Letters on New Haven Theology, 293, 300, 

319, 430, 452. 
Memoir and Lectures, ....175, 176, 179, 180, 

450, 451. 
Works, 345 

Tyler, W. S., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 366 

New Englander, 594 

Theology of the Greek Poets,. ...170, 220, 
269, 394, 439. 

Tylor, Edward B., 
Primitive Culture, 32, 239, 270 

Tyndall, John, 

Belfast Address, 8,46 

Fragments of Science, 52, 54, 215 

Tyng, Stephen H., 
Christian Pastor, 405 I 



Uhlhorn, Gerhard, 557 

Modern Representations of the Life 

of Jesus, 80 

Ullmann, C, _. 3 

Sinlessness of Christ, 90, 366, 407 

TJlrichi, H., 

Gott unddie Natur, 32 

Leib undSeele, 30, 32, 52 

Theodicee, in Herzog's Encyclopadie, 181 

Unseen Universe, 184, 580 

Upham, Thomas C, 17 

Divine Union, 447 

Interior Life,. 219,447 

Life of Madame Guyon and of Fenelon, 447 

Usher, Abp. James, 106 

Ursinus, Z., 

Loci Theologici, 27 

Vanicek, Alois, 

Gr.-Lat. Etym. W5rterbuch, 11 

Van Oosterzee, J. J., see Oosterzee, Van. 
Vaughan, Henry, 

The Retreate, 248 

Vaughan, Robert A., 

H ours with the Mystics, 17, 100 

Vauvenargues, 21 

Vedder, Henry C, 

Baptist Review, ...537, 548 

Veitch, John, 

Sir William Hamilton (Blackwood's 

Philos. Classics), 54 

Venn, J., 

Characteristics of Belief , 470 

Vincent, Marvin R., 

Presbyterian Review, 66 

Vinet, Alexander, 

Outlines of Philosophy, 20 

Virchow, Professor, 236 

Virgil ( Publius Vergilius Maro ), 

-iEneid, 394 

Vitringa, Camp., 570,574 

Volkmar, Gustav, 80 

Voltaire, Francois M. A. de, 32, 43, 232 

Waffle, A. E., 

Baptist Review, 412 

The Lord's Day, 202 

Waldegrave, L., 

Bampton Lectures, 574 

Walker, James B., 

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 151 

Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation, 60, 
203, 360, 454. 
Wall, William, 

History of Infant Baptism, 538 

Wallace, A. R., 

Nature, 271 

Natural Selection, 55, 237 

Wallace, Henry, 

Representative Responsibility, 395 

Ward, Wilfrid, 

The Wish to Believe, 467 

Wardlaw, Dr. Ralph, 67 

Systematic Theology, 1, 67, 128, 184 

403, 422, 431, 454. 



732 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Warren, I. P., 570 

Parousia, 568 

Warren, W. F., 
Earliest Creed of Mankind, 272 

Watson, Richard, 26,315 

Theological Institutes, ....2Q, 166, 169, 175, 
200, 308, 314, 523. 

Watton, Sir Henry, see Wotton, Sir 
Henry, 267 

Watts, Isaac, - 372,413 

Watts, Dr. Robert, 
The Newer Criticism, 82 

Wayland, President Francis, 142, 496, 504, 537 

Apostolic Ministry 54 

Moral Science, 143,256,273 

Principles and Practices of the Bap- 
tists, 500, 516, 526, 531, 534, 535 

Weber, F. A., 
Vom Zorne Gottes, 140,396 

Webster and Wilkinson, 
Commentary, 415 

Wegscheider, J. A. L., 24 

Weiss, Bernhard, 83 

Bib. Theol. N. T., . ...37,166,300 

Life of Jesus, 74,77,79,441 

Weiss, 
Premillennial Advent, 574 

Weisse, C. H., 
Studien und Kritiken, 355 

Wellhausen, J., 

Geschichte Israel's, 81 

Israel, in Encyclopaedia Britannica,.. 81 

Wesley, John, 26, 314, 489, 548, 555 

Christian Theology, 488 

West, Nathaniel, 
Defence and Confirmation of the 
Faith, 66 

Westcott, B. F., 
Bible Commentary on John's Gospel, 75, 
79, 110, 123, 145, 148, 149, 154, 165, 166, 
210, 367, 387, 414, 446, 486, 573. 

Gospel of the Resurrection, 63 

History of New Testament Canon,.. 73, 79 
Smith's Bible Dictionary, 73, 76 

Weston, Pres. Henry G., 
Madison Avenue Lectures, 539 

Wette, see De Wette. 

Wetzer und Welte, 
Kirchenlexicon, 294 

Wharton, Francis, 
Criminal Law, 352 

Whately, Archbp. Richard, 508 

Essays on a Future State, 566, 574 

Good and Evil Angels, 221 

Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon 

Bonaparte, 83 

Logic, 34, 36, 41 

Origin of Civilization, 270 

Whedon, D. D., 135, 172, 315 

Bibliotheca Sacra, ._ 315 

Commentary on the Romans, 316, 428 

Methodist Quarterly Review, 519 

On the Will,.. 126, 129, 178, 265, 289, 317 



Whewell, William, 

Elements of Morality, 255 

History of Scientific Ideas, 41 

History of the Inductive Sciences, ...2, 43 

Whitby, Daniel, 314, 574 

White, Blanco, 294,591 

White, Edward, 

Life in Christ, 589 

Whitman, Walt, 293 

Whitney, William D., 

Comparative Philol ogy , 240 

Life and Growth of Language, 240 

Oriental and Linguistic Studies, 89 

Study of Language, 240 

Whiton, James M., 

Is Eternal Punishment Endless? 337, 

589, 594. 

Whittier, John G., 591 

Wieland, Christoph Martin, 290 

Wieseler, Karl, 71 

Wiggers, G. F., 

Augustinism and Pelagianism, 311, 345 

Wilberf orce, Robert I., 

Incarnation, 362, 366, 367, 375, 377, 

378, 379. 

New Birth, 546 

Wilkinson, W. C, 21,95 

Edwin Arnold, Poetizer and Pagan- 
izer, 87 

The Baptist Principle, 537, 553 

Wilkinson, W. F., 

Present Day Tracts, 53 

William of Occam (see Occam ),..23, 116, 142 
Williams, A. P., 

The Lord's Supper, 553 

Williams, Monier, 

Nineteenth Century, 188 

Williams, N. M., 

Baptist Review, 298 

Williams, Rowland, 

Christianity and Hinduism, 55 

Willmarth, James W., 

Baptist Quarterly, 532,580 

Wilson, C. T., 

Primitive Government of Christian 

Churches, 510 

Winchell, Alexander, 

Preadamites, 239 

Winer, G. B., 

Confessions, 267 

N. T. Grammar, 391 

Witsius, H., 24 

The Economy of the Covenants, 27 

Wollaston, William, 142 

Wood, W. C, 

Sabbath Essays, 202 

Woods, Leonard, 26,319 

Lit. & Theol. Rev., 128 

Works, 422, 458, 460, 464, 490, 493, 574 

Woolman, John, 

Journal, --- 414 

Woolsey, President T. D., 403, 593 

New Englander, 108 



IX'DEX OF AUTHORS. 



733 



Woolsey, President T. D. ( continued ), 

Sunday School Times, -- 529 

Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher, ..220, 330 

Commentary, - -- 38 

Wordsworth, William, 33 

Intimations of Immortality in Early 

Childhood, 248,558 

Wotton, Sir Henry, 

Happy Life, 267 

Wright, Charles H. H., 

Ecclesiastes, _. 81,200 

Fatherhood of God, „ 238 

Wright, Chauncey, 

New York Xation, 43 

Wright, G. F., 

Bibliotheca Sacra, 174 

Relation of Death to Probation,.. 386, 590, 
592, 593. 
Wunsche, Aug. de, 

Die Leiden des Messias, 396 



Wiinsche, Aug. de ( continued ), 

Jahrbuch f. prot. Theologie, 580 

Wuttke, Adolf, 

Christian Ethics, 34, 86, 87, 88, 88, 88, 

143, 262, 277, 301. 
Xenophon, 70, 439 

Memorabilia, 73 

Young, John, 397 

The Christ of History, 90, 91 

The Life and Light of Men, 400 

The Mystery, or Evil not from God,. 180 

Zeitschr. f. luth. Theol. u. Kirche, 65 

Zockler, Otto, 

Die Urgeschichte der Erde und des 
Menschen, ..107, 195, 238, 243 

Handbuch der theologischen Wissen- 
schaften, 22 

Jahrbuch fiir deutsche Theologie, 240, 

241,243. 

Theologie und Xaturwissenschaft, 195, 261 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS.* 





Genesis. 




OH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VEESE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VEESE. 


PAGE. 




3:12 


292. 


19:24 


152. 


1 


: 1 


157, 161, 


164. 


3:15 


84, *359, *365. 


19 : 30-38 


108. 


1 


1,2 


152. 




3:19 


352. 


20: 6 


209. 


1 


1-3 


136. 




3:20 


238,239. 


20: 7 


388. 


1 


1-7 


♦185. 




3:21 


♦396. 


20:12 


239. 


1 


■ 1-31 


112. 




3:22 


152,268. 


20:13 


152. 


1 


2 


151, 156, *158, 


3 : 22, 23 


♦558. 


22: 8-14 


208. 




186. 




3:24 


*224. 


22 : 11-16 


153. 


1 


11 


*207. 




4: 1 


252, 358, 569. 


22:15 


395. 


1 


11-20 


192. 




4: 3 


201. 


22:16 


127. 


1 


22, 27, 28 


252. 




4: 3, 4 


396. 


25: 8, 9 


500. 


1 


25 


185. 




4: 3,4-16 


♦308. 


27 : 19-24 


108. 


1 


26 


152, 268. 




4: 9 


313. 


28:12 


233. 


1 


26,27 


*558. 




4: 14-17 


239. 


29:27 


201. 


1 


27 


185,234. 




4:26 


148. 


31 : 11-13 


153. 


1 


27,28 


192, 238. 




5: 3 


252, *263. 


31:24 


209. 


1 


27-31 


249. 




5:24 


561. 


32: 1,2 


233. 


1 


31 


198, 225, 


247, 


6: 1-2 


239. 


32: 2 


♦224. 




261, 265. 




6: 2 


♦222. 


32 : 20 LXX 


393. 


2: 1 


*222. 




6: 3 


156, 350, 386. 


32:24 


233. 


2: 1-3 


112. 




6: 6 


124, 127. 


33 : 18, 19 


107. 


2: 2 


203, 252. 




6: 9 


♦489. 


33:19 


107. 


2: 3 


201. 




6:11 


559. 


35: 1 


125. 


2: 3-7 


185. 




7:19 


♦106. 


35: 7 


152. 


2: 4 


112. 




8: 1 


♦125. 


35:18 


244. 


2: 7 


234, *235, 267, 


8 : 10-12 


201. 


35:29 


560. 




283, *558 




8 : 20, 21 


395. 


41: 8 


244. 


2: 7-9 


192. 




9: 3 


396. 


41:26 


543. 


2: 7-22 


238,252. 




9: 6 


262. 


41:41-44 


152. 


2: 8 


563. 




9:19 


238. 


46:26 


252. 


2: 9 


269. 




9 : 20-27 


108. 


47: 9 


562. 


2:16 


268. 




9:25 


179. 


48 : 15, 16 


153. 


2:17 


303, 306, 


352, 


10 : 16-29 


*106. 


48:16 


153,233. 




354, 559, 


559. 


11: 5 


267. 


49:26 


592. 


2:19 


268. 




11: 7 


152. 


49:29-33 


560. 


2:19-22 


185. 




15: 6 


471. 


50:20 


173, 179, 210. 


2:23 


♦440. 




15:16 


341. 






3: 1 


♦222,228. 




16: 9-13 


153. 


Exodus. 


3: 1-3,4,5, 


6 *303. 




16:13 


134. 


1:16 


220. 


3: 1^ 


100, 227. 




17: 1 


136. 


2: 7 


434. 


3: 3 


♦306. 




17: 8 


592. 


3: 2-4, 5 


153. 


3: 4 


♦403. 




17: 8,13 


592. 


3: 5 


153. 


3: 5 


228, 295, *303. 


17:13 


592. 


3:12 


96. 


3: 6 


♦303, 307. 




18: 2-13 


153. 


3:14 


♦122,123. 


3: 8 


267, 267, 


268. 


18: 4 


136. 


4 : 14-16 


97. 


3 : 8, 16-19, 


22- 




18:19 


428. 


4:16 


146. 




4 


559. 




18:25 


138, 267. 


4:21 


210. 



♦The asterisk prefixed to the number of a page indicates that on that page the text 
cited is more or less explained or commented upon. 

735 



736 



IKDEX OF SCKIPTURE TEXTS. 



OH 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE 


PAGE. 


6: 3 


123. 


16:30 


186. 


14:20 


222. 


7: 1 


97, 146. 


19:16 


280. 


16:10 


209. 


7:13 


210. 


20:24 


560. 


23:23 


99. 


8:15 


210. 


23:19 


124, 137. 


24: 1 


*209, 209. 


12:27 
12:36 


396. 
209. 


23:21 
25: 9 


228, 475. 
*107. 




1 Kings. 


13: 2-13 


415,529. 


25:13 


392. 


8:27 


120, 131, 


15:11 


128. 


27: 3 


353. 




267. 


16: 5,20,30 


201. 


32:23 


140. 


8:46 


296, 490. 


19 : 10-16 


128. 






12 : 15-24 


173. 


20: 1-17 


279. 


Deuteronomy. 


17:21 


244. 


20: 5 


*337. 


1:39 


356. 


18:36-38 


61, 218. 


20: 8 


201, 289. 


4:19 


224. 


19: 5 


226. 


20:12 


108. 


6: 4 


125. 


22:19 


224. 


20:25 


108. 


7: 2-16 


109. 


22:23 


229. 


21: 6 


593. 


8: 2 


209. 


22:31 


295. 


21:24 


108. 


8: 3 


208. 




2 Kings. 


22:28 


146. 


16: 2-6 


392. 


1 : 10-12 


108. 


23: 7 


472. 


17: 3 


224. 


2:11 
5 : 14 


561. 
523. 


28: 9-12 


424. 


18 : 10, 11 


561. 


29 : 38-46 


396. 


18:11 


561. 


5:26 
6: 5-7 
6:17 
6:19 
19:35 


8. 

62. 

231. 

109. 

226. 


32:30-32 


395. 


18:15 


*388, 569. 


33:11 


434. 


21: 1-9 


*395. 


33 :18 


123. 


21:23 


392. 


34: 9 


313. 


24: 1 


108. 


34:10 


186. 


25: 1 


472. 






35:25 


3. 


29:29 


179. 


1 Chronicles. 


36 : 21, 22 


196. 


32: 4 


126, 138. 


18: 4 


107. 


36:22 


196. 


32:40 


130. 


21: 1 


209. 


37: 6-9 


224. 


33: 2 


223, 226, 598. 


22:14 


*107. 


39: 7 


196. 


33: 3 


490. 










34: 


72. 


2 Chronicles. 


Leviticus. 




Joshua. 


6: 2 


593. 


1: 3 


285, 396. 


2:1-24 


108. 


13: 3 
16:12 


*107. 
219. 


1: 4 

4 : 14, 20, 31 
4:20 


395. 

285, 396. 
395. 


2:18 
10 : 12, 13 


110. 
106. 


18:16 
26:20 


224. 
587. 


4 : 31, 35 


395. 




Judges. 


29:19 


490. 


5: 5 


285, 396. 


4 : 17-22 


108. 


32:31 


209. 


5: 6 


285, 396. 


5:24 


108. 




Ezra. 


5 : 10, 16 


395. 


6 : 17, 36-40 61. 


9: 6 


338. 


5:17 


286, 347, 392. 


13 : 20-22 


153. 






6: 6-10 


396. 


14:12 


201. 


Nehemlah. 


6: 7 


395. 


20:16 


283. 


1: 6 


338. 


13:45 
16: 1-34 


286. 
395. 




1 Samuel. 


9: 6 


203,224 


16 : 16-21 


284. 


1:11 


224. 




Esther. 


16:21 


393. 


15:11 


124. 


4:16 


559. 


17:11 


395, 395. 


15:29 


126. 


6: 1 


213. 


20:27 


561. 


16: 1 

18: 1 


208. 
441. 




Job. 


Numbers. 


18:10 


*209. 


1: 


229. 






23:12 


133. 


1 : 1 


*489. 


6 


24-26 


152, 423. 


24:18 


209. 


1: 5 


395. 


7 


89 


101. 


28: 7-14 


561. 


1: 6 


227. 


8 


1 


101. 


28:19 


560. 


1: 9-11 


227. 


8 


17 


490. 


29: 4 


392. 


1:12 


210. 


11 


29 


389. 






1:12,16,19 


14 


34 


392. 


2 Samuel. 


2: 


229. 


15 


28 


283. 


3: 1 


484. 


2: 4,5 


227. 


16 


22 


244. 


8: 4 


107. 


2: 6 


210. 


16 


29 


353. 


11: 1-4 


1C8. 


2: 7 


228. 



I^DEX OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



737 



CH VEKSE 


PAGE. 


CH. VEKSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


3 : 13-18 


560. 




33: 6 


152, 157, 224. 


91: 4 


137. 


7: 9 


560. 




33 : 13-15 


133. 


91:11 


226. 


7:20 


203, 


490. 


33 : 14, 15 


*209. 


93: 1 


*106. 


11: 7 


18. 




34: 7 


233. 


96:10 


*199. 


11: 7-9 


122. 




34: 8 


*3, 457. 


97: 7 


146, *346. 


12:23 


208. 




34:22 


474. 


97:10 


139. 


14: 4 


299, 


355. 


36: 1 


21. 


102:27 


124,130. 


14: 5 


173. 




36: 6 


203. 


103:19 


208. 


14 : 12-15 


575. 




36: 9 


XXV. 


103:20 


222,226. 


14:22 


560. 




40: 5 


134. 


103:21 


598. 


19 : 25-27 


561. 




40: 6-8 


*110. 


104: 


*202. 


23:13 


175, 


196. 


42: 6 


244. 


104: 4 


*226. 


23 : 13, 14 


125. 




42: 7 


376, 528. 


104:14 


208. 


26: 6 


560. 




44: 3 


182, 432. 


104 : 21-28 


208. 


26:14 


136. 




45: 2 


366. 


104:24 


133. 


27: 3 


243. 




45: 6 


152. 


104 : 29, 30 


203. 


27: 5 


472. 




45: 6, 7 


154. 


105:15 


388, 475. 


32: 8 


243. 




49:15 


560. 


106 : 12, 13 


465. 


33: 4 


244. 




50: 5 


392. 


106:13 


219. 


33:24 


395. 




51: 1,2,10,14 


462. 


107:20 


153. 


37: 5-10 


208. 




51: 2-5 


283. 


107 : 23-28 


214. 


38: 7 


225,227. 


51: 3,7,11 


462. 


110: 3 


431, *436, 461 


38: 8 


222. 




51: 4 


295,404. 


113: 5 


132. 


42: 7-9 


395. 




51: 4-6 


346. 


113: 5,6 


122, 137. 








51: 5 


299,355. 


115: 1 


198, 433. 




PSAIiMS. 




51 : 5, 7, 10 


462. 


115: 3 


136. 


1: 6 


428. 




51: 6 


286, 288, 299 


116: 8 


218. 


2: 6-8 


424. 






313, 347. 


116 : 15 


555. 


2: 7 


152, 155, *164. 


51: 6,7 


299. 


118:12 


438. 


4: 4 


*110. 




51:10 


185, 264, 448, 


119 : 18 


XXV. 


4: 8 


208. 






460. 


119:36 


264, 453, 457 


5:12 


208. 




51:11 


151. 


119 : 89 


141, 153. 


7: 9-12 


138. 




57: 1 


279. 


119 : 91 


173. 


7:11 


110, 


125, 346. 


58: 3 


299. 


119:96 


278, 490. 


7 : 12, 13 


208. 




63: 8 


208. 


119 : 97 


487. 


8: 4, 8 


366. 




66: 7 


208. 


119 : 176 


559. 


8: 5 


262. 




68:10 


208. 


121: 3 


2C8. 


8: 5-8 


268. 




68:17 


223, 598. 


123: 1 


132. 


8: 6 


424. 




68:18 


*110, 146. 


124: 2 


210. 


9: 7 


581. 




69: 2 


528. 


124: 4, 5 


528. 


11: 6 


208. 




72:18 


*222. 


130: 4 


474. 


14: 1 


104. 




75: 6,7 


208. 


135: 6 


208. 


16: 7 


*17. 




76:10 


*210. 


135: 7 


208. 


16: 9-11 


561. 




78:25 


*222. 


137: 9 


♦109. 


16 : 10, 11 


*446. 




78 : 41 ( marg.) 


123. 


139: 2 


133. 


18:24 


138. 




78:49 


229. 


139: 6 


133. 


19: 


14. 




81 : 12, 13 


209. 


139: 7 


151. 


19: 1 


123. 




82: 1 


146. 


139: 7sq. 


132. 


19: 1-6 


14. 




82: 6, 7 


146. 


139 : 13 


250. 


19: 1,7 


*276. 




82: 7 


146,324. 


139:14 


250. 


19:12 


*284, 


288, 299, 


84:11 


137. 


139 : 15, 16 


252. 




347. 




85: 4 


460. 


139:16 


208. 


19:13 


209,349. 


85:10 


141. 


143: 2 


296, 472. 


22:26 


562. 




85 : 10, 11 


116. 


143:11 


196. 


22:28 


208. 




86:11 


*580. 


145: 3 


122. 


25:11 


198. 




88: 5 


344. 


146: 4 


560. 


25:14 


21. 




89: 2 


*123. 


147: 4 


133. 


29: 1,2 


*225. 




89: 7 


225, *225. 


147 : 15 


153. 


29: 3 


209. 




89:35 


197. 


147 : 16 


153. 


31: 5 


407. 




90: 2 


130, 186. 


147 : 20 


428. 


32: 1,2 


472. 




90: 7-9,11 


353. 


148: 2-5 


221. 


32: 8 


214, 219. 


90 : 16, 17 


*453. 


149: 6 


346. 



47 



738 



IKDEX TO SCEIPTUEE TEXTS. 



CH. VERSE. PAGE. 


CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE. PAGE. 




Proverbs. 


14:26 
25: 4 


173. 
361. 


63: 9 
64: 4 


128, 446. 
208, 389. 


1:23 


460. 


25: 7 


359. 


65:12 


434. 


3:19 


153. 


26: 9 


574, 581. 


65:17 


186. 


3:26 


219. 


26:19 


561, 575. 


66: 1 


120, 267. 


4:18 


459. 


28 : 16 


438, 471. 


66:13 


155. 


5:22 


337,350. 


28:21 


599. 






8: 1 


153. 


29:23 


477. 




Jeremiah. 


8:22 


153, 165. 


31: 6 


353, 460. 


1: 5 


208, 250. 


8:23 


147, 186. 


40: 3 


146. 


1: 5-8 


96. 


8:30 


153. 


40: 8 


137. 


2: 1 


389. 


8:31 


153, 165. 


40 : 15, 16 


*197. 


3:15 


10. 


14:14 


469. 


41: 4 


130. 


3:20 


*439. 


16: 1 


209. 


41:20 


186. 


9: 9 


245. 


16: 4 


196. 


41 : 21, 22 


135. 


9:23 


*116. 


16:14 


393. 


42: 1 


245. 


9:24 


3, *116. 


16:33 


208. 


42: 1-7 


378. 


10:10 


116, 121. 


17 : 15 


472. 


42:21 


403. 


10:23 


209. 


19:21 


209. 


43: 3, 4 


393. 


10:24 


129, 350. 


20: 9 


296. 


43: 7 


196. 


13:23 


299, 448. 


20:24 


209. 


44: 3 


96. 


17: 9 


284, *299. 


20:27 


246. 


44: 6 


125. 


23: 6 


529. 


21: 1 


*209, *431. 


44:24 


136. 


23:23 


132. 


30: 4 


152, 165. 


44 : 26-28 


68. 


23:24 


132. 


ECCLESIASTES. 


44:28 


133, 173. 


23:29 


448. 


2:11 
3:21 
7:20 
7:29 
9:10 
11: 3 
12: 7 


200. 

245. 

296, 477. 

262. 

560. 

565. 

244, 250, 558, 


45: 1,4,5 


432. 


24: 7 


3,457. 


45: 5 


208. 


25: 5 


463. 


45: 7,8 
45:22 


186. 
434. 


25 : 15-18 
31: 3 


*109. 
433. 


46: 9 


133. 


31:18 


460. 


46:10 


133. 


31:22 


186. 


48:11 
48:16 


196. 
152. 


32 : 18 
33:33 


*339. 
448. 




563, 564. 


48:18 


134. 


44: 4 


140, 207. 


( 


Canticles. 


49: 1-12 


378. 


50:15 


109. 


1: 4 


460. 


49: 8 


393. 


50:29 


109. 






49:17 


559. 


51:41 


*68. 




Isaiah. 


50: 4 


*453. 






1: 5 


284. 


50: 8 


472. 


Lamentations. 


4; 5 


186. 


52:10 


*123. 


3:42 


338. 


5: 4 


200,435. 


52:13 


378. 


5: 7 


392. 


5:18 


*349. 


53: 


388. 


5:21 


460. 


5:23 


472. 


53: 1-12 


395. 






6: 1 


146. 


53: 2 


366. 




EZEKIEL. 


6: 3 


123, 128, 140, 


53: 5 


393, 399. 


1: 


224. 




152. 


53: 6 


393. 


1: 5 


224. 


6: 5 


*286, 338. 


53: 7-12 


392. 


1:12 


224. 


6: 5-7 


128. 


53:10' 


367, *440. 


2: 


96. 


6: 8 


152. 


53:11 


378, 472. 


2: 7 


599. 


6:10 


156. 


53:12 


423. 


3: 


96. 


7: 9 


471. 


54: 5 


439. 


3:10 


599. 


7 : 10-13 


*218. 


55: 6 


434. 


3:11 


599. 


7 : 14-16 


*68, 569. 


57: 1,2 


559. 


3:18 


599. 


8:13 


146. 


57:15 


132. 


3:19 


599. 


8:20 


219. 


57:16 


250. 


10: 


224. 


9: 6 


154, 367, *440. 


57 : 19 


186. 


11:19 


448, 460. 


9: 6, 7 


*68. 


59: 2 


555. 


14: 6 


460. 


10: 5 


210. 


59: 9-16 


313. 


14:14 


113. 


10: 5,7 


220. 


59:20 


460. 


14:23 


597. 


10: 


*68. 


60: 1 


110. 


18: 


*337. 


11: 


*68. 


61: 3 


196. . 


18:20 


*336, *346. 


13 : 16-18 


109. 


63: 7-10 


152. 


18:24 


493. 



INDEX OF SCEIPTUEE TEXTS. 



739 



CH. VERSE 


PAGE. 




Jonah. 


CH 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 


18:31 


460. 


CH. VERS! 


PAGE. 


4 


: 4,6,7 


96. 


18:33 


460. 


3: 4,10 


*124. 


4 


: 6 


96, 104, 228. 


30:25 


280. 


4:11 


356. 


4 


: 6,7 


104. 


38:32 


139. 






4 


: 7 


96, 104. 


33:31 


560. 




MlCAH. 


4 


:10 


365. 


33: 9,10 


460. 


5: 2 


154. 


4 


:U 


*226, 227. 


33 : 31, 33 


465. 


7:18 


474. 


5-7 


388. 


36 : 31, 22 


129, 351. 






5—8 


279. 


36:26 


460. 


Habakkuk. 


5: 1 


107. 


37: 


571. 


1:13 


207. 


5: 1-12 


285. 


37: 1-14 


*561, *574, 575. 


2: 4 


471. 


5: 3 


361. 


37: 9-14 


164. 




HAGGAI. 


5: 8 


3, 37, 118, 




Daniel. 


1:13 


153, 226. 


5:17 


268,457. 
84, 391. 


2:28-36 


388. 


Zechariah. 


5 : 17, 18 


280. 


3:34 
3:35 

3 : 44, 45 

3 : 25, 28 

4:31 

4:35 

6:22 

7:10 


*573. 
*573. 

569. 

153. 

101. 

173, 208. 

326. 

223. 


3: 1 
3: 2 
6: 1 
6: 8 
12: 1 

14: 7 


227. 

228, 475. 
*173. 
*411. 
*235, 344, 350, 

558. 

193. 


5 : 17-19, 48 
5:18 
5:19 
5:31 
5 : 22, 28 
5 : 23, 24 
5:28 
5 : 31, 32 


487. 
96, 137. 
109. 
346. 

278, 284. 
*392, 516. 
278, 284. 
108. 


7:13 


366, 368. 




Malachi. 


5:32 


147. 


7:18 


593. 


1: 6 


*341, 341. 


5:34 


*148. 


7:25 


571. 


2:10 


*238. 


5 : 38, 39 


108. 


9:34 


539. 


2:15 


*123. 


5:39 


108. 


9:36 


559. 


3: 1 


154. 


5:41 


378. 


10:13 


336. 


3: 6 


134, 135. 


5:44,45 


137. 


10:13 
10:21 


236. 
326. 


3:16 
3:18 


133. 

492. 


5:45 
5:47 


137, 208. 
126. 


11 : 1 


226. 


4: 5 


574. 


5:48 


138, 279. 


12: 1 


226. 






6: 8 


133, 308. 


13: 3 


564, 577. 


Matthew. 


6:10 


181, *435. 


13: 2,3,13 561. 


1: 1 


*106. 


6:12 


396, 346. 


12: 3 
12: 8, 9 
12:12 
12:13 


*472, 561. 
69. 
571. 
561. 


1: 1-16 


371. 


6 : 12, 14 


296. 


1: 1-17 


364. 


6:13 


123, 325, 598. 


1:20 
1:22 


153, 370. 
68. 


6:14 
6:16 


296. 
559. 




HOSEA. 


1:23 


68. 


6:19 


225. 


1: 2 


*109. 


2:15 


68. 


6:20 


554. 


1: 3 


*109. 


2:22 


391. 


6:22 


246, 256. 


1: 7 
2: 2-6 


152. 
*439. 


3: 1 


531. 


6:22,23 


246, 256. 


3: 1-12 


464. 


6:23 


246, 256. 


2: 6 

4 : 7 


*209. 

434. 

209, 350. 
♦324. ' 


3: 2 


531. 


6:24 


448, 482. 


3: 3 


146. 


6:26 


208, 219. 


4:17 

6: 7 


3: 6 
3: 8 


533, 531. 

463. 


6:33 
7:11 


137, 198. 
299. 


8: 1 
8 : 2 


324. 
324. 


3: 9 


136. 


7 : 13, 14 


*599. 


3:11 


533, 531. 


7:22 


61. 


11 : 


68. 

434, 598. 
233. 


3:13 


537. 


8-9 


388. 


11: 8 
12:12 


3 : 13-17 


531. 


8 


11,12 


468. 


3:15 


♦391, 415, 473, 


8 


12 


468, 587. 




529. 


8: 


17 


♦402. 




JOEIi. 


3:16 


157, *378. 


S: 


22 


354, 559. 


2:12-14 


460. 


3 : 16, 17 


157. 


8: 


23 


386. 


2:28 


96, 389. 


3:17 


157, 165, 416. 


S: 


24 


364. 






4: 1-11 


366. 


8: 


29 


239,506. 




Amos. 


4: 2 


364. 


9: 


4 


147. 


3: 2 


428. 


4: 3 


228. 


9: 


6 


368. 


5:12 


393. 


4 : 3, 6, 9 


328. 


«•: 


12,13 


*296. 


6: 8 


245. 


4: 4 


10,96. 


9: 


13 


♦296. 



740 



I2STDEX OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 


9:21 


388. 


16 : 18, 19 


*507. 


24:12 


570. 


9:24 


564. 


16:19 


*507. 


24:14 


569, 574. 


9:29 


486. 


16:26 


391, 393. 


24:15 


75. 


9:36 


364. 


16:27 


572. 


24 : 23, 27, 


34 566. 


10: 1 


96. 


16 : 27, 28 


581. 


24:24 


570. 


10: 6,39,42 


559. 


16:28 


566, *574, 581. 


24 : 29, 30 


570. 


10: 7 


96. 


17: 1-8 


366. 


24:30 


567, 570. 


10 : 15 


348, 593. 


17: 2 


378. 


24:36 


222, 568. 


10:19 


96. 


17: 3 


*579. 


25: 


*68. 


10 : 19, 20 


96. 


17: 3, 


*579. 


25:10 


565, 594. 


10:20 


99. 


17: 4 


*579. 


25:29 


556. 


10:28 


231, 244, 355, 


17: 5 


165. 


25:31 


227, 567, 574, 




558. 


17: 7 


64. 




584. 


10:29 


133, 208. 


17:15 


228. 


25 : 31, 32 


148, 424. 


10:30 


133. 


17 : 15, 18 


228. 


25 : 31-33 


572. 


10:32 


494. 


17:18 


228. 


25 : 31-46 


581. 


10:37 


*367. 


18: 3 


356. 


25:34 


139. 


10:38 


46. 


18: 4 


356. 


25:37 


598. 


10:39 


559. 


18: 5 


356. 


25:41 


224, 228, 229, 


10:41 


534. 


18: 6 


356. 




355, 587. 


10:42 


559. 


18: 7 


492. 


25:41-46 


559. 


11: 9 


*388. 


18:10 


225, 226, 356. 


25:45 


347. 


11:10 


96. 


18:14 


356, 356. 


25:46 


109, 333, 585, 


11 : 13, 14 


573. 


18 : 15-17 


516. 




587,*588,*593, 


11:14 


543, 573. 


18:17 


495, 496, 497, 




*594. 


11:19 


153. 




498, *506. 


26:24 


*592. 


11:21 


133, 428. 


18 


19 


423. 


26:26 


364,*541,*543. 


11:27 


118, 140, *375. 


18 


20 


423,534. 


26 : 26-29 


502. 


11 :28 


405, 434. 


19 


3-10 


113. 


26:27 


540. 


11 : 28, 29 


465. 


19 


7-9 


108. 


26 : 28 


101, 364, 392, 


12:28 


151. 


19 


8 


280. 




*543. 


12:31 


156, 349, 594. 


19 


14 


*348,*355,*356, 


26:29 


539, *539, 542. 


12 : 31, 32 


349, 594. 




*535. 


26:39 


366, 391, 416. 


12:32 


349, 350, 594. 


19:26 


136. 


26:53 


224, 366, 382, 


12 : 33, 35 


448. 


19:28 


584, 590. 




389. 


12:34 


299. 


19:29 


593. 


26 : 63, 64 


149. 


12:34,35 


494. 


20: 1-16 


*585. 


26 : 69-75 


108. 


12:35 


494. 


20 : 12-15 


427. 


27: 3 


462. 


12:36 


*285, 583. 


20 : 13, 15 


431. 


27: 9 


107. 


12:37 


472. 


20 : 17-23 


521. 


27:42 


366, 416. 


12:39 


64, 218. 


20:28 


244, 364, *391, 


27:46 


399, 404, 416. 


13: 5,6 


306. 




393, 409. 


27:50 


244. 


13: 6 


306. 


20:30 


101, 108. 


28: 1 


201. 


13:19 


225, 227. 


21:25 


521, 547. 


28: 2 


227. 


13:20 


465. 


22: 3 


434. 


28: 9 


498. 


13:21 


465. 


22:21 


500. 


28:18 


147, 424. 


13:23 


110. 


22:30 


*222, 223. 


28 : 18-20 


286, 573. 


13 : 25, 47 


492. 


22 : 31, 32 


*562. 


28:19 


148, 151, 156, 


13:28 


305. 


22:32 


*109,*561,*577. 




501, 520, 530, 


13 : 30, 38 


570. 


22:33 


208. 




534, 534. 


13 : 31, 32 


*569, 573. 


22 : 37-39 


294. 


28 : 19, 20 


96, 505, 511, 


13:38 


232, 570. 


22 : 37-40 


279. 




522, 547. 


13 : 38, 39 


228. 


23: 8-10 


500. 


28:20 


147, 369, 378, 


13:41 


584. 


23:23 


341. 




443. 


13:42 


584. 


23 : 32 


*349. 






13:47 


492. 


23:34 


389. 




MARK. 


13:52 


11. 


23:37 


567. 


1 


4 


531. 


13 : 57 


388. 


23 : 37, 38 


598. 


1 


4,16 


531. 


14:23 


364. 


24: 


*68. 


1 


5,8 


524. 


14:24 


101, *541. 


24-25 


388. 


1 


5,9 


523. 


15:19 


284, 448. 


24: 5 


570. 


1 


8 


524. 


16:18 


494, *507. 


24: 


n 


570. 


1 


9 


523, 524. 



INDEX OF SCEIPTUKE TEXTS. 



741 



CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


1:10 


524. 




2:13 


224, 


227. 


13:16 


228. 


1:16 


531. 




2:14 


196. 




13:33 


388. 


2: 7 


368. 




2:21 


415. 




14:23 


435. 


3: 5 


364. 




2 : 21-24 


529. 




14:26 


*367. 


3:11 


228. 




2:22 


415. 




15: 8 


262. 


3 : 11, 12 


228. 




2:22-24 


285. 




15:10 


225. 


3:12 


228. 




2:23,24 


415. 




15 : 10-24 


464. 


3:29 


349, *587, 594, 


2:24 


396. 




15 : 11-32 


113, 238. 




595, 595. 




2:25 


569. 




15:12 


295. 


4:15 


228. 




2:34 


*434. 




15 : 12, 13 


295. 


4:39 


368. 




2:40 


*364. 




15:13 


295. 


5: 2-4 


228. 




2:46 


*364. 




15:17 


289. 


5: 9 


228. 




2:49 


*364. 




15:20 


416, 480. 


6: 3 


365. 




2:52 


*364. 




15 : 20, 21 


480. 


6:27 


74. 




3:17 


594. 




15:21 


480. 


6:40 


75. 




3:21 


157. 




15:22-24 


475. 


7: 4 


523. 




3:21,22 


157. 




15:32 


354, 559, 574. 


7:34 


64. 




3:22 


157, 


159. 


16: 1-8 


113. 


8:36 


245. 




3:23-28 


364. 




16:15 


472. 


8 : 36, 37 


245. 




3:38 


238. 




16:18 


113. 


8:37 


245, 293. 




4: 4-12 


96. 




16 : 19-31 


*590. 


8:38 


225, 543. 




4:13 


366. 




16:22 


563. 


9:25 


228. 




4:14 


157. 




16:23 


226, 560, *564. 


9:43 


594. 




4:22 


366. 




16:25 


*582. 


9:43,48 


594. 




4 : 25-27 


432. 




16:26 


565, 594. 


9:48 


594. 




4:34 


222. 




17: 5 


*445, 470, 486. 


10: 5 


280. 




5: 8 


140, 


286. 


17: 7-10 


139. 


10:11 


113. 




5:20,21 


378. 




18:13 


286, 402, 404, 


10:21 


341,364. 




6:17 


107. 






*463, 472. 


10:32 


366, 414. 




6:19 


378, 


389. 


18 : 13 marg. 


*393. 


10:38 


391, 524, 


527, 


6:43-45 


299. 




18 : 13, 14 


472. 




528. 




6:45 


284. 




18:14 


472. 


10:45 


391. 




7:29 


472. 




18:23 


462. 


11:22 


*430. 




7:35 


153. 




18:35 


101, 108. 


12:29 


279. 




8:27 


386. 




19: 8 


463. 


12:29,30 


279. 




8:30 


229. 




19: 8,9 


*464. 


12:30 


245, 246, 


278, 


9:22-24 


391. 




19:12 


*573. 




279. 




9:52-56 


108. 




19:17 


585. 


12 : 30, 31 


278. 




10:17 


229. 




19 : 17, 19 


585. 


12:31 


278. 




10 : 17, 18 


229. 




19:19 


585. 


13:19 


186. 




10:18 


229. 




19:23 


*278. 


13:32 


150, 365, 


568. 


10:29 


472. 




19:38 


424. 


14:23 


540. 




10 : 30-37 


296. 




20:36 


*222, 223. 


14:24 


101. 




11:11 


391. 




21: 8-28 


570. 


14:25 


539, 542. 




11:13 


296, 


499. 


21:12 


570. 


14:27 


96. 




11:20 


62. 




22: 4-6 


523. 


15:23 


*404. 




11:38 


523. 




22:15 


414. 


15:39 


74. 




11:49 


96, 


153, 389. 


22:18 


542. 


16: 9-20 


*112, *296 




12: 2,8,9 


583. 




22:19 


539, *539. 


16:15 


434. 




12: 4,5 


600. 




22:21 


101. 


16:16 


296, 357, 


520, 


12:12 


156, 


445, 491. 


22:22 


173. 




531. 




12 : 47, 48 


347, 


348, 588, 


22 : 28-30 


584. 


16:19 


386. 






597. 




22 : 31, 40 


230. 








12:48 


289. 




22:32 


423, 461. 




Luke. 




12:50 


391, 
524. 


414, 521, 


22:34 
22:37 


364. 
393. 


1 : 1-3 


95. 




13: 2 


336. 




22:42 


524. 


1: 8 


473. 




13: 2,3 


336. 




22:43 


227. 


1:35 


147, 157, 


164, 


13: 3 


336. 




23:28 


*399. 




370. 




13: 4 


346. 




23:34 


232, 348, 423. 


1 : 35 marg. 320, 365, 


373. 


13:11 


228. 




23:42 


*563. 


2:11 


424. 




13 : 11, 16 


228. 




23 : 42, 43 


563. 



742 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUKE TEXTS. 



CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE. 


i 


•AGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


23:43 


560, 563. 


3:16 


115, 


137, 


155, 


6:45,46 


448. 


23:43,46 


563. 




238, 296, *356, 


6 : 47, 53, 63 


559. 


23:46 


168, 407, 563. 




391, 


474, 


475. 


6:50 


296. 


24:25 


3. 


3:18 


296, 


346, 


374, 


6:51 


370. 


24:26 


417. 




466, 


583. 




6:53 


465, *541. 


24:33 


505. 


3 : 18, 19 


581. 






6 : 53, 56, 57 


*440. 


24:39 


120, 364, 375, 


3 : 18, 20 


466. 






6 : 53, 63 


543, 544. 




577. 


3 : 18, 36 


296. 






6:54,58 


593. 






3:19 


581. 






6:55 


141. 






3:20 


466. 






6:56 


*440. 




John. 


3:22,25 


529. 






6:57 


*440. 






3:23 


524. 






6:65 


430. 


1: 1 


2, *145, *147, 


3:25 


529. 






6:69 


147. 




*148, *159, 186, 


3:33 


137. 






7:17 


3, 21, 457, 




389. 


3:34 


378. 








467. 


1: 1,2 


157. 


3:36 


296, 


346, 


594. 


7:18 


284, 294. 


1: 2 


157. 


4: 1,2 


521. 






7:39 


*151. 


1: 3 


147, 158, 186. 


4: 6 


150, 


364. 




7:53 


113, *341. 


1: 4 


147. 


4: 9 


391. 






8: 1-11 


*341. 


1: 9 


38, *315, *389. 


4:14 


465. 






8: 9 


341. 


1:12 


238, 436, 457, 


4 : 24 marg. 


120, 


145, 


163, 


8:11 


113. 




465, 467, 475. 




565. 






8:12 


465. 


1 : 12, 13 


238, 436, 457, 


4:29 


388. 






8 : 21, 24 


*590. 




*458, 467. 


4:48 


61. 






8:26 


388. 


1:13 


238, 252, 344, 


5: 3 


♦113. 






8 : 31, 36 


258. 




429, 436, 448, 


5: 3, 4 


*113. 






8:34 


284, 344. 




457, *458, 467. 


5: 4 


*113. 






8:35 


*587. 


1:14 


110, 364, 369, 


5:17 


125, 


161. 




8:36 


459. 




370. 


5 : 17, 19 


161. 






8:38-58 


389. 


1 : 14, 18 


165. 


5:18 


149. 






8:40 


364. 


1:15 


147. 


5:19 


161. 






8:44 


225, 302, 353. 


1:36 


*123,*445,*445. 


5:21 


367, 


448. 




8:46 


365. 


1:17 


*50. 


5:22 


161, 


583. 




8:51 


354, 559. 


1:18 


117, 126, 146, 


5 : 22, 27 


583. 






8:57 


366. 




157, 163, 165, 


5:23 


148. 






8:58 


147, 157, *367. 




169. 


5:24 


354. 






9: 2,3 


336. 


1:25 


*521. 


5 : 24-27 


575. 






9: 3 


*346. 


1:29 


99, 347, 388, 


5:25 


574. 






9:39 


581. 




392, 405. 


5 : 25, 28-30 


563. 






10:11 


393. 


1:31 


529. 


5:26 


*116, 


121, 


147. 


10:16 


*446, 468, *509. 


1:50 


123. 


5:27 


147, 


366, 


368, 


10 : 17, 18 


382, *562. 


2:11 


378, 389. 




583. 






10:18 


382, 389, *562. 


2 : 19, 21 


110, *562. 


5 : 27, 28 


147. 






10 : 26 


429. 


2 : 23, 24 


465. 


5:28 


147, 


576. 




10:28 


443. 


2:24 


465. 


5 : 28, 29 


572, 


574, 


575, 


10 : 28, 29 


491. 


2 : 24, 25 


147, 368. 




581. 






10 : 28-30 


482. 


3: 2 


465. 


5:29 


572, 


574, 


581. 


10:30 


149. 


3: 3 


448, 452. 


5:30 


294. 






10:34 


*110, 389. 


3: 3,5 


296, 494. 


5 : 32, 37 


155. 






10:34-46 


146. 


3: 5 


344, 448, 455, 


5:37 


155. 






10:35 


*96. 




531. 


5:40 


466. 






10:36 


155. 


3: 5,6,8 


*531, 532. 


5:42 


341. 






10:41 


*77. 


3: 6 


252, 253, 299, 


5:44 


125. 






11:11 


*560, 565. 




313, 371, 448, 


5:46 


113. 






11 : 11, 14 


*560. 




*531, 532. 


6:14 


388. 






11:15 


*486. 


3: 7 


449. 


6:19 


101. 






11 : 26 


354, 564. 


3: 8 


102, 151, 156, 


6:27 


139, 


145. 




11:33 


*353, 364. 




134, 448, *531, 


6:29 


469. 






11:35 


364. 




532. 


6:32 


126. 






12:24 


367. 


3:11 


*369. 


6:37 


429. 






12:27 


244, 364, 399, 


3:13 


*367,*370,*378. 


6 : 41, 51 


370. 








416. 


3:14 


414. 


6:44 


344, 


429. 




12:31 


574, 581. 



L5TDEX OF SCKIPTUEE TEXTS. 



743 



CH 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 


1 CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


12:32 


434. 




16:13 


151. 


1:11 


567, 567. 


13:33,33 


464. 




16 : 13, 17 


*96, 151, 467. 


1:15 


505. 


12:41 


146. 




16:14 


155, 156. 


1:21 


547. 


13:44 


169. 




16 : 14, 15 


151. 


1 : 21, 22 


547. 


13:47 


296. 




16:15 


149, 151. 


1:22 


547. 


13:48 


584. 




16:31 


479. 


1:23-26 


498, 505. 


13:10 


461,*484,*490. 


16:25 


389. 


1:25 


355, 587, 596. 


13:21 


244. 




16:36 


*379. 


2: 


502. 


13:27 


*210, 228. 




16:30 


147. 


2: 1 


201. 


13:29 


502. 




17: 2 


367, 429. . 


2: 4 


156. 


13:33 


*367. 




17: 3 


3,6,37,125, 


2:22 


61, 364. 


14: 1 


*149, 465. 






126, 140, 375. 


2:23 


125, 123, 173. 


14: 2 


586. 




17: 4 


156, 407. 


2:24 


385, *487. 


14: 2,3 


586. 




17: 5 


123, 147, 150, 


2:27 


99. 


14: 3 


354, 563, *574. 




186, 379, 381, 


2:31 


385. 


14: 3,18 


566. 






382. 


2:33 


423. 


14: 6 


121, "126,147. 


17: 5,24 


159. 


2 : 37, 38 


*531, 531. 


14: 9 


147, 149, 


169, 


17: 6 


429. 


2:38 


*148, 455, 463, 




388. 




17: 8 


96, 388. 




482, 520, *531, 


14: 9,19 


367. 




17: 9 


423, 429. 




534. 


14: 9,11,18 


161. 




17: 9,20,24 


421. 


2:41 


498, 523, 530. 


14 : 10, 23 


440. 




17:10 


149. 


2:42 


532. 


14:11 


61. 




17:11 


149, 491. 


2:42-46 


539. 


14:13 


*446. 




17 : 11, 12 


491. 


2:46 


*540, 541. 


14:16 


423. 




17 : 11, 22 


*149. 


2 : 46, 47 


*548. 


14 : 16, 17 


*155, 164, 


593. 


17:17 


485. 


2:47 


485, 498, 500, 


14 : 16, 18 


*574. 




17:19 


416. 




502, 548. 


14:17 


137. 




17:20 


421. 


3: 8 


470. 


14 : 17, 18 


485. 




17:21 


146, 161. 


3 : 13-26 


378. 


14:18 


*367, 378, 


387. 


17 : 21-23 


*440. 


3:16 


*430. 


14 : 18, 19 


*573. 




17 : 21-26 


*442. 


3:21 


590. 


14:20 


413, 440. 




17:22 


149. 


3:22 


388. 


14:26 


96, 155, 


424. 


17 : 23, 23 


160. 


4:12 


296, 468. 


14:28 


150, 166. 




17:23 


*116, 160, 369. 


4:23 


587. 


14:30 


*365, 366. 




17:24 


127, 389, 421, 


4 : 27, 28 


173, 210. 


15: 1 


*367. 






425. 


4 : 27-30 


378. 


15 1-10 


*439. 




17 : 24, 26 


389. 


4:28 


173, 210. 


15: 2 


*587. 




17:26 


389. 


4:31 


499. 


15: 3 


448. 




18: 4 


368. 


4:32 


442, 580. 


15: 3-5 


485. 




18 : 36, 37 


424. 


5: 1-11 


*498. 


15: 4,5 


344. 




19:11 


347, 348. 


5: 3, 4 


151. 


15: 5 


442, *500 




19:28 


364. 


5: 3,4-9 


153. 


15: 5,10 


160. 




19:30 


364, 364, 416. 


5:14 


500. 


15: 7 


*218. 




19 : 30, 34 


364. 


5:29 


501. 


15:15 


*12, 219. 




19:34 


364, 399. 


5:34 


430, 463. 


15:16 


428, 431. 




20:17 


367, *563. 


5:42 


*540. 


15:19 


427. 




20:19 


378. 


6: 1 


498. 


15:26 


96, 155, 


161, 


20 : 21, 22 


*96. 


6: 1-4 


511, 512. 




165. 




20:22 


*96, *387. 


6: 3,5 


505. 


15 


:26,27 


96. 




20:26 


201. 


6: 5,6 


498, 512, 513. 


15 


27 


96. 




20:27 


375, 577. 


6: 8-10 


512. 


16 


: 7 


*155, 378, 


387. 


20:28 


146, 148. 


7: 2 


123. 


16 


8 


151, 156, 


228, 


20:31 


465, 470. 


7:16 


♦107. 




286. 




21:19 


173. 


7:22 


561. 


16 


: 8,9 


164, 467. 




24:25 


378. 


7:28 


567. 


16 


: 8-11 


164. 








7:38 


*496. 


16 


: 8,13 


164. 




Acts. 


7:42 


*224. 


16 


9 


467. 




1 


1 


387. 


7:51 


156. 


16 


10 


416. 




1 


2 


150, 378, 382. 


7:53 


226. 


16 


11 


479. 




1 


4 


96. 


7:55 


386. 


16 


12-14 


*389. 




1 


'i 


568. 


7:59 


148, 558, 564. 


16 


12-16 


*502. 




1 


10 


227. 


7:60 


♦354. 



744 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUKE TEXTS. 



CH. 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH 


. VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


8 


3 


♦540. 


17:18 


467. 




1:18 


14, 127, 392, 


8 


• 4 


501. 


17:21 


441. 






555. 


8 


12 


454, 531. 


17:23 


15, *15. 




1 : 18-28 


*590. 


8 


16 


534. 


17 : 25-27 


59. 




1:19 


8, 14, *14. 


8 


26 


153. 


17:26 


173,*239,575. 


1 : 19, 20 


8, 14. 


8 


29 


156. 


17:27 


38, 132. 




1 : 19-21, 28, 


32 37. 


8 


38,39 


524. 


17:28 


203, 413, 


491. 


1:20 


14, 37, 120, 


8 


39 


524. 


17:30 


296, 348, 


350. 




593. 


9 


5 


101. 


17:31 


161, 574, 


581. 


1:23 


123. 


9 


15 


428. 


18: 8 


531. 




1:24 


*337. 


9 


31 


496, 508. 


18: 9,10 


429. 




1 : 24, 28 


209. 


10 


19 


156. 


18:10 


429, 433. 




1:25 


53, 137. 


10 


19,20 


156. 


18:24 


75. 




1:28 


38, 209. 


10 


20 


156. 


18:27 


498. 




1:32 


14, 348, 353, 


10: 


31,34,35,44 468. 


19: 1-5 


*534. 






462. 


10: 


35 


*296, 473. 


19: 4 


*464, 502, 


521, 


2: 4 


59, 137, 463. 


10: 


38 


150, *157, 228, 




531, 547. 




2: 5 


554, 587, 588. 




378, 382. 


19:32-39 


496. 




2: 5, 6 


588. 


10:42 


428. 


20: 7 


201, 498, 


539, 


2: 6 


138, *139, 347, 


10:43 


67. 




540, 541, 


548, 




588. 


10:47 


531, *532. 




551. 




2: 6-11 


427. 


10:48 


534. 


20:17 


510. 




2: 6-16 


*590. 


11:18 


430, 464. 


20 : 17-28 


498, *509 




2:12 


289, 348, 584. 


12: 7 


153. 


20:20 


511, *540 




2:14 


*276,*296,341. 


12:15 


226. 


20 : 20, 21, 35 


511. 




2 : 14, 15 


*276. 


12:17 


510. 


20:21 


464, 511. 




2:15 


14, 37, 38, 


12:23 


226. 


20:25 


127. 






*255, *276, 583. 


13: 2 


156, 507. 


20:28 


*146. 




2 : 15, 16 


582. 


13: 2,3 


505, 512, 513. 


20 : 28-31 


510. 




2:16 


581, 583. 


13:33-35 


*165. 


20:30 


549. 




2:26 


326, 473. 


13:38 


♦474. 


20:31 


600. 




3: 1,2 


428. 


13 : 38, 39 


*474. 


20:35 


511. 




3: 2 


428, 465. 


13:39 


437, *445, 474, 


21:18 


510. 




3: 4 


137. 




479. 


21 : 31-33 


113. 




3: 8,31 


487. 


13:41 


559. 


22:16 


531, 532. 




3: 9 


296, 342. 


14:16 


209. 


22:17 


386. 




3:10 


296. 


14 : 16, 17 


*359. 


22:26 


113. 




3 : 10, 12, 19, 20, 


14:17 


14, 59, *359. 


22 : 26, 29 


113. 




23 


296. 


14:23 


495, 505, 505, 


22:29 


113. 




3:11 


448. 




512, 513. 


23: 5 


*113. 




3:12 


296. 


14:27 


505. 


23: 6 


561. 




3:19 


296, 346. 


15: 2,4,22,30 


505. 


23 : 26, 30 


113. 




3:20 


279, 296, 462. 


15: 7-20 


507. 


24:15 


560, 562, 


575, 


3:22 


*421. 


15: 8 


133, 430. 




576. 




3:23 


278, 296. 


15: 8,9 


430. 


24:25 


557, 581. 




3:24-26 


475. 


15: 9 


430, 486. 


26: 6-8 


561. 




3:24-30 


471. 


15:13 


510. 


26 : 24, 25 


17. 




3:25 


59, 209, 350, 


15:18 


133. 


27 : 22-24, 31 


179. 






422. 


15:25 


386. 


27 : 24, 27 


*433. 




3 : 25, 26 


*392, 392, 410. 


15:28 


156. 








3:26 


141, *392, 392, 


16: 6 


156. 


Romans. 






410, 478. 


16 : 6, 7 


156. 


1 


: 3 


*164, 252, 


369. 


3:28 


470, 565. 


16: 7 


156. 


1 


: 3,4 


*164. 




3:31 


487. 


16:14 


448, 453, 457. 


1 


: 4 


*164, *165, 416. 


4: 4,5,16 


470. 


16 : 15, 40 


*535. 


1 


: 5 


470. 




4: 5 


470, 474. 


16:16 


228. 


1 


: 6 


435. 




4: 6,8 


472. 


16:31 


465, 468. 


1 


6,7 


435. 




4:16 


470. 


16:33 


523, *535. 


1 


: 7 


435. 




4:17 


136, 186. 


16 : 33, 34 


*535. 


1 


16 


407. 




4 : 20, 21 


468. 


16:40 


*535. 


1 


17 


469, 471, 


486. 


4 : 24, 25 


*9, 353. 


17: 3 


414, 417. 


1 


17, 18, 19, 


20, 




4:25 


391, 416, 473. 


17: 


4 


*429. 




32 


14. 




5:1,2 


475. 



INDEX OF SCBIPTUKE TEXTS. 



745 



CH. VEKSE. 


PAGE. 




ICH 


. VERSE. 


PASE. 


CH. VEKSE. 


PAGE. 


5: 6-8 


393. 




1 7:23 


301, 342. 


9:17 


173, 196, 210. 


5: 8 


391. 




< 7:24 


286, 299, 344, 


9 : 20, 21 


427. 


5:10 


392. 






555. 


9:31 


427. 


5:11 


475. 




8 


: 1 


281, 354, 440. 


9:22,23 


434. 


5:12 


21, 249, 


252, 


8 


: 1,2 


555. 


9 : 32-25 


428. 




308, 308, 


311, 


8 


: 1,17 


445. 


9:23 


123, 439, 434. 




320, 324, 


327. 


8 


: 2 


151, 301, 444, 


9:23,24 


429. 


5 : 13 sq. 


101, 353. 






449, 555. 


9:24 


429. 


5:12-14 


*300. 




8: 3 


*165, 279, *365, 


10: 3 


430, 473. 


5:12,14,16,17 353. 






391, 416, *478, 


10: 4 


276, 279, 391, 


5:12-19 


*9, 238, 


239, 




529. 




487. 




321, 331. 




8 


: 3, 10, 11 


*353. 


10: 6,7 


132. 


5:12-21 


330, *340, 355, 


8 


: 4 


276, 488. 


10: 7 


*385. 




439. 




8 


: 7 


266, 290, 295, 


10: 9 


147, 466. 


5:14 


353, 355, 


370. 




341, 462. 


10: 9,10 


495. 


5 : 14, 19-21 


*356. 




8: 7, 8 


344. 


10: 9,13 


148. 


5:16 


308, 353. 




8: 9 


387, 440, 443, 


10:10 


448. 


5 : 16-18 


327, 473. 






485, 487. 


10:17 


148. 


5:17 


353. 




8 


: 9,10 


*440, *443, 485. 


11: 2 


428. 


5:18 


*315, 473. 




8 


: 9,10,15 


487. 


11: 5-7 


427. 


5 : 18, 19 


472. 




8 


:10 


*353, 440, 443, 


11 : 13-15, 25-27 


571. 


5:19 


308, 324, 


391, 




446, 473, 485, 


11:24 


439. 




472. 






542, 555, 564. 


11:25 


17, 570, 571. 


5:20 


279, 358. 




8:11 


151, 156, 164, 


11 : 25, 26 


570. 


5:21 


*284, 559. 






*248, *353, 446, 


11:26 


570. 


6: 2-5 


531. 






*576. 


11:29 


429, 435, 491. 


6: 3 


*148, 527, 


529, 


8 


:13 


354, 559. 


11:32 


209. 




534, *543. 




8 


: 13, 14 


*484. 


11:33 


18, 133. 


6: 3-5 


520. 




8 


:14 


164. 


11:36 


186, 196. 


6: 3-6 


521. 




8 


: 14, 15 


238. 


12: 2 


21, 486. 


6: 4 


*524, 527. 




8 


:15 


238. 


12: 3 


430. 


6: 4,5 


575. 




S 


16 


256, 466, 468. 


12: 6,8 


503. 


6: 5 


*439, 528, 


575. 


8 


17 


445. 


12: 7 


512. 


6: 7 


*472. 




8 


: 19-23 


*577, 586. 


12: 8 


503. 


6: 7,8 


448. 




8 


20-22,23 


*198. 


12:16 


504. 


6: 7-10 


*416. 




8 


20-23 


353. 


12:19 


418. 


6: 8 


448. 




8 


21,23 


567. 


13: 1 


198, 428. 


9: 9,10 


353. 




8 


23 


*475, 566, 567, 


13: 1-3 


571. 


6:11 


440. 






576, 580. 


13:14 


486. 


6:12 


284, 484. 




8:24 


489, 554. 


14: 4 


501. 


6:13 


448, 531. 




8:26 


163, 164, 228, 


14: 7 


294. 


6 : 13-18 


473. 






*441. 


14: 8 


555. 


6:14 


487, 488. 




8 


26,27 


*218, *423, 470. 


14:17 


473. 


6:15-23 


258, 488. 




8 


27 


*169, 470. 


14:23 


284. 


6:17 


448. 




8 


27-30 


*438. 


15: 3 


294. 


6:19 


337. 




8 


28 


*171, 181, 200, 


15 : 19 


156, *157. 


6:23 


139, 346, 


353. 




208. 


15:22 


487. 


7: 4 


*439, 445. 




8: 


28-30 


429. 


15:26 


498. 


7: 6 


488. 




8. 


30 


435. 


15:30 


127, 151, 156. 


7: 7, 8 


279. 




8: 


31-39 


433. 


16: 1,2 


512. 


7: 8 


279, 284. 




8: 


32 


*127, 137, 165, 


16: 2 


512. 


7: 8,9,10 


*284. 






200. 


16: 5 


495, 540. 


7 : 10, 11 


527. 




8: 


33,44 


472. 


16:17 


*507, 550. 


7 : 11, 13, 14, 


17, 




8: 


34 


*423, 472, 475. 


16:26 


593. 


20 


284. 




8 : 


35-39 


443. 


22:23 


196. 


7:13 


284. 




8: 


39 


♦131. 






7:14 


*276, 284. 




9: 


1 


*256. 


1 Corinthians. 


7:15 


428. 




9: 


5 


*145. 


1: 1,2 


496. 


7:17 


283, 284. 




9: 


6 


493. 


1: 2 


97, 485, 490, 


7:18 


258, *290, 342, 


9: 


11 


356. 




495, 496, 500. 




342, 344, 


m. 


9: 


11-16 


428. 


1: 2,30 


485. 


7:20 


284. 


1 


9: 


16-21 


431. 


1: 3 


*148. 



746 



INDEX OF SCKIPTURE TEXTS. 



H. 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. 


VERSE. 


i 


'AGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


1 


3 


423. 




6 : 15, 19 


439. 






12: 3 


147. 


1 


9 


137. 




6 : 17, 19 


*441. 






12: 4-6 


148, *151. 


1 


10 


504. 




6 : 17-20 


446. 






12: 4,8,11 


*157. 


1 


16 


101, 511, 


535. 


6:19 


151, 


248, 


485. 


12: 6 


207. 


1 


18 


560. 




6:20 


391, 


477. 




12: 8 


*157, *470. 


1 


23 


467. 




7:10 


*113. 






12: 8,9 


*470. 


1 


23,24 


407. 




7 : 10, 12 


*113. 






12: 8-11 


156. 


1 


24 


407, 429, 


435. 


7:14 


300, 320, *355, 


12: 8,28 


*97. 


1 


24,26 


435. 






493, 


*535. 




12: 9 


430, *470. 


1 


24-28 


429. 




7 


17 


97. 






12:11 


*157. 


1 


26 


290. 




7 


22 


488. 






12:12 


*439, 543. 


1 


28 


186. 




7 


23 


391. 






12:13 


528, *543. 


1 


29.30 


475. 




7 


40 


114. 






12:28 


*97, *388, 496, 


1 


30 


*387,*429,*445, 


8 


3 


*264, 


428. 






502, 508, 511, 




473, 475, 


485, 


8 


4 


125, 


*229. 






512. 




*490, *490 




8 


6 


*9, 


147, 


158, 


13: 4 


*157. 


2: 6 


297, *489 






162, 


186. 




13: 7,13 


491. 


2: 7 


130, 173. 




8:12 


256. 






13: 9,10 


XXV. 


2: 9 


137, 585. 




9 : 13, 14 


544. 






13:10 


554. 


2:10 


8, 17, 


96, 


9:16 


513. 






13:12 


*6, 389. 




151, 156, 


163. 


9:27 


*493. 






13:13 


491. 


2 : 10, 11 


156. 




10: 1,2 


524. 






14:23 


*498. 


2 : 10, 12 


8. 




10: 1-6 


*110. 






14:35 


*540. 


2 : 10, 13 


96. 




10: 4 


543. 






14:37 


502, 549. 


2:11 


122, 151, 


156, 


10: 8 


♦107. 






14 : 37, 38 


97. 




244. 




10:11 


568. 






14:38 


97. 


2:13 


*11, 18," 


101. 


10 : 12 


493. 






14:40 


498. 


2:14 


244, 344. 




10:13 


210, 


230. 




15: 


*559. 


3: 1 


10. 




10:16 


440,539,*541, 


15: 3 


9. 


3: 1,2 


10. 






543. 






15: 3,4 


9. 


3: 2 


10. 




10 : 16, 17 


*440, 


*543. 




15: 4 


9. 


3: 6, 7 


449. 




10:17 


*542, 


548. 




15: 6 


505. 


3: 7 


449. 




10:20 


229. 






15 : 12, 22 


528. 


3 : 13-15 


10. 




10:31 


198. 






15 : 13, 17, 22, 


43, 


3 : 14, 15 


585. 




10:34 


528. 






51,52 


575. 


3:16 


151, 151. 




11: 2 


505. 






15:17 


575. 


3:17 


559. 




11: 2,23 


541. 






15 : 20, 23 


562. 


3:18 


*366. 




11: 3 


166. 






15:21 


364. 


3 : 20, 21 


476. 




11: 7 


262. 






15 : 21, 22 


238. 


3:21 


200, *446, 476. 


11:10 


*226. 






15:22 


252, 308, 310, 


3 : 21, 23 


445. 




11:16 


498. 








315, 330, 333, 


3:22 


555. 




11:18 


252, 


540, 


548, 




370, 439, 575. 


3:23 


445. 






550. 






15 : 22, 45 


370, 528. 


4: 4 


472, *472 




11 : 18, 20, 22, 23, 






15 : 22, 45, 49 


*439. 


4: 5 


147. 




34 


540. 






15:23 


562. 


4: 7 


432. 




11 : 18, 20, 22, 


33 551. 






15:25 


598. 


4:15 


*207 




11 : 18, 22 


548. 






15:26 


307, 590. 


4:17 


495. 




11:19 


492. 






15:28 


150, 196, 379. 


5: 1-13 


549. 




11:20 


540, 


550. 




15:34 


*38. 


5: 3 


244. 




11:23 


96, 


540. 




15:37 


578, *578. 


5: 3,5 


*97. 




11 : 23-25 


539. 






15:41 


*500. 


5: 3-5,13 


*516. 




11 : 23-26 


498. 






15:43 


575, 578. 


5: 4,5,13 


498, 506. 




11:24 


541, 


*543. 




15:44 


244, 248, *576. 


5: 5 


*97, 229, 


498, 


11 : 24, 25 


*148. 






15 : 44, 50 


572. 




506. 




11 : 24, 26 


*540. 






15:45 


151, 161, 269, 


5: 7 


392. 




11:26 


280, 


522, 


539, 




367, 378, 446. 


5:13 


*516. 






541, 


544. 




15 : 45, 46 


*558. 


6: 2,3 


584. 




11 : 27-29 


546. 






15 : 45, 49 


*366. 


6: 3 


222. 




11:29 


535,*540,*543. 


15:49 


*360, 446. 


6:11 


445, 475, 


484, 


11:30 


565. 






15:50 


572, 578. 




*490. 




11:33 


550. 






15:51 


354, 568, 575, 


6 


: 13-20 


576. 




11 


:34 


*540. 








584. 



IXDEX OF SCEIPTUEE TEXTS. 



747 



CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


15 : 51, 52 


584. 




7: 2 


559. 




4: 4- 


162. 


15:52 


563, 


584. 


7: 9,10 


462. 




4: 5 


415, 475. 


15:53 


577, 


578. 


7:10 


462, 464. 




4: 6 


155, 161, 238. 


15 : 53, 54 


577. 




7:11 


506. 




4: 9 


428. 


15:54 


577. 




8: 5 


501. 




4:10 


201. 


15 : 54-57 


354. 




8: 6 


381. 




4 : 10, 11 


201. 


15 : 55 


555. 




8: 9 


382. 




4:11 


201. 


16: 1,2 


201, 


498. 


8:19 


505. 




5: 6 


469, 470. 


16:15 


428, 


*535. 


9: 9 


593. 




5:11 


407. 


16:22 


159. 




10: 5 


278, 485. 




5:14 


294. 


23:24 


*505. 




11: lsq. 


101. 




5:16 


485. 








11: 2 


439. 




5:17 


*484. 


2 CORXNTHTANS. 


11: 3 


302. 




5:19-22 


285. 


1: 6-8 


*516. 




11:14 


225. 




5:21 


488. 


1:20 


*8, 


137. 


12: 2 


558. 




5:22 


430, 470. 


2: 6 


506. 




12: 4 


18, 563. 




5:22-24 


487. 


2: 6, 7 


506. 




12: 7 


228. 




6: 1 


349. 


2: 7 


506. 




12:12 


*97. 




6: 7 


596. 


2 : 14-17 


600. 




13: 4 


386. 




6: 7,8 


596. 


2:15 


434, 


485. 


13:11 


504. 




6: 8 


596. 


2 : 15, 16 


434. 




13:14 


*148, 151, 


156, 


6:15 


448. 


2:16 


434, 


566. 




423. 








3: 1 


498. 




16:22 


568. 




Ephesians. 


3: 5 


344. 










1: 4 


130, 186, 421, 


3: 6 


18, 


102. 


GAT,ATIA3TS. 






427, 428, 430, 


3:15 


4. 




1: 1 


97, 148. 






440, 445. 


3 : 15, 16 


4. 




1: 1,2 


97. 




1: 4-6 


427. 


3:16 


4. 




1: 4 


391, 391. 




1: 4-7 


421. 


3:17 


161, 


378. 


1:12 


97. 




1: 5 


*162, 196, 238, 


3 : 17, 18 


161. 




1:15 


208. 






428, 429, 475. 


3:18 


*150, 


161, 357, 


1 : 15, 16 


429, 444, 


449. 


1: 5, 6 


238. 




378, 


486, 490, 


1:16 


429, 444. 




1: 5,6,9 


196. 




490. 




1:19 


510. 




1: 5-8 


429. 


4: 2 


455. 




2:11 


103, 507. 




1: 6 


196, 238, 423. 


4: 4 


162, *263, 263. 


2 : 11-13 


*113. 




1: 7 


471, 475. 


4: 4, 6 


*459. 




2:12 


510. 




1: 9 


122, 196, 428, 


4: 6 


136, *163, 459. 


2:17 


465. 






590. 


4:17 


123, 


198, 585. 


2 : 19, 20 


527. 




1: 9,10 


*590, 590. 


5: 1-8 


*563. 




2:20 


170, 295, *430, 


1:10 


221, 225, 586, 


5: 1-9 


354. 






*440, 443, 


478, 




590. 


5: 3,4 


566. 






487, 527. 




1:11 


122, 136, in, 


5: 4 


*111, 


566, 580. 


2:21 


565. 






173, 208, 428. 


5: 8 


564. 




2:30 


445. 




1:13 


468. 


5:10 


572, 


581, 583, 


3: 6 


464, 475. 




1:14 


*155, 429. 




588, 


*590. 


3: 6, 7 


464. 




1:17 


59, 455. 


5:11 


600. 




3: 7 


464. 




1 : 17, 18 


455. 


5:13 


17. 




3:11 


471. 




1:18 


435, 447, 455, 


5:14 


527. 




3:13 


353, 392, 


478, 




457. 


5 : 14, 21 


♦445. 






487. 




1 : 18, 19 


447. 


5:15 


294, 


331, 357, 


3:16 


*110. 




1:19 


136, 447, 449. 




391. 




3:19 


226, 227. 




1 : 19, 20 


448. 


5:17 


437, 


440, 444, 


3:20 


*109. 




1:20 


449. 




449. 




3:22 


296. 




1:22 


369, 386, 424, 


5 : 18, 19 


392. 




3:24 


279. 






439, 494. 


5:19 


161, 


370, 419. 


3:26 


238, 467. 




1:22,23 


369, 386, 439, 


5:19-21 


472. 




3 : 26, 27 


531. 






494. 


5:21 


346, 


365, 365, 


3:27 


527, *528, 534. 


1:23 


147, 207, 369, 




*391, *391, 404, 


4: 3 


358. 






386, 439, 494. 




*445, 


473, 475, 


4: 3, 4 


♦358. 




2: 1 


263, 344, 354, 




528. 




4: 4 


125, 155, 


165, 




448, 555, 559, 


6:17 


238. 






358, 391. 






574. 


7: 1 


128, 


342, 460. 


4: 4, 5 


415. 




2: 1,5,6 


575. 



748 



INDEX OF SCKIPTURE TEXTS. 



JH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


2: 2 


224, 228, 


228, 


5: 5 


149. 




4:13 


446. 




231, 448. 




5:10 


17. 




4:19 


208. 


2: 3 


252, *299, 308, 


5:14 


*110, 354, 


448, 








320, 346, 


355. 




460, 559, 


575. 


COLOSSIANS. 


2: 5 


445, 448, 


575. 


5:18 


485. 




1: 9 
1:13 
1:15 

1 : 15-17 
1:16 


219. 

448. 

120, 149, 162, 
*164, *165, 262. 
157. 
147, 158, 186, 


2: 5,6 


445. 




5:21 


148. 




2: 6 
2: 7 
2: 8 
2: 8-10 
2: 9,10 


445, 575. 
475. 
*429. 
344. 
430. 




5:23 
5:24,25 
5:25 
5 : 25, 26 
5 : 25-27 


*367. 
494. 

480, 494. 
480. 
391. 




2:10 


173, 179, 


209, 


5:26 


480, 531, 


532. 




188, 221, 223. 




266, 444, 


449, 


5:29 


*580. 




1 : 17 


147, 147, 186, 




449, 462. 




5:29,30 


439, 442. 






203, 383, 413. 


2:12 


38, 392. 




5:31 


*384, *439 




1 :18 
1:19 


366, 367, 494. 
*149. 


2:13 


449. 




5 : 31, 32 


*439. 




2:15 


280, 446. 




5:32 


*439, 443. 




1:20 


225, 392, 586. 


2:16 


392. 




6:11 


230. 




1 : 21, 22 

1:22 
1:24 


391. 
475. 
446. 


2 : 16-18 


369. 




6:12 


188, 222, 


228. 


2:18 


163, 423. 




6:17 


10, 17, 


448, 


2:20 


*388, 507. 






450. 




1 :27 


*11, 375, 443, 

467. 
485. 


2:20-22 
2:21 


438. 
369. 




6:23 


148, 430. 




1 : 27-29 


2 : 21, 22 


369. 




Phlltppians. 




2 : 2 


375. 


2:22 


369. 




1: 1 


498, 503, 


509, 


2: 3 
2: 5 
2: 6, 7 
2: 7 
2: 9 
2: 9,10 
2:10 
2 : 11, 12 
2 : 11-13 


147. 

498. 
*439. 
*438. 

146, 149, 370. 

482. 
*221. 

520. 

386. 


3: 1 
3: 5 


220. 
*388. 




1: 6 


510, 512. 
485, 491. 




3: 9 
3: 9,10 


*15, 15, 17, 59, 

186. 

196. 


1 
1 

1 


9 
19 
21,23 


*219. 
161. 
354. 




3:10 


133, *223, 225, 


1 


22,23 


♦563. 






231, 494, *598. 


1 


23 


354, 399, *563. 


3 : 10, 11 


173. 




1 


27 


504. 






3:11 
3:12 


*171, 173. 
423, 475. 




2 
2 


5 
6 


446. 

146, *149, 150, 


2:12 
2 : 12, 13 
2 : 14 


455, 524, 528. 
575. 
487. 
230. 
201. 

*226, 227. 
478. 
486. 
485. 

261, *262. 
428. 
149. 
97. 


3:14 


148, *238. 






157. 




2:15 
2 : 16, 17 
2:18 
3: 1-4 
3: 4 
3: 9,10 
3:10 
3 : 12 


3 : 16, 17 


443. 




2: 6, 7 


382. 




3:17 
3:19 


440, 443, 
465. 
6, *17. 


445, 


2: 6-8 
2: 6-11 
2: 7 


137, *384. 
381. 
150, 373, 


529. 


3:20 


136. 




2: 8 


382, 391. 




4: 3 
4: 5 


504. 
528. 




2 : 10, 11 
2 : 12, 13 


148, 590. 
179, *436, 441, 


4: 6 


161. 






448, 460, 


485. 


3:15 
4:16 


4: 7,8 


146. 




2:13 


209, 430. 




4: 8 


96, 110, 


146. 


2:30 


498. 




4:10 


369, 386. 




3: 6 


496, 508. 








4:11 


11, 503, 


510, 


3: 8, 9 


276, 475. 




1 THESSALONIANS. 




*510. 




3: 8,10 


375. 




1: 6 


386. 


4:13 


486. 




3: 9 


279, 445. 




1: 9 


121. 


4:15 


485. 




3:10 


542, 575. 




2:12 


435, 485. 


4 : 15, 16 


439. 




3:11 


580. 




2:14 


495. 


4:18 


342, *453. 




3:12 


486. 




2:18 


228. 


4 : 18, 19 


347. 




3 : 12-14 


297, 490. 




3: 5 


228. 


4:22,23 


*484. 




3:14 


*435. 




3:12 


485. 


4:23 


244. 




3:15 


*297, 485, *489. 


3:13 


128. 


4:23,24 


448. 




3:18 


498. 




4: 2-8 


97. 


4:24 


261, *262, 486. 


3:20,21 


446. 




4: 7 


128. 


4:26 


*110, 139. 




3:21 


366, 478, 


486, 


4 : 13-17 


576. 


4:30 


127, 151, 


156. 




575, 576. 




4:14 


565. 


5: 1 


278. 




4: 3 


429. 




4 : 14-16 


575. 


5: 2 


392, 401. 




4: 


5 


Ill, 568. 




4 : 14-17 


443. 



IXDEX OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



749 



CH 


TERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. 


VERSE. PAGE. 


4 : 15-17 


111. 






3:15 


10, 496, 


504, 


3: 4 


137, 475. 


4:16 


223, 


567, 


*567. 




505, 508, 


551. 


3: 4,7 


475. 


4 : 16, 17 


562, 


563, 


584. 


3:16 


*9, 9, 


*146, 


3: 5 


151, 455, 531, 


4:17 


446, 


568. 






370,*375, 


*416, 




532. 


5:10 


564. 


565. 






473, 479. 




3: 7 


475. 


5:11 


501. 






4: 2 


256. 




3: 9 


549. 


5:12 


428, 


511. 




4: 7 


486. 




3:10 


*549. 


5 : 12, 13 
5:22 


502. 
*399. 






4:10 
4:14 


421. 

512. 513, 


513, 


] 


d hzlem:ox. 


5:23 


244,*246,446, 




532. 




13 


393. 




484 






4:16 


600. 




17 


*420. 


5:24 


137. 






5: 6 
5: 9 


354, 559. 
498. 






Hebrews. 


2 Thessal,o:n~ia^s. 




5:17 


510. 




1: 2 


153, 158, 161, 


1: 6-9 
1: 6-10 
1: 7 
1: 7,8 
1: 7-10 


427. 
572. 
222. 
581. 
567. 






5:21 
5:22 
5:24 
6:16 
6:20 


225, 226. 
512, 513. 
*349. 
118, 130. 
16. 




1: 2,3 
1: 2,10 
1: 3 


186, 203, 369. 

203, 369. 

158. 

123, 136, 149. 

153,*162,*163. 

203, 262, 369, 


1: 9 
2: 1-3 


355,*559,*587. 
568. 


o 


TlMOTHT. 




1: 5.6 


383, 416, 424. 
*165. 


2: 2 


74, *567 




1: 9 


429, 435, *592. 


1 


6 


146, 148, 165. 


2: 3,4 


295. 






1: 9,10 


421. 




1 


7 


226. 


2: 3,4,7,8 


570. 






1:10 


59, 307, 


421. 


1 


8 


145, 379. 424. 


2: 4,9 


228. 






1:12 


37, 491. 




1 


10 


147. 


2: 7 


304. 






1:13 


10. 




1 


11 


147. 


2: 9 


229. 






1:14 


485, 491. 




1 


13 


147. 


2:11 


209. 






2:10 


433. 




1 


14 


*222, 222, 226, 


2:13 


428. 






2:11 


445. 






565. 


2:14 


435. 






2:15 


11. 




2: 2 


226. 


2:16 


*148. 






2:18 


576. 




2: 2, 3 


347. 


3: 3 


491. 






2:19 


*492. 




2: 3 


347. 


3: 6 


516. 






2:22 


434. 




2: 6-10 


366. 


3: 6,11,15 


*549. 






2:25 


225, 430, 


464. 


2: 7 


150. 


3: 6,14,15 


506. 






2:26 
3: 2 


222. 
295, 341. 




2: 7. 8 
2: 8 


385. 
385, 424. 


1 TXMOTHT. 






3: 4 


341. 




2: 8,9 


424. 


1 


9 


488. 






3: 7 


449. 




2:10 


411. 


1 


11 


116. 






3: 8 


567. 




2 : 10, 18 


364. 


1 


12 


513. 






3:13 


337, 341. 




2:11 


367, *375. 


1 


13-15 


348. 






3:15 


445. 




2:13 


*367. 


1 


14 


479. 






3:16 


*97. 




2:14 


230, 364, 370. 


1 


15 


286. 






4: 2 


*11. 




2:15 


487. 


1 


15,16 


432. 






4: 6 


111. 




2:16 


222, 238, 371, 


1 


17 


120, 


125, 


130, 


4: 8 


568. 






419, 432. 




593. 






4:13 


104. 




2:17 


393. 


1:20 


*229. 






4:14 


588. 




2 : 17, 18 


378, 423. 


2: 1 


424. 






4:18 


*563. 




2:18 


364, 378, 423. 


2: 4 


*435. 












3: 1 


435, 507. 


2: 5 


364, 369, 


379. 




Thus. 




3: 3,4 


*147. 


2: 6 


391, 421. 




1: 2 


137. 




3: 8,15 


583. 


2: 7 


*513. 






1: 5 


505, 509, 


510. 


3:12 


284, 284, 342. 


2:15 


*367. 






1: 5,7 


509. 




3:13 


501. 


3: 1,2 


503. 






1: 6-9 


513. 




4: 9 


585. 


3: 1,8 


509. 






1: 7 


509, 510. 




4:12 


244, *246, 448. 


3: 2 


11, 


20, 


510, 


1: 9 


11. 




4:13 


133. 




510. 






1:11 


♦540. 




4:15 


365, 366, 366, 


3: 2-7 


513. 






1:15 


*256, 342. 






446. 


3: 5 


511. 






2:10 


161. 




4 : 15, 16 


378, 423. 


3: 8,10,12 


510. 






2:11 


421. 




4:16 


378, 423. 


3 : 10, 13 


512. 






2:13 


*145. 




5: 7 


364. 


3 


11 


512. 






2:14 


391. 




5 : 


8 


364. 



750 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUEE TEXTS. 



CH. VERSE 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 




CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


5:14 


10. 




12 : 14, 23 


487. 




1:12 


222, 225. 


6: 2 


*9, 599. 




12:16 


391. 




1:16 


138, 140, 278, 


6: 4-6 


*493. 




12 : 22, 23 


222. 






487. 


6: 7 


9. 




12:23 


161, 244, 


258, 


1 : 18, 19 


392. 


6: 8 


*590. 






494, 563, 


564, 


1:19 


365. 


6: 9 


*493. 






583, 585. 




1:20 


428. 


6:11 


*469. 




12:24-26 


389. 




1:23 


18, 448, 485. 


6:13 


*197. 




12:27 


199. 




2: 2 


485. 


6:18 


137. 




12:28 


446. 




2: 4, 5 


438. 


6 : 18, 19 


245. 




12:29 


128, 129, 


351. 


2: 5 


423. 


7: 9,10 


*109. 




13: 7 


510. 




2: 5,9 


445. 


7:10 


252. 




13: 7,17 


511. 




2: 8 


173, 434. 


7:16 


121, 147, 


469. 


13: 8 


147. 




2: 9 


198, 429, 448. 


7:23-25 


422. 




13:17 


511. 




2:21 


366. 


7 : 24, 25 


379. 




13:20 


541. 




2 : 21, 24 


391, 399. 


7:24-28 


390. 




13:21 


*148. 




2:22 


365. 


7:25 
7:26 


379, 423, *425. 
147, *365. 


James. 

1 : 5 *127. 219. 




3: 8 
3:15 


504. 
*146, 148, 477. 


8: 2 


126. 




1:13 


207, 290. 




3:16 


*256. 


8: 8 


*324. 




1 : 13, 14 


207, 290. 




3:18 


369, 393, 416. 


8: 9 


324. 




1:14 


207, 290. 




3:18-20 


*385. 


9: 1 


473. 




1:15 


295, 303, 


337, 


3:19 


*564. 


9 : 11, 12 


392. 






554. 




3 : 20, 21 


524. 


9 : 13, 14 


394. 




1 :17 


124, 175. 




3:21 


*256, 454, 527. 


9:14 


150, 158, 
165, 186, 


163, 
365, 


1:18 


430,*448,*454, 


3 : 21, 22 
3:22 


425. 
222. 




378, 382, 


392, 


1:21 


245. 




4: 6 


*353, 416, 535. 




401, 593. 




1:25 


282, 488. 




4: 7 


Ill, 568. 


9:15 


392. 




1 :26 


484. 




4:11 


198. 


9:22 
9 : 22, 26 


346. 
392. 




1:27 
2 : 8 


12, *13. 
294. 




4:13 
4:14 


446. 
123. 


9:26 


529, *592 




2:10 
2 : 14, 26 
2:19 


279. 
469. 
465. 




4:19 


137. 


9:27 

9 : 27, 28 


565, 581, *590. 
581. 




5: 1 
5: 1,2 


507. 
*509. 


9:28 


392, *544, 565, 


2 : 21, 23, 24 


*472. 




5: 2 


498. 




567. 




2:23 


429. 




5: 2,3 


511. 


10: 3,4 


395. 




2:25 


108. 




5: 3 


501. 


10: 5-7 


110. 




2 : 26 


244, 469. 




5: 8 


227, 228. 


10:22 


256, *256, 524. 


3 : 2 


296, 490. 




5: 9 


230. 


10 : 22, 23 


531, 532. 














10:25 
10:26 


498, 501. 
169/349. 




3 : 9 
4: 5 
4: 7 
4:12 
4 : 13-15 
4:17 
5: 7 
5: 8,9 
5: 9 
5:11 
5 : 19, 20 
5:20 


262. 
*484. 
230. 
279. 
209. 

278, 284, 
568. 
568. 

Ill, 568. 
113. 

472, *472. 
354, 472, * 




2 Peter. 
1: 1 *145. 


10 : 26-29 


*493. 






1: 2 


*16. 


10:27 
10 : 28, 29 
10 : 30, 31 


581, 583. 

347. 

140. 




347. 


1: 3 

1: 4 


137. 

369, 376, 378, 
*441, 448. 


10:31 
10:38 
11: 1 
11: 3 
11: 4 
11: 4-7 


277, 351, 
245. 
465. 
*186. 
396, 471. 
471. 


355. 


472. 


1:10 

1:11 
1 : 19, 20 
1:21 


*77, 435, 448, 
469. 
425. 
*69. 

97, 100, 156, 
164. 


11: 5 


561. 




1 Peter. 




2: 1 


391, 421. 


11: 6 


344, *446. 




1: 1,2 


145, 151, 


156, 


2: 4 


140, 189, 225, 


11: 7 


471. 






225, 427, 


428, 




432, 584. 


11 : 13-16 


561. 






430, 433, *480. 


2: 4, 5 


386. 


11:31 


108. 




1: 3 


*207, 449. 




2: 4, 9 


*564, 581. 


12: 2 


311, *365. 




1: 5 


419. 




2: 9 


566. 


12: 6 


129, 351, 


555. 


1:10 


111. 




2:11 


222. 


12: 9 


238, 244, 


350, 


1 : 10, 11 


386, 492. 




2:20 


493. 




252. 




1:11 


69, 100. 




3: 


*586. 


12:14 


140, *448, 586. I 


1 : 11, 12 


97. 




3: 2 


97. 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUKE TEXTS. 



751 



CH. 


VERSE. 


PAGE. 






2 John. 


CH. VERSE. 


PAGE. 


3: 3-12 


568. 




CH. VERSE 


PAGB. 


7 : 16, 17 


423. 


3: ±sq. 


111. 




7 


567. 


7:17 


423. 


3: 5 
3: 6, 7 


256, 289. 
*560. 






3 John. 


9: 2, 11 
10: 6 


587. 
*131. 


3: 7,10 


572, 581. 




2 


244. 


10: 8-11 
12:10 


456. 

228. 




1 John. 




3 


JUDE. 

97, 505, 544. 


12:11 
12:14 


*399. 
571. 


1 


1 


364, 375. 




6 


225, 230, 584, 


13: 8 


*15, *141, 416. 


1 


3 


440, 446. 






*593. 


13:11 


571. 


1 


5 


129, 167. 




6,7 


*593. 


13:14 


571. 


1 


6 


487. 




7 


*593. 


13 : 14, 15 


571. 


1 


7 


*392. 




9 


*223. 


13:15 


571. 


1 


7,8 


346, *480 




14 


♦80. 


14: 1 


598. 


1 


8 


296, 346, 


*480, 


19 


244, *246. 


14: 5 


487. 




486, 490. 




21 


156. 


14 : 10-12 


587. 


1: 9 


137, 402, 


405, 


23 


501, 600. 


14:11 


355. 




*418. 




24 


487, 491. 


14:13 


564. 


2: 1 


164, 402, 


423. 






15: 1-4 


129, 351. 


2: 2 


393, 421, 


445. 


Revelation. 


15: 3 


130. 


2:18 


568. 




1: 3 


569. 


16: 3 


245. 


2:19 


492. 




1: 6 


*425. 


16: 5 


129. 


2:20 


500. 




1: 7 


567, 567. 


16:10 


*224. 


2:23 


159, 170. 




1: 8 


130, 147. 


16:12 


571, 571. 


3: 1,2 


238. 




1:10 


201. 


17 : 12, la 


571. 


3: 2 


238, 268, 


357, 


1 : 10, 11 


101. 


17 : 13 


571. 




383, 446, 


487. 


1:11 


101. 


17:17 


173. 


3: 3 


366. 




1:18 


593. 


17:19 


571. 


3: 4 


*284, 559. 




1:20 


226. 


18: 5,6 


588. 


3: 5, 7 


365. 




2: 


*505. 


18: 6 


588. 


3: 6 


487. 




2: 1,8, 


12, 18 510. 


19: 1 


585. 


3: 6-9 


*489. 




2: 7 


563. 


19: 2 


129. 


3: 8 


230. 




2: 8 


510. 


19: 2,5 


351. 


3: 9 


*207, 485. 




2:11 


555, 560. 


19: 5 


351. 


3:14 


354. 




2:12 


510. 


19: 7 


439. 


3:16 


127, 147. 




2:13 


*224. 


19: 8 


475. 


3:20 


347. 




2:18 


510. 


19: 9 


101. 


4: 1 


17, 219. 




2:21 


467. 


19:10 


67, 467. 


4: 2 


369, 370, 


371. 


2:23 


588. 


19:14 


224. 


4: 2,3 


549. 




3: 


*505. 


19 : 15, 16 


424. 


4: 3 


159. 




3: 1 


354, 493, 559. 


19:16 


424. 


4: 7 


38, 294. 




3: 1,7, 


L4 510. 


20: 2 


210, 222, 228, 


4: 7,8 


3. 




3: 7 


147, 510. 




302. 


4: 8 


3, 127, 


264. 


3:10 


491. 


20: 2,3 


210. 


4:10 


137, 393, 


418. 


3:12 


585. 


20: 2,10 


189, 222. 


4:13 


468. 




3:14 


*147, 510. 


20: 3 


210. 


4:16 


440. 




3:20 


434, 465, 566. 


20: 4 


245. 


4:19 


376. 




3:21 


445, 584. 


20: 4-6 


570. 


5: 4 


*399, 492. 




4: 6-8 


224. 


20: 4-10 


*571, 572, *573, 


5: 6 


137. 




4: 8 


140. 




*574. 


5: 7 


126. 




4:11 


196. 


20: 5 


573, *574. 


5:10 


468. 




5: 6 


*161, 423. 


20: 6 


*149, 445. 


5 : 10, 11 


97. 




5: 6-8 


573. 


20:10 


189, 222. 


5:11 


97. 




5: 9 


224, 391. 


20 : 11-15 


572. 


5 : 14, 15 


470. 




5:10 


445. 


20:12 


581, *584. 


5:15 


470. 




5:11 


223. 


20 : 12, 13 


59. 


5 : 16, 17 


349. 




5 : 12-14 


148. 


20:13 


59, 574, 575. 


5:17 


284, 349. 




5:15 


364. 


20:14 


555, 564, 574. 


5:18 


491. 




6: 9 


244, 245. 


20 : 14, 15 


560. 


5 : 18, 19 


225. 




6: 9-11 


564. 


20:15 


429. 


5:19 


225, *296. 




6:10 


566. 


21: 


447. 


5: 


20 


♦126, *145. 




7:16 


423. 


21: 1 


586. 



752 



INTJEX OF APOCRYPHAL TEXTS. 



CH. VERSE. 

21: 1,5 

21: 3 

21: 4,5 

21: 5 

21: 6 

21: 8 

21:14 



199, 575. 

585. 
*577. 

101,567,*577. 

147. 

555, 560, 587, 
*596, 598. 

507. 



21 : 16, 24, 25 598. 



CH. VERSE. 



27 



3 

4 
8,9 



PAGE. 


CH. 


123. 


22: 


429, 585. 




*447. 


22: 


*509. 


22: 


148, 585. 


22: 


37, 268. 


22: 


153, 227. 


22: 


153, 222, 222, 


22: 


227. 


22: 



12 

12,20 

14 

15 

16 

17 

20 



PAGE. 

473, 565, 596, 



269. 
585. 
367. 
435. 



INDEX OF APOCEYPHAL TEXTS. 





1 ESDRAS. 


CH. VERSE. ] 


1:28 


80. 


4:38 


126. 


6: 1 


80. 




2 ESDRAS. 


3: 7 


332. 


9:19 


332. 


11:46 


332. 


11:48 


332. 


11 : 118 


332. 


21: 7 


332. 




Judith. 


12: 7 


523. 



CH. VERSE 


Esther. 

PAGE. 

147. 


CH. VERSE. PAGE. 

24 : 23-27 80. 

25 : 24 332. 
31 : 2 523. 




Wisdom. 


48 : 24 80. 


2:23 
2:24 
7:26 


332. 
332. 
153. 


BARTJCH. 

2 : 21 80. 


7:28 


153. 


Bel and the Dragon. 


9: 9 

9:10 

11:17 


153. 
153. 

186. 


60. 
1 Maccabees. 


ECCLESIASTICFS, or SlRACH. 


147. 
12 : 9 80. 


Prologue 
2: 1 


80. 
484. 


2 Maccabees. 


2:30 


481. 


6 : 23 80. 


18: 1 


222. 


7 : 28 186. 



INDEX OF GREEK WORDS. 



aydirri, an illustration of the inadequacy 
of language to express divine 

ideas, 18 

rqv aydir-qv, 1 John 3 : 16, the personal 
Love, 147 

ayid£u}, 397 

AiStjs, its derivation and meaning, 560 

dyvuicriav Oeov rives e^ovct, its meaning, . 38 

d-SiKia, its meaning, 284 

its Hebrew equivalent, 384 

dOeoL iv to Kocr/xa>, forsaken of God, 38 

ai'Sios, its application to God's 'power 
and divinity,' and to 'chains' 
which endure to judgment day, . . 593 

aiperi/cos, its meaning in Titus 3 : 10, 549 

ctptoi/, its meaning in John 1 : 29, 392 

aio-0Tjo-i5, spiritual discernment, Phil. 1 : 9, 219 

aicJv, 589 

does occasionally have its etymolog- 
ical force of 'age,' Heb. 9 : 26,. 130, 592 

its reduplication, 593 

contrasted by Plato with xpovo?, 593 

attributed by Aristotle to God, 593 

sets forth sometimes the period in 

which punishment takes place, . . . 593 
but in such connections does not 

mean 'world-period,' 593 

number and classification of its oc- 
currences in N. T., 593 

force of the word, in its application 
to punishment in a future state, 
determined by related passages,.. 594 
list of authors on meaning of word, 594 

aiaivios, 589 

applied to future punishment, 592 

occasionally has its etymological 

meaning of ' age-long,' 592 

expresses longest duration of which 

subject is capable, 592 

connected with ai6"io?, 593 

there is no stronger word in Greek 

language to express 'eternal,' 593 

Woolsey's opinion on, ■_. 593 

applied to the abiding Holy Spirit in 

believers, and to the life of Christ, 593 
used to describe the future happi- 
ness of the righteous as well as 

future sufferings of wicked, 593 

48 753 



atwvio? (continued), 

number and classification of its oc- 
currences in N. T., 593 

its meaning in relation to future 
punishment determined by other 
descriptions of the condition of 

the lost, 594 

Meyer on the word as conveying 
'the absolute idea of eternity,'. .. 594 

list of authors on the word, 594 

iA.»)0eia, its etymology and meaning, 98 

aAijfljfc, the veracious, . 126 

distinguished from dA->)0i i/d?, 126 

dA.T70i vd?, the genuine, the real, 126 

distinguished from dA^?, 126 

1 John 5 : 20, 6 dAr^irb? #e6?, by all 
rules of composition, applies to 

' his Son Jesus Christ,' 145 

dAAo Kal dAAo, correctly descriptive of 
the two natures which in Christ 
constitute the els, 362 

aAAo? *cai aAAo?, united by cv^a^eta, the 

formula of Nestorius, 362 

a/napraj/etv, its meaning in Rom. 5 : 12-19, 332 

dp.apTia, its etymological meaning, 283 

its Hebrew equivalent, 283 

passages in which it occurs, 283, 284 

applicable to dispositions as well as 

to acts, 283,284 

as implying delusion, 284 

its N.T. definition,... 284 

in what sense Christ was made, 415 

dvoAOo-ai, Hackett on, 563 

its meaning, 563 

its close connection with <rvv Xpio-r<p 

eiyai, 563 

dvaaraaiv p-eAAeiv eo-eo-0ai, the constant 

formula in relation to the resur- 
rection, 562 

d»>0pw7ro?, its derivation, 269 

dvop-i'a, lack of conformity to law, law- 
lessness, 284 

descriptive of sin as a state, 284 

avTa.Wa.yixa, 391 

ai/Ti, never confounded with fiirrfp, 391 

the preposition of price, bargain, 
exchange,. 391 

in Mat. 20 : 28, denotes substitution, 393 



754 



INDEX OF GREEK WORDS. 



avrl (continued), 

Winer, Buttman, Grimm, Thayer, 

Cremer on, 391 

avTiArjiu^ets, diaconal gifts, 503 

awTToaTaaia, impersonality, 367 

rejected by Fathers in favor of 

evuTrocrTacria, inpersonaUty, 367 

not mentioned in Chalcedon symbol, 363 
ana$, once for all, Heb. 9 : 38, 544 

anavyaap-a, __ 163 

implies Christ's co-equality and co- 
eternity with the Father, 163 

aneier,aa<Tiv, 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20, Bartlett on,. 386 

anrikyrjKOTeg, anakye'iv, a most Sinful State, 347 

an\co<; eV, to, a unity destructive of 

knowledge, 116 

d™, in 2 Thess. 1 : 9, 559, 587 

dTi-oKaXvi/u?, 1 Cor. 2 : 10-12, internal reve- 
lation, 8 

distinguished from <pa»>e'pu)cris, 8 

the Holy Spirit its organ, 8 

equivalent to ' Amen,' or subjective 

certitude, in 2 Cor. 1 : 20, 8 

an 'unveiling,'. 99 

awoKakvwTeTat., of the gospel, Rom. 1 : 17 ; 

of wrath, Rom. 1 : 18, 14 

airoti.p-qfjiovevfjL.ara, 'memoirs,' 73 

employed by Xenophon in relation 

to Socrates, 73 

employed by Justin Martyr as 

equivalent to ' gospels,' 73 

why so used by him,. 73 

airoo-Tao-la, implies state as well as act, . . 284 
'a falling away,' a precursor of 

Christ's second coming, 570 

anoo-Tpe<t>u>, the first element in conver- 
sion, 460 

anoTe\eo-ixa, genus apotelesmaticum, 370 

anp6o~\r)TTTOv /cat aOepanevTOv, to, a patris- 
tic dictum, 362 

dn-ciAeia, destruction, 393, 559 

dTrwAe-ro, perished, 2 Pet. 3 : 6, 560 

Plumptre on, 560 

aoTokarpla, a word coined by Gerhard,.. 545 
apxdyyekos, applied by Philo to his Logos, 154 
"PXV, e», Godet on, 147 

Meyer on, 147 

apxv of motion, Plato describes mind 

as, 147 

dpxiepev?, applied by Philo to his Logos, 154 

do-ej3eia, 283 

in lxx for y#S, 283 

d^avt'^w, does not imply absolute anni- 
hilation,. 559 

d<*>opiWre, Acts 13 : 3, Meyer on, 505 

/3ajTTic;co, its meaning in Greek writers,.. 522 

in Church Fathers, 522 

in Greek version of O. T., 522 

in the Lexicons, 522 

Conanton the word, 522 

Dale on its meaning being ' to put 
within,' 522 



pairTl£<a (continued), 

Harvey on the word,. 522 

the meaning required in every pas- 
sage where it occurs in the N. T., 523 
Lightf oot and Wetstein on word, ... 523 

Meyer on word, 523 

its use in Apocrypha,.. 523 

the meaning 'immerse' not incon- 
sistent with facilities at Jerusa- 
lem or in eastern jails, 523 

not inconsistent with numbers bap- 
tized at Pentecost, 523 

Dollinger and Harnack on the word, 523 
its meaning confirmed by the fact 
that the word is never used in the 
passive voice with water as its 

subject, 525 

its meaning determined from its 

use with prepositions, 525 

used with eis, 524 

used with ev,__ 524 

its meaning determined by attend- 
ant circumstances, 524 

by its use in figures, 524 

by practice of early church, 525 

by doctrine and practice of Greek 

church, 525 

ConybeareandHowsonontheword, 524 

0ao-dvoi5, ev, Luke 16 : 23, 564 

Pan™, Dale on the word, 522 

Harvey's examination of Dale on 
the word, 522 

/3acriAevs riv alwv<av, 130 

/3Se'Avyp.a tijs epr}p.wcrews, a Gr83CO-Ara- 

maean expression of first century, 75 

PovArj, arbitrium, Willkttr, implying vo- 
lition, distinguished from fleA^a,. 288 

jSpaxv ti, its possible rendering in Heb. 

2:7, 385 

yvwcris, 1 Tim. 6 : 20 ; Cf. eniyvuxris, 2 Pet. 

1:2, 16 

yvuio-rbv roi 6eov, rb, that which is known 

of God, Rom. 1 : 19, ...14, 38 

ypa<pr), r), singular denotes unity, 96 

SevVepos 0e6s, applied by Philo to his 

Logos, 154 

Se£djuevoi, in 1 Thess. 1 : 6, aorist partici- 
ple describing an action not prior 
to time of principal verb, 386 

Sid ttLo-tiv, justification not, but cud nio-- 

Tew; Or « 7ri'(7Tecos, 481 

Sid TO SVOLKOVV and Sid TOU eVOlKOUVTOS, 

Rom. 8: 11,... 576,577 

Sid tovto, in Rom. 5 : 12, 16 

Sia/covei v Tpcure'^ais, -- 512 

Sia/covia, _ 503, 512 

SiaKovos, 503 

Sid/3oAos, 227 

SiSaKToIs, 1 Cor. 2: 13, 101 

Meyer on the word, 101 

SiSdcr/caAos, 503 

Sucaios, Cremer on, 138 

Si/caioo-vvr/,' state of one justified, 473 



ItfDEX OP GKEEK WORDS. 



755 



Sacaiocrvvri (continued), 

secondarily, the moral condition of 

the believer, 473 

SiKaioo-v'vTj Oeov, Kom. 1:17, 469 

SiKatoa-vvrj required and provided by- 
God, --- 473 

SiKCLLOo-vvr] 7rt (Trews, Or e/c Tri'crTea)?, 473 

SiKatocrvvTiv, tt)v ISiav, inveighed against 

by Paul, 473 

<5ik<xi6co, its virtually uniform meaning,. 472 
proper meaning of the Hebrew in 

Dan. 13: 3, 472 

<5iKcuco/xa, act accomplished of declaring 

a man just,. 473 

secondary meaning of ' statute', ' act 

of justice,' 473 

StKaiWi?, act in process of declaring a 

man just, 473 

stands to Smaitaixa as 'poesy' to 

'poem,' 473 

SoKot, 1 Cor. 7 : 10, Meyer on, 114 

root of 'Docetae,' 361 

Suva/met?, 'powers,' 61 

eavrov, lxx, for Hebrew 'his soul,' 245 

«wus, Phil. 4 : 5, may mean ' near ' in 

space, 568 

€-yeVero, does not imply transmutation,. 371 

eiKo^, Heb. 1:3, 162 

«t? and en-i, Rom. 3 : 22, their interpreta- 
tion, .■ 421 

€ts ovop.a, 148 

eis Toy k6\ttov, John 1 : 18, implying 

movement in Godhead, 163 

ei? to 6vop.a, its meaning discussed, 534 

"Ek6*oo-is aKpt/Srj? tt)s bp9o86£ov iKo-Tew?, ear- 
liest work on Systematic Theol- 
ogy, 23 

iKeivos, applied to the Holy Spirit, 155 

e/ceVwcree, Phil. 2:7, root of 'Kenosis,' 

'Kenotics,'..- 380 

Ur)pv£ev, 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20, discussed, 385 

inic\ri<Tia, its meanings in N. T., 495 

its derivation, 496 

etymological meaning lost in N. T. 

times, 496 

its analogue in Hebrew, 497 

list of references on,. 496 

ev, its force with panTifa, 521 

ev apxri, John 1 : 1, Godet on, 1 147 

Meyer on, 147 

«V5eif is, in Rom. 3 : 25, 411 

eVvffoo-Tao-i'a, ' inpersonality,' favored by 

the Fathers, 367 

tVwats, 362 

V7TOO-TaTllOJ, 363 

t ^aKoAov0€<o, to be on a false track, 2 Pet. 

1:16, 77 

«"£ 6.fx6p<i>ov OAtjs, Wisdom 11 : 17, 186 

ffiAao-ojuai, 393, 402 

<f ovk bvToiv, ex nihilo fecit, 2 Maccabees 

7:28, 186 

<=£ ovo-t'a, right or privilege given, in John 

1:12, 458 



eVevSuo-ao-flcu, 2 Cor. 5 : 1-8, putting on 
heavenly body over present one at 
coming of the Lord, Ill, 563 

eVepcoTTj/xa, 1 Pet. 3 : 21, inquiry of soul 

after God, 454,455 

Plumptre on, 455 

e7rt'-yvtoo-i?, 2 Pet. 1 : 12 ; compared with 

Yvwo-is, 1 Tim. 6 : 20, 16 

inly vwcts ap-aprias, 462 

emevpLta, suggests disposition or state,.. 284 

eiriaKoivos, 503 

co-ordinate with 7rp€o-/3vTepos and 

Troip.rjv, 509 

6-iSa/cTiKds, 1 Tim. 3 : 2, 510 

his duties, 7roip.cuVeiv, Acts 20 : 28 ; 

inicricoireiv irolp.i'i.ov, 1 Pet. 5:2, 509 

nomen dignitatis est, Jerome, 500 

tiriaKoirelv, exercise oversight, act as 

bishops, 1 Pet. 5:2, 509 

iTTio-KoirovvTes, why omitted by some ver- 
sions in 1 Pet. 5:1, 2, 509 

ein(TTpe<pu}, the second element in con- 
version, 460 

emtfxii'eia, a term applied specially to 

the Son, never to the Father, 145 

ipya, 'works,' designates miracles ob- 
jectively, 61 

epyov tou Oeov, why faith is so called, 469 

epxerai ipa, John 5 : 28-30, distinguished 

from icai vvv eo-Ti'v,.. 563 

eaKrjvaxrev, John 1 : 14, ' tabernacled ' ; 
tabernacled a type of Christ; an 
allusion to the Shechinah of the 
Mosaic tabernacle, 371 

iree-qv, 'ordained,' 'appointed,' without 
present technical sense of 'or- 
dain,' 513 

eifAoyTjTds, Rom. 9 : 5, not a doxology 

but a description, 145 

eupeflei's, being found in outward condi- 
tion as a man, Phil. 2 : 9, 384 

i<t>' <?, on the ground of the fact that, for 
the reason that, because, Rom. 
5:12, 21,332 

e4>0apri, Gen. 6 : 11 lxx, was corrupt, 559 

e'x^pa, naturally suggests disposition or 

state, 284 

£u>rj, Rom. 5 : 18, 21,23 

2 Tim. 1 : 10, opposed to eavaro<;, 332 

fip.aprov, Rom. 5 : 12, Prof. W. A. Stevens 

on, 331 

the author on, 332 

ripep-Ca, stillness, rest, of summit of Aris- 
totle's 'slope,' 301 

6ava.ro>;, 332 

eavaruOei^ 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20, 386 

de\r)p.a, voluntas, Wille, includes prefer- 
ence, 288 

0e67ri/evo-To?, 2 Tim. 3 : 16, applied to 

Scripture itself , 99 

OprivKeia, cultu8 exterior, James 1 : 27, . . 13 

Ovaia, 397 

iA.ao-/cop.at,__ 397 



756 



INDEX OF GREEK WORDS. 



iAa<rp.d?, 397 

KaOaipui, 397 

KaOopaTai, Rom. 1 : 20, spiritually viewed, 37 
voovneva. Kafloparai, are clearly seen 
in that they are perceived by the 

reason, 38 

KCLTapa, Christ made a, Gal. 3 : 13, 411 

tar oIkov, Acts 2 : 46 ; R. V. : 'at home ' ; 
Jacob: 'from one worship-room 

to another,'.. 539 

this meaning suitable,.. 540 

<caTTjpTio-|nei/a, Acts 13 : 23, 'fitted '= fitted 

themselves, 428 

KevTvpiuv, centurio, instance of internal 
correspondence of N. T. writings 
with land and times in which they 

profess to have been written, 75 

Ktjpvcrveiv, 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20, Luther's notion 

of, 385 

Dorner on, 385 

Wright on, 386 

Bartlett on, 386 

Koivuivia, 1 Cor. 10 : 16, 17, participation, 440 
fellowship, 1 John 1 : 3, 440 

Koivtavia tov crto/uaTO? tou Xpicrov, 1 Cor. 

10 : 16, 17, spiritual partaking of 

Christ, 543 

a setting forth symbolically of the 
soul's actual participation in the 

life of Christ, 440 

/coAo.^oju.ei'ovs, 2 Pet. 2 : 6, under punish- 
ment, 564 

KoAao-i?, etymologically a 'cutting off,'. 588 
occurs only in Mat. 25 : 46, and in 

1 John4 : 18, 588 

1 John 4 : 18, ' fear hath punish- 
ment,' 588 

Ko<rp.o<; votjto?, applied by Philo to his 

Logos,. — 154 

ktiVis, creatura, world not exclusively 

a,... 192 

Kvj3epvrjo-ei?, 1 Cor. 12 : 28, gifts needed by 

pastors, 503 

/cvpia/cTj, Kirche, kirk, church, belonging 

to the Lord v 495 

Kv'pios, 6 Kvpco? p-ov, John 20 : 28, can refer 

only to Christ, 148 

does not occur in 1 Maccabees, 147 

Kvpiov TTvevfiaTos, 2 Cor. 3 : 18, Lord of the 

Spirit, 150 

AaScii/, Phil. 2 5-9, 'emptied himself by # 

taking,' '384 

A6yo?,= word + reason, expression + 

thought, idea + fact, 2, 162 

Godet on the word, 162 

its usage in Plato and Philo, 162 

Meyer, Neander, and Bushnell, on 
the word, 162 

aAifdcio?,. 282 

Aoyos KaT7]xy}TiKb<; 6 p.eya?, by Gregory of 

Nyssa, ... 23 

A070S o-7repp.oTiKo?, of Justin Martyr, 358 

A070S re'Aeio?, a plastic word, the law not, 282 



Adyov #etov Ttvds, Of PlatO, 58 

Aovw, implies bathing not a part of body 

but the whole, 524 

Au77tj Kara i>e6f, sorrow f or sin as hateful 

to God,.. 462 

\virt] too k6o-|u.ou, remorse and despair,.. 462 

AuTpov, 391 

peTa/3oA77, used by Eutychians to de- 
scribe union of natures in Christ,. 363 

p.eTo.p.e\oixai, indicates emotional element 

in repentance, 462 

p.ovoyei>ris #e6?, the only begotten God, a 

variant reading in John 1 : 18, 146 

Tischendorf on, 146 

Westcott and Hort, Harnack and 

Revised Version on, 146 

proof of Christ's eternal Sonship, . . . 165 

p.op$fi deov, Phil. 2 : 5-9, contrasted with 
p.op(prji/ SovXov ; he surrendered not 
substance of Godhead but the 
' power of God,' and assumed the 
'form of a servant,' becoming 
subordinate as man, 384 

p.vw, to close the eyes, root of 'mystic,' 17 

Mtoo-ry? iTTi/a'£o»/, a Greek-speaking 
Moses, term applied to Plato by 
Philo, 358 

vo/uios from vep.<x>, 'something appoint- 
ed,' 273 

v6/xos Te'Aeto?, an operative and effective 

law, James 1:25, 282 

voovp.eva, Rom. 1 : 19-21, perceived 

through the vovs, 37 

voovp.eva Ka&oparai, 'are clearly seen in 
that they are perceived by the 
reason,' 38 

vovs, Christ according to Apollinarians 

had no human, 362 

Basilides held that a divine, entered 
Christ at baptism, 361 

6, its force in John 1 : 1 and 4 : 24, 145 

ot/cia, a private house, 540 

ol/cos, a worship room, 540 

yet seems sometimes to mean a pri- 
vate house, 540 

contrasted with place of meeting, in 
1 Cor. 11: 34, - 540 

oi 7rdvTes, 2 Cor. 5 : 14, indicates organic 

unity of race, 331 

oi ttoAAoi, Rom. 5 : 18, 333 

6/AOiajp.a.Ti o"ap>cbs ajaaprta?, ey, its implica- 
tion, 384 

6p.oi'to?, 332 

'6v rponov, Acts 1 : 11, means more than 
certainty ; means, visibly, and in 
the air, 567 

opyrj, Rom. 1 : 18, opposed to x° L P<-s, 1* 

opt^ios 7rpoo-eveyKi75, Gen. 4:7 LXX, 'if 

thou doest well,' ' if thou offerest 
correctly,' 396 

ovpavos, 147 

ouo-ta, essence, substance, nature, be- 
ing, 161,363 



INDEX OF GREEK WORDS. 



757 



outws, Rom. 5 : 12, shows the mode in 
which historically death has come 
to all, 332 

?«"?, does not mean ' child ' or ' son,' but 

servant, 378 

vav, to, in Scripture, universe never so 

designated, 56 

navra, to., designation applied to uni- 
verse in Scripture, -. 56 

irai/T«s tj/uapToi/, Rom. 5 : 12, aorist of in- 
stantaneous past action,.. 330, 331, 332 

irapa/cArjTos, Comf orter, by advocacy, in- 
struction, patronage, guidance,.. 155 
primary meaning, 'called to one's 
aid,' 156 

irapaxorj, set over against Christ's vnaKori, 333 

7rapecrts, 411 

Ilepl 'Apxwv, of Origen of Alexandria, ... 23 

Ilepi toO Uvda.yopi.KOv Biou, of Iambli- 

cus, 58 

7rept X «ipTja-ts, circumincessio, intercom- 
munication circulatio, inexistentia, 161 
Trends, Aristotle's Ethics, 1 : 11, inborn 

principle, 301 

Trio-Teuw, 'trustful surrender or commit- 
tal,' ... 465 

71-i'o-tis, ' trustful self -surrender to God,' 

Meyer, .. 465 

7rA^pwp.a, church the, of Christ, 439 

Trinity makes the Godhead a, 169 

irvevna, spirit, denotes man's immaterial 
part in its highest capacities and 

faculties, 244,246 

contrasted with >|' u x , ^ soul, 245 

Goschel on the word, 245 

in Jude 19, . 246 

Goodwin on, 246 

Gnostic view regarding, 247 

Apollinarian, Semi-pelagian, Anni- 

hilationist views of, 247 

used of brute creation, 245 

MUller'sviewof, 249 

creatianist view of , 250 

view on the scheme of preexist- 

ence, 250 

Apollinarians denied a human 

nvevnato Christ, ..362,370 

Christ's soul becomes nvev^a for a 
time, 385 

noirfp.ao-iv, tois, 37 

jrot/xeVe?, 503 

Troi/Aiaj, p.ta, not one fold, but one 

flock, 509 

ttoiVjj, root of 'pain' and 'penalty,' and 
implies that desert accompanies 

their infliction, 350 

nokvfj.epui<;, an epithet of inspiration, 104 

TroAuTpdirojs, an epithet of inspiration,... 103 
Ti-oi/Tjpi'a, suggests disposition or state, as 

well as act, 284 

npaaial npaaiai, _ _ 75 

7rpe<r/3vTepo?, nomen cetatis est, Jerome,.. 509 

Trpoco-Tap-eVos, 502, 503 



Tpds, John 1 : 1, not equivalent to napd, 
but expresses movement, inter- 
course, 163 

7rpoo-<£opa, 397 

7rp6<rw7rov, person, distinction, mode of 

subsistence, 161,363 

7rpo#ijT7)5, fore-teller, for-teller, forth- 

teUer, 388 

TrpaiTOTOKOs 7raa-rj? KTto-eco?, begotten first 

before all creation, 165 

pavTiVwi'Tai, a variant reading in Mark 

7:4, 523 

reasons against its adoption, 523 

pai/Tio-p-ds, so Greeks call Latin pamicr- 

mos, 525 

o-dpg, human nature devoid of the in- 
dwelling Spirit of God, 290 

Meyer on, 290 

Pope, Muller, Dickson on, 290, 291 

human nature, 371 

o-Tj/meiW, sign, marking moral end, 61 

tro^eii/, artificially to elaborate, 77 

o-jre/covAarop, speculator, - 75 

o-vyxvo"i?, a Eutychian term for union 

of the natures in Christ, 363 

o-vpv/SaAAw, root of symbolum, a con- 
densed statement, 22 

o-vixire^vKios, used by Lucian of Centaur, 528 

o-vp.7rpecr/3vTepos, 509 

0-up.^uTos, grown together, used by 

Xenophon of Centaur, 394 

o-wdfoia, junction and indwelling of the 
divine and the human according 
to Nestorius, 362 

o~vvTe\eia. rov «ua>vo«, Mat. 13 : 39, what it 

imports, 582 

o-u>fjia, its place in the trichotomist 

theory, 247 

Goschel's view of, 245 

in Christ,.... 362 

owai, its force as distinguished from 

o~<a&rjva.L, 435 

o-iu<f}poiv, characteristic of bishop, 1 Tim. 

3 : 2, sober-minded, well-balanced, 20 

rdao-oi, never employed by itself in mid- 
dle sense, 428 

in 1 Cor. 16 : 15, takes eavTovs, 428 

TeAeios, signifies a relative perfection, 
sincere piety, maturity of Chris- 
tian judgment, 489 

repara, wonders, describes subjective as- 
pect of miracles, 61 

T€Tayp.eVoi, Acts 13 : 43, a passive not a 

middle participle, 428 

rov SlSovtos deov, the giving God ; giving 
is not an episode in his being, it is 
his nature to give, 127 

iinaKor), applied to Christ's work, 333 

TTicrTetos, obedience resulting from 
faith, 470 

vnep, dvrl never confounded with, 391 

u7rep/3aAAou<ra rr)? yvuxreu)?, surpassing full 

knowledge of believers, 17 



758 



INDEX OF GKEEK WORDS. 



vn-otTTacris, person, distinction, mode of 

subsistence, 161, 363 

<j>avep<o<Ti<>, Rom. 1 : 19, 30, external reve- 
lation, — 8 

^epoju-evot, 2 Pet. 1 : 21, used of Scripture 

writers, 99 

<J>#eip«o, does not involve literal annihila- 
tion, 559 

<j>v\a.Kfi, «v, 1 Pet. 3 : 19, under constraint, 

or guard, 564 

<f>vVis, natura, applicable to creation as 

a bringing forth, 192 

xapaKTijp, impress, counterpart, Heb. 1 : 3, 162 

X*p<-v «-vr\ x«P tT0 ?» a measure of grace, 
realized and used, securing a larg- 
er measure, 123 

*apis, Opposed to opyrj, 14 

xetpoTOj>T?o-avTes, its literal interpretation 

not to be pressed, 505 

Hacketton, 506 

Meyer on, 506 

xpovo? and a;wv, contrasted in Plato, — 593 
<K>d, soul, 244 



\fjvxv (continued), 

man's immaterial part in its inferior 

powers and activities, 244 

denotes man as a conscious individ- 
ual, 244 

distinguished from Trvevna, 244 

Delitzsch on, 245 

Goschel on,.. 245 

Cremer on,. 245 

used of brutes, 245 

ascribed to Jehovah, 245 

capable of highest exercises of re- 
ligion, 245 

to lose it is to lose all, 245 

it looks earthward and touches the 

world of sense, ... 246 

in Christ, according to Apollinari- 

ans,.. 247 

Miiller's view of, 249 

Apollinarian view of,... 362 

«|/vx a S applied to disembodied dead, 245 

u>pio-/Ae'vos, passive participle, Acts 10 : 42, 428 
w? avtfpwTTos, Hosea, 6 : 7 iiXx, 324 



INDEX OF HEBREW "WOEDS. 



N, Codex Sinaiticus,--..146, 224, 367, 378, 472, 

495, 509, 523. 
jVDX, 'poor,' whence term 'Ebionite,'. 360 

D*1X, Hos. 6 : 7, D1K3, <-s Zv& P utto<; t.xx 
'like men that break a cove- 
nant,' 324 

'rm, — 1*7 

rvnx, Exod. 3 : 14, 1 AM,. ...122, 123 

7X, a singular noun might have been 

used instead of DTi^X, - 152 

H^N', to fear, to adore, root of DTISn,. 152 

D'riSx, 152 

employed with plural verb, 152 

applied to Son, 152 

not a plural is majcstat icus, 152 

according to Oehler, l a quantitative 

plural,'. 152 

its derivation, 152 

list of Fathers who saw in such 
plurals a reference to the Trin- 
ity, .. 153 

X*?3, implies production of effect with- 
out natural antecedent, 140 

in Kal used only of God, 184 

never has accusative of material, ... 184 
used, in Gen. 1 and 2, to mark intro- 
duction of world of matter, life, 

and spirit, 184 

distinguished from words signify- 
ing 'to make' and 'to form,' 185 

in Gen. 1 : 2, must mean ' calling into 

being,' 185 

the original signification 'to cut,' 
though retained in PieL does not 
militate against a more spiritual 

sense in other species, 185 

the only word for absolute creation 
in Hebrew, 185 



r^D*!, 'the likeness of God,' according 
to Moehler : ' the pious exercise of 

□Sv, the religious faculty,' 266 

according to Romanist theologians, 

a product of man's obedience, 285 

this view combated, 265,266 

jnr, "seed," Gen. 22 : 18, referred to in 

Gal. 3:16, 110 

NDPI, a/*api-<£va), Hiphil, to make a miss, 

Judges 20 : 16, 283 

HN£3n, a/u.apria, missing, failure, appli- 
cable not merely to act but like- 
wise to state, 283 

^212,2 Kings 5 : 14, panr&iv, 524 

nfn:, - - -. 147 

Dr, 'day,' Gen. 1,. 18 

its hyperliteral interpretation, 193 

advocates of this interpretation,... 193 
often used for a period of indefinite 

duration, 193 

authors on meaning of ' day,' 193 

theory that 'six days' indicates 

series merely, 194 

a scheme harmonizing the Mosaic 
' six days ' creation with the order 

of the geologic record, 194, 195 

12P, 185 

D'3n3, Ez. 1, Ex. 37 : 6-9, Gen. 3 : 24,... 224 
to be identified with the ' seraphim ' 

and ' the living creatures,' 224 

are temporary symbolic figures, 224 

symbols of human nature spiritual- 
ized and sanctified, 224 

exalted to be the dwelling-place of 

God, 224 

symbols of mercy, 224 

angels and cherubim never to- 
gether, 224 



760 



ItfDEX OF HEBEEW WORDS. 



D^IS (continued), 

in closing visions of Revelation no 

longer seen, 224 

some regard them as symbols of 

divine government, 244 

list of authorities on, 244 

yr\3, - — 1*7 

nfry, 185 

njrr "qxSn, identifies himself with Je- 
hovah, 153 

is so identified by others, 153 

accepts divine -worship, .. 153 

with perhaps single exception in 
O. T., designates pre-incarnate 

Logos, --- 153 

authorities for and against this in- 
terpretation, - 153 

|iy, dSi/a'a lxx, bending, perverseness, 
iniquity, referring to state as well 

as act, 284 

HP3, judicial visitation, punishment,.. 353 
y&B, aa-i^eia L,xx, separation from, re- 
bellion, indicative of state as well 

as act, 283,284 

D^V, Gen. 1 : 26, according to Moehler, 

'the religious faculty,' 266 

according to Bellarmine, ' ipsa natu- 
ra mentis et voluntatis a solo Deo 

fieri potuit,' 266 

according to Scholastic and Roman- 
ist theologians, alone belonged to 
man's nature at its creation, 265 



thli (continued), 

required addition of supernatural 
grace that it might possess original 

righteousness, 265 

this theory combated, 265, 266 

pn^, Hiphil form in Dan. 12 : 3, best ren- 
dered ' they that justify many,'. . . 472 

b'ilp, its meaning in O. T. and Targums, 497 
perhaps used by Christ in Mat. 18 : 17, 497 
how it differs from ex^o-ia, 497 

np, -- 147 

JH, bad, evil (from J7J71, to be unquiet, 
in movement, with the sound of 
breaking, shattering — Gesenius, 
Lex., 8th ed. ), 284 

J7KH, a wicked person (J?K^, wicked- 
ness, from J7BH, to be slack, loose 
untrustworthy; hence ungodly, 
unrighteous — Gesenius, Lex., 8th 
ed.), 284 

*7 Kttf , an alleged root of Sheol, 560 

7£ty, according to Gesenius, the root of 

Sheol, 560 

SlNtS\ its derivation, 560 

its root-meaning,.... 560 

the soul is still conscious in,. 560 

God can recover men from, 560 

D'fni?, ^ 6 : 2, to be identified with the 
'cherubim' of Genesis, Exodus 
and Ezekiel, and with ' the living 
creatures ' of Revelation, 224 



PRESIDENT A. H. STRONG'S NEW WORK. 

PHILOSOPHY AM) RELIGION. 

By AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG, D.D., 

President and Professor of Biblical Tlieologij in the Rochester Tlieologicul Seminary. 

LARGE OCTAVO, 600 PAGES, CLOTH, $3.50. 
Uniform with the author's "Systematic Theology." 

I. — Philosophy and Religion . II. — Science and Religion. III. — Material- 
istic Skepticism. IV. — The Philosophy of Evolution. V. — Modern Idealism. 
VI.— Scientific Theism. Nil.— The Will in Theology. N III. —Modified 
Calvinism. IX.— The Christian Miracles. X. — The Method of Inspira- 
tion. XL — Christian Individualism. XII. — The New Theology. XIII.— 
The Living God. XIV.— The Holiness of God. XY.—The Two Natures 
of Christ. XVI. — The Necessity of The Atonement. XVII — The Believer's 
Union with Christ. XVIII. — The Baptism of Jesus. XIX. — Christian 
Truth and its Keepers. XX. — Unconscious Assumptions of Communion 
Polemics. XXI. — The Teacher's Guide, and Helper. XXII. — Councils of 
Ordination; Their Powers and Duties. XXIII. — The Claims of the Chris- 
tian Ministry. XXIV. — Sources of Supply for the Ministry. XXV. ^-2he 
Lack of Students for the Ministry. XXVI. — Education for the Ministry ; 
Its Principles and its Necessity. XXVII. — Education for the Ministry ; Its 
Idea and its Requisites. XXVIII. — Training for Leadership. XXIX. — 
Are Our Colleges Christian? XXX. — New Testament Interpretation. 
XXXI. — A Great Teacher of Greek Testament Exegesis. XXXII. — Church 
History, and one who taught it. XXXIII. — Learning in the Professor's 
Chair. XXXIN.—The Death of President Garfield. XXXV.— The King- 
dom of God and its Coming. XXXVI. — Leaving the Ninety and Nine. 
XXXXll.—The Economics of Missions. XXXYlll.—The Theology of 
Missions. XXXIX. — The Nature and Purpose of the Cherubim. XL. — 
Woman's Place and Work. XLI. — Woman's Work in Missions. XLII. — 
The Education of a Woman. XLIII. — Remarriage after Divorce. XLIV. 
— Christianity and Political Economy. XLV. — Getting and Spending. 
XLVI.— Recollections of the East. XLXll.— The Crusades. XL VIII.— 
Dante and the Divine Comedy. XLIX.— Poetry and Robert Browning. 
L. — Fifteen Addresses to Graduating- Classes, 1873-1887. Sub- 
jects: The Three Onlies — Truth and Love— Manhood in the Ministry — 
Work and Power — Courage. Passive and Active— True Dogmatism — God's 
Leadings — Self -Mastery — Mental Qualities Requisite to the Pastor — Adapta- 
tion — Faith tin Measure of S'/eeess — Habits in the Ministry — The Preacher's 
Doubts — High Mindedness — Zeal for Christ. 

EXTRACT FROM THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

"This work is printed by way of testimony. It is a confession of 
faith —a long one indeed, yet none the less sincere. The author can say: 
' I believed — therefore have I spoken.' In this day, when skepticism is 
so rife, and when even Christian teachers so frequently pride themselves 
that they believe, not so much, but so little, it seems to him that nothing 
is more needed than uncompromising assertion of faith in the existence 
of God, the world, and the soul. 

" The volume takes its title from the first Essay, and the title is fairly 
descriptive of the book. It aims to present truth in popular form; . . 

yet if any render still demand abstract statement instead of the 

oratorical method, the author takes the liberty of referring him to the 
'Systemath THEOLOGY,' of which this is the companion volume." 



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who will send a copy by mail postpaid on receipt of the price, $3.50. 



OVER. 



SOME NOTICES OF "PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION," 

PROM THE SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS PRESS. 

" Two things particularly interest us in what this noble volume offers 
to its readers : (1) Its stand, everywhere, upon the firm rock of Scripture 
truth as ascertained in the profound study and the eminent teaching of 
generations of men of 'whom the world was not worthy"; and (2) The 
masterly grasp of each subject treated, with the wealth of illustration, 
suggestion, and logical reasoning in which the truth in each case is main- 
tained. The cause of true religion in these days owes much to such men 
as Dr. Strong and other heads of institutions where the ministry of the 
times is prepared for its work." — Chicago Standard. 

"While the book is a collection of essays, there is a Completeness in 
its treatment of the great philosophical, theological, educational, and 
literary questions of the day. It is written, not merely for students and 
thinkers, but for men of general culture, and it is eminently a book for 
the times." — Christian at Work. 

"These essays, though dealing with profound truths, are relieved 
from dullness by the writer's attractive presentation." — Philadelphia 
Presbyterian. 

"The sermons, and indeed all the lectures and addresses, are dis- 
tinguished by learning and culture, by eloquence and finish of style, 
and by candor and fairness. It is a good book to put in the hands of an 
intellectual young man struggling with deep problems of science and 
religion. It will strengthen him, ennoble his ideas, stimulate his imagi- 
nation, increase his sense of veneration and love for all that is godly and of 
good report, and make him a stronger and better man." — Buffalo Times. 

"It was certainly a happy thought of the author to bring together 
the adversaria so as to render them easy of consultation. His abilities, 
character, and position ensure him a large and cultivated circle of readers, 
to whom what he says will be especially welcome because he says it. 
Nor are there many outside the circle who will not find their account 
in turning to these pages. Dr. Strong is a profound thinker and a care- 
ful writer." — N Y. Christian Intelligencer. 

" There is so much in the book that all lovers of orthodoxy in philo- 
sophy and religion will delight to read, that this volume will take a deserved 
place in the literature of the Church at large." — Presbyterian Quarterly. 

" They are all noble examples of American theological thinking at its 
best, and a standing reply to the complaint that everything gets into the 
pulpit nowadays except theology. The volume is a collection of rich and 
strong things, set forth in popular form, and both interesting and stimu- 
lating." — New York Independent. 

" We accord to this volume a high character for vigorous and felicitous 
style, great industry, and varied and ample learning. It is designed to be a 
companion volume to the author's ' Systematic Theology.' " — Yale Review. 



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